COHERENT manpages
This page displays the COHERENT manpage for msgs [Read messages intended for all COHERENT users].
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msgs -- Command Read messages intended for all COHERENT users msgs [-q] [number] msgs selects and displays messages that are intended to be read by all COHERENT users. Messages are mailed to the login msgs. They should contain information meant to be read once by most users of the system. The command msgs normally is in a user's .profile, so that it is executed every time he logs in. When invoked, it prompts the user with the identifier of the user who sent the message and the message's size. msgs then asks the user if he wishes to see the rest of the message. The user should reply with one of the following: y Display the message. <return>Display the message. n Skip this message and go to the next one. - Redisplay the last message. q Quit msgs. number Display message number; then continue. If environmental variable PAGER is defined, msgs will ``pipe'' each message through the command specified in PAGER. For example, the .profile command line: export PAGER="exec /bin/scat -1" would invoke /bin/scat for each message with the command line argument -1 (the digit one). msgs writes into the file $(HOME)/.msgsrc the number of the next message the user will see when he invokes msgs. msgs keeps all messages in the directory /usr/msgs; each message is named with a sequential number, which indicates its message number. The file /usr/msgs/bounds contains the low and high numbers of the messages in the directory; msgs determines whether a user has not read a message by comparing the information in $(HOME)/.msgsrc with that in /usr/msgs/bounds. If the contents of /usr/msgs/bounds are incorrect, the problem can be fixed by removing that file; msgs will create a new bounds file the next time it is run. When the contents of a message are no longer needed, simply remove that message. Avoid removing the bounds file and the highest numbered message at the same time. msgs accepts the following command-line options: -q Query whether there are messages; print ``There are new messages'' if there are, and ``No new messages'' if not. The command msgs -q is often used in profile scripts. number Start at message number rather than at the message recorded in $(HOME)/.msgsrc. If number is greater than zero, then start with that message; if number is less than zero, then begin number messages before the one recorded in $(HOME)/.msgsrc. Files /usr/spool/mail/msgs -- Mail messages file /usr/msgs/[1-9]* -- Data base /usr/msgs/bounds -- File that contains message number bounds $(HOME)/.msgsrc -- Number of next message to be presented See Also commands, mail, PAGER, scat