Communicating with all logged-on terminal users

You can use the SEND command to send a message to all terminal users currently logged on the system.

 
SE {'message'},{NOW|LOGON},{WAIT|NOWAIT},{ROUTE={*ALL|systemname|groupname}}
   {msgno    }

The parameters are:

‘message’

The message that is to be sent to all time-sharing terminal users.

msgno

The number of the message to be sent. (See Saving messages in the broadcast data set for information about how to save and later send messages by message number.)

NOW

Specifies that the message is to be sent immediately to all users currently logged on; the message is not retained for users not logged on.

When NOWAIT is specified and the user's terminal is busy:

the user does not receive the message
you are NOT notified which users did not receive the message
The message is deleted

LOGON

All users logged on and accepting messages receive the message. Those users logged on but not receiving messages receive it upon requesting messages. The message is stored in the notices section of the broadcast data set and is sent to those users requesting messages when they log on. The message is retained until you delete it.

When NOWAIT is specified and the user's terminal is busy, the message is stored in the mail section of the broadcast data set until the user requests it.

WAIT

Specifies that the message is held until system output buffers are available for the specified logged on users. This option ensures that the message is received by all the specified users. When a user's terminal is busy, other users will not receive the message until that user's terminal is free.

NOWAIT

Specifies that the message not be held. If you specify LOGON, the system saves the message as mail for those users whose terminals are busy or who were not logged on.

ROUTE

Sends the message to all users logged onto the specified system(s). If you do not specify the ROUTE= parameter, the system sends the message only to the users logged onto the system where you issue the SEND command. Valid values for the ROUTE parameter are:

*ALL: Directs the system to send the message to all users logged onto all systems participating in the sysplex
systemname: Directs the system to send the message only to users logged onto systemname
groupname: Directs the system to send the message to all users logged onto the sysplex subset defined by groupname

Note: When possible, use the LOGON parameter so you do not interrupt the users' terminal sessions unnecessarily.

Example 1:

To send the following critical message to all users immediately, enter:

SE 'system going down in 5 minutes'

Example 2:

To send the following general interest message to users when they request messages or at LOGON time, enter:

SE 'time-sharing will not be up next Thursday',LOGON