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... 

To begin two-way communication, the recipient of the message should write back at this point.  If he does not, the write session ends when you type an ’EOT’ character.  If the recepient does write back, 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. 

To write to a user who is logged in more than once, you can use the ttyname argument to indicate the appropriate terminal name. 

Users can use the mesg command to grant or deny permission to write to their terminals.  By default, mesg allows writing.  Certain commands, in particular nroff and pr(1) disallow messages in order to prevent messy output. 

If the character ‘!’ appears 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—so that the other may reply.  Type (oo) for ‘over and out’ when you are ready to end the conversation. 

FILES

/etc/utmpto find user
/bin/shto execute ‘!’

SEE ALSO

mesg(1), who(1), mail(1)

INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS 4.3 BSD  —  May 5, 1986