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1.1 root 1: .\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990 The Regents of the University of California.
2: .\" All rights reserved.
3: .\"
4: .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms are permitted provided
5: .\" that: (1) source distributions retain this entire copyright notice and
6: .\" comment, and (2) distributions including binaries display the following
7: .\" acknowledgement: ``This product includes software developed by the
8: .\" University of California, Berkeley and its contributors'' in the
9: .\" documentation or other materials provided with the distribution and in
10: .\" all advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software.
11: .\" Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors may
12: .\" be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without
13: .\" specific prior written permission.
14: .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
15: .\" WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
16: .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
17: .\"
18: .\" @(#)msgs.1 6.6 (Berkeley) 7/24/90
19: .\"
20: .Dd July 24, 1990
21: .Dt MSGS 1
22: .Os BSD 4
23: .Sh NAME
24: .Nm msgs
25: .Nd system messages and junk mail program
26: .Sh SYNOPSIS
27: .Nm msgs
28: .Op Fl fhlpq
29: .Op Ar number
30: .Op Ar \-number
31: .Pp
32: .Nm msgs
33: .Op Fl s
34: .Pp
35: .Nm msgs
36: .Op Fl c
37: .Op \-days
38: .Sh DESCRIPTION
39: .Nm Msgs
40: is used to read system messages.
41: These messages are
42: sent by mailing to the login `msgs' and should be short
43: pieces of information which are suitable to be read once by most users
44: of the system.
45: .Pp
46: .Nm Msgs
47: is normally invoked each time you login, by placing it in the file
48: .Pa \& .login
49: (or
50: .Pa \&.profile
51: if you use
52: .Xr sh 1 ) .
53: It will then prompt you with the source and subject of each new message.
54: If there is no subject line, the first few non-blank lines of the
55: message will be displayed.
56: If there is more to the message, you will be told how
57: long it is and asked whether you wish to see the rest of the message.
58: The possible responses are:
59: .Tw Fl
60: .Tp Fl y
61: type the rest of the message.
62: .Tp Ic RETURN
63: synonym for y.
64: .Tp Fl n
65: skip this message
66: and go on to the next message.
67: .Tp Fl
68: redisplay the last message.
69: .Tp Fl q
70: drops you out of
71: .Nm msgs ;
72: the next time you run the program it will pick up where you left off.
73: .Tp Fl s
74: append the current message to the file ``Messages'' in the current directory;
75: `s\-' will save the previously displayed message. A `s' or `s\-' may
76: be followed by a space and a file name to receive the message replacing
77: the default ``Messages''.
78: .Tp Fl m
79: or `m\-' causes a copy of the specified message to be placed in a temporary
80: mailbox and
81: .Xr mail 1
82: to be invoked on that mailbox.
83: Both `m' and `s' accept a numeric argument in place of the `\-'.
84: .Tp
85: .Pp
86: .Nm Msgs
87: keeps track of the next message you will see by a number in the file
88: .Pa \&.msgsrc
89: in your home directory.
90: In the directory
91: .Pa /var/msgs
92: it keeps a set of files whose names are the (sequential) numbers
93: of the messages they represent.
94: The file
95: .Pa /var/msgs/bounds
96: shows the low and high number of the messages in the directory
97: so that
98: .Nm msgs
99: can quickly determine if there are no messages for you.
100: If the contents of
101: .Pa bounds
102: is incorrect it can be fixed by removing it;
103: .Nm msgs
104: will make a new
105: .Pa bounds
106: file the next time it is run.
107: .Pp
108: The
109: .Fl s
110: option is used for setting up the posting of messages. The line
111: .Pp
112: .Dl msgs: \&"\&| /usr/ucb/msgs \-s\&"
113: .Pp
114: should be included in
115: .Pa /etc/aliases
116: (see
117: .Xr newaliases 1 )
118: to enable posting of messages.
119: .Pp
120: The
121: .Fl c
122: option is used for performing cleanup on
123: .Pa /var/msgs.
124: An entry with the
125: .Fl c
126: option should be placed in
127: .Pa /etc/crontab
128: to run every night. This will remove all messages over 21 days old.
129: A different expiration may be specified on the command line to override
130: the default.
131: .Pp
132: Options when reading messages include:
133: .Tw Fl
134: .Tp Fl f
135: which causes it not to say ``No new messages.''.
136: This is useful in your
137: .Pa \& .login
138: file since this is often the case here.
139: .Tp Fl q
140: Queries whether there are messages, printing
141: ``There are new messages.'' if there are.
142: The command ``msgs \-q'' is often used in login scripts.
143: .Tp Fl h
144: causes
145: .Nm msgs
146: to print the first part of messages only.
147: .Tp Fl l
148: option causes only locally originated messages to be reported.
149: .Tp Ar num
150: A message number can be given
151: on the command line, causing
152: .Nm msgs
153: to start at the specified message rather than at the next message
154: indicated by your
155: .Pa \&.msgsrc
156: file.
157: Thus
158: .Pp
159: .Dl msgs \-h 1
160: .Pp
161: prints the first part of all messages.
162: .Tp Ar \-number
163: will cause
164: .Nm msgs
165: to start
166: .Ar number
167: messages back from the one indicated by your
168: .Pa \&.msgsrc
169: file, useful for reviews of recent messages.
170: .Tp Fl p
171: causes long messages to be piped through
172: .Xr more 1 .
173: .Tp
174: .Pp
175: Within
176: .Nm msgs
177: you can also go to any specific message by typing its number when
178: .Nm msgs
179: requests input as to what to do.
180: .Sh ENVIRONMENT
181: .Nm Msgs
182: uses the
183: .Ev HOME
184: and
185: .Ev TERM
186: environment variables for the default home directory and
187: terminal type.
188: .Sh FILES
189: .Dw /usr/msgs/*
190: .Di L
191: .Dp Pa /usr/msgs/*
192: database
193: .Dp ~/.msgsrc
194: number of next message to be presented
195: .Dp
196: .Sh AUTHORS
197: William Joy
198: .br
199: David Wasley
200: .Sh SEE ALSO
201: .Xr aliases 5 ,
202: .\".Xr crontab 5 ,
203: .Xr mail 1 ,
204: .Xr more 1
205: .Sh HISTORY
206: .Nm Msgs
207: appeared in 3 BSD.
208: .Sh BUGS
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