Broadcasting messages

The program /usr/sbin/rwall can be used to send messages to a large group of machines. One of the options is to send the message to a group of machines defined by a netgroup. To broadcast a message to the DCS faculty machines, use the netgroup ringmaster. Type the message to be sent after running rwall followed by a ^D. A typical usage of rwall looks like this:

   /usr/sbin/rwall -n ringmaster 
   Thunderstorms passing through - save work frequently!
   ^D

You may then get a few messages which look like this:

   Couldn't contact wintermute.rutgers.edu: RPC: Timed out

which can be ignored. The users see messages like this:

Broadcast Message at 12:34 ...

From watrous@aramis.rutgers.edu:  Thunderstorms passing through - save work frequently!

Here is a list of useful netgroups:

dcsfac      DCS faculty machines (includes pyrite and remaining clients)
dcsgrad     DCS grad machines
dcsug       DCS Undergrad machines
math        Math machines
ringmaster  DCS fculty machines (aramis and clients)

This page last updated April 6, 1997.