chatt'n over ssh

neofish · 2010-02-27 02:12:26

You know irc, google talk, msn. Well, I discovered another way to chat, over ssh. Me and another server admin talk to each other using this method, here's how to do it:

Find out what terminals the other users are using with the command 'who'

Send a message to them using 'write $user (their terminal)'

They can send a message back to you using the same command.

Enjoy!!

JohannesSM64 · 2010-02-27 02:36:40

This is rather old news. the `write' program has been around for a while

n0dix · 2010-02-27 02:39:18

Awesome man, i didn't know that.
I try it and works perfect.

neofish · 2010-02-27 03:24:03

It's very old, but it's one of those things that people forget about. I guess you could call it a 'secret' or a 'party trick'. Anyway, alot of people have no idea you could do this, so I'll just tell everyone.

ataraxia · 2010-02-27 05:55:11

Everything old is new again.

Runiq · 2010-02-27 06:20:10

There's also talk and talkd.

fukawi2 · 2010-02-27 06:39:00

If there's only the 2 of you logged in, just use the 'wall' command... Literally just did that 5 minutes ago, lol

Last edited by fukawi2 (2010-02-27 06:39:11)

sand_man · 2010-02-27 06:42:46

The write command has been around since the first UNIX systems

dmz · 2010-02-27 07:04:48

This is especially fun in i.e screen sessions running irssi or whatever curses application.

3]) · 2010-02-27 08:36:44

Gives another meaning to "secure" chatting.
But then ofcourse, port 22 is open...

Bralkein · 2010-02-27 08:37:46

echo "Hello!" > /dev/pts/1

That sort of thing can work too, permissions allowing. A bit more intriguing IMO

PS. On my machine pts/0 seems to be the KDE system tray notification channel. Using "write" with that is quite amusing!

Last edited by Bralkein (2010-02-27 08:40:37)

Runiq · 2010-02-27 08:40:05

Bralkein wrote:

echo "Hello!" > /dev/pts/1
That sort of thing can work too, permissions allowing. A bit more intriguing IMO

fukawi2 wrote:

If there's only the 2 of you logged in, just use the 'wall' command... Literally just did that 5 minutes ago, lol

The wall manpage leads to the mesg command which enables you to set write permissions to the terminal you're currently using.

Last edited by Runiq (2010-02-27 08:40:22)

Bralkein · 2010-02-27 08:43:02

Yes, interestingly if you do "mesg n" then you can't write to yourself, but you can still do the trick with echo.

Runiq · 2010-02-27 08:46:30

Bralkein wrote:

Yes, interestingly if you do "mesg n" then you can't write to yourself, but you can still do the trick with echo.

Good to know, thanks!

*sneaks off to harass some co-workers*

dmz · 2010-02-27 09:28:43

Bralkein wrote:

echo "Hello!" > /dev/pts/1

echo 'bye bye' > /dev/pts/* is more fun

Bralkein · 2010-02-27 14:00:58

If it's fun you're after...

while :; do dd if=/dev/urandom count=1000 > /dev/pts/*; done

(warning: the above might not be a good idea)

Edit: Before anyone asks, that only works in zsh, in bash it says "ambiguous redirect" so you need an inner for loop. Or so I believe.

Last edited by Bralkein (2010-02-27 14:03:31)

R00KIE · 2010-02-27 15:14:05

3]) wrote:

Gives another meaning to "secure" chatting.
But then ofcourse, port 22 is open...

Port 22 is open only the people you want it to be open, there are many ways to grant (or deny) access.

gaunt · 2010-03-02 04:03:19

Bralkein wrote:

If it's fun you're after...
while :; do dd if=/dev/urandom count=1000 > /dev/pts/*; done
(warning: the above might not be a good idea)
Edit: Before anyone asks, that only works in zsh, in bash it says "ambiguous redirect" so you need an inner for loop. Or so I believe.

This works quite well...

for x in `ls /dev/pts/` ; do dd if=/dev/urandom count=1000 > /dev/pts/$x; done;

Or, for synchronity,

for y in `seq 1 1000` ; do for x in `ls /dev/pts/` ; do dd if=/dev/urandom count=1 > /dev/pts/$x; done; done;

(Now that one takes a long time to run, might wanna chuck a &>/dev/null & at the end )

Last edited by gaunt (2010-03-02 04:07:53)

Xyne · 2010-03-02 06:16:54

You could also do this using an SSH tunnel.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-02-27 02:12:26

chatt'n over ssh

#2 2010-02-27 02:36:40

Re: chatt'n over ssh

#3 2010-02-27 02:39:18

Re: chatt'n over ssh

#4 2010-02-27 03:24:03

Re: chatt'n over ssh

#5 2010-02-27 05:55:11

Re: chatt'n over ssh

#6 2010-02-27 06:20:10

Re: chatt'n over ssh

#7 2010-02-27 06:39:00

Re: chatt'n over ssh

#8 2010-02-27 06:42:46

Re: chatt'n over ssh

#9 2010-02-27 07:04:48

Re: chatt'n over ssh

#10 2010-02-27 08:36:44

Re: chatt'n over ssh

#11 2010-02-27 08:37:46

Re: chatt'n over ssh

#12 2010-02-27 08:40:05

Re: chatt'n over ssh

#13 2010-02-27 08:43:02

Re: chatt'n over ssh

#14 2010-02-27 08:46:30

Re: chatt'n over ssh

#15 2010-02-27 09:28:43

Re: chatt'n over ssh

#16 2010-02-27 14:00:58

Re: chatt'n over ssh

#17 2010-02-27 15:14:05

Re: chatt'n over ssh

#18 2010-03-02 04:03:19

Re: chatt'n over ssh

#19 2010-03-02 06:16:54

Re: chatt'n over ssh

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