hello(C)                        19 June 1992                        hello(C)


 Name

    hello - send a message to another user

 Syntax

    hello user [tty]

 Description

    hello sends messages from one user to another.  When first called, hello
    displays the following message:

       Message from sender's-system! sender's-name sender's-tty

    The recipient of the message should write back at this point.  Communica-
    tion continues until interrupted. (On most terminals, pressing the <Del>
    key sends an interrupt.) At that point hello prints (end of message) on
    the other terminal, and exits.

    To write to a user who is logged in more than once, the user can employ
    the tty argument to specify the appropriate terminal name.  The who(C)
    command can be used to determine the correct terminal name.

    Permission to write may be allowed or denied by the recipient, using the
    mesg command.  Writing is disallowed by default.  Certain commands, such
    as nroff and pr, prohibit messages in order to prevent disruption of out-
    put.

    If the character ``!'' is found at the beginning of a line, hello calls
    the shell to execute the rest of the line as a command.

    The following protocol is suggested for using hello.  When first writing
    to another user, the sender should wait for that user to write back
    before sending a message.  Each party should end each message with a sig-
    nal indicating that the other may reply: 'o' for ``over'' is conven-
    tional.  The signal 'oo' for ``over and out'' is suggested when conversa-
    tion is about to be terminated.

 Files

    /etc/utmp
    /bin/sh

 See also

    mail(C), mesg(C), who(C), write(C)

 Value added

    hello is an extension of AT&T System V provided by The Santa Cruz Opera-
    tion, Inc.