Informing other users

[Peter Garrett]

On Thu, 28 Sep 2006 18:42:32 +0100
Ewan Mac Mahon <ewan at macmahon.me.uk> wrote:

> > > Well, this works with ssh:
> > >
> > > ssh user at host xmessage -display :0 "Free Pizza upstairs in 5 minutes"
> > 
> > Thanks, works great!
> >
> Really? It shouldn't work if the user you're logging in as (yourself,
> presumably) is not the user that's logged in to the X server. Unless
> you're doing cunning things as root, of course.

Correct. Unless of course you know the user's password, which  in theory
you shouldn't, you would have to ssh in and become root to do it (then  su
username-using-the-display ), or something wizardly involving MIT magic
cookies or the like, I guess ... ;-) Of course, I assume you would have
root on the machines you are responsible for, or the sudo equivalent.

This makes sending the message a bit more involved, of course...

Peter