2

As detailed on AskUbuntu (multiple threads), I am trying to change my message of the day.

This is my edit:

luis@Terminus:/etc$ cat /etc/motd.tail
 ____                    _        _         ____
/ ___|  ___  _ __   __ _| | __ _ (_) ___   / ___|  ___ _ ____   ____ _
\___ \ / _ \| '_ \ / _` | |/ _` || |/ _ \  \___ \ / _ \ '__\ \ / / _` |
 ___) | (_) | |_) | (_| | | (_| || | (_) |  ___) |  __/ |   \ V / (_| |
|____/ \___/| .__/ \__,_|_|\__,_|/ |\___/  |____/ \___|_|    \_/ \__,_|
            |_|                |__/
luis@Terminus:/etc$ sudo login
Terminus nombre: luis
Contraseña:
Último inicio de sesión: dom jul 26 23:01:33 CEST 2015 en tty1
Welcome to Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.13.0-58-generic x86_64)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com/

luis@Terminus:~$ ls /etc/motd.tail -la
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 372 jul 26 23:01 /etc/motd.tail

Excuse me, my Ubuntu is in spanish, but I think the needed part is clear: the file /etc/motd.tail is ignored.

What else could I try?

1 Answer 1

5

You are using the wrong file. The correct file is /etc/motd.

From man motd :

The contents of /etc/motd are displayed by pam_motd(8) 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).

On Debian GNU/Linux, the content of /run/motd.dynamic is also displayed. This file is generated by /etc/init.d/motd at boot.

2
  • You are right, heemayl. I have found the reason : «Using "/etc/motd" is a change from earlier versions. Recommendations for 12.02 were to use "/etc/motd.tail". That doesn't work in 14.04.2.». Extracted from here: askubuntu.com/a/623785/109008 . A bit awkward this continuous change in config files between versions, but at least man motd is supposed to show the actual paths. Thanks you. Jul 26, 2015 at 21:38
  • @SopalajodeArrierez Glad i could help :)
    – heemayl
    Jul 26, 2015 at 21:44

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