WRITE(1)                                                              WRITE(1)


NAME
     write - write to another user

SYNOPSIS
     write user [ line ]

DESCRIPTION
     write copies lines from your terminal to that of another user.  When
     first called, it sends the message:

          Message from yourname (tty??)  [ date ]...

     to the person you want to talk to.  When it has successfully completed
     the connection, it also sends two bells to your own terminal to indicate
     that what you are typing is being sent.

     The recipient of the message should write back at this point.
     Communication continues until an end of file is read from the terminal,
     an interrupt is sent, or the recipient has executed "mesg n".  At that
     point write writes EOT on the other terminal and exits.

     If you want to write to a user who is logged in more than once, the line
     argument may be used to indicate which line or terminal to send to (e.g.,
     tty00); otherwise, the first writable instance of the user found in
     /var/adm/utmp is assumed and the following message posted:

          user is logged on more than one place.
          You are connected to "terminal".
          Other locations are:
          terminal

     Permission to write may be denied or granted by use of the mesg(1)
     command.  Writing to others is normally allowed by default.  Certain
     commands, such as pr(1) disallow messages in order to prevent
     interference with their output.  However, if the user has super-user
     permissions, messages can be forced onto a write-inhibited terminal.

     If the character ! is found at the beginning of a line, write calls the
     shell to execute the rest of the line as a command.

     write processes supplementary code set characters according to the locale
     specified in the LC_CTYPE environment variable [see LANG on environ(5)].
     It will detect non-printable characters before sending them to the user's
     terminal.  Control characters will appear as a `^' followed by the
     appropriate ASCII character; characters with the high-order bit set will
     appear in meta notation. For example, `\003' is displayed as `^C' and
     `\372' as `M-z'.

     The following protocol is suggested for using write:  when you first
     write to another user, wait for them to write back before starting to
     send.  Each person should end a message with a distinctive signal (i.e.,
     (o) for ``over'') so that the other person knows when to reply.  The


     signal (oo) (for ``over and out'') is suggested when conversation is to
     be terminated.

FILES
     /var/adm/utmp  to find user
     /sbin/sh  to execute !
     /usr/lib/locale/locale/LC_MESSAGES/uxcore
              language-specific message file [See LANG on environ(5).]

SEE ALSO
     mail(1), mesg(1), pr(1), sh(1), who(1).

DIAGNOSTICS
     UX:write:ERROR:User is not logged on.
          if the person you are trying to write to is not logged on.

     UX:write:ERROR:Permission denied.
          if the person you are trying to write to denies that permission
          (with mesg).

     UX:write:Warning: cannot respond, set mesg -y.
          if your terminal is set to mesg n and the recipient cannot respond
          to you.

     UX:write:ERROR:Can no longer write to user.
          if the recipient has denied permission (mesg n) after you had
          started writing.


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