The appropriateness of using write varies from culture to culture. In places where I've worked, it's never been regarded as a particular nuisance, although I don't believe we had automatic programs using it.

Anyways, for very short messages, something like this will work just as well, and be a little bit simpler: 

system("echo '$message' |/usr/bin/write '$user' '$tty'");

[download]

Also, keep in mind that all of the techniques posted have been horribly insecure if you don't have control over the contents of all shell parameters. Consider what would happen if $user was set to: 

'; rm -rf /; echo '
.

In reply to Re: Re: unix write command through system by sgifford
in thread unix write command through system by Jimbobbob

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