.\" $OpenBSD: talk.1,v 1.16 2003/01/09 11:37:28 fgsch Exp $ .\" $NetBSD: talk.1,v 1.3 1994/12/09 02:14:23 jtc Exp $ .\" .\" 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 .Sh NAME .Nm talk .Nd talk to another user .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm talk .Op Fl Hs .Ar person .Op Ar ttyname .Sh DESCRIPTION .Nm is a visual communication program which copies lines from your terminal to that of another user. .Pp The command arguments are as follows: .Bl -tag -width ttyname .It Fl H Don't escape characters with the high bit set. This may be useful for certain character sets, but could cause erratic behaviour on some terminals. .It Fl s Use smooth scrolling in the .Nm window. The default is to clear the next two rows and jump from the bottom of the window to the top. .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 sends the message .Pp .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact Message from Talk_Daemon@localhost... 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 the login name is the same. If the machine is not the one to which the talk request was sent, it is noted on the screen. Once communication is established, the two parties may type simultaneously, with their output appearing in separate windows. Typing control-L .Pq Ql ^L will cause the screen to be reprinted, while the erase, kill, and word kill characters will behave normally. To exit, just type the interrupt character; .Nm 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. .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 HISTORY The .Nm command appeared in .Bx 4.2 . .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 .