In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Amy Fong writes:
>Package: bsdmainutils
>Version: 4.5.2
>Severity: important
>
>Can't write to users on xterms?!??!
>Seems like a Unix98 pty thing.
>
>all xterms have mesg y
>
>On a write to myself, it claims:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ write amyf
>write: amyf has messages disabled
I don't get that behaviour, using either xvts or xterms. I have:
Name Version Description
+++-===============-==============-============================================
ii xvt 2.1-9 X terminal-emulator similar to xterm, but sm
ii xterm 3.3.3.1-10 X terminal emulator
ii bsdmainutils 4.5.2 More utilities from 4.4BSD-Lite.
ii libc6 2.1.1-12 GNU C Library: Shared libraries and timezone
ii procps 2.0.2-2 The /proc file system utilities.
ii shellutils 1.16-6.5 The GNU shell programming utilities.
ii netstd 3.07-7slink.3 Networking binaries and daemons for Linux
If I open two xterms, pts/0 and pts/1, I get this is pts/0:
bash-2.02$ tty
/dev/pts/0
bash-2.02$ mesg
is y
bash-2.02$ write cpb4
write: cpb4 is logged in more than once; writing to pts/0
Message from [EMAIL PROTECTED] on /dev/pts/0 at 14:24 ...
testing
testing
EOF
bash-2.02$ write cpb4 pts/1
testing
bash-2.02$
>(/usr/bin/w seems to be broken as well - doesn't report users on Unix98
>ptys)
bash-2.02$ w
2:25pm up 3 days, 17:26, 4 users, load average: 0.06, 0.10, 0.11
USER TTY FROM LOGIN@ IDLE JCPU PCPU WHAT
cpb4 pts/0 merry.bs.lan:0.0 2:17pm 0.00s 1.17s 0.06s w
cpb4 merry.bs - Wed 9pm 0.00s 22:02 ? -
cpb4 pts/1 merry.bs.lan:0.0 2:17pm 4:55 0.34s 0.34s bash
bash-2.02$ who
cpb4 :0 Jul 7 02:20 (console)
cpb4 pts/0 Jul 10 14:17 (merry.bs.lan:0.0)
cpb4 merry.bs.lan:0 Jul 7 21:18
cpb4 pts/1 Jul 10 14:17 (merry.bs.lan:0.0)
bash-2.02$ finger
finger: /dev//merry.bs.lan:0: No such file or directory
Login Name Tty Idle Login Time Office Office Phone
cpb4 Charles Briscoe-Smith *:0 Jul 7 02:20 (console)
cpb4 Charles Briscoe-Smith pt Jul 10 14:17 (merry.bs.lan:0.0)
cpb4 Charles Briscoe-Smith *me Jul 7 21:18 - -
cpb4 Charles Briscoe-Smith pt 5 Jul 10 14:17 (merry.bs.lan:0.0)
bash-2.02$
I think that X logins, telnet logins, console logins, xterm windows,
xvt windows, rxvt windows, etc may all potentially be logged in utmp
differently, and this makes for wierd inconsistencies in the output
from w, who, finger and friends; they each have a their own idea of what
kinds of utmp record they should show.
On my system, w shows xterms, but not xvts. who and finger both show
both kinds of window. Perhaps we need a policy on this.
--
Charles Briscoe-Smith
My web page: <URL:http://www.debian.org/%7Ecpbs/>
PGP public keyprint: 74 68 AB 2E 1C 60 22 94 B8 21 2D 01 DE 66 13 E2
