xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/talk/talk.1 (revision 17ee9d00bc1ae1e598c38f25826f861e4bc6c3ce)
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32.\"     @(#)talk.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
33.\"
34.Dd June 6, 1993
35.Dt TALK 1
36.Os BSD 4.2
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm talk
39.Nd talk to another user
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Nm talk
42.Ar person
43.Op Ar ttyname
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45.Nm Talk
46is a visual communication program which copies lines from your
47terminal to that of another user.
48.Pp
49Options available:
50.Bl -tag -width ttyname
51.It Ar person
52If you wish to talk to someone on your own machine, then
53.Ar person
54is just the person's login name.  If you wish to talk to a user on
55another host, then
56.Ar person
57is of the form
58.Ql user@host
59or
60.Ql host!user
61or
62.Ql host:user .
63.It Ar ttyname
64If you wish to talk to a user who is logged in more than once, the
65.Ar ttyname
66argument may be used to indicate the appropriate terminal
67name, where
68.Ar ttyname
69is of the form
70.Ql ttyXX .
71.El
72.Pp
73When first called,
74.Nm talk
75sends the message
76.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
77Message from TalkDaemon@his_machine...
78talk: connection requested by your_name@your_machine.
79talk: respond with: talk your_name@your_machine
80.Ed
81.Pp
82to the user you wish to talk to. At this point, the recipient
83of the message should reply by typing
84.Pp
85.Dl talk \ your_name@your_machine
86.Pp
87It doesn't matter from which machine the recipient replies, as
88long as his login-name is the same.  Once communication is established,
89the two parties may type simultaneously, with their output appearing
90in separate windows.  Typing control-L
91.Ql ^L
92will cause the screen to
93be reprinted, while your erase, kill, and word kill characters will
94behave normally.  To exit, just type your interrupt character;
95.Nm talk
96then moves the cursor to the bottom of the screen and restores the
97terminal to its previous state.
98.Pp
99Permission to talk may be denied or granted by use of the
100.Xr mesg 1
101command.  At the outset talking is allowed.  Certain commands, in
102particular
103.Xr nroff 1
104and
105.Xr pr 1 ,
106disallow messages in order to
107prevent messy output.
108.Pp
109.Sh FILES
110.Bl -tag -width /var/run/utmp -compact
111.It Pa /etc/hosts
112to find the recipient's machine
113.It Pa /var/run/utmp
114to find the recipient's tty
115.El
116.Sh SEE ALSO
117.Xr mail 1 ,
118.Xr mesg 1 ,
119.Xr who 1 ,
120.Xr write 1
121.Sh BUGS
122The version of
123.Xr talk 1
124released with
125.Bx 4.3
126uses a protocol that
127is incompatible with the protocol used in the version released with
128.Bx 4.2 .
129.Sh HISTORY
130The
131.Nm
132command appeared in
133.Bx 4.2 .
134