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A simple script may be sufficient to address your needs, but please don't generalize that to everyone else. Simple counter-example to your point: other Debian

A simple script may be sufficient to address your needs, but please don't generalize that to everyone else. Simple counter-example to your point: other Debian packages who wish to provide information in /etc/motd. The solution to go with drop-in directories (just like /etc/cron.d) has certain advantages over other patterns, but the author seems to be oblivious to all of this.

gkya 10y ago
It should be obvious how to disable the mechanism for being able to use the normal, expected behaviour. The author is hostile in his way of writing, but the point stands. Furthermore, motd is a tool for sysadmin anouncements, not random news from random packages, so autogenerating is not all that useful.
- ckastner 10y ago
  > It should be obvious how to disable the mechanism for being able to use the normal, expected behaviour. The author posted the following as the conclusion of the article: remove the symlink, create your own motd. root@tessier:/etc# rm -rf motd && echo "DO I WORK NOW??" > /etc/motd It doesn't get much simpler or intuitive than that. > Furthermore, motd is a tool for sysadmin anouncements, not random news from random packages, so autogenerating is not all that useful. Nobody suggested it was for random news for random packages. Useful examples would be output from smartmontools, unattended-upgrades, systemd or any other sysadmin-relevant package which might perform periodic tasks in the background.
  - gkya 10y ago
    For your examples, local mail is more fit than anything. The user may want to look back to past notifications, archive, delete, read later etc. It's easy, just run "mail <user>", or: mail -s '<subject>' $(awk -F: '/^<group-name>/ {print $4;}' /etc/group | tr , ' ') Good use of motd: pointers to essential reading for new users, like a tutorial, some man pages, etc.; contact information, to sysadmins, product help desk etc. The user reads it to get clues on how to get going with the system, then runs 'touch $HOME/.hushlogin' to silence it. Edit: Besides, the manual does not tell you that simply breaking the symlink will do the desired effect.

gkya 10y ago

It should be obvious how to disable the mechanism for being able to use the normal, expected behaviour. The author is hostile in his way of writing, but the point stands. Furthermore, motd is a tool for sysadmin anouncements, not random news from random packages, so autogenerating is not all that useful.

ckastner 10y ago
> It should be obvious how to disable the mechanism for being able to use the normal, expected behaviour. The author posted the following as the conclusion of the article: remove the symlink, create your own motd. root@tessier:/etc# rm -rf motd && echo "DO I WORK NOW??" > /etc/motd It doesn't get much simpler or intuitive than that. > Furthermore, motd is a tool for sysadmin anouncements, not random news from random packages, so autogenerating is not all that useful. Nobody suggested it was for random news for random packages. Useful examples would be output from smartmontools, unattended-upgrades, systemd or any other sysadmin-relevant package which might perform periodic tasks in the background.
- gkya 10y ago
  For your examples, local mail is more fit than anything. The user may want to look back to past notifications, archive, delete, read later etc. It's easy, just run "mail <user>", or: mail -s '<subject>' $(awk -F: '/^<group-name>/ {print $4;}' /etc/group | tr , ' ') Good use of motd: pointers to essential reading for new users, like a tutorial, some man pages, etc.; contact information, to sysadmins, product help desk etc. The user reads it to get clues on how to get going with the system, then runs 'touch $HOME/.hushlogin' to silence it. Edit: Besides, the manual does not tell you that simply breaking the symlink will do the desired effect.