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talk(1)
NAME
  talk - Converses with another user

SYNOPSIS
  talk user [tty_name]

STANDARDS
  Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry standards
  as follows:

  talk:	 XCU5.0

  Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about
  industry standards and associated tags.

OPTIONS
  None

OPERANDS
  user
      The name of the desired recipient in the form returned by the who
      utility.

      [Tru64 UNIX]  If the second user is on a remote host, the name of the
      host must be specified in one of the following ways:

	   user@host
	   host!user
	   host.user
	   host:user

  tty_name
      If the recipient is logged in more than once, the tty_name argument can
      be used to indicate the appropriate terminal name.  If tty_name is not
      specified, the talk message is displayed on one or more accessible
      terminals in use by the recipient.  The format of tty_name is the same
      as that returned by the who command.

DESCRIPTION
  The talk command allows two users to enter text simultaneously into windows
  displayed on each other's terminals.	To initiate a conversation, one user
  executes talk and specifies the second user's username.

  [Tru64 UNIX]	When using full domain names, the only valid form for
  specifying the user and host is user@host.  For example,
  andy@host17.dev.abc.com initiates a conversation with user andy at host
  host17 in the dev.abc.com domain.

  When the first user initiates the conversation, a message is sent to the
  second user.	If the first user also specifies tty_name, the invitation
  message is sent to the specified terminal.  Otherwise, the invitation is
  sent to the terminal on the remote host on which the second user first
  logged in.  Once this invitation is received, talk displays two windows on
  the first user's terminal and displays progress messages until the second
  user responds to the initial message.

  If the second user wants to have the conversation, the second user also
  executes talk from any terminal and specifies the first user's account name
  and hostname, if appropriate.	 If the second user accepts the invitation,
  talk displays two windows on the second user's terminal.  One window
  displays what is typed by the local user; the other displays what is typed
  by the remote user.  To end the conversation and close the connection,
  either user can press the Interrupt key sequence.

  If the second user does not want to permit talk invitations, that user
  should issue the mesg n command.

  The talk command processes characters as follows:

    ·  Typing the <alert> character alerts the recipient's terminal.

    ·  Typing <Ctrl-L> causes the sender's screen regions to be refreshed.

    ·  Typing the Erase and Kill characters affects the sender's terminal as
       described on the termios reference page.

    ·  Typing the Interrupt or End-of-File characters terminates the local
       talk program.  Once the talk session has been terminated on one side,
       the other side of the session is notified that the talk session has
       been terminated and this side can do nothing except exit.

    ·  Typing characters from LC_TYPE classifications print or space causes
       those characters to be sent to the recipient's terminal.

  The talk command fails when a user lacks the appropriate privileges to
  perform the requested action.

NOTES
  [Tru64 UNIX]	The talk command uses the talk 4.3BSD protocol, which is not
  compatible with 4.2BSD versions of talk.

EXIT STATUS
  The following exit values are returned:

  0   Successful completion.

  >0  An error occurred or your terminal is incapable of supporting talk.

EXAMPLES
   1.  If john at host1 wants to talk to fred, who is logged in on host2,
       john enters:
	    $ talk fred@host2

       The following message is displayed on fred's terminal:
	    Message from TalkDaemon@host1 at 15:16...
	    talk: connection requested by john@host1.
	    talk: respond with: talk john@host1

       To accept the invitation, fred enters:
	    $ talk john@host1

   2.  To talk to fred only if he is logged in on the console at host2,
       enter:
	    $ talk fred@host2 console

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
  The following environment variables affect the execution of *cmd*:

  LANG
      Provides a default value for the internationalization variables that
      are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corresponding value
      from the default locale is used.	If any of the internationalization
      variables contain an invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of
      the variables had been defined.

  LC_ALL
      If set to a non-empty string value, overrides the values of all the
      other internationalization variables.

  LC_CTYPE
      Determines the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of
      text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to
      multbyte characters in arguments and input files). If the recipient's
      locale does not use an LC_CTYPE equivalent to yours, the results are
      undefined.

  LC_MESSAGES
      Determines the locale for the format and contents of diagnostic
      messages written to standard error.

  NLSPATH
      Determines the location of message catalogues for the processing of
      LC_MESSAGES.

SEE ALSO
  Commands:  mesg(1), named(8), stty(1), talkd(8), who(1), write(1)

  Standards:  standards(5)

Index for Section 1

Alphabetical listing for T

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