usr/src/usr.bin/talk/talk.1

.\" Copyright (c) 1983 Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.  The Berkeley software License Agreement
.\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
.\"
.\"     @(#)talk.1      6.1 (Berkeley) %G%
.\"
.TH TALK 1 ""
.UC 5
.SH NAME
talk \- talk to another user
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B talk
person [ ttyname ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Talk
is a visual communication program which
copies lines from your terminal to that of
another user.
.PP
If you wish to talk to someone on you own machine, then
.I person
is just the person's login name. If you wish to talk to
a user on another host, then
.I person
is of the form :
.sp
.in +2.0i
.I host!user
\ or
.br
.I host.user
\ or
.br
.I host:user
\ or
.br
.I user@host
.br
.in -2.0i
.sp
though
.I host@user
is perhaps preferred.
.PP
If you want to talk to a user who is logged in more than once,
the
.I ttyname
argument may be used to indicate the
appropriate terminal name.
.PP
When first called,
it sends the message
.PP
     Message from TalkDaemon@his_machine...
     talk: connection requested by your_name@your_machine.
     talk: respond with: talk your_name@your_machine
.PP
to the user you wish to talk to. At this point, the recipient
of the message should reply by
typing
.PP
     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 will cause the screen to be reprinted, while your
erase, kill, and word kill characters will work in talk as normal.
To exit,
just type your interrupt character;
.I talk
then moves the cursor to the bottom of the screen and restores
the terminal.
.PP
Permission to talk may be denied or granted by use of the
.I mesg
command.
At the outset talking is allowed.
Certain commands, in particular
.I nroff
and
.IR  pr (1)
disallow
messages in order to prevent messy output.
.PP
.SH FILES
/etc/hosts      to find the recipient's machine
.br
/etc/utmp       to find the recipient's tty
.SH "SEE ALSO"
mesg(1), who(1), mail(1), write(1)