1*62457Sbostic.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1993 2*62457Sbostic.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 319548Smckusick.\" 439571Sbostic.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by 539571Sbostic.\" Jef Poskanzer and Craig Leres of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. 639571Sbostic.\" 748605Scael.\" %sccs.include.redist.man% 839571Sbostic.\" 9*62457Sbostic.\" @(#)write.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 06/06/93 1039571Sbostic.\" 1148605Scael.Dd 1248605Scael.Dt WRITE 1 1348605Scael.Os 1448605Scael.Sh NAME 1548605Scael.Nm write 1648605Scael.Nd send a message to another user 1748605Scael.Sh SYNOPSIS 1848605Scael.Nm write 1948605Scael.Ar user 2048605Scael.Op Ar ttyname 2148605Scael.Sh DESCRIPTION 2248605Scael.Nm Write 2339571Sbosticallows you to communicate with other users, by copying lines from 2439571Sbosticyour terminal to theirs. 2548605Scael.Pp 2639571SbosticWhen you run the 2748605Scael.Nm write 2839571Sbosticcommand, the user you are writing to gets a message of the form: 2948605Scael.Pp 3048605Scael.Dl Message from yourname@yourhost on yourtty at hh:mm ... 3148605Scael.Pp 3239571SbosticAny further lines you enter will be copied to the specified user's 3339571Sbosticterminal. 3439571SbosticIf the other user wants to reply, they must run 3548605Scael.Nm write 3639571Sbosticas well. 3748605Scael.Pp 3839571SbosticWhen you are done, type an end-of-file or interrupt character. 3948605ScaelThe other user will see the message 4048605Scael.Ql EOF 4148605Scaelindicating that the 4239571Sbosticconversation is over. 4348605Scael.Pp 4439571SbosticYou can prevent people (other than the super-user) from writing to you 4539571Sbosticwith the 4648605Scael.Xr mesg 1 4719548Smckusickcommand. 4839571SbosticSome commands, for example 4948605Scael.Xr nroff 1 5019548Smckusickand 5148605Scael.Xr pr 1 , 5239571Sbosticdisallow writing automatically, so that your output isn't overwritten. 5348605Scael.Pp 5439571SbosticIf the user you want to write to is logged in on more than one terminal, 5539571Sbosticyou can specify which terminal to write to by specifying the terminal 5639571Sbosticname as the second operand to the 5748605Scael.Nm write 5839571Sbosticcommand. 5939571SbosticAlternatively, you can let 6048605Scael.Nm write 6139571Sbosticselect one of the terminals \- it will pick the one with the shortest 6239571Sbosticidle time. 6339571SbosticThis is so that if the user is logged in at work and also dialed up from 6439571Sbostichome, the message will go to the right place. 6548605Scael.Pp 6648605ScaelThe traditional protocol for writing to someone is that the string 6748605Scael.Ql \-o , 6839571Sbosticeither at the end of a line or on a line by itself, means that it's the 6939571Sbosticother person's turn to talk. 7048605ScaelThe string 7148605Scael.Ql oo 7248605Scaelmeans that the person believes the conversation to be 7339571Sbosticover. 7448605Scael.Sh SEE ALSO 7548605Scael.Xr mesg 1 , 7648605Scael.Xr talk 1 , 7748605Scael.Xr who 1 7848605Scael.Sh HISTORY 7948605ScaelA 8048605Scael.Nm 8148605Scaelcommand appeared in 8248605Scael.At v6 . 83