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+ | # $EPIC: mesg.txt,v 1.1.1.1 2006/07/11 04:57:43 jnelson Exp $ | ||
+ | ======Synopsis:====== | ||
+ | __mesg__ [display the current terminal writability state] \\ | ||
+ | __mesg__ yes [make your terminal world-writeable] \\ | ||
+ | __mesg__ no [make your terminal not world-writeable] | ||
+ | |||
+ | ======Description:====== | ||
+ | This command simulates the effect of the unix __mesg__(1) command. | ||
+ | When you specify the 'yes' flag, other users on your system may write | ||
+ | messages directly to your terminal, which will mess up your ircII screen. | ||
+ | If you specify the 'no' flag, other users will be prohibited from writing | ||
+ | to your terminal. If you do not specify an argument, the current value | ||
+ | is used. | ||
+ | |||
+ | This operation is permanent and transcends EPIC; when you exit EPIC the | ||
+ | value you set here will persist until you log out. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Back in the day when dinosaurs roamed the earth and everybody on the | ||
+ | internet was using a unix shell account, the 'talk' program was very | ||
+ | popular and was used to talk to other users on other machines who were | ||
+ | not using irc. Eventually some yutz on irc figured out that you could | ||
+ | corrupt a victim's terminal emulator making it impossible to see anything | ||
+ | by forging talk requests and inserting specially crafted data into it. | ||
+ | |||
+ | If your unix host runs the talk daemon, you should __/MESG no__ to avoid | ||
+ | being the victim of a "talk bomb". You really should turn off the talk | ||
+ | daemon since "talk bombs" are about the only thing they're used for these | ||
+ | days. If your unix host is not running 'talk' then it really doesn't | ||
+ | matter what your __MESG__ setting is. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Because write-access control to your terminal is controlled entirely | ||
+ | through ordinary unix file permissions, users that are not subject to | ||
+ | ordinary unix file permissions (ie, root) can never be prohibited from | ||
+ | writing to your terminal. This is not a bug in epic, this is how unix | ||
+ | works. | ||