Before IRC, AOL Instant Messenger and Apple’s Messages, there was talk. talk is a Unix text chat program, allowing messaging between users of Unix-based systems. While it’s been largely superseded by other chat applications, it’s still included with OS X Mavericks as the ntalk service.
Setting up a talk server on OS X
To start the talk server on OS X, run the following command to start the ntalk service:
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ntalk.plist
To stop a running talk server, run the following command to stop the ntalk service:
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ntalk.plist
Using talk
It’s pretty straightforward to use talk. To talk to another user logged in on the same host, use this command:
talk username_here
To talk to a user on another host, use this command:
talk username_here@hostname
Once communication is established, the two parties may type simultaneously, with their output appearing in separate windows. One thing to know is that output is reflected live to both sides; every character typed (typos and all) will be visible.
Reprint screen – Typing control-L will cause the screen to be reprinted.
Clear screen – Typing control-D will clear both parts of your screen to be cleared, while the control-D character will be sent to the remote side (and just displayed by this talk client).
Exit current talk session – To exit, type control-C.
For more information on talk, please see the man page:
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/talk.1.html
