xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/talk/talk.1 (revision 6ff6d951ade3f3379932df7f878ef3ea272cfc59)
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32.\"     @(#)talk.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd July 3, 2004
36.Dt TALK 1
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm talk
40.Nd talk to another user
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Ar person
44.Op Ar ttyname
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46The
47.Nm
48utility is a visual communication program which copies lines from your
49terminal to that of another user.
50.Pp
51Options available:
52.Bl -tag -width ttyname
53.It Ar person
54If you wish to talk to someone on your own machine, then
55.Ar person
56is just the person's login name.
57If you wish to talk to a user on
58another host, then
59.Ar person
60is of the form
61.Ql user@host
62or
63.Ql host!user
64or
65.Ql host:user .
66.It Ar ttyname
67If you wish to talk to a user who is logged in more than once, the
68.Ar ttyname
69argument may be used to indicate the appropriate terminal
70name, where
71.Ar ttyname
72is of the form
73.Ql ttyXX .
74.El
75.Pp
76When first called,
77.Nm
78sends the message
79.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
80Message from TalkDaemon@his_machine...
81talk: connection requested by your_name@your_machine.
82talk: respond with: talk your_name@your_machine
83.Ed
84.Pp
85to the user you wish to talk to.
86At this point, the recipient
87of the message should reply by typing
88.Pp
89.Dl talk \ your_name@your_machine
90.Pp
91It does not matter from which machine the recipient replies, as
92long as his login-name is the same.
93Once communication is established,
94the two parties may type simultaneously, with their output appearing
95in separate windows.
96Typing control-L
97.Ql ^L
98will cause the screen to
99be reprinted.
100Typing control-D
101.Ql ^D
102will clear both parts of your screen to be cleared, while
103the control-D character will be sent to the remote side
104(and just displayed by this
105.Nm
106client).
107Your erase, kill, and word kill characters will
108behave normally.
109To exit, just type your interrupt character;
110.Nm
111then moves the cursor to the bottom of the screen and restores the
112terminal to its previous state.
113.Pp
114Permission to talk may be denied or granted by use of the
115.Xr mesg 1
116command.
117At the outset talking is allowed.
118.Sh FILES
119.Bl -tag -width /var/run/utmp -compact
120.It Pa /etc/hosts
121to find the recipient's machine
122.It Pa /var/run/utmp
123to find the recipient's tty
124.El
125.Sh SEE ALSO
126.Xr mail 1 ,
127.Xr mesg 1 ,
128.Xr wall 1 ,
129.Xr who 1 ,
130.Xr write 1 ,
131.Xr talkd 8
132.Sh HISTORY
133The
134.Nm
135command appeared in
136.Bx 4.2 .
137.Pp
138In
139.Fx 5.3 ,
140the default behaviour of
141.Nm
142was changed to treat local-to-local talk requests as originating
143and terminating at
144.Em localhost .
145Before this change, it was required that the hostname (as per
146.Xr gethostname 3 )
147resolved to a valid IPv4 address (via
148.Xr gethostbyname 3 ) ,
149making
150.Nm
151unsuitable for use in configurations where
152.Xr talkd 8
153was bound to the loopback interface (normally for security reasons).
154.Sh BUGS
155The version of
156.Nm
157released with
158.Bx 4.3
159uses a protocol that
160is incompatible with the protocol used in the version released with
161.Bx 4.2 .
162.Pp
163Multibyte characters are not recognized.
164