athena% zwrite user1 user2 user3
where user1
, user2
, and user3
are the usernames of the intended recipients. You can add as many (or
as few) usernames as you want to the zwrite
command. If
you zephyr multiple people, and you wish to add a CC line to inform
them who you are zephyring, add the "-C
" flag right after
the zwrite
. Keep in mind that command line options for
zwrite are case-sensitive, so -C
is not the same as
-c
.
Often, before sending, you may want to check if the intended
recipient is logged in. To do so, type:
athena% zlocate username
The hostname of the computer into which the user is logged in will be
displayed. If the user is not logged in, zlocate
will
return "Hidden or not logged-in."
.anyone
file, and how can I use it with znol
?.anyone
file is a buddy list. By creating a text
file named .anyone
in your home directory with a list of
Athena usernames (one on each line), you can easily see which of them
is logged in. To see who on your .anyone
file is logged
in, type:
athena% xzul &
For a more informative, non-refreshing display, type:
athena% znol
After issuing znol
, you will receive zephyrgrams when
people in your .anyone file log in or log out, if they have set their
exposure appropriately. If you wish for this to happen automatically
upon logging in, append znol
to the end of the
.startup.X
and/or .startup.tty
files in your
home directory. (You may have to create the files if they don't exist
already.)
When someone talks about a Zephyr instance they usually mean an
instance of the default Zephyr class called MESSAGE
.
Zephyrgrams sent without an explicit class are sent to class
MESSAGE
. Zephyrgrams sent to class MESSAGE
are not
private at all. Many people subscribe to the entirety of class
MESSAGE
. Also, all zephyrgrams to class
MESSAGE
are logged the zlog
locker.
Instances of class MESSAGE
are good for public
discussions that are of interest to many people. For more private
conversations amongst a group of friends, explicitly stating a Zephyr
class other than MESSAGE
is probably preferable.
A Zephyr class exists as long as at least one person is subscribed to it, so if you want to use a new Zephyr class to talk with a group of friends, just come up with a name, and make sure you and your friends are subscribed to that class.
There are three parameters of a zephyrgram that will control who will
get it: its class, its instance, and its recipient. When you send a
zephyrgram to a friend, using zwrite username
, the class
is MESSAGE
, the instance is
PERSONAL
, and the recipient is
username
. These parameters can be changed to allow
conversations amongst a group of people via zephyrgrams. What people
call a Zephyr class refers to altering the class parameter to be
something other than MESSAGE
. What people call a Zephyr
instance, or public instance, refers to changing the instance
parameter to something other than PERSONAL
, while still
within the class MESSAGE
.
athena% zwrite -i instancename
changes the instance you are sending to from PERSONAL
to
instancename
, and by default sends to the class
MESSAGE
and the recipient *
(that is,
everyone subscribed to the instance). For example, zwrite -i
help
would send a zephyrgram to the instance help
,
and anyone who had subscribed to the help
instance would receive the
zephyrgram.
athena% zwrite -c classname
sends a zephyrgram to class classname
instead of class
MESSAGE
. By default, it will send to the instance
PERSONAL
within class classname
, and to the
recipient *
. The asterisk means that everyone subscribed
to that class would receive the zephyrgram.
athena% zwrite -c classname -i instancename
sends a zephyrgram to an instance instancename
within the
class classname
.
Capitalization does not matter in the names of Zephyr classes
and instances. For example, zwrite -i white-magic
is the
same as zwrite -i WHITE-MAGIC
, which is the same as
zwrite -i WhIte-mAGiC
, etc. Anyone subscribed to the
instance white-magic
will receive zephyrgrams sent with
any of these capitalizations.
white-magic
(random discussion), war
, war.d
(discussion
of events mentioned on war), and help
. Common Zephyr
classes include help
(for general questions)
geek
(discussions about geek toys like computers), and
greed
(discussions about money and finance).
When zephyring to classes, it is customary to also use an instance name to specify the subject, e.g.:
athena% zwrite -c help -i
motorcycles
athena% zctl sub class_name \* \*
To subscribe to a Zephyr class for current and future Athena sessions, type:
athena% zctl add class_name \* \*
To temporarily unsubscribe from a Zephyr class, type:
athena% zctl unsub class_name \* \*
To unsubscribe from a Zephyr class for current and future Athena
sessions, type:
athena% zctl del class_name \* \*
To subscribe to or unsubscribe from an Zephyr instance, you should use
class MESSAGE
, and the name of the instance in place of
the first \*. For example, to subscribe to white-magic
athena% zctl add MESSAGE white-magic \*
To stop receiving Zephyrgrams completely for the current Athena session:
athena% zctl wg_exit