WRITE(1)                             BSD                              WRITE(1)



NAME
     write - write to another user

SYNOPSIS
     write user [ ttyname ]

DESCRIPTION
     write copies lines from your terminal to that of another user.  When
     first called, it sends the message

          Message from yourname@yoursystem on yourttyname at time...

     The recipient of the message should write back at this point.
     Communication continues until an end of file is read from the terminal or
     an interrupt is sent.  At that point write writes `EOT' on the other
     terminal and exits.

     If you want to write to a user who is logged in more than once, the
     ttyname argument may be used to indicate the appropriate terminal name.

     Permission to write may be denied or granted by use of the mesg command.
     At the outset writing is allowed.  Certain commands, in particular nroff
     and pr(1), disallow messages in order to prevent messy output.

     If the character `!' is found at the beginning of a line, write calls the
     shell to execute the rest of the line as a command.

     The following protocol is suggested for using write:  when you first
     write to another user, wait for him to write back before starting to
     send.  Each party should end each message with a distinctive signal-(o)
     for `over' is conventional-that the other may reply. The signal (oo) for
     `over and out' is suggested when conversation is about to be terminated.

FILES
     /etc/utmp      to find user
     /bin/sh        to execute `!'

SEE ALSO
     mesg(1), who(1), mail(1)