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1.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990 The Regents of the University of California.
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32.\" @(#)wall.1 6.5 (Berkeley) 4/23/91
33.\"
cdd3cc7f 34.TH WALL "1" "August 2013" "util-linux" "User Commands"
7dab96af 35.SH NAME
6e72fa59 36wall \- write a message to all users
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37.SH SYNOPSIS
38.B wall
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39.RB [ \-n ]
40.RB [ \-t
41.IR timeout ]
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42.RB [ \-g
43.IR group ]
4e36bc59 44.RI [ message " | " file ]
7dab96af 45.SH DESCRIPTION
4e36bc59 46.B wall
cdd3cc7f 47displays a
6e72fa59 48.IR message ,
4e36bc59 49or the contents of a
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50.IR file ,
51or otherwise its standard input, on the terminals of all currently logged
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52in users. The command will wrap lines that are longer than 79 characters.
53Short lines are whitespace padded to have 79 characters. The command will
54always put a carriage return and new line at the end of each line.
7dab96af 55.PP
bb3e5808 56Only the superuser can write on the terminals of users who have chosen to
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57deny messages or are using a program which automatically denies messages.
58.PP
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59Reading from a
60.I file
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61is refused when the invoker is not superuser and the program is
62set-user-ID or set-group-ID.
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63.SH OPTIONS
64.TP
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65.BR \-n , " \-\-nobanner"
66Suppress the banner.
7dab96af 67.TP
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68.BR \-t , " \-\-timeout " \fItimeout\fR
69Abandon the write attempt to the terminals after \fItimeout\fR seconds.
70This \fItimeout\fR must be a positive integer. The default value
71is 300 seconds, which is a legacy from the time when people ran terminals over
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72modem lines.
73.TP
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74.BR \-g , " \-\-group " \fIgroup\fR
75Limit printing message to members of group defined as a
76.I group
a72fa61a 77argument. The argument can be group name or GID.
01544c52 78.TP
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79.BR \-V , " \-\-version"
80Display version information and exit.
7dab96af 81.TP
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82.BR \-h , " \-\-help"
83Display help text and exit.
f7afb6b6 84.SH NOTES
4e36bc59 85Some sessions, such as wdm, that have in the beginning of
f7afb6b6 86.BR utmp (5)
4e36bc59 87ut_type data a ':' character will not get the message from
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88.BR wall .
89This is done to avoid write errors.
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90.SH SEE ALSO
91.BR mesg (1),
92.BR talk (1),
93.BR write (1),
94.BR shutdown (8)
95.SH HISTORY
6dbe3af9 96A
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97.B wall
98command appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.
99.SH AVAILABILITY
601d12fb 100The wall command is part of the util-linux package and is available from
d673b74e 101.UR https://\:www.kernel.org\:/pub\:/linux\:/utils\:/util-linux/
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102Linux Kernel Archive
103.UE .