% Zephyr section rewritten for 6.0 by Andrew Marc Greene
% 18-Sep-1988
% reworked for 9.0 by rax
% 8-Feb-2002


\section{Instant Messaging at MIT: Zephyr et al}

\subsection{What is Zephyr?}

Zephyr is an instant messaging environment used around MIT and several other campuses. It is older than most of the incoming class of 2006. Zephyr is turned on for you by default. When a
message arrives for you, a window is created in the upper-left corner
of your screen(by default), and the message is displayed there.  Once
you have read the message, you move the mouse cursor into the window
and click on any button, and (poof!)\ the window goes away.  Additional
information about Zephyr can be found in {\tt http://sipb.mit.edu/doc/zephyr/}.

Several Zephyr clients exist. The one turned on by default is the 
Zephyr windowgram client, {\tt zwgc.} The most recent version of {\tt pidgin}
 also handles Zephyr accounts. Most people use {\tt barnowl}, a monolithic client
in the {\tt barnowl} locker.

\subsection{How can I tell if someone's logged in?}

There are two ways to find this out.  If you just want to know where
Jack Florey is now, you can type
\begin{verbatim}
% zlocate jflorey
\end{verbatim}
and Zephyr will reply with his current location (e.g., {\tt
M11-116-1}), if he's logged in and not hidden, along with the date and
time he logged in there.

If you want to be told whenever a friend logs in or out, you can use
{\tt znol}, the ``Zephyr Notify On Login'' program.  You simply create a
file in your account called {\tt .anyone}, and put your friends' names
in it, one to a line, like this:
\begin{verbatim}
jtkirk
spock
lmccoy
uhura
jrand
\end{verbatim}
Then, each time you log in, type {\tt znol}.  (You can add this to
your {\tt .startup.X} file, too.)  You'll get a list of everyone in
your {\tt .anyone} file who's currently logged in; then, whenever
someone logs in or out, you'll get a Zephyr notice. (A GUI version 
of {\tt znol} called {\tt xzul} exists in the {\tt outland} locker.)

Actually, that's not quite true.  The person has to have told Zephyr,
``Whenever I log in, announce my arrival.''  This is done by typing
\begin{verbatim}
% zctl set exposure net-announced
\end{verbatim}
once.  (It is automatic after that.)  There are several other choices
besides {\tt net-announced}.
The first of these choices is {\tt none}.  This disables Zephyr
entirely.  Next is {\tt opstaff}, which allows you to receive
important/emergency messages about the status of Project Athena.  Another, 
{\tt realm-visible}, will let people {\tt zlocate} you, but it
will not send messages when you log in and out.  The default is
{\tt realm-visible}.

