Write to a named pipe (for ii) but don't block forever doing it

ircsay.sh

#!/bin/bash

# adapted from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/422530/write-to-fifo-pipe-from-shell-with-timeout

case $# in
  0) echo "Usage: `basename $0` message..." 1>&2 ;;
esac

{
    echo "$@" > /persistent/dramafever/phenny/irc/irc.freenode.net/#dramafever/in
} &
waitforpid=$!

{
    sleep 1
    echo "TIMED OUT: $@" 1>&2
    2>/dev/null kill -0 $waitforpid && kill -15 $waitforpid
} &
killerpid=$!

>>/dev/null 2>&1 wait $waitforpid
# this is the exit value we care about, so save it and use it when we
rc=$?

# zap our watchdog if it's still there, since we no longer need it
2>>/dev/null kill -0 $killerpid && kill -15 $killerpid

exit $rc