YTALK(1) User Commands YTALK(1) NAME ytalk - multi-user chat program SYNOPSIS ytalk user [ ... ] DESCRIPTION _Y_T_a_l_k is in essence a multi-user chat program. It works almost exactly like the UNIX _t_a_l_k(1) program and even com- municates with the same _t_a_l_k daemon(s) (see _t_a_l_k_d(8)), but _Y_T_a_l_k allows for multiple connections. Users can be specified in several different ways: "user" - a user on your machine "user@host" - a user on a different machine "name#tty" - a user on a particular terminal "name#tty@host" - a user on a particular terminal on a dif- ferent machine "name@host#tty" - same as "name#tty@host" For each user specified, _Y_T_a_l_k will attempt to connect to the _t_a_l_k daemon on the specified user's host and determine if that user has left an invitation for you to call. If not, _Y_T_a_l_k leaves an invitation for him on your machine and tells his _t_a_l_k daemon to send an announcement to his screen. Note that _Y_T_a_l_k _i_s _c_a_p_a_b_l_e _o_f _c_o_m_m_u_n_i_c_a_t_i_n_g _w_i_t_h _t_a_l_k dae- mon. Therefore, if you are trying to talk to someone on a machine that has no _t_a_l_k daemons in commonw with yours, a connection is possible through (and only through) _Y_T_a_l_k. Once a connection has been established between two users, they can chat back and forth to their hearts' content. The connection is terminated when one of them hits control-C. _Y_T_a_l_k is perfectly compatible with UNIX _t_a_l_k, and they can even converse with each other without any problems. How- ever, many of the features of _Y_T_a_l_k can only operate when you are connected to a user who is also using _Y_T_a_l_k. For the rest of this document, it will be assumed that all con- nected users are using _Y_T_a_l_k, unless otherwise stated. If you specified more than one user on the command line, then _Y_T_a_l_k will process and add each user to the conversa- tion as they respond to your invitation. As each new user enters the conversation, the screen is further subdivided into smaller and smaller windows, one for each connected Sun Microsystems Last change: local 1 YTALK(1) User Commands YTALK(1) user. Right now, the number of connected users is limited by the number of lines on your terminal (or window), for each connected user needs at least four lines. The absolute maximum number of connections is set to 20 right now. As each new user is added to the conversation, _Y_T_a_l_k will transmit information about that user to all other connected _Y_T_a_l_k users so that their screens will also subdivide and incorporate the new user. If the new user is using UNIX _t_a_l_k, then information about him will NOT be transmitted, for his screen would be unable to accept multiple connec- tions. Note that even though UNIX _t_a_l_k cannot handle multi- ple connections, it is still possible for _Y_T_a_l_k to handle multiple UNIX _t_a_l_k connections. For example, george (using _Y_T_a_l_k) could communicate with fred and joe (both using UNIX _t_a_l_k), but fred and joe would be unaware of each other. The best way to understand the limitations that UNIX _t_a_l_k places on _Y_T_a_l_k is to test various connections between the two and see how things work. It can be annoying when you are busily chatting with some user, and someone else attempts to talk to you, sending that _t_a_l_k daemon message to your screen and messing everything up. Also, in any multi-talk environment it should be easy to add new users to the conversation, and remove any partic- ular users from the conversation on the fly. Hence, the ESC menu. Whenever you are using _Y_T_a_l_k, you can hit the ESCAPE key to bring up a menu which at this moment has three options: a) Add a new user to session d) Delete a user from session o) Output a user to a file By choosing option "a", you are given the opportunity to type the name of any user you wish to include into the conversation. Again, _Y_T_a_l_k will accept an invitation from that user if an invitation exists, or will leave an invita- tion and ring the given user. By choosing option "d", you can type the name of any con- nected user, and that connection will be terminated. By choosing option "o", you can type the name of any con- nected user and the name of a file, and all further output from that user will be dumped to the specified file. The file, if it exists, will be OVERWRITTEN. When user A attempts to _y_t_a_l_k to user B, but user B is already _y_t_a_l_king with user C, user A's YTalk program will realize that user B is already using Sun Microsystems Last change: local 2 YTALK(1) User Commands YTALK(1) _Y_T_a_l_k,_a_n_dwill_c_o_m_m_u_n_i_c_a_t_ewith _Y_T_a_l_k program directly in order to initialize the conversation. User B will see a nice win- dowed message like: Do you wish to talk with user A? and he will be prompted for a yes/no answer. This, in my opinion, is much preferable to blitting the announcement message and messing up user B's screen. SEE ALSO talk(1), talkd(8) DIAGNOSTICS Should be self explanatory. Sun Microsystems Last change: local 3