notifying users

[Scott D. Webster]

On Sat, 12 Dec 1998, Robert wrote:

> hello,
> Is there a good way of notifying all users that , say the server is
> going to be shut down? kinda like for a regular terminal session but
> through some kind of windows messaging?

	The following is a perl script I wrote to send a message to all
currently connected machines via 'winpopup'.  YMMV, "Sorry Tennessee!",
etc.

--8<--------------------------------------------------------------
#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w

# turn debugging output on or off w/ this variable
$DEBUG=0;
# file paths - edit if the programs move
$SAMBADIR="/usr/samba/bin";
$SMBSTATUS="$SAMBADIR/smbstatus";
$SMBCLIENT="$SAMBADIR/smbclient";

# Avoid "uninitialized value" warnings
@hosts = ();

# Debugging output
print "hosts = @hosts\n" if($DEBUG);

# Open smbstatus' standard output
open SMBSTATUS, "$SMBSTATUS |";

# Loop over smbstatus output
while(<SMBSTATUS>)
{
	# Do this if you haven't found the header line yet
	unless($foundline)
	{
		# If you find the header line...
		if(/^--/)
		{
			# Set the flag
			$foundline = 1;
		} else
		# If not...
		{
			# Skip to the next line
			next;
		}
	# Do this after finding the header line
	}else
	{
		# Do this if you haven't found a blank line
		unless($blankline)
		{	
			# If you find a blank line...
			if(/^\s*$/)
			{
				# Set the flag
				$blankline = 1;
			# If not...
			}else
			{
				# Split on whitespace
				@vars = split /\s+/;
				# Set $host to the fifth element of @vars
				$host = $vars[4];
				# Debugging output
				print "hosts = @hosts\n" if($DEBUG);
				# IF $host is not in @hosts...
				unless(scalar grep { /$host/ } @hosts)
				{
					# Put $host in @hosts
					push @hosts, $host;
					# Debugging output
					print "host = $host\n" if($DEBUG);
				}
				# Skip to the next line
				next;
			}
		}
	}
}

# Prompt for the message
print "Type your message, ending it with a Control-D\n";
# While they're still typing...
while(<>)
{
	# Store each line in $input
	$input .= $_;
}

# Do this once for each element in @hosts
foreach $host (@hosts)
{
	# Open smbclinet's standard input
	open SMBCLIENT, "| $SMBCLIENT -M $host";
	# print the message
	print SMBCLIENT $input;
	# Close smbclient
	close SMBCLIENT;
}
------------------------------------------------------------>8----
--
Scott D. Webster                              swebster at carroll.com
Etc Services                                   Voice: 201.385.7113
Linux, Unix, & TCP/IP Network Consulting       Pager: 800.379.2402