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Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!tektronix!orca!tekecs!frip!andrew
From: andrew@frip.gwd.tek.com (Andrew Klossner)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs,comp.unix.wizards,comp.sources.wanted
Subject: Re: Intercepting system messages (Was Re: talk and talkd)
Message-ID: <9933@tekecs.TEK.COM>
Date: 24 Apr 88 06:08:12 GMT
References: <233@jim.odr.oz> <969@unmvax.unm.edu> <10397@sunybcs.UUCP>
Sender: nobody@tekecs.TEK.COM
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville, Oregon
Lines: 18


	"tell us proles if there's a way to do this, that is, intercept
	system messages so that they don't mess up our windows?"

Talk (at least under 4.2BSD) determine where to send its messages by
reading the utmp file to see which terminal is associated with the
requested user.  Normally it will find the terminal on which "login"
ran.  You can divert talk's messages by changing this file to reflect a
pty and then monitoring that pty somehow.

The utmp file is normally not writable by non-root, so you would need
the collusion of your system administrator to make this sort of change.
This isn't a problem if you use a workstation.  Of course, if you have
a workstation, you could simply rewrite talkd to behave the way you
want.

  -=- Andrew Klossner   (decvax!tektronix!tekecs!andrew)       [UUCP]
                        (andrew%tekecs.tek.com@relay.cs.net)   [ARPA]