Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!tale From: tale@cs.rpi.edu (Dave Lawrence) Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions Subject: Re: The word on w and Talk Message-ID: <25763D50.BD9@rpi.edu> Date: 1 Dec 89 08:58:56 GMT References: <11833@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY Lines: 33 In <11833@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> subbarao@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Kartik Saligrama Subbarao) writes: Mind you, the w command is not perfect, and it won't be accurate 100% of the time. But as far as getting info on other people, the w command is GREAT! Alas, it is not supported on all UNIX systems -- In that case, look up finger, who, rusers, rwho and similar commands! It is a BSDism; systems with Berkeley influences will tend to have it. Since it is a local command, though, it is worthless as far as talking to people not on the machine is concerned. If I am on turing.cs.rpi.edu and want to talk to someone on life.pawl.rpi.edu, for example, I can not find anything out about what that person is doing through any combination of those commands. As to talking to a SPECIFIC window, you first have to get the person's tty# (with w or some other command). Then, it is simple. Type finger can handle this for both the local machine and remote machines. (Depending on the fingerd that is there. finger @mts.rpi.edu will not give you any tty information, but then again you would be accomplishing quite a feat if you managed a talk session to that site, anyway.) talk userid tty# You will need userid@host for anything but the local machine. Dave -- (setq mail '("tale@cs.rpi.edu" "tale@ai.mit.edu" "tale@rpitsmts.bitnet")) "... the broader subject of usenet customs and other bizarre social phenomena." -- Phil Agre