update-motd

update-motd is a small utility to generate a motd file with useful information.

update-motd has been tested on FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Solaris and Debian GNU/Linux. It should run on other Unix-like systems as well.

However, it will NOT run on Ubuntu, as Ubuntu already has a similar script, but the scripts (XX-*) will run on Ubuntu with a bit of adaptation.

Sample default output

                         ____              __
                        / __/___  ____    / /_  ____ ______
                       / /_/ __ \/ __ \  / __ \/ __ `/ ___/
                      / __/ /_/ / /_/ / / /_/ / /_/ / /
                     /_/  \____/\____(_)_.___/\__,_/_/

LOCALHOST ······································································
Hostname: sample.server.domain.tld
 Address: 192.168.1.42 (vmx0)
  System: FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE (amd64 GENERIC)

USEFUL INFORMATION ·····························································
This is the default information.txt file. Replace this with useful content, such
as information about the role of this system or usual maintenance commands, or
remove this file entirely to disable this section.

SYSTEM CHANGELOG ·······························································
2019-01-04T10:52  lr  Setup of the new motd system; installation of changelog.

DISCLAIMER ·····································································
By accessing this system, your actions may be intercepted, monitored, recorded,
copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to third parties. Unauthorized or
improper use of this system will result in civil and criminal penalties and/or
administrative or disciplinary action, as appropriate. By continuing to use
this system you indicate your awareness of and consent to these terms and
conditions of use.

                                        motd refreshed on 2019-01-06 at 21:04:48

Usage

Simply call its name from the command line.

As root, it will not produce any output but update your /etc/motd file. As another user, it will generate an equivalent motd and print it to screen.

As such, it is possible to replace the printing of /etc/motd on login by the running of update-motd for a real time result.

By default, a crontab file will be installed during installation, if possible, to run update-motd at boot and then once per hour. Other installation methods are left to the creativity of the sysadmin.

Installation

On non-GNU systems such as FreeBSD and OpenBSD, you require GNU Make. For those, replace make by gmake in the commands below.

Get it:

$ git clone https://github.com/arclabch/update-motd

Compile it:

Prepare it:

$ cd update-motd
$ git checkout release/1.0.0 
$ make

Install it (as root):

$ sudo make install

Update it (as root):

If you already have an earlier version of update-motd installed, simply run

$ sudo make update

to update it without overwritting your existing configuration.

What's New

1.0.0

• Initial release.

License

MIT. See LICENSE file.