talk(1N)                                                 talk(1N)



NAME
     talk - talks to another user via the terminal

SYNOPSIS
     talk user [ttyname]

ARGUMENTS
     user Specifies the login name of the person you wish to talk
          to.

     ttyname
          Specifies the terminal that the person you wish to talk
          to is using.

DESCRIPTION
     talk is a visual communication program that copies lines
     from your terminal to that of another user.

     If you wish to talk to someone on your own machine, then
     user is just the login name of the person you wish to talk
     to.  If you wish to talk to a user on another host connected
     via Ethernet to a local network running the TCP/IP
     networking software, user is of one of these forms:

        host!user
        host.user
        host:user
        user@host

     If you want to talk to a user who is logged in more than
     once, the ttyname argument may be used to indicate the
     appropriate terminal name.

     While in a talk session, typing CONTROL-L will cause the
     screen to be reprinted, while your erase and kill characters
     will work in talk as normal.

     To exit a talk session, just type your interrupt character;
     talk then moves the cursor to the bottom of the screen and
     restores the terminal.

     Permission to talk may be denied or granted by use of the
     mesg command.  At the invocation of talk, talking is
     allowed.  Certain commands, in particular nroff(1) and
     pr(1), disallow messages in order to prevent messy output.

EXAMPLES
     When talk is first called, it sends the message

        Message from TalkDaemon@his machine
        talk: connection requested by your name@your machine.
        talk: respond with: talk your name@your machine



January 1992                                                    1

talk(1N)                                                 talk(1N)



     to the user you wish to talk to.  At this point, the
     recipient of the message should reply by typing

        talk yourname@your machine

     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.

FILES
     /usr/bin/talk
          Executable file
     /etc/hosts
          File containing list of host machines
     /etc/utmp
          File containing terminal information

SEE ALSO
     mail(1), mesg(1), who(1), write(1)



































2                                                    January 1992