mesg

MESG(1)                          User Commands                         MESG(1)

NAME
       mesg - display (or do not display) messages from other users

SYNOPSIS
       mesg [option] [n|y]

DESCRIPTION
       The  mesg  utility  is invoked by a user to control write access others
       have to the terminal device associated with standard error output.   If
       write access is allowed, then programs such as talk(1) and write(1) may
       display messages on the terminal.

       Traditionally, write access is allowed by default.  However,  as  users
       become  more  conscious  of various security risks, there is a trend to
       remove write access by default, at least for the primary  login  shell.
       To  make  sure  your ttys are set the way you want them to be set, mesg
       should be executed in your login scripts.

       The mesg utility silently exits with error status 2 if not executed  on
       terminal.   In  this  case execute mesg is pointless.  The command line
       option --verbose forces mesg to print  a  warning  in  this  situation.
       This behaviour has been introduced in version 2.33.

ARGUMENTS
       n      Disallow messages.

       y      Allow messages to be displayed.

       If  no  arguments  are  given, mesg shows the current message status on
       standard error output.

OPTIONS
       -v, --verbose
              Explain what is being done.

       -V, --version
              Display version information and exit.

       -h, --help
              Display help text and exit.

EXIT STATUS
       The mesg utility exits with one of the following values:

            0     Messages are allowed.

            1     Messages are not allowed.

           >1     An error has occurred.

FILES
       /dev/[pt]ty[pq]?

SEE ALSO
       login(1), talk(1), write(1), wall(1), xterm(1)

HISTORY
       A mesg command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

AVAILABILITY
       The mesg command is part of the util-linux  package  and  is  available
       from https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.

util-linux                         July 2014                           MESG(1)