How is /etc/motd updated?

Question

I was wondering how /etc/motd is automatically updated (I'm on Ubuntu 10.04, server edition). I found the update-motd manpage via a web search, but that program is not installed on my machine. The /etc/motd file is regularly updated, however. I just don't know how and how often. When doing a locate motd, following files are listed:

/etc/motd
/etc/update-motd.d
/etc/update-motd.d/00-header
/etc/update-motd.d/10-help-text
/etc/update-motd.d/20-cpu-checker
/etc/update-motd.d/50-landscape-sysinfo
/etc/update-motd.d/90-updates-available
/etc/update-motd.d/91-release-upgrade
/etc/update-motd.d/98-reboot-required
/etc/update-motd.d/99-footer
/home/me/.cache/motd.legal-displayed
/lib/security/pam_motd.so
/usr/bin/motd+shell
/usr/lib/update-manager/release-upgrade-motd
/usr/lib/update-notifier/update-motd-cpu-checker
/usr/lib/update-notifier/update-motd-reboot-required
/usr/lib/update-notifier/update-motd-updates-available
/usr/share/base-files/motd.md5sums
/usr/share/man/man1/motd+shell.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man5/motd.5.gz
/usr/share/man/man5/motd.tail.5.gz
/usr/share/man/man5/update-motd.5.gz
/usr/share/man/man8/pam_motd.8.gz
/usr/share/ubuntu-serverguide/html/C/pam_motd.html

Answer 1

It's updated by pam_motd on login. The update-motd manual page describes this:

   Ubuntu introduced the update-motd framework, by which  the  motd(5)  is
   dynamically assembled from a collection of scripts at login.

   Executable  scripts in /etc/update-motd.d/* are executed by pam_motd(8)
   as the root user at each login, and this information is concatenated in
   /var/run/motd.  The order of script execution is determined by the run-
   parts(8) --lsbsysinit option (basically alphabetical order, with a  few
   caveats).

   On   Ubuntu   systems,  /etc/motd  is  typically  a  symbolic  link  to
   /var/run/motd.