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Zaway is a command that you can use to send an automatic message to everyone who zwrites you saying that you aren't there to read the message, avcting as a Zephyr answering machine. Just typing zaway in an xterm will give the default zaway message, with a zsig of Automated Reply:, to anyone who tries to zwrite you while you have zaway running. zaway will only respond to Zephyrgrams sent directly to you, as opposed to on instances or classes, and will not respond to other zaway messages. People generally run zaway when they are not at their workstations and want to let friends know that they are not ignoring them. Upon returning to your workstation, you can stop running zaway by typing Control-C in the window you started it in.
One common thing you can do with zaway is customizing the zaway messages sent to users. You can create a file called .away containing the messages you want sent to different users. Here is an example .away file:
>joeuser
Hi, Joe! I'm not here. Catch ya later.
>friend1
>friend2
Hello, my friend. As you can see,
I'm not at this machine right now.
>%
Hi there. I don't seem to be at this machine,
but I'll read your message and
figure out who you are when I return.
>*
I'll get back to you when I return!
The line(s) following >joeuser will be sent in the text of a reply to joeuser. The line(s) following >friend1 and >friend2 will be sent in a reply to either friend1 or friend2. The line(s) following >% will be sent in a reply to anyone who is neither friend1, friend2, or joeuser, and the line following >* will be sent in a reply to everyone, including friend1, friend2, and joeuser.
Another common thing that people do with zaway is to start it
automatically when running
xscreensaver.
To start zaway with xscreensaver, you can
add the following in your .Xresources file:
xscreensaver*lockCommand: zaway
Then whenever you leave your screen and run xscreensaver, the zaway messages will automatically inform anyone who zwrite you that you are not there.