Using /etc/wall from crontab

[Tom Betz]

We have a system event that needs to assure that all VP/ix
processes are shut down before it runs.  I grabbed a copy of
Dominick Sampieri's 'stop' script that kills processes by
username or process name, and running it from crontab works just
fine.

However, I want to give VP/ix users 20, 10, and 5 minutes'
warning before the shutdown, on the off chance that they might be
working late (1:30 AM).  

I figured that a crontab entry for each occasion like:

10 1 * * *  /etc/wall < /roothome/vp20warn

would do the job: however, not only does the message not get 
through to VP/ix users, it doesn't seem to get through to any active
terminals.  Is there something strange about the SCO Xenix 2.3.1
'wall' that it doesn't work from crontab?  It worked fine when I
tried it from the shell.

Also, as it appears that even from the shell, the message
doesn't get through to the VP/ix user, what else can I do to
force it through?

All help appreciated...

-- 
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