KIBITZ(1)

NAME
kibitz - allow two people to interact with one shell

SYNOPSIS
kibitz user [ program args... ]
kibitz user@host [ program args... ]

INTRODUCTION
kibitz allows two (or more) people to interact with one shell (or any arbitrary program). Uses include:

    •   A novice user can ask an expert user for help. Using kibitz, the expert can see what the user is doing, and offer advice or show how to do it right.

    •   By running kibitz and then starting a full-screen editor, people may carry out a conversation, retaining the ability to scroll backwards, save the entire conversation, or even edit it while in progress.

    •   People can team up on games, document editing, or other cooperative tasks where each person has strengths and weaknesses that complement one another.

USAGE
To start kibitz, user1 runs kibitz with the argument of the user to kibitz. For example:
    kibitz user2 kibitz starts a new shell (or another program, if given on the command line), while prompting user2 to run kibitz. If user2 runs kibitz as directed, the keystrokes of both users become the input of the shell. Similarly, both users receive the output from the shell. To terminate kibitz it suffices to terminate the shell itself. For example, if either user types ^D (and the shell accepts this to be EOF), the shell terminates followed by kibitz. Normally, all characters are passed uninterpreted. However, if the escape character (described when kibitz starts) is issued, the user may talk directly to the kibitz interpreter. Any Expect(1) or Tcl(3) commands may be given. Also, job control may be used while in the interpreter, to, for example, suspend or restart kibitz.

ARGUMENTS
kibitz understands a few special arguments. These should appear before the user name. Each should be separated by whitespace. If the arguments themselves takes arguments, these should also be separated by whitespace.

The -noproc flag runs kibitz with no process underneath. Characters are passed to the other kibitz. This is particularly useful for connecting multiple interactive processes together. In this mode, characters are not echoed back to the typist. Various processes can provide echoing. For example, you can emulate a two-way write(1) session with the command:
    kibitz user2 sleep 1000000

-noescape disables the escape character.

-escape sets the escape character. The default escape character is ^].

-silent turns off informational messages describing what kibitz is doing to initiate a connection.

MORE THAN TWO USERS
The current implementation of kibitz explicitly understands only two users, however, it is nonetheless possible to have a three (or more) -way kibitz, by kibitzing another kibitz. For example, the following command runs kibitz with the current user, user2, and user3:
    % kibitz user2 kibitz user3 Additional users may be added by simply appending more "kibitz user" commands. The xkibitz script is similar to kibitz but supports the ability to add additional users (and drop them) dynamically.

CAVEATS
kibitz assumes the 2nd user has the same terminal type and size as the 1st user. If this assumption is incorrect, graphical programs may display oddly. kibitz handles character graphics, but cannot handle bitmapped graphics. Thus,
	% xterm -e kibitz    will work
	% kibitz xterm       will not work
However, you can get the effect of the latter command by using xkibitz (see SEE ALSO below). kibitz uses the same permissions as used by rlogin, rsh, etc. Thus, you can only kibitz to users at hosts for which you can rlogin. Similarly, kibitz will prompt for a password on the remote host if rlogin would. If you kibitz to users at remote hosts, kibitz needs to distinguish your prompt from other things that may preceed it during login. (Ideally, the end of it is preferred but any part should suffice.) If you have an unusual prompt, set the environment variable EXPECT_PROMPT to an egrep(1)-style regular expression. Brackets should be preceeded with one backslash in ranges, and three backslashes for literal brackets. The default prompt r.e. is "($|%|#) ". kibitz requires the kibitz program on both hosts. kibitz requires expect(1). By comparison, the xkibitz script uses the X authorization mechanism for inter-host communication so it does not need to login, recognize your prompt, or require kibitz on the remote host. It does however need permission to access the other X servers.

BUGS
An early version of Sun's tmpfs had a bug in it that causes kibitz to blow up. If kibitz reports "error flushing ...: Is a directory" ask Sun for patch #100174.

HPUX 8.0 and IBM AIX 3.2 (maybe others) require cat(1) to be unbuffered. If you are on such a system, edit the kibitz script. Search for catflags and follow the instructions at that point. Alternatively, you may add the "-catu" flag to the invocation of kibitz.

SEE ALSO
Tcl(3), libexpect(3), xkibitz(1)
"Kibitz - Connecting Multiple Interactive Programs Together", by Don Libes, Software - Practice & Experience, John Wiley & Sons, West Sussex, England, Vol. 23, No. 5, May, 1993.

AUTHOR
Don Libes, National Institute of Standards and Technology kibitz is in the public domain. NIST and I would appreciate credit if this program or parts of it are used.