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

NAME
     talkd - remote user communication server



SYNOPSIS
     talkd

DESCRIPTION
     Talkd is the server that notifies a user that someone else wants to ini-
     tiate a conversation.  It acts 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 invita-
     tion 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 ren-
     dezvous address and the caller and callee client programs establish a
     stream connection through which the conversation takes place.

SEE ALSO
     talk(1),  write(1)

HISTORY
     The talkd command appeared in 4.3BSD.

4.3 Berkeley Distribution       March 16, 1991                               1