wall(1M) wall(1M)
NAME
wall - write to all users
SYNOPSIS
/usr/sbin/wall
DESCRIPTION
wall reads its standard input until an end-of-file. It then sends
this message to all currently logged-in users preceded by:
Broadcast Message from ...
It is used to warn all users, typically prior to shutting down the
system.
The sender must be super-user to override any protections the users
may have invoked [see mesg(1)].
wall runs setgid() [see setuid(2)] to the group ID tty, in order to
have write permissions on other user's terminals.
wall will detect non-printable characters before sending them to the
user's terminal. Control characters will appear as a `^' followed by
the appropriate ASCII character; characters with the high-order bit
set will appear in meta notation. For example, `\003' is displayed as
`^C' and `\372' as `M-z'.
FILES
/dev/tty*
SEE ALSO
mesg(1), write(1).
NOTES
``Cannot send to ...'' when the open on a user's tty file fails.
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