NAME

tell − tell remote DECnet node to execute commands

SYNTAX

tell nodename command

where

nodename is the name of the remote DECnet node that will execute the command (or set of commands) that you specify. 

command is any valid command that you want to execute on the specified remote DECnet node. 

DESCRIPTION

The tell command allows you to execute a command (or a set of commands) on a remote DECnet node.

The tell command will prompt you for the remote node name if you omit the node name from a tell command.  This method of using tell causes the remote node you enter to then prompt you for further command input.  The remote node will continue to prompt you for input until you type a <CTRL/D>, as shown in the following example:

% tell <RET>
node? yukon <RET>
YUKON> show time <RET>
5-MAR-85 09:22:00.95
YUKON> <CTRL/D>
%

Note that while you are being prompted by the remote node for command input, tell allows you to type the tilde (~) escape character to enter local mode and temporarily return control to your local DECnet-ULTRIX node, as shown in the following example:

% tell <RET>
node? yukon <RET>
YUKON> ~ <RET>
~%>

While you are in local mode, you can type a question mark (?) in response to the local mode prompt to receive a list of valid local commands.  You can return control to the remote node by typing <RET> in response to the local mode prompt. 

EXAMPLE

% tell yukon show users <RET>
          VAX/VMS Interactive Users
            5-MAR-1985 14:16:46.94
    Total number of interactive users = 5
 Username     Process Name      PID     Terminal
 BRADLEY      Green Akers     0000172C  VTA466:        TTD5:
 BUCKLEY      Are We Not Men? 00000F22  VTA444:        TTD0:
 CAMBRIA      Life’s a Beach  00001555  VTA429:        TTG6:
 CAMBRIA       til tuesday... 000018D6  VTA430:        TTB2:
 GARROD       Dave Garrod     000014CC  VTA463:        TTB4:

This command tells remote DECnet-VAX node Yukon to show what users are currently logged on.