tamara@ecsvax.UUCP (t) (08/16/89)
Dear users/abusers and others. Hope you don't mind me asking this question, but I am a fairly new user and don't know who else to ask. I would like to know the syntax for using the 'talk' command. For example how do I get out of it once I'm in it. Is there something I'm supposed to do once I'm in it so that my wtyping shows up (I just seem to sit there frozen with this line in the middle of the screen). Hope ya don't flame me. Hoping for help, Tamara ---------- Tamara@ecsvax.bitnet
dkarres@hubcap.clemson.edu (dean karres) (08/16/89)
First, type man talk this may answer many of your questions. "man" is the on-line manual pages. For help with "man" type man man Some System V unix vendors do not include "man" in thier basic installation package so you may have to resort to finding a (shudder) hardcopy manual ;-) Okay, now that that it out of the way... You enter "talk" by typing talk myfriend where "myfriend" is the username of the person you want to talk to. There are other options (on our version) that allow you to specify a user on another machine and perhaps the tty-device that (s)he is using. This will put you into talk and signal the other guy that you want to talk with him. If the other guy ignores you you very well may sit around for awhile waiting on nothing. If this is the case or if you want to terminate the connection for whatever reason type Ctrl-D. This stands (used to stand for?) EOF (End Of File). You generate Ctrl-D by pressing the "d" key while holding the "Ctrl" or "Control" key down. Sort of like Shift-d = "D" Happy talking :-) dean karres PS you may find that the MA Bell's phones are much less frustrating ;-) -- Dean Karres dkarres@hubcap.clemson.edu "...This ain't no party! this ain't no disco!..." nuts!!!
epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott) (08/17/89)
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE If you ask questions like this ... SPECIFY what operating system/variant this is for and what kind of machine it's running on You've given a BITNET address--are you asking about an IBM mainframe? Many different kinds of systems participate in usenet; may of them have "talk" commands--and they're all different! If your question is about BSD talk, you get out with your INTR key (usually Control-C). -=EPS=-
dula@tank.uchicago.edu (dulal borthakur) (08/17/89)
You can also exit 'talk' with control-C. You can do this anytime after you've started the process, and it will send you back to the % prompt. The reason your screen sits there 'frozen', as you put it, is that the other person you requested talk to hasn't responded yet. When they do, the machine should say something like [connection established]. At that point, everything you type will immediately appear on the screen. The machine makes that line in the middle as soon as you request a 'talk', regardless of whether you ever get connected to the person or not. It should be giving you status lines like 'no response yet--ringing again' to let you know what's going on. Since the other person has to get out of whatever program they happen to be in at the moment before they can respond, it may take a minute. 'Talk' uses a lot of cpu time, so is not a good indulgence if you're being billed that way. It is also a good idea, as I discovered one day, not to start a talk session without first looking up from your terminal to see if the other person is not sitting there just one or two seats away.... :-) dB