PHONE

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: Jan 15, 1990
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NAME

phone - phone another user, typing screen to screen.

SYNOPSIS

phone user [ tty ]

DESCRIPTION

Phone causes a message to appear on the terminal being used by user that indicates that someone is trying to phone him. If the other user also executes phone, then both screens are cleared and the users are set up in a two way conversation.

Each user's input is displayed at the bottom of their own screen and at the top of the other user's screen, each user's area having a status line showing the user name and tty, and the top line of each user's screen also showing the number of minutes spent "on the phone" and the current date and time.

The following control characters are handled:

ERASE (Control H): Erase the character before the cursor.
KILL (Control U): Erase the line the cursor is on and move the cursor to the beginning of the (now blank) line.
Control L: Refresh your own screen.
Control G: Either flash (preferably) or ring the bell on other user's terminal.
EOF (Control D): Discontinue execution. The other user is informed.

(The characters in parenthesis above are typical assignments for these control characters. Those assigned by the user will be used. See STTY(1)).

Phone handles only two users. If a third user attempts entry into a conversation, they are notified that the line is busy, also the person on the line is notified by a status message that indicates who was trying to call.

Phone works without the optional tty argument only when the user being phoned is only logged in on one terminal, otherwise an error message is displayed. In this case including the receiver's tty name in the phone command line will allow proper access.

Requires System V, since it uses Sys V IPC.

AUTHOR

Jack Bonn
Software Labs, Ltd.
Box 451
Easton, CT 06612

jack@swlabs.UUCP
uunet!swlabs!jack

Significant modifications by Mark Keating (markk@censor.UUCP)

Minor modifications by Karl Lehenbauer (karl@sugar.hackercorp.com)