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Annotation of researchv10dc/man/adm/man1/write.1, revision 1.1.1.1

1.1       root        1: .TH WRITE 1
                      2: .CT 1 comm_term comm_users
                      3: .SH NAME
                      4: write, mesg \- write to other users, allow or forbid messages
                      5: .SH SYNOPSIS
                      6: .B write
                      7: .I person ...
                      8: .PP
                      9: .B mesg
                     10: [
                     11: .B n
                     12: ]
                     13: [
                     14: .B y
                     15: ]
                     16: .SH DESCRIPTION
                     17: .I Write
                     18: copies lines from your terminal to terminals of other
                     19: .I persons
                     20: designated either by login name or
                     21: (to circumvent occasional ambiguities) by terminal name
                     22: as given by
                     23: .IR who (1).
                     24: It announces to each
                     25: .I  person
                     26: your login name, your terminal,
                     27: and the other
                     28: .I persons.
                     29: To respond, each recipient should execute a corresponding
                     30: .I write
                     31: to the
                     32: .I  persons
                     33: he wants to talk to.
                     34: .PP
                     35: When you are writing to more than one person, your
                     36: messages are identified to the recipients.
                     37: Writing ceases upon end of file or interrupt,
                     38: and the message
                     39: .B EOF
                     40: is sent to the others.
                     41: .PP
                     42: .I Write
                     43: recognizes certain commands during a conversation:
                     44: .TP
                     45: .BI ! cmd
                     46: Execute a shell on the string
                     47: .I cmd
                     48: and then return to
                     49: .IR write .
                     50: .TP
                     51: .BI :a " person"
                     52: Add
                     53: .I person
                     54: to the list of people to whom you are talking,
                     55: and send an appropriate announcement to all parties.
                     56: They must do
                     57: .B :a
                     58: for themselves if they want to include the new person.
                     59: .TP
                     60: .BI :d " person"
                     61: Drop
                     62: .I person
                     63: from your list and make appropriate announcements.
                     64: .TP
                     65: .B :l
                     66: Print a list of people to whom you are talking.
                     67: .PP
                     68: The following protocol is suggested for using
                     69: .IR write .
                     70: When you invoke
                     71: .I write,
                     72: wait for the other user to
                     73: write back before starting to send.
                     74: Each party should end each message with a distinctive signal 
                     75: that the other may reply \- the customary convention is
                     76: .L (o)
                     77: for `over';
                     78: .B (oo)
                     79: for `over and out' is suggested when conversation
                     80: is about to be terminated.
                     81: .PP
                     82: .I Mesg
                     83: with argument
                     84: .B n
                     85: forbids messages via
                     86: .IR  write (1)
                     87: by revoking non-user
                     88: write permission on the user's terminal.
                     89: .I Mesg
                     90: with argument
                     91: .B y
                     92: reinstates permission.
                     93: All by itself,
                     94: .I mesg
                     95: reports the current state without changing it.
                     96: .PP
                     97: Certain commands, in particular
                     98: .I nroff
                     99: and
                    100: .IR  pr (1)
                    101: disallow
                    102: messages in order to prevent messy output.
                    103: .SH FILES
                    104: .TF /etc/utmp
                    105: .TP
                    106: .F /etc/utmp
                    107: to find user
                    108: .TP
                    109: .F /bin/sh
                    110: to execute 
                    111: .L !
                    112: .SH "SEE ALSO"
                    113: .IR who (1), 
                    114: .IR mail (1), 
                    115: .IR vismon (9.1)
                    116: .SH DIAGNOSTICS
                    117: .I Mesg
                    118: yields exit status 0 if messages are receivable, 1 if not,
                    119: 2 on error.
                    120: .SH BUGS
                    121: .IR Mux (9.1)
                    122: generally prevents the receipt of
                    123: .I write
                    124: messages, but 
                    125: .IR vismon (9.1)
                    126: permits them.
                    127: .br
                    128: Messages ought to be identified when the recipient is receiving from
                    129: more than one writer, rather than when a writer is sending
                    130: to more than one recipient,
                    131: but that requires cooperating processes and isn't
                    132: worth the effort.

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