{ "mode": "man", "parameter": "xkibitz", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/xkibitz/1/json", "generated": "2026-06-03T01:36:52Z", "synopsis": "xkibitz [ xkibitz-args ] [ program program-args... ]", "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "xkibitz - allow multiple people to interact in an xterm\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "xkibitz [ xkibitz-args ] [ program program-args... ]\n", "subsections": [] }, "INTRODUCTION": { "content": "xkibitz allows users in separate xterms to share one shell (or any program that runs in an\nxterm). Uses include:\n\n• A novice user can ask an expert user for help. Using xkibitz, the expert can see\nwhat the user is doing, and offer advice or show how to do it right.\n\n• By running xkibitz and then starting a full-screen editor, people may carry out a\nconversation, retaining the ability to scroll backwards, save the entire conversa‐\ntion, or even edit it while in progress.\n\n• People can team up on games, document editing, or other cooperative tasks where\neach person has strengths and weaknesses that complement one another.\n\n• If you want to have a large number of people do an on-line code walk-through, you\ncan sit two in front of each workstation, and then connect them all together while\nyou everyone looks at code together in the editor.\n", "subsections": [] }, "USAGE": { "content": "To start xkibitz, one user (the master) runs xkibitz with no arguments.\n\nxkibitz starts a new shell (or another program, if given on the command line). The user can\ninteract normally with the shell, or upon entering an escape (described when xkibitz starts)\ncan add users to the interaction.\n\nTo add users, enter \"+ display\" where display is the X display name. If there is no \":X.Y\"\nin the display name, \":0.0\" is assumed. The master user must have permission to access each\ndisplay. Each display is assigned a tag - a small integer which can be used to reference the\ndisplay.\n\nTo show the current tags and displays, enter \"=\".\n\nTo drop a display, enter \"- tag\" where tag is the display's tag according to the \"=\" command.\n\nTo return to the shared shell, enter \"return\". Then the keystrokes of all users become the\ninput of the shell. Similarly, all users receive the output from the shell.\n\nTo terminate xkibitz it suffices to terminate the shell itself. For example, if any user\ntypes ^D (and the shell accepts this to be EOF), the shell terminates followed by xkibitz.\n\nNormally, all characters are passed uninterpreted. However, in the escape dialogue the user\ntalks directly to the xkibitz interpreter. Any Expect(1) or Tcl(3) commands may also be\ngiven. Also, job control may be used while in the interpreter, to, for example, suspend or\nrestart xkibitz.\n\nVarious processes can produce various effects. For example, you can emulate a multi-way\nwrite(1) session with the command:\n\nxkibitz sleep 1000000\n", "subsections": [] }, "ARGUMENTS": { "content": "xkibitz understands a few special arguments which should appear before the program name (if\ngiven). Each argument should be separated by whitespace. If the arguments themselves takes\narguments, these should also be separated by whitespace.\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "-escape", "content": "" }, { "name": "-display", "content": "For example, to start up xkibitz with three additional displays:\n\nxkibitz -display mercury -display fox -display dragon:1.0\n\n" } ] }, "CAVEATS": { "content": "Due to limitations in both X and UNIX, resize propagation is weak.\n\nWhen the master user resizes the xterm, all the other xterms are logically resized. Unfortu‐\nnately, xkibitz cannot force the physical xterm size to correspond with the logical xterm\nsizes.\n\nThe other users are free to resize their xterm but their sizes are not propagated. The mas‐\nter can check the logical sizes with the \"=\" command.\n\nDeducing the window size is a non-portable operation. The code is known to work for recent\nversions of SunOS, AIX, Unicos, and HPUX. Send back mods if you add support for anything\nelse.\n", "subsections": [] }, "ENVIRONMENT": { "content": "The environment variable SHELL is used to determine and start a shell, if no other program is\ngiven on the command line.\n\nIf the environment variable DISPLAY is defined, its value is used for the display name of the\nxkibitz master (the display with tag number 0). Otherwise this name remains empty.\n\nAdditional arguments may be passed to new xterms through the environment variable XKIB‐\nITZXTERMARGS. For example, to create xterms with a scrollbar and a green pointer cursor:\n\nXKIBITZXTERMARGS=\"-sb -ms green\"\nexport XKIBITZXTERMARGS\n\n(this is for the Bourne shell - use whatever syntax is appropriate for your favorite shell).\nAny option can be given that is valid for the xterm command, with the exception of -display,", "subsections": [ { "name": "-geometry -S", "content": "", "flag": "-S" } ] }, "SEE ALSO": { "content": "Tcl(3), libexpect(3) kibitz(1)\n\"Exploring Expect: A Tcl-Based Toolkit for Automating Interactive Programs\" by Don Libes,\nO'Reilly and Associates, January 1995.\n\"kibitz - Connecting Multiple Interactive Programs Together\", by Don Libes, Software - Prac‐\ntice & Experience, John Wiley & Sons, West Sussex, England, Vol. 23, No. 5, May, 1993.\n", "subsections": [] }, "AUTHOR": { "content": "Don Libes, National Institute of Standards and Technology\n\n\n\n06 October 1994 XKIBITZ(1)", "subsections": [] } }, "summary": "xkibitz - allow multiple people to interact in an xterm", "flags": [], "examples": [], "see_also": [ { "name": "Tcl", "section": "3", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/Tcl/3/json" }, { "name": "libexpect", "section": "3", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/libexpect/3/json" }, { "name": "kibitz", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/kibitz/1/json" } ] }