| MSGS(1) | General Commands Manual | MSGS(1) | 
msgs —
| msgs | [ -fhlpqr] [number]
      [-number] | 
| msgs | [ -s] | 
| msgs | [ -c[-days]] | 
msgs is used to read system messages. These messages are
  sent by mailing to the login `msgs' and should be short pieces of information
  which are suitable to be read once by most users of the system.
msgs is normally invoked each time you
    login, by placing it in the file .login (or
    .profile if you use
    sh(1)). 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:
yRETURNn-qmsgs; the next time
      msgs will pick up where it last left off.smpPAGER, or,
      if PAGER is null or not defined,
      more(1). The commands `m',
      `p', and `s' all 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 /var/msgs it keeps
    a set of files whose names are the (sequential) numbers of the messages they
    represent. The file /var/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.
The -s option is used for setting up the
    posting of messages. The line
msgs: "| /usr/bin/msgs
  -s"should be included in /etc/mail/aliases (see newaliases(1)) to enable posting of messages.
The -c option is used for performing
    cleanup on /var/msgs. An entry with the
    -c option should be placed in
    /etc/crontab to run every night. This will remove
    all messages over 21 days old. A different expiration may be specified on
    the command line to override the default. This number must be negative and
    indicates the number of days before the present whose messages should be
    kept; that is, use -c -3 to
    remove messages more than three days old.
Options when reading messages include:
-f-q-h-rPAGER is set to something secure.-lmsgs to start at the specified message rather than
      at the next message indicated by your .msgsrc
      file. Thus
    
    msgs -h 1prints the first part of all messages.
-pPAGER, or, if
      PAGER is null or not defined,
      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.
msgs uses the HOME and
  TERM environment variables for the default home
  directory and terminal type.
msgs command appeared in
  3.0BSD.
| April 28, 1995 | NetBSD 10.0 |