VCHATD(8)

NAME
vchatd - telnet gateway to the VChat interactive TCP/IP chat system.

SYNOPSIS
vchatd [-b bannerfile] [-c channel] [-l] [-p port] [-s host]

DESCRIPTION
Vchatd is a full-featured user frontend to the VChat interactive conference system. It comes with the same functionality as vchat(1) , but interacts as a gateway to a remote DARPA TELNET session. Vchatd is intended to be invoked by the inetd(8) super-server for incoming requests on the tcp port specified by the /etc/services file (normally port 1170).

Vchatd uses the TELNET option negotiation mechanism to get informed about the users terminal-type and screen size. If it was unable to detect the user's terminal type (i.e. when the user's telnet client does not support these TELNET options) it falls back to the default value assigned at compile-time.

It then looks up the local termcap(5) database for the negotiated terminal type and checks the entry for the appearance of all mandatory terminal capabilities, aborting with an appropriate error message, if any of these capabilities is missing. (See vchat(1) for a description of mandatory and optional terminal characteristics). If an appropriate termcap entry could not be found in the database, vchatd falls back to the default value assigned at compile-time.

Once the TELNET option negotiation has completed, vchatd greets the user on ther other side with a welcome message, which defaults to a compiled-in message, unless otherwise specified by the -b bannerfile commandline option, and prompts the user to enter a nickname. (See vchat(1) for a description of nickname conventions).

Vchatd neither uses a .vchatrc file, nor does it mention settings in the environment as vchat(1) does, since they would not make sense in this application context.

See vchat(1) for a general description of the VChat user frontend.

OPTIONS
The recognized options are as follows:

-b bannerfile
    This option specifies the full path to a bannerfile, which is presented to the other side of the telnet connection upon startup.

-c channel
    Specifies the initial conference channel to use when connected to the conference server.

    NOTE: This option will not be recognized by vchat conference servers of version 2.36m or below.

-l  Turn on logging via LOG_LOCAL2 of syslog.

-p port
    Use alternate tcp portnumber port to connect remote vchat-server.

-s host
    Server host to connect to.

TELNET OPTION NEGOTIATION
Upon startup of a TELNET session vchatd sends TELNET options to the remote side, indicating a willingness to do the following TELNET options:

    DO TERMINAL TYPE
    DO NAWS
    WILL SUPPRESS GO AHEAD
    DO BINARY
    WILL ECHO

TELNET COMMANDS
The following TELNET commands are recognized by vchatd:

    AYT   - Are you there?

vchatd responds to this command by sending the string ``I am still alive''.

    AO    - Abort output.

All buffered output that has not already been output is purged. (This currently applies only to the FreeBSD version).

    IP    - Interrupt process!

The vchatd process is terminated upon receipt of this signal.

WINDOW RESIZING
Dynamic window resizing is supported by the use of the TELNET NAWS option. Each time vchatd receives a TELNET NAWS subnegotiation sequence, it clears the conference-window and resizes the screen to the appropriate size.

This option is available only, if the remote telnet client has signaled it's willingness to use the TELNET NAWS option during initial option negotiation.

SEE ALSO
inetd.conf(5), services(5), termcap(5), vserver(8), vchatctl(8), vchat(1)

STANDARDS
RFC-854
    TELNET PROTOCOL SPECIFICATION
RFC-855
    TELNET OPTION SPECIFICATIONS
RFC-856
    TELNET BINARY TRANSMISSION
RFC-857
    TELNET ECHO OPTION
RFC-857
    TELNET SUPPRESS GO AHEAD OPTION
RFC-858
    TELNET SUPPRESS GO AHEAD OPTION
RFC-1073
    TELNET WINDOW SIZE OPTION
RFC-1091
    TELNET TERMINAL-TYPE OPTION

BUGS
Since TELNET connections do not have a username assigned to it, there will be no username present for TELNET gateway users in the conference.

The terminal type submitted by the remote side is converted to lower case.

Vchatd never sends TELNET IAC GA commands.

COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001

by Andreas S. Wetzel

All rights reserved.