Linux in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition

Name

chat

Synopsis

                  chat [options] [script]

System administration command. Set up or initiate dial-up Internet connections; often used in conjunction with pppd, the PPP daemon. On some systems, chat takes the place of the dip program. A chat script is composed of a simple but expressive syntax of paired expect and send strings and sometimes substrings. A script string may contain either text expected from the modem or text to be sent, a chat directive, a substitution character, or a mixture of all three. When reading from a file, lines beginning with # are treated as comments.

Options

-e

Start script with the ECHO directive turned on.

-E

Allow script to read environment variables by using shell $ VARIABLE syntax.

-f file

Read chat script from file instead of standard input.

-r file

Send the output of the REPORT directive to file. By default, they are sent to standard error.

-s

Send all error and log information to standard error, even when using the -v option.

-S

Silent mode; send neither error nor log messages to syslogd.

-t n

Set the default timeout value to n seconds. When not specified, the default timeout value is 45 seconds.

-T string

Set the string to be used instead of the \T substitution character. This is usually a phone number.

-U string

Set the string to be used instead of the \U substitution character. This is usually a second phone number.

-v

Verbose mode; log the chat script state and text sent to and received from the modem to syslogd.

-V

Standard error verbose mode; ...