.TH MESG 1 .SH NAME mesg \- permit or deny messages .SH SYNOPSIS .B mesg [ .B ny ] .SH DESCRIPTION .I Mesg with argument .B n forbids messages via .IR write (1) by revoking non-user write permission on the user's terminal. .I Mesg with argument .B y reinstates permission. All by itself, .I mesg reports the current state without changing it. .SH FILES .ta 2i /dev/tty user's terminal .SH "SEE ALSO" write(1) .SH DIAGNOSTICS Exit status is 0 if messages are receivable, 1 if not, 2 on error.