Subject: Reading System Bulletins

Software Category: utility
Supported by: ACS

Description:

Sometimes when you log on, a window will appear with a system bulletin. If you are logging on remotely, you may see the message There are new msgs.

These messages, or bulletins, are important news, usually short-term, about RCS. They may tell you that certain computers will be down for repairs or upgrades or explain other problems.

A system bulletin message will look like this:

Message 172
    From System Administrator: Fri. Sep 24 14:34:44 EDT 1993
    Subject: All RCS Users: Isaac down for upgrades, 
    (41 lines) More? [ynx?]

Getting Started:

The commands you can use (on RCS or remote login) to read or skip system bulletins appear in the brackets [ynx?] displayed as part of the bulletin. You can use these commands as follows.

• If you want to read the message, press y;
• If you want to skip a message and read the next one, press n;
• If you want to leave the message window and come back to the messages another time, press x.
• Press the ? key to view a list of all the commands you can use in the messages window.
• When you see --More-- at the bottom of the screen, press the space bar to continue.
• Press q (quit) if you want the new messages to go away permanently.

Documentation:

For general information about RCS Accounts and using them, please refer to Memos RPI.112, Using UNIX Workstations, and RPI.113, Using UNIX: The Rensselaer Computing System (RCS).

Tips and Hints:

You can view a list of old system bulletins by issuing the command

msgs -t

You can also view system bulletins through RPInfo under Computing Services > News Cache and News Updates > System Bulletins.

If we feel that a system bulletin is of continuing interest, it will be archived in the directory /campus/doc/bulletins/FYI.

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