1.\" $NetBSD: write.1,v 1.5 1997/10/19 14:35:28 mrg Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1993 4.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by 7.\" Jef Poskanzer and Craig Leres of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. 8.\" 9.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 10.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 11.\" are met: 12.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 13.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 14.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 15.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 16.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 17.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 18.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 19.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 20.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 21.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 22.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 23.\" without specific prior written permission. 24.\" 25.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 26.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 27.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 28.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 29.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 30.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 31.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 32.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 33.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 34.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 35.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 36.\" 37.\" from: @(#)write.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 38.\" 39.Dd June 6, 1993 40.Dt WRITE 1 41.Os 42.Sh NAME 43.Nm write 44.Nd send a message to another user 45.Sh SYNOPSIS 46.Nm 47.Ar user 48.Op Ar ttyname 49.Sh DESCRIPTION 50.Nm 51allows you to communicate with other users, by copying lines from 52your terminal to theirs. 53.Pp 54When you run the 55.Nm 56command, the user you are writing to gets a message of the form: 57.Pp 58.Dl Message from yourname@yourhost on yourtty at hh:mm ... 59.Pp 60Any further lines you enter will be copied to the specified user's 61terminal. 62If the other user wants to reply, they must run 63.Nm 64as well. 65.Pp 66When you are done, type an end-of-file or interrupt character. 67The other user will see the message 68.Ql EOF 69indicating that the 70conversation is over. 71.Pp 72You can prevent people (other than the super-user) from writing to you 73with the 74.Xr mesg 1 75command. 76Some commands, for example 77.Xr nroff 1 78and 79.Xr pr 1 , 80disallow writing automatically, so that your output isn't overwritten. 81.Pp 82If the user you want to write to is logged in on more than one terminal, 83you can specify which terminal to write to by specifying the terminal 84name as the second operand to the 85.Nm 86command. 87Alternatively, you can let 88.Nm 89select one of the terminals \- it will pick the one with the shortest 90idle time. 91This is so that if the user is logged in at work and also dialed up from 92home, the message will go to the right place. 93.Pp 94The traditional protocol for writing to someone is that the string 95.Ql \-o , 96either at the end of a line or on a line by itself, means that it's the 97other person's turn to talk. 98The string 99.Ql oo 100means that the person believes the conversation to be 101over. 102.Sh SEE ALSO 103.Xr mesg 1 , 104.Xr talk 1 , 105.Xr who 1 106.Sh HISTORY 107A 108.Nm 109command appeared in 110.At v6 . 111