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/.