RMSG(1)

NAME
rmsg - A client program for an intermachine messaging system

SYNOPSIS
rmsg [ -r ] [ -d ] [ user[@machine] ... ]

DESCRIPTION
Rmsg is used to send short (max. 4096 characters), asynchronous messages to users on the system or other systems connected via TCP/IP. Rmsg uses the SUNRPC protocol. It reads input from standard input until EOF or 4096 characters, whichever comes first, and sends it to the recipient(s) specified in the command line.

Rmsg is similar to write but differs from write in that it can cross machine boundaries. Also, its communication is asynchronous, so normally the user writes a message to the rmsg program, then the program delivers the message in the background and reports possible error conditions to the user.

For rmsg to work, the recipient's host must be running the rmsgd program.

OPTIONS
Rmsg accepts the following options :

-r  re-send previous message. Rmsg stores the last message it sends in the file ~/.msgout if not otherwise specified. Here `~' means the user's home directory from the file /etc/passwd.

-d  Turn on debugging.

CONFIGURATION
The behaviour of the rmsg system can be controlled in many ways by creating a file called .msgconf in the user's home directory. Both the rmsg program and the rmsgd read the configuration file to decide for example where to log the message for later use, if anywhere. The configuration file can include comments, which start with `#'-signs on any place on the line. In the configuration file you can use escape characters much like the csh conventions for escaping and the escape characters in the C language. The escape conventions understood include :

\001
    where 001 is the octal code for the wanted character.

\n  where \n may be any of the \ escapes known by the C language.

Any text in double or single quotes is left uniterpreted.

In addition, the following printf -style escapes can be used with the commands away, outheader, exec, and header. Note that with the command outheader the fields correspond to information about the receiver, not the sender of the message.

%d  time of day when a message was transmitted / received.

%f  user name of the sender of the message in the form user@machine

%h  home phone of the sender as got from the gecos field of /etc/passwd

%n  real name of the sender

%o  office

%p  office phone

The following configuration commands can be used :

alias nickname username
    By using alias, you don't have to type in long and cryptic user names like x53124z every time. Instead, you can include the command alias joe x53124z in your .msgconf file and just send rsmgs to joe. Aliases can't be nested, neither can you define 'message groups'.

away commandline
    Using away you can arrange for the rmsg service to answer messages for you, or pipe incoming messages to a program when you're not logged on. Commandline is a single string, generally in double quotes. Example: `away "echo Back at 6 pm | /usr/local/bin/rmsg %f"' will answer all messages while you are away. Commandline is passed to /bin/sh. Note that the user's .cshrc or .profile file will not be read, so the environment has to be explicitly set if necessary.

bitnetserver hostname
    If your network has a bitnet host which is willing to relay messages for you between you and bitnet, you may set this to the hostname of that host.

header formatline
    Header line for incoming messages written to tty. formatline is parsed like in the exec command. Default: `header "\007\nMessage from %n <%f>:\n"'

inappend
    If inappend is included, incoming messages are appended to file specified by inlast, otherwise the file is overwritten by each message.

inlast filename
    Incoming messages are logged to file filename, which is interpreted relative to the user's home directory. If specified, logging is done even if the user is not logged on. Example: `inlast .msglast'. Default: no logging done.

outheader formatline
    Header for logging outgoing messages to the file specified by outlog. Parsed as in headerline. Default: no header.

outlog filename
    Filename to log outgoing messages to. Interpreted relative to the user's home directory. Default: no file.

outlast filename
    Filename to log the last outgoing messages to. The -r option of rmsg uses this file. Interpreted relative to the user's home directory. If filename is not given, the last message is not stored anywhere. Default: .msgout.

single
    If single is included, the message is sent only to one tty, the one which has the smallest idle time. Otherwise the message is sent to all ttys the receiver is logged on.

AUTHOR
Jyrki Kuoppala <jkp@hutcs.hut.fi>, Helsinki University of Technology

FILES
~/.msgconf    the rmsg configuration file
~/.msgout    last sent message

SEE ALSO
rmsgd(8), write(1)