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Is there a way to run a script on login irrespective of the shell? I would like to have something on the lines of the ssh login to an Ubuntu server - which displays the free RAM etc.

I understand that the welcome message itself is in /etc/motd, but the file seems to update on each login. How is this done? I do not want to use ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile and would like to have one for all users in the system by default.

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What sort of login? Graphical or terminal/SSH? – Oli♦ Apr 4 '12 at 14:47
Terminal Logins. I was thinking of adding a script to /etc/profile.d/ This ececutes after the message from /etc/motd is displayed. – Lord Loh. Apr 4 '12 at 16:18

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Since you are asking for a "run for each login" versus "run at boot", this may be of help.

in the file /etc/login.defs search for "fakeshell" Here is the comment text for that parameter:

 # Instead of the real user shell, the program specified by this parameter
 # will be launched, although its visible name (argv[0]) will be the shell's.
 # The program may do whatever it wants (logging, additional authentification,
 # banner, ...) before running the actual shell.
 # FAKE_SHELL /bin/fakeshell

Be careful about any assumptions for your environment when using this approach. Define all your own paths for executables and data.

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Thank you. I added a line FAKE_SHELL /etc/loginscript and added a shell script with execute permissions for all. But nothing happened on login through ssh :-( – Lord Loh. Apr 4 '12 at 16:01
I was thinking of adding a script to /etc/profile.d/ This executes after the message from /etc/motd is displayed. – Lord Loh. Apr 4 '12 at 16:18
Sorry that did not work. I just re-read your request and wonder if I misunderstood. Are trying to create a script that any user can run that gives free RAM and other system statistics? I was trying to find an answer for the "run this script for all users when they log in". If you want something for all you can create a special account, call it "sysres" that has no password but instead of a shell it just runs the loginscript to display what you want, and then it exits, no interaction provided. I will still look for a "runs for every user, every login, and style" answer. – Hey Gary Apr 5 '12 at 4:29
I was wondering how ubuntu displays system statistics. Apparently, it seems to run a script to update /etc/motd and the statistics is displayed as a welcome message. – Lord Loh. Apr 6 '12 at 19:13
I now realize that the FAKE SHELL was running a script, but only at the tty and not at the pty (ssh). And running a bash script that did not transfer over to bash caused me to be logged out immediately after logging in and running the script. – Lord Loh. Apr 7 '12 at 6:06
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You can use /etc/rc.local

rc.local is executed after all other init stuff is over - the last step in the startup process. It's really intended for local machine init stuff outside of the System V init (i.e. outside of the runlevel scripts).

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Should point out that this happens before any sort of graphical login; even before X has even started to load and only happens at boot (not once per login). – Oli♦ Apr 4 '12 at 14:42
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I you are looking for a script that display's Ram, HDD usage, IP address then I would suggest installing landscape-common:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install landscape-common

Then adding an alias in .bashrc which reflects something like alias lsi='landscape-sysinfo' when you run it you get the following info:

System load:  2.7                Processes:             161
  Usage of /:   8.3% of 135.63GB   Users logged in:       1
  Memory usage: 19%                IP address for eth0:   192.168.10.5
  Swap usage:   0%                 IP address for virbr0: 192.168.122.1

Graph this data and manage this system at [landscape.canonical.com]
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This is not what I am looking for. I was trying to run a script before any TTY prompt showd up. Ubuntu happens to display statistics by default (from /etc/motd) and I used that as an example. I am really interested in knowing how /etc/motd is updated every time someone logs in. – Lord Loh. Jul 30 '12 at 21:47

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