Options available:
When first called, talk sends the message
Message from TalkDaemon@his_machine...
talk: connection requested by your_name@your_machine.
talk: respond with: talk your_name@your_machine
to the user you wish to talk to. At this point, the recipient of the message should reply by typing
talk
your_name@your_machine
It doesn't matter from which machine the recipient replies, as long as his login-name is the same. Once communication is established, the two parties may type simultaneously, with their output appearing in separate windows. Typing control-L `^L' will cause the screen to be reprinted, while your erase, kill, and word kill characters will behave normally. To exit, just type your interrupt character; talk then moves the cursor to the bottom of the screen and restores the terminal to its previous state.
Permission to talk may be denied or granted by use of the mesg(1) command. At the outset talking is allowed. Certain commands, in particular nroff(1) and pr(1), disallow messages in order to prevent messy output.
TALKHOST
environment variable is set, its value is used as the
hostname
the
talk
packets appear to be originating from.
This is useful if you wish to talk to someone on another machine and
your internal hostname does not resolve to the address of your
external interface as seen from the other machine.
/etc/hosts
/var/run/utmp