In the course of moving to the new computer, we upgraded several bits of
software.  There are some new features in the write/chat program.

If you do "mesg -ry" you turn on the "record" flag for telegrams.  When
you recieve a telegram, a copy will be recorded if you have the record
flag set.  So if you get a telegram but it scrolls off your screen before
you see it, you can type the command "huh" and it will redisplay the last
telegram you saw.

The recorded messages are saved in a file that is only readable to the person
who received the message, so it should be pretty secure.  However, it isn't
as secure as the normal behavior, where the message isn't recorded anywhere
at all.  So if you are really concerned about privacy, you may want to leave
the "record" flag turned off.


As a variation of this, you can do "amin -p bbs" (perhaps replacing the "bbs"
with any other unix command).  This sets the "postpone" flag for as long as
you are running the command ("bbs" or whatever).  Anyone who tries to send
you a telegram will be told that although you are busy now, they can leave
a message.  When you exit whatever command you were running, any and all
messages sent to you while you were busy will be displayed to you.


You can now do "mesg n -hY".  The capital "Y" on the helper flag means you
still want to be a helper even though your messages are off.  This means
help requests will go to you, even though people can't write you directly.
(Some helpers wanted this).  The regular "mesg -hy" sets your help flag on
less strongly, so that if you turn messages off, you stop getting help
requests too.


If someone who has their message permissions set to "tel only" does a write
or chat to you, and you try to reply, you won't be told he only accepts
telegrams.  As long as he is writing you, you can write him back.


Let me know if you notice problems with this stuff.

20 responses total.

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I *love* the huh command.  I can't even count how many times someone has sent
me a message while I'm in mail or scrolling through a conference.  Thanks!

Thanks Jan, I hadn't asked for writes other than help to be turned off, and
I thought I was the only one who wanted it until others complained.  .  I look
forward to using it.

to exit

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mesg n -hY is something I'd really hoped could be done. :) I don't mind
being interrupted by people who need help, but if I'm logged on I'm 
generally not in the mood for random chatter with people.

Note that if you do "mesg n -hY" finger will show you as having messages
off (with a * by your tty), not as being a helper (with a ? by your tty).
I think this is probably the best thing for it to do.  It's a bit odd though.

Anyway, I encourage people to put "mesg -hy" or "mesg -hY n" in their .login
files.  If you only turn it on when you remember to, you will never remember
to.  Much easier to remember to turn it off.

This item is now linked as Helpers 39.

Thanks janc!!!

Just to make sure I've got it: this means that (for people with mesg n -hY
set) a write to the person will fail, but "write help" may get them?

Yup.  They are currently kind of stealth helpers because you can't see them
on a finger.  I thought about having finger tag them with *? or something,
but then people who wanted to write them might do "write help"s until they
got the one they wanted...very annoying.  So I thought it was better to just
leave them unflagged in the finger listing.

How do you turn it off again?  I'd extrapolate to    mesg n -hN    but don't
know.

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Yup.  "mesg -h n" is right.  The capital "Y" is meant to be a stronger "yes".
So the capital "N" on message permissions not only turns your permissions off,
but disconnects anyone currently writing you, and the capital "Y" on helper
permissions not only sets your helper flag but makes it override your
permission flag.  Those are the only two capitals that have any significance
so far though.

Ok, I hada user accidentally help-request me. No big deal. The problem was
that he couldn't end his write session. His ctrl-jeys were inoperative on his
terminal. Can the other party in a write session kill the whole session for
both people ? That's what he wanted me to do.

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And Ctrl-C, or whatever they use for an interrupt key, should
work too.

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If you want to know what their interupt key is set to, just do

        grabstty user

This prints their stty modes.  Also to see their environment variables,
including TERM and SHELL, do

        grabenv user

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Yeah, you can terminate it. After you quit, run
mesg d.

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- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss