NAME
mesg – control write access to your terminalSYNOPSIS
mesg [y|n]DESCRIPTION
Mesg controls the access to your terminal by others. It’s typically used to allow or disallow other users to write to your terminal (see write(1)).OPTIONS
- y
- Allow write access to your terminal.
- n
- Disallow write access to your terminal.
If no option is given, mesg prints out the current access state of your terminal.
NOTES
Mesg assumes that its standard input is connected to your terminal. That also means that if you are logged in multiple times, you can get/set the mesg status of other sessions by using redirection. For example "mesg n < /dev/pts/46".
Willie
Willie has over 15 years of experience in Linux system administration and DevOps. After managing infrastructure for startups and enterprises alike, he founded Command Linux to share the practical knowledge he wished he had when starting out. He oversees content strategy and contributes guides on server management, automation, and security.