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TALKD(8)                                 BSD System Manager's Manual                                TALKD(8)

NAME
     talkd -- remote user communication server

SYNOPSIS
     talkd

DESCRIPTION
     The talkd utility is the server that notifies a user that someone else wants to initiate a conversa-tion. conversation.
     tion.  It acts as a repository of invitations, responding to requests by clients wishing to rendezvous
     to hold a conversation.  In normal operation, a client, the caller, initiates a rendezvous by sending a
     CTL_MSG to the server of type LOOK_UP (see <protocols/talkd.h>).  This causes the server to search its
     invitation tables to check if an invitation currently exists for the caller (to speak to the callee
     specified in the message).

     If the lookup fails, the caller then sends an ANNOUNCE message causing the server to broadcast an
     announcement on the callee's login ports requesting contact.

     When the callee responds, the local server uses the recorded invitation to respond with the appropriate
     rendezvous address and the caller and callee client programs establish a stream connection through
     which the conversation takes place.

CONFIGURATION
     The talkd utility is managed by launchd(8) as specified in the ntalk.plist property list.  By default
     the property list contains the Disabled key set to true, so talkd is never invoked.

     Execute the following command as root to enable talkd:
           launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ntalk.plist

SEE ALSO
     talk(1), write(1)

HISTORY
     The talkd utility appeared in 4.3BSD.

BSD                                            August 21, 2008                                           BSD