In this article you will learn how to log in to dec's, logging out, and all the 
fun stuff to do in-between. All of this information is based on a standard dec 
system. 

Since there are dec systems 10 and 20, and I favor, the dec 20, 
there will be more info on them in this article. It just so happens that the dec 
20 is also the more common of the two, and is used by much more interesting 
people (if you know what I mean...) Ok, the first thing you want to do when you 
are receiving carrier from a dec system is to find out the format of login 
names. You can do this by looking at who is on the system. 
Dec=> ` (the 
'exec' level prompt) 
you=> sy 
sy is short for sy(stat) and shows you 
the system status. 
You should see the format of login names... 
A systat 
usually comes up in this form: 
job line program user 
job: the job number 
(not important unless you want to log them off later) 
line: what line they 
are on (used to talk to them...) 
These are both two or three digit numbers. 

Program: what program are they running under? If it says 'exec' they aren't 
doing anything at all... 
User: ahhhahhhh! This is the user name they are 
logged in under... 
Copy the format, and hack yourself outa working code... 
Login format is as such: 
dec=> ` 
you=> login username password 

username is the username in the format you saw above in the systat. 

After you hit the space after your username, it will stop echoing characters 
back to your screen. This is the password you are typing in... Remember, people 
usually use their name, their dog's name, the name of a favorite character in a 
book, or something like this. A few clever people have it set to a key cluster 
(qwerty or asdfg). Pw's can be from 1 to 8 characters long, anything after that 
is ignored. You are finally in... It would be nice to have a little help, 
wouldn't it? Just type a ? Or the word help, and it will give you a whole list 
of topics... 

Some handy characters for you to know would be the control 
keys, wouldn't it? Backspace on a dec 20 is rub which is 255 on your ascii 
chart. On the dec 10 it is cntrl-h. To abort a long listing or a program, 
cntrl-c works fine. Use cntrl-o to stop long output to the terminal. This is 
handy when playing a game, but you don't want to cntrl-c out. Cntrl-t for the 
time. Cntrl-u will kill the whole line you are typing at the moment. You may 
accidently run a program where the only way out is a cntrl-x, so keep that in 
reserve. Cntrl-s to stop listing, cntrl-q to continue on both systems. Is your 
terminal having trouble?? Like, it pauses for no reason, or it doesn't backspace 
right? This is because both systems support many terminals, and you haven't told 
it what yours is yet... You are using a vt05 so you need to tell it you are one. 

Dec=> ` 
you=> information terminal 
or... 
You=> info 

this shows you what your terminal is set up as... 
Dec=>all sorts of 
shit, then the ` 
you=> set ter vt05 this sets your terminal type to vt05. 

Now let's see what is in the account (here after abbreviated acct.) that you 
have hacked onto... Say 
=> dir 
short for directory, it shows you what 
the user of the code has save to the disk. There should be a format like this: 

xxxxx.Oooxxxxx is the file name, from 1 to 20 characters long. Ooo is the 
file type, one of: exe, txt, dat, bas, cmd and a few others that are system 
dependant. Exe is a compiled program that can be run (just by typing its name at 
the `). 
Txt is a text file, which you can see by 
typing=> 
type 
xxxxx.Txt 
Do not try to=> type xxxxx.Exe this is very bad for your 
terminal and will tell you absolutly nothing. 
Dat is data they have saved. 

Bas is a basic program, you can have it typed out for you. 
Cmd is a 
command type file, a little too complicated to go into here. 
Try => 

take xxxxx.Cmd 
By the way, there are other users out there who may have 
files you can use (gee, why else am I here?). 
Type => dir <*.*> 
(Dec 20) 
=> dir [*,*] (dec 10) 
* is a wildcard, and will allow you to 
access the files on other accounts if the user has it set for public access. If 
it isn't set for public access,then you won't see it. To run that program: 

dec=> ` 
you=> username program-name 
username is the directory 
you saw the file listed under, and file name was what else but the file name? 


** You are not alone ** 
remember, you said (at the very start) sy 
short for systat, and how we said this showed the other users on the system? 
Well, you can talk to them, or at least send a message to anyone you see listed 
in a systat. You can do this by: 
dec=> the user list (from your systat) 

you=> talkusername (dec 20) 
send username (dec 10) 
talk allows 
you and them immediate transmission of whatever you/they type to be sent to the 
other. Send only allow you one message to be sent, and send, they will send back 
to you, with talk you can just keep going. By the way, you may be noticing with 
the talk command that what you type is still acted upon by the parser (control 
program). To avoid the constant error messages type either: 
you=> ;your 
message 
you=> rem your message 
the semi-colon tells the parser that 
what follows is just a comment. Rem is short for 'remark' and ignores you from 
then on until you type a cntrl-z or cntrl-c, at which point it puts you back in 
the exec mode. To break the connection from a talk command type: 
you=> 
break priv's: 
if you happen to have privs, you can do all sorts of things. 
First of all, you have to activate those privs. 
You=> enable 
this 
gives you a $ prompt, and allows you to do this: whatever you can do to your own 
directory you can now do to any other directory. To create a new acct. Using 
your privs, just type 
=>build username 
if username is old, you can 
edit it, if it is new, you can define it to be whatever you wish. Privacy means 
nothing to a user with privs. By the way, there are various levels of privs: 
operator, wheel, cia. wheel is the most powerful, being that he can log in from 
anywhere and have his powers. 
Operators have their power because they are at 
a special terminal allowing them the privs. Cia is short for 'confidential 
information access', which allows you a low level amount of privs. 
Not to 
worry though, since you can read the system log file, which also has the 
passwords to all the other accounts. To de-activate your privs, type 

you=> disable 
when you have played your greedy heart out, you can 
finally leave the system with the command=> 
logout 
this logs the job 
you are using off the system (there may be varients of this such as kjob, or 
killjob). 

----------------Jolly Roger