{
    "mode": "man",
    "parameter": "WRITE",
    "section": "1",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/WRITE/1/json",
    "generated": "2026-06-13T20:01:57Z",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "write - send a message to another user\n\nwrite user [ttyname]\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "write allows you to communicate with other users, by copying lines from your terminal to\ntheirs.\n\nWhen you run the write command, the user you are writing to gets a message of the form:\n\nMessage from yourname@yourhost on yourtty at hh:mm ...\n\nAny further lines you enter will be copied to the specified user’s terminal. If the other\nuser wants to reply, they must run write as well.\n\nWhen you are done, type an end-of-file or interrupt character. The other user will see the\nmessage EOF indicating that the conversation is over.\n\nYou can prevent people (other than the superuser) from writing to you with the mesg(1)\ncommand. Some commands, for example nroff(1) and pr(1), may automatically disallow writing,\nso that the output they produce isn’t overwritten.\n\nIf the user you want to write to is logged in on more than one terminal, you can specify\nwhich terminal to write to by giving the terminal name as the second operand to the write\ncommand. Alternatively, you can let write select one of the terminals - it will pick the one\nwith the shortest idle time. This is so that if the user is logged in at work and also dialed\nup from home, the message will go to the right place.\n\nThe traditional protocol for writing to someone is that the string -o, either at the end of a\nline or on a line by itself, means that it’s the other person’s turn to talk. The string oo\nmeans that the person believes the conversation to be over.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "OPTIONS": {
            "content": "",
            "subsections": [
                {
                    "name": "-V --version",
                    "content": "Display version information and exit.\n",
                    "flag": "-V",
                    "long": "--version"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-h --help",
                    "content": "Display help text and exit.\n",
                    "flag": "-h",
                    "long": "--help"
                }
            ]
        },
        "HISTORY": {
            "content": "A write command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SEE ALSO": {
            "content": "mesg(1), talk(1), who(1)\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "REPORTING BUGS": {
            "content": "For bug reports, use the issue tracker at https://github.com/karelzak/util-linux/issues.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "AVAILABILITY": {
            "content": "The write command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux Kernel\nArchive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.\n\n\n\nutil-linux 2.37.2                            2021-06-02                                     WRITE(1)",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "write - send a message to another user  write user [ttyname]",
    "flags": [
        {
            "flag": "-V",
            "long": "--version",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Display version information and exit."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-h",
            "long": "--help",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Display help text and exit."
        }
    ],
    "examples": [],
    "see_also": [
        {
            "name": "mesg",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mesg/1/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "talk",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/talk/1/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "who",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/who/1/json"
        }
    ],
    "tldr": {
        "source": "official",
        "description": "Write a message on the terminal of a specified logged in user (`<Ctrl c>` to stop writing messages).",
        "examples": [
            {
                "description": "Send a message to a given user on a given terminal ID",
                "command": "write {{username}} {{terminal_id}}"
            },
            {
                "description": "Send message to \"testuser\" on terminal `/dev/tty/5`",
                "command": "write {{testuser}} {{tty/5}}"
            },
            {
                "description": "Send message to \"johndoe\" on pseudo terminal `/dev/pts/5`",
                "command": "write {{johndoe}} {{pts/5}}"
            }
        ]
    }
}