MSGS(1) | General Commands Manual | MSGS(1) |
msgs | [-fhlpqr] [number] [-number] |
msgs | [-s] |
msgs | [-c [days]] |
msgs is normally invoked each time you login, by placing it in the file .login (or .profile if you use sh(1)). It will then prompt you with the source and subject of each new message. If there is no subject line, the first few non-blank lines of the message will be displayed. If there is more to the message, you will be told how long it is and asked whether you wish to see the rest of the message. The possible responses are:
msgs keeps track of the next message you will see by a number in the file .msgsrc in your home directory. In the directory /var/msgs it keeps a set of files whose names are the (sequential) numbers of the messages they represent. The file /var/msgs/bounds shows the low and high number of the messages in the directory so that msgs can quickly determine if there are no messages for you. If the contents of bounds is incorrect it can be fixed by removing it; msgs will make a new bounds file the next time it is run.
The -s option is used for setting up the posting of messages. The line
msgs: "| /usr/bin/msgs -s"
should be included in /etc/mail/aliases (see newaliases(1)) to enable posting of messages.
The -c option is used for performing cleanup on /var/msgs. An entry with the -c option should be placed in /etc/crontab to run every night. This will remove all messages over 21 days old. A different expiration may be specified on the command line to override the default.
Options when reading messages include:
msgs -h 1
prints the first part of all messages.
Within msgs you can also go to any specific message by typing its number when msgs requests input as to what to do.
April 28, 1995 | NetBSD 6.1 |