"talk" problems with 386i and SPARC
Guy Harris
guy at auspex.auspex.com
Sun Jul 29 04:00:08 AEST 1990
>Can anybody explain this ?
Yes, the SunOS "talk" program is based on the 4.2BSD "talk" program,
whose messages are sent over the wire in a machine-dependent format.
The original Sun version had some heuristics to try to make it work
between VAXes and 68K-based Suns; those heuristics would probably have
made it work between 68K-based and 80386-based Suns as well.
Then the heuristics were changed to make it work between 68K-based and
SPARC-based Suns; this may have broken its ability to work between
68K-based Suns and VAXes, and/or may not have increased its ability to
work between SPARC-based Suns and VAXes or 386 machines.
>Can I correct this problem with a different software package or command ?
Yes, throw out the SunOS "talk" software on all your Suns and grab the
4.3-tahoe "talk" software instead. It's in the "AT&T-free BSD software"
archives on "uunet"; in 4.3BSD, Berkeley fixed it to send stuff over the
wire in a much more machine-independent fashion.
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