Re: sending a message to the active console

["David Z. Maze" <dmaze@donut.mit.edu>]

Paul Miller <paul@3dillusion.com> writes:
PM> How can I send a message to the active console?  For example, when
PM> a cdrom is mounted, mount (or the kernel) reports 'changing media
PM> type...', etc.  to the active console - if you switch consoles,
PM> the text will finish on the new active console.

I believe the kernel can do this with the printk() call.

PM> Also, will this type of message appear in xconsole?  If not, how
PM> can I make it appear in both?

It appears in xconsole, iff the X session is on the currently active
VC.

PM> The reason I'm asking is because I want to make a simple script to
PM> run in the background and send caller-id messages to the console.

Look at the write(1) and wall(1) utilities; these will let you do this 
without kernel-level hacking.

-- 
 _____________________________
/                             \  "The cat's been in the box for over
|          David Maze         |  20 years.  Nobody's feeding it.  The
|         dmaze@mit.edu       |            cat is dead."
| http://donut.mit.edu/dmaze/ |  -- Grant, on Schroedinger's Cat
\_____________________________/


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