| 1 | .\" Copyright (c) 1980 Regents of the University of California. |
| 2 | .\" All rights reserved. The Berkeley software License Agreement |
| 3 | .\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution. |
| 4 | .\" |
| 5 | .\" @(#)msgs.1 6.2 (Berkeley) %G% |
| 6 | .\" |
| 7 | .TH MSGS 1 "" |
| 8 | .UC 4 |
| 9 | .SH NAME |
| 10 | msgs \- system messages and junk mail program |
| 11 | .SH SYNOPSIS |
| 12 | .B msgs |
| 13 | [ |
| 14 | .B \-fhlpq |
| 15 | ] [ |
| 16 | number |
| 17 | ] [ |
| 18 | \-number |
| 19 | ] |
| 20 | .LP |
| 21 | .B msgs |
| 22 | .B \-s |
| 23 | .LP |
| 24 | .B msgs |
| 25 | .B \-c |
| 26 | [ |
| 27 | \-days |
| 28 | ] |
| 29 | .SH DESCRIPTION |
| 30 | .I Msgs |
| 31 | is used to read system messages. |
| 32 | These messages are |
| 33 | sent by mailing to the login `msgs' and should be short |
| 34 | pieces of information which are suitable to be read once by most users |
| 35 | of the system. |
| 36 | .PP |
| 37 | .I Msgs |
| 38 | is normally invoked each time you login, by placing it in the file |
| 39 | .I \&.login |
| 40 | .I (\&.profile |
| 41 | if you use |
| 42 | .IR /bin/sh ). |
| 43 | It will then prompt you with the source and subject of each new message. |
| 44 | If there is no subject line, the first few non-blank lines of the |
| 45 | message will be displayed. |
| 46 | If there is more to the message, you will be told how |
| 47 | long it is and asked whether you wish to see the rest of the message. |
| 48 | The possible responses are: |
| 49 | .TP 7 |
| 50 | .B y |
| 51 | type the rest of the message |
| 52 | .TP 7 |
| 53 | RETURN |
| 54 | synonym for y. |
| 55 | .TP 7 |
| 56 | .B n |
| 57 | skip this message |
| 58 | and go on to the next message. |
| 59 | .TP 7 |
| 60 | .B \- |
| 61 | redisplay the last message. |
| 62 | .TP 7 |
| 63 | .B q |
| 64 | drops you out of |
| 65 | .I msgs; |
| 66 | the next time you run the program it will pick up where you left off. |
| 67 | .TP 7 |
| 68 | .B s |
| 69 | append the current message to the file ``Messages'' in the current directory; |
| 70 | `s\-' will save the previously displayed message. A `s' or `s\-' may |
| 71 | be followed by a space and a file name to receive the message replacing |
| 72 | the default ``Messages''. |
| 73 | .TP 7 |
| 74 | .B m |
| 75 | or `m\-' causes a copy of the specified message to be placed in a temporary |
| 76 | mailbox and |
| 77 | .IR mail (1) |
| 78 | to be invoked on that mailbox. |
| 79 | Both `m' and `s' accept a numeric argument in place of the `\-'. |
| 80 | .PP |
| 81 | .I Msgs |
| 82 | keeps track of the next message you will see by a number in the file |
| 83 | .I \&.msgsrc |
| 84 | in your home directory. |
| 85 | In the directory |
| 86 | .I /usr/msgs |
| 87 | it keeps a set of files whose names are the (sequential) numbers |
| 88 | of the messages they represent. |
| 89 | The file |
| 90 | .I /usr/msgs/bounds |
| 91 | shows the low and high number of the messages in the directory |
| 92 | so that |
| 93 | .I msgs |
| 94 | can quickly determine if there are no messages for you. |
| 95 | If the contents of |
| 96 | .I bounds |
| 97 | is incorrect it can be fixed by removing it; |
| 98 | .I msgs |
| 99 | will make a new |
| 100 | .I bounds |
| 101 | file the next time it is run. |
| 102 | .PP |
| 103 | The |
| 104 | .B \-s |
| 105 | option is used for setting up the posting of messages. The line |
| 106 | .IP |
| 107 | .DT |
| 108 | msgs: "| /usr/ucb/msgs \-s" |
| 109 | .PP |
| 110 | should be include in |
| 111 | .I /usr/lib/aliases |
| 112 | to enable posting of messages. |
| 113 | .PP |
| 114 | The |
| 115 | .B \-c |
| 116 | option is used for performing cleanup on |
| 117 | .I /usr/msgs. |
| 118 | An entry with the |
| 119 | .B \-c |
| 120 | option should be placed in |
| 121 | .I /usr/lib/crontab |
| 122 | to run every night. This will remove all messages over 21 days old. |
| 123 | A different expiration may be specified on the command line to override |
| 124 | the default. |
| 125 | .PP |
| 126 | Options when reading messages include: |
| 127 | .TP 7 |
| 128 | .B \-f |
| 129 | which causes it not to say ``No new messages.''. |
| 130 | This is useful in your |
| 131 | .I \&.login |
| 132 | file since this is often the case here. |
| 133 | .TP 7 |
| 134 | .B \-q |
| 135 | Queries whether there are messages, printing |
| 136 | ``There are new messages.'' if there are. |
| 137 | The command ``msgs \-q'' is often used in login scripts. |
| 138 | .TP 7 |
| 139 | .B \-h |
| 140 | causes |
| 141 | .I msgs |
| 142 | to print the first part of messages only. |
| 143 | .TP 7 |
| 144 | .B \-l |
| 145 | option causes only locally originated messages to be reported. |
| 146 | .TP 7 |
| 147 | \fInum\fR |
| 148 | A message number can be given |
| 149 | on the command line, causing |
| 150 | .I msgs |
| 151 | to start at the specified message rather than at the next message |
| 152 | indicated by your |
| 153 | .I \&.msgsrc |
| 154 | file. |
| 155 | Thus |
| 156 | .IP "" 7 |
| 157 | msgs \-h 1 |
| 158 | .IP "" 7 |
| 159 | prints the first part of all messages. |
| 160 | .TP 7 |
| 161 | .I "\-number" |
| 162 | will cause |
| 163 | .I msgs |
| 164 | to start |
| 165 | .I number |
| 166 | messages back from the one indicated by your |
| 167 | .I \&.msgsrc |
| 168 | file, useful for reviews of recent messages. |
| 169 | .TP 7 |
| 170 | .B \-p |
| 171 | causes long messages to be piped through |
| 172 | .IR more (1). |
| 173 | .PP |
| 174 | Within |
| 175 | .I msgs |
| 176 | you can also go to any specific message by typing its number when |
| 177 | .I msgs |
| 178 | requests input as to what to do. |
| 179 | .SH FILES |
| 180 | .ta 2i |
| 181 | /usr/msgs/* database |
| 182 | .br |
| 183 | ~/.msgsrc number of next message to be presented |
| 184 | .SH AUTHORS |
| 185 | William Joy |
| 186 | .br |
| 187 | David Wasley |
| 188 | .SH SEE ALSO |
| 189 | aliases(5), crontab(5), mail(1), more(1) |
| 190 | .SH BUGS |