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 a terminal. In this
       case executing 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.

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

       -V, --version
           Print version 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*, /dev/pts/[0-9]*

HISTORY

       mesg (I) appears in the UNIX Programmer’s Manual. It used to invert the current state with
       no argument before Version 7 AT&T UNIX.

SEE ALSO

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

REPORTING BUGS

       For bug reports, use the issue tracker at https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues.

AVAILABILITY

       The mesg command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux
       Kernel Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.