NAME

talkd, in.talkd − server for talk program

SYNOPSIS

in.talkd

DESCRIPTION

in.talkd is a server used by the talk(1) program.  It listens at the UDP port indicated in the “talk” service description; see services(4).  The actual conversation takes place on a TCP connection that is established by negotiation between the two machines involved. 

in.talkd acts as a repository of invitations, responding to requests by clients wishing to rendezvous to hold a conversation.  In normal operation, a talk client 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 client. 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. 

SEE ALSO

talk(1), inetd(1M), write(1M), services(4)

  —  Internet Utilities