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32 .\" @(#)mesg.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
34 .TH MESG 1 "July 2014" "util-linux" "User Commands"
36 mesg \- display (or do not display) messages from other users
44 utility is invoked by a user to control write access others have to the
45 terminal device associated with standard error output. If write access
46 is allowed, then programs such as
50 may display messages on the terminal.
52 Traditionally, write access is allowed by default. However, as users
53 become more conscious of various security risks, there is a trend to remove
54 write access by default, at least for the primary login shell. To make
55 sure your ttys are set the way you want them to be set,
57 should be executed in your login scripts.
61 utility silently exits with error status 2 if the current standard error output does
62 not refer to the terminal. In this case execute
64 is pointless. The command line option \fB\-\-verbose\fR forces
65 mesg to print a warning in this situation. This behaviour has been introduced
73 Allow messages to be displayed.
75 If no arguments are given,
77 shows the current message status on standard error output.
80 .BR \-v , " \-\-verbose"
81 Explain what is being done.
83 .BR \-V , " \-\-version"
84 Display version information and exit.
87 Display help text and exit.
91 utility exits with one of the following values:
98 Messages are not allowed.
101 An error has occurred.
114 command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
117 The mesg command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
118 https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.