From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Tue Aug 26 09:27:52 2008
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Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:27:49 +0200
From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>
To: "Redd Vinylene" <reddvinylene@gmail.com>
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Cc: questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: How to best communicate with my users
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On Tue, 26 Aug 2008 10:52:38 +0200, "Redd Vinylene" <reddvinylene@gmail.com> wrote:
> 1) messaging offline users on my system? No e-mail please, I want
> something more concrete, something displayed immediately upon login,
> no need to go via a third party app.

Allthough it might sound strange - you've given the correct
answer. You can use the system's mail system, sendmail, in
offline mode.

	redd@system:~% mail -s "Important change" tim
	Hi Tim,
	please note that our system changed -this- to -that-.
	And put the T.P.S. report in my box.
	Thanks!
	^D

	...

	Login: tim
	Password:

	You have new mail.
	tim@system:~% mail
	& t 1
	
	...

	& d 1
	& ^D

The mail program isn't a third party app, it comes with the
FreeBSD OS (base system). See /etc/mail/* for introduction.

For important notices everyone should see right after login,
you may use /etc/motd. Things that should be displayed prior
to the login prompt can be placed into /etc/issue.



> 2) talking to users logged onto my system? I find ntalk too
> frustrating, and ytalk too ASCII artsy. Anything else out there under
> the sun?

The normal talk utility isn't appealing enough to you? :-)
There might be a solution to use an IM client (e. g. for the
Jabber network), but this would require external accounts
and the installation of the proper client applications.


-- 
Polytropon
>From Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...