NAME

       phone - Phone utility for DECnet

SYNOPSIS

       phone [options]
       Options:
       [-vVh] [-s switchhook char] [initial command]

DESCRIPTION

       phone  is a program that allows the user to communicate interactively with users on VMS systems. Two user
       interfaces are available: X-Windows (GTK+) and terminal (ncurses). If X-Windows is available and compiled
       into phone then it will be used unless the -n flag is present on the command line.
       After  entering  the  phone command you will be presented with the phone screen which has windows for the
       chat and a command-line at the top. If you are not talking to another user then you  can  enter  commands
       directly, otherwise you will need to precede commands with the 'switch hook' character, which defaults to
       the percent sign (%).
       You can also enter a command for phone on the shell command-line. This  command  will  be  executed  when
       phone starts up. This makes it convenient to enter commands such as:
        'phone answer' or 'phone marsha::chrissie'

       In command mode phone understands several commands:

       DIAL <node::user>     Call a user
       ANSWER                Answer an incoming call
       REJECT                Reject an incoming call
       EXIT or QUIT          Return the the command prompt
       HOLD                  Hold all callers
       UNHOLD                Unhold callers
       HANGUP                Hangup the phone
       DIR <node>            Show users logged into <node>
       FACSIMILE <file>      Send <file>
       HELP                  Show this help

       All commands (apart from QUIT and EXIT) can be abbreviated to 3 characters and all (really all this time)
       commands are case insensitive.

OPTIONS

       -h -?  Displays help for using the command.

       -V     Show the version of phone.

       -s     Set the switch hook character. This is the character used to switch from talking to  another  user
              and entering PHONE commands when using the terminal interface.x

       -n     Disables use of the X-windows user interface. Use this to run phone in an xterm.

SEE ALSO

       phoned(8)