Write (Unix)

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write can refer to several Unix commands. All known variations of write are used to write messages to another user. The most popular variation sends a message directly to another user's TTY

Contents

Usage

The correct syntax for the write command is:

write user tty
message

The write session is terminated by sending EOF, which can be done by pressing Ctrl+D. The tty argument is only necessary when a user is logged into more than one terminal.

Example

A conversation initiated between two users on the same machine:

11:19 AM# write root pts/7
test

Will show up to the user on that console as:

Message from root@punch on pts/8 at 11:19 ...
test

History

A version of the write command appeared in the First Edition of the Research Unix operating system. Another variation of write writes a message to a user on a Windows network, using the SMB packet format.

Programmer's Workbench UNIX contained a program wall that wrote a message to all users in the same way.

See also

v • d • e
Unix command line programs and builtins (more)
File system
cat · cd · chmod · chown · chgrp · cksum · cmp · cp · du · df · file · fsck · fuser · ln · ls · lsattr · lsof · mkdir · mount · mv · pwd · rm · rmdir · split · touch
Processes
at · chroot · cron · exit · kill · killall · nice · pgrep · pidof · pkill · ps · pstree · sleep · time · top · wait · watch
User environment
env · finger · id · logname · mesg · passwd · su · sudo · uname · uptime · w · wall · who · whoami · write
Text processing
awk · comm · cut · ed · ex · fmt · head · iconv · join · less · more · paste · sed · sort · tac · tail · tr · uniq · wc · xargs
Shell programming
alias · basename · echo · expr · false · printf · test · true · unset
Networking
Searching
find · grep · strings
Miscellaneous
banner · bc · cal · clear · date · dd · lp · man · size · tee · tput · yes · umask

Wikipedia content modification information:

  • This page was last modified on 13 November 2008, at 15:19.

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