1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues Weight 1 Geoff Robertson 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues Weight 1 Linux Professional Institute Certification — 102 Context Objective /etc/issue telnet and issue.net Message of the Day: motd Ways of notifying users License Of This Document Geoffrey Robertson ge@ffrey.com nicku@nicku.org This document Licensed under GPL—see section 7 Nick Urbanik 2005 July Outline 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues Weight 1 Geoff Robertson Context Objective /etc/issue telnet and issue.net Context Objective /etc/issue Manpage for issue getty strings you can use in issue telnet and issue.net Message of the Day: motd Manpage for motd motd in action Ways of notifying users License Of This Document Message of the Day: motd Ways of notifying users License Of This Document Topic 108 Documentation [8] Where we are up to 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues Weight 1 Geoff Robertson Context Objective /etc/issue telnet and issue.net Message of the Day: motd 1.108.1 Use and Manage Local System Documentation [4] 1.108.2 Find Linux Documentation on the Internet [3] 1.108.5 Notify Users on System Related Issues [1] Ways of notifying users License Of This Document Description of Objective 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues Weight 1 Geoff Robertson Context Objective /etc/issue telnet and issue.net Message of the Day: motd Ways of notifying users License Of This Document Candidates should be able to notify the users about current issues related to the system. This objective includes automating the communication process, e.g. through logon messages. Key files, terms, and utilities include: 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues Weight 1 Geoff Robertson Context Objective /etc/issue telnet and issue.net /etc/issue — /etc/issue.net — File containing message displayed when users log in via telnet (which should be never! :-) /etc/motd — Message of the day file: displayed when log in via ssh or the console Message of the Day: motd Ways of notifying users License Of This Document Customize the Local Login screen with /etc/issue The login screen for Fedora Core 4 looks like this: Fedora Core release 4 (Stentz) Kernel 2.6.13-1.1526_FC4smp on an i686 login: The getty process spawned by init presents the contents of the file /etc/issue and provides a login: prompt for the user. The file /etc/issue $ cat /etc/issue ← Fedora Core release 4 (Stentz) Kernel \r on an \m 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues Weight 1 Geoff Robertson Context Objective /etc/issue Manpage for issue getty strings you can use in issue telnet and issue.net Message of the Day: motd Ways of notifying users License Of This Document man issue 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues Weight 1 Geoff Robertson Context ISSUE(5) NAME Linux Programmer’s Manual ISSUE(5) Objective /etc/issue Manpage for issue issue - pre-login message and identification file DESCRIPTION getty strings you can use in issue telnet and issue.net Message of the Day: motd The file /etc/issue is a text file which contains a message Ways of notifying users or system identification to be printed before the login prompt. It may contain various @char and \char sequences, License Of This Document if supported by mingetty(1). FILES /etc/issue SEE ALSO mingetty(1), motd(5) Linux 1993-07-24 ISSUE(5) man getty—embedded in the /etc/issue \d \l \m \n \o \r \t \s \u \U \v insert current day (localtime), insert line on which mingetty is running, inserts machine architecture (uname -m), inserts machine’s network node hostname (uname -n), inserts domain name, inserts operating system release (uname -r), insert current time (localtime), inserts operating system name, insert the number of current users logged in inserts “1 user” or “ n users”, where n is the number of users logged in inserts operating system version (uname -v). 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues Weight 1 Geoff Robertson Context Objective /etc/issue Manpage for issue getty strings you can use in issue telnet and issue.net Message of the Day: motd Ways of notifying users License Of This Document Telnet uses /etc/issue.net The following sequences are supported by telnetd: %l %h, %n %D, %o %d, %t %s %m %r %v %% show the current tty show the system node name (FQDN) show the name of the NIS domain show the current time and date show the name of the operating system show the machine (hardware) type show the operating system release show the operating system version display a single ‘%’ character 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues Weight 1 Geoff Robertson Context Objective /etc/issue telnet and issue.net Message of the Day: motd Ways of notifying users License Of This Document Message of the Day — motd Login Sequence 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues Weight 1 Geoff Robertson Context Objective /etc/issue telnet and issue.net Message of the Day: motd Manpage for motd motd in action Contents of /etc/issue is displayed. getty displays the login prompt. /bin/login handles the login process. User is authorized. Contents of /etc/motd is displayed. The login shell is executed. Ways of notifying users License Of This Document Manpage for motd 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues Weight 1 Geoff Robertson Context MOTD(5) NAME Linux Programmer’s Manual MOTD(5) Objective /etc/issue telnet and issue.net motd - message of the day DESCRIPTION The contents of /etc/motd are displayed by login(1) after a successful login but just before it executes the login shell. The abbreviation "motd" stands for "message of the day", and this file has been traditionally used for exactly that (it requires much less disk space than mail to all users). FILES /etc/motd SEE ALSO login(1), issue(5) Linux 1992-12-29 MOTD(5) Message of the Day: motd Manpage for motd motd in action Ways of notifying users License Of This Document motd $ cat /etc/motd ← G’day! :-) $ exit ← 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues Weight 1 Geoff Robertson Context Objective /etc/issue telnet and issue.net Message of the Day: motd Manpage for motd motd in action Red Hat Linux release 9 (Shrike) Kernel 2.4.20-8 on an i686 marsbar login: geoffrey Password: Last login: Wed Sep 10 22:23:15 on tty2 G’day! :-) You have new mail. $ Ways of notifying users License Of This Document It also works with ssh 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues Weight 1 Geoff Robertson Context Objective /etc/issue telnet and issue.net motd $ ssh nicku.org ← Manpage for motd motd Last login: Thu Oct 27 10:51:21 2005 from nicku.org in action Ways of notifying users G’day! :-) License Of This $ cat /etc/motd ← Document G’day! :-) $ Message of the Day: Notify Users of System Related Issues 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues Weight 1 Geoff Robertson Context Objective /etc/issue Login Screen /etc/issue Telnet Login Screen /etc/issue.net Login message /etc/motd wall Message to all terminals talk Split screen message Email Users list Phone They have a phone Visit They have an office telnet and issue.net Message of the Day: motd Ways of notifying users License Of This Document Topics Covered Context Objective /etc/issue Manpage for issue getty strings you can use in issue telnet and issue.net Message of the Day: motd Manpage for motd motd in action Ways of notifying users License Of This Document 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues Weight 1 Geoff Robertson Context Objective /etc/issue telnet and issue.net Message of the Day: motd Ways of notifying users License Of This Document License Of This Document 1.108.5 Notify users on system-related issues Weight 1 Geoff Robertson Context Objective /etc/issue Copyright c 2005, 2003 Geoffrey Robertson and Nick Urbanik . Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies or modified versions of this document provided that this copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation—either version 2 of the License or (at your option) any later version. telnet and issue.net Message of the Day: motd Ways of notifying users License Of This Document