TALKD(8)                    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 conversation.  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.

macOS 15.2                      August 21, 2008                     macOS 15.2