SYNOPSIS

owl [ -n ] [ -d ] [ -D ] [ -v ] [ -h ] [ -c configfile ] [ -t tty ]

DESCRIPTION

Owl is a fully integrated tty based instant messaging client. Currently it supports AOL Instant Messenger and MIT Zephyr. It is curses-based, allows for emacs style editing of outgoing messages and uses a perl configuration language for setting options and customizing message formatting. Owl will also run happily without a configuration file.

Once Owl is started, typing 'h' will display a help screen. Typing ':' enters command mode, allowing the user to type an owl command line.

USE

The following command line options are avilable when running owl:

-n

Do not subscribe to zephyr messages on startup. By default Owl subscribes to the default subscriptions and to anything found in ~/.zephyr.subs. When this option is used no subscriptions are loaded.

-c configfile

Specifiy an alternate config file for Owl to use. The default configuration file is ~/.owlconf

-t tty

Specifiy the tty name to use for the zephyr location.

-v

Print the version number of owl and exit.

-d

Enable debugging. By default debugging information is placed in /var/tmp/owldebug.

-D

Enable debugging, but first delete any existing debugging file.

-h

Print command line option help.

AUTHOR

Written by James Kretchmar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Comments, questions, and bug reports may be mailed to [email protected].