talk.1   [plain text]


.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1990, 1993
.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
.\"	This product includes software developed by the University of
.\"	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\"    without specific prior written permission.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\"     @(#)talk.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
.\"
.Dd June 6, 1993
.Dt TALK 1
.Os BSD 4.2
.Sh NAME
.Nm talk
.Nd talk to another user
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm talk
.Ar person
.Op Ar ttyname
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm Talk
is a visual communication program which copies lines from your
terminal to that of another user.
.Pp
Options available:
.Bl -tag -width ttyname
.It Ar person
If you wish to talk to someone on your own machine, then
.Ar person
is just the person's login name.  If you wish to talk to a user on
another host, then
.Ar person
is of the form
.Ql user@host .
.It Ar ttyname
If you wish to talk to a user who is logged in more than once, the
.Ar ttyname
argument may be used to indicate the appropriate terminal
name, where
.Ar ttyname
is of the form
.Ql ttyXX .
.El
.Pp
When first called,
.Nm talk
sends the message
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
Message from TalkDaemon@his_machine...
talk: connection requested by your_name@your_machine.
talk: respond with: talk your_name@your_machine
.Ed
.Pp
to the user you wish to talk to. At this point, the recipient
of the message should reply by typing
.Pp
.Dl talk \ your_name@your_machine
.Pp
It doesn't matter from which machine the recipient replies, as
long as his login-name is the same.  Once communication is established,
the two parties may type simultaneously, with their output appearing
in separate windows.  Typing control-L
.Ql ^L
will cause the screen to
be reprinted, while your erase, kill, and word kill characters will
behave normally.  To exit, just type your interrupt character;
.Nm talk
then moves the cursor to the bottom of the screen and restores the
terminal to its previous state.
.Pp
Permission to talk may be denied or granted by use of the
.Xr mesg 1
command.  At the outset talking is allowed.  Certain commands, in
particular
.Xr nroff 1
and
.Xr pr 1 ,
disallow messages in order to
prevent messy output.
.Pp
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /var/run/utmp -compact
.It Pa /etc/hosts
to find the recipient's machine
.It Pa /var/run/utmp
to find the recipient's tty
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr mail 1 ,
.Xr mesg 1 ,
.Xr who 1 ,
.Xr write 1
.Sh BUGS
The version of
.Xr talk 1
released with
.Bx 4.3
uses a protocol that
is incompatible with the protocol used in the version released with
.Bx 4.2 .
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
command appeared in
.Bx 4.2 .