SENDMSG(1)

📦 version 2.1b.20080616, in debian bookworm, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble

💌 SENDMSG(1) 💌

okay bestie, gather round, because this is a page from the General Commands Manual and it's literally about yelling one single line of text at somebody's terminal from across the internet. iconic behavior. no cap.

✨ NAME ✨

sendmsg — send a message via Internet 🦋

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

sendmsg [ -46vVfrmMl ] [ -u 'from' ] [ -s 'message' ] recipient

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

sendmsg sends a one line text message to the terminal(s) of the recipient you specified. one line. that's the whole vibe. short and sweet, like a text message but for terminals, periodt. 💅

On the receiving site there has to be a SAFT-server (Simple Asynchronous File Transfer) installed, like the sendfiled, and the recipient's terminal has to be writeable. like, no write permission, no message, sorry babe. 😭

The recipient address can be specified as:

  • user — a local user, or a sendfile alias (scroll down, we get to those), e.g.: framstag
  • user@host — a user on a remote host, e.g.: framstag@bofh.belwue.de
  • saft://host/user — same thing as above but in URL-syntax, e.g.: saft://bofh.belwue.de/framstag
  • saft://host:port/user — also same, but with an alternate SAFT-port, e.g.: saft://bofh.belwue.de:4870/framstag

🌸 OPTIONS 🌸

  • -4, -6 — explicitly force IPv4 or IPv6 connections. by default the program resolves the name you gave it and picks the appropriate protocol all by itself, main character energy. if resolving a host name returns both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, sendmsg will try the addresses in the order the resolver returned them. (yes, in that order. the resolver decides, not us.) ✨
  • -v — verbose mode: show SAFT protocol messages. it's giving "tell me everything". 🗣️
  • -V — show version information and exit. bye bestie 👋
  • -f — force sending of messages and ignore tty (re)settings. bold. reckless. love that for you. 🔥
  • -r — reply to the last received message. 🫶
  • -m — receive messages only on this tty. this is the default, so you're already doing it, no thoughts needed.
  • -M — allow receiving messages on other ttys. living dangerously, we respect it. 💜
  • -l — allow sending of multiline messages messages. (yes, the original says "messages" twice, and honestly? relatable. that's the energy.) 😭
  • -s 'message' — send directly message. skip the prompt, just go. ⭐
  • -u 'from' — set the sender to from instead of $LOGNAME. fake it till you make it. 🙈
  • -q — quiet mode: print no transfer messages. shhh. 🤫

🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

sendmsg neg@linux.rus.uni-stuttgart.de
message: how about lunch?

look at that. a whole conversation starter. slay. 🍓

💜 FILES 💜

  • /etc/sendfile.deny — users which are not allowed to receive files or messages (set by root). the naughty list, basically. 👑
  • /var/spool/sendfile/$LOGNAME/config/restrictions — list of addresses from where you don't want messages or files. the format is:
user@host [mfb]

where m stands for messages, f for files and b for both. wildcards * and ? are allowed. examples:

gates@microsoft.com b
*aol.com m
  • /var/spool/sendfile/$LOGNAME/config/aliases — the sendfile alias file. format:
alias address

example:

chief grmblfz@bigvax.somewhere.net

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

sendfile(1).

⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

Ulli Horlacher — framstag@rus.uni-stuttgart.de

💖 okay that's the whole page bestie, go forth and message people responsibly. remember: the SAFT-server has to exist on the other end, the terminal has to be writeable, and -m is the default so don't stress about it. mwah. 💅

and that's a wrap! this was the 3rd Berkeley Distribution version of SENDMSG(1), so if you ever need to cite your sources, that's the flex. periodt. 💖✨

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