1.\" $NetBSD: write.1,v 1.4 1997/01/09 20:23:27 tls 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.\" $NetBSD: write.1,v 1.4 1997/01/09 20:23:27 tls Exp $ 39.\" 40.Dd June 6, 1993 41.Dt WRITE 1 42.Os 43.Sh NAME 44.Nm write 45.Nd send a message to another user 46.Sh SYNOPSIS 47.Nm write 48.Ar user 49.Op Ar ttyname 50.Sh DESCRIPTION 51.Nm Write 52allows you to communicate with other users, by copying lines from 53your terminal to theirs. 54.Pp 55When you run the 56.Nm write 57command, the user you are writing to gets a message of the form: 58.Pp 59.Dl Message from yourname@yourhost on yourtty at hh:mm ... 60.Pp 61Any further lines you enter will be copied to the specified user's 62terminal. 63If the other user wants to reply, they must run 64.Nm write 65as well. 66.Pp 67When you are done, type an end-of-file or interrupt character. 68The other user will see the message 69.Ql EOF 70indicating that the 71conversation is over. 72.Pp 73You can prevent people (other than the super-user) from writing to you 74with the 75.Xr mesg 1 76command. 77Some commands, for example 78.Xr nroff 1 79and 80.Xr pr 1 , 81disallow writing automatically, so that your output isn't overwritten. 82.Pp 83If the user you want to write to is logged in on more than one terminal, 84you can specify which terminal to write to by specifying the terminal 85name as the second operand to the 86.Nm write 87command. 88Alternatively, you can let 89.Nm write 90select one of the terminals \- it will pick the one with the shortest 91idle time. 92This is so that if the user is logged in at work and also dialed up from 93home, the message will go to the right place. 94.Pp 95The traditional protocol for writing to someone is that the string 96.Ql \-o , 97either at the end of a line or on a line by itself, means that it's the 98other person's turn to talk. 99The string 100.Ql oo 101means that the person believes the conversation to be 102over. 103.Sh SEE ALSO 104.Xr mesg 1 , 105.Xr talk 1 , 106.Xr who 1 107.Sh HISTORY 108A 109.Nm 110command appeared in 111.At v6 . 112