
NWRITE(1)            UNIX Programmer's Manual            NWRITE(1)


NAME
     nwrite - enhanced write

SYNOPSIS
     nwrite [-i minutes] [-a] user[.ttyname] [user[.ttyname] ...]

DESCRIPTION

     nwrite copies lines from your terminal to the terminals of one
     or more users.  When called, it begins copying lines you type
     to the recipient's terminal(tty). Before sending the first line
     of text, nwrite prepends the message

     Message from <name> on <tty> [to user [users ...]] at <time> ...

     Communication continues until an end of file is read
     from the terminal or an interrupt is sent.  At that point
     nwrite writes `EOF' (or `EOF (sendername)' if whoeof is set)
     on the other terminal and exits.

     If you want to write to a user who is logged in more than
     once, the ttyname argument may be used to indicate the
     appropriate terminal name, OR, you can let nwrite find the
     first writable tty, and write to that. Additionally, you can
     use the -i option to specify a number of minutes; ttys more
     idle than the number you specify will be ignored when looking
     for ttys to write to.

     Permission to write may be denied or granted by use of the
     mesg command.  At the outset writing is allowed.  Certain
     commands, in particular nroff and pr(1) disallow messages in
     order to prevent messy output.

NWRITERC
     To control how incoming nwrites look to you, create a ~/.nwriterc
     with lines of the form:

     	option	value
     
     Where value is either 0 or 1 (meaning no and yes) and option is one of:
     
     headers
	Display "user> " before each incoming line.

     beep
        Cause the terminal to beep when the message header comes through.

     nodelay
        Do not wait for the first line of input before displaying the 
        message header.

     bold
	Takes the following string values:

	never		no bolding (default)
	header		message header only
	tag		message header and "login>" line tags
	all		bold everything

     showtarg
	Used to control the behavior of the message header. Takes
	the following string values:

	never		never show recipient list
	multi		only if more than one recipient (default)
	always		always show recipients

     whoeof 
        When sending EOF, append username to differentiate between many
	EOFs at once like this: "EOF (user)".

     Note that your home directory must be world executable and the .nwriterc
     itself must be world readable.

EXAMPLE NWRITERC
     headers	1
     nodelay 	0
     beep    	0
     bold    	header
     showtarg 	multi

OPTIONS
     -a 
        arguments are zeroed so that the process table entry does not reveal
	who you are writing to.  (Not available on all systems.)

     -i <minutes> 
	Ignore ttys more idle than <minutes> minutes.

FILES
     /etc/utmp          
			to find user
     SYSTEM_NWRITERC
			to set system default preferences
     ~user/.nwriterc    
			to obtain target's preferences

AUTHORS
     Marco Nicosia,    marco@csua.berkeley.edu, Summer 1993
     Aaron C. Smith,   aaron@csua.berkeley.edu, Summer 1994-Spring 1995
     Alan Coopersmith, alanc@csua.berkeley.edu, Summer 1995-present
     Master ftp site: ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/nwrite/

SEE ALSO
     mesg(1), who(1), mail(1)

Version 1.9.2 - July 1998                                               1
