NAME

msgs − system messages program

SYNOPSIS

msgs [ −fhlpq ] [ number ] [ −number ]
msgs −k [ keyword ]

DESCRIPTION

msgs is used to read system messages.  These messages are short pieces of information which should be read by all users of the system. 

msgs is normally invoked each time you login, by placing it in the file .login (.profile if you use /bin/sh). 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:

y type the rest of the message

RETURN
synonym for y.

n skip this message and go on to the next message. 

− redisplay the last message. 

q drops you out of msgs; the next time you run the program it will pick up where you left off. 

s append the current message to the file “Messages” in the current directory; ‘s−’ will save the previously displayed message. A ‘s’ or ‘s−’ may be followed by a space and a filename to receive the message replacing the default “Messages”. 

m or ‘m−’ causes a copy of the specified message to be placed in a temporary mailbox and mail(1) to be invoked on that mailbox. Both ‘m’ and ‘s’ accept a numeric argument in place of the ‘−’.

msgs keeps track of the next message you will see by a number in the file .msgsrc in your home directory.  In the directory /usr/msgs it keeps a set of files whose names are the (sequential) numbers of the messages they represent.  The file /usr/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. 

When invoked with −k, msgs will do a lookup of keyword, and report relevant message numbers and subject lines. With no keyword it will report all message numbers and subjects. 

Other options to msgs include:

−f which causes it not to say “No new messages.”.  This is useful in your .login file since this is often the case here. 

−q Queries whether there are messages, printing “There are new messages.” if there are.  The command “msgs −q” is often used in login scripts. 

−h causes msgs to print the first part of messages only. 

−l option causes only locally originated messages to be reported. 

number A message number can be given on the command line, causing msgs to start at the specified message rather than at the next message indicated by your .msgsrc file.  Thus

    msgs −h 1

prints the first part of all messages. 

−number
will cause msgs to start number messages back from the one indicated by your .msgsrc file, useful for reviews of recent messages. 

−p causes long messages to be piped through more(1).

Within msgs you can also go to any specific message by typing its number when msgs requests input as to what to do. 

FILES

/usr/msgs/∗database
~/.msgsrcnumber of next message to be presented

AUTHORS

William Joy
David Wasley

SEE ALSO

mail(1), more(1)

BUGS

4BSD