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Xitalk
INSTALLATION:
./configure
make
this program is similiar to xterm in that it wants to write you into the
utmp file , to do so it will probably have to be suid root or set to
the permissions of the utmp file anyway. as root do
make install
and it'll install it suid root for you, if that fails do
chmod u+s /usr/local/bin/xitalk (or whatever it is)
**<THE CATCH>**
highly suggest you put mesg n into your .cshrc or whatever file is run
by your shell at startup, otherwise xitalk wont really work.
**</THE CATCH>**
by default xitalk looks for the pixmaps it uses in the directory
that make install intends to put them, if you just want to compile
and test without installing edit Makefile after configure and change
libdir = $(libdir)/xitalk
to
libdir = ./pixmaps
make
make suid
./xitalk
This behaviour can be overridden by your .xitalk configuration file, as
can the default behaviour and patterns used by xitalk. Its quite likely
you will have to alter the basic patterns as talk and write daemons differ
from each other.
see sample.xitalk and sample2.xitalk for more info
WHAT IS XITALK
what it is good for (propaganda):
xitalk intercepts stuff like talk and write requests and allows predefined
responses (such as a talk reply) anf the touch of a button. stops you
getting your xterms filled with garbage when you dont want to have
your xterm obscured. You can click on respond and avoid having to manually
open another window and run talk or write or close down whatever you're
running to respond to the talk/write request. Also it can be set up
to automatically reply to messages, allowing you to respond automagically
to write etc requests while you're gone. It has a file watch capability
and can be used as a mail notification program. Left click on the picture
for a control dialog, right click to directly run whatever xitalk has prepared
for you.
what it really does:
logs you into the utmp file on a particular tty, when you have mesg n on
in every other terminal, the app will recieve talk and write requests etc.
The app pattern matches the input it recieves on its pseudo-tty and when
it gets a match it optionally beeps the user, changes its bitmap/xpm
display (like xbiff or something of that nature) and readies a probable
response for that input into its command edit line which you can then
execute directly, unless you select have selected autoanser in which
case it'll run that command.
catches:
you have to mesg n every login you have to make sure that xitalk gets
the requests, and then it gets everything passed to it.
it parses each line and uses regexp to match a line, so it only can match
*one* line of text, (its quite dumb really but it suffices for my needs)
the catches with xitalk for the foreseeably future
1) i make no guarantees that its not riddled with bugs that could somehow
be tweaked into allowing root access to stuff if you install it suid, as
you probably would have to do to make it useful. Ive tried to make sure that
its not riddled but...
2)
with a write request your write partners output will appear in the xitalk
box not the xterm thats spawned off with respond. Also all the responses
are seperate apps, i might write some replacements some day.
see xitalks man page for details of its configuration file. well to be
honest im rather crp at writing documentation, so you'd be better off
looking at the sample .xitalkrc's and altering them.
Caolan McNamara
9312811@ul.ie
http://www.csn.ul.ie/~caolan
xitalk page
http://www.csn.ul.ie/~caolan/docs/xitalk.html
----
Also included is something called dwrite which you can see i use in my
sample configs , its a dumbed down write that doesnt require to be run
from a tty, which is an advantage for automatic replies. write needs to
be run from an xterm, wheres dwrite doesnt. see the little sorry.sh
and sample2.xitalkrc for an example of its use.
----
P.S
configure file has chunks from bash's in there as well as sections from
LyX's one. and the mail.xpm is a screenshot of coolmail, which is a cool
looking mail notification utility.
----
P.P.S
if a compile fails on lex.yy.c. copy it from lex, and try make again. its
geneated via lex/flex from parser.lex, and lexified programs have been the
bane of *my* existance.
----
P.P.P.S
***PROBLEMS and SOLUTIONS WITH XTERMS***
when you run an xterm, itll by default run your shell and go through the
shell start up config, often *not* .login so put mesg n in your .bashrc
or .tcshrc. Also doing an xterm -e telnet someplace_or_other doesnt run
the .bashrc/.tcshrc so you can either use xterm -ut so that the xterm doesnt
log itself into the utmp file so that requests wont end up here, or for e.g
i only use xterm -e for telnet so ive telnet aliased to
alias telnet 'sh -c "mesg n;exec telnet \!*"'
instead of making xterm not log me in.
compiles fine on
SunOS scariff.ece.ul.ie 5.5 Generic sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-1
Linux skynet 2.0.26 #6 Sun Jan 12 14:35:00 GMT 1997 i586
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