Date: Sat, 31 May 2003 10:40:25 +0800 From: Robert Storey <y2kbug@ms25.hinet.net> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: rotating motd Message-ID: <20030531104025.3a5b5729.y2kbug@ms25.hinet.net> In-Reply-To: <044301c326ea$2bf783b0$7419cdcd@ticking> References: <20030530202516.56184.qmail@web40611.mail.yahoo.com> <044301c326ea$2bf783b0$7419cdcd@ticking>
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> A trivial question, but a question nonetheless! My FreeBSD /etc/motd is > a static and rather boring file. I recall that when I used to login to > my Slackware machine, it spruced things up a bit by offering some sort > of rotating motd, which would spit out a random quote or joke instead of > the same ol' static message. Is there a way to simulate this in > FreeBSD? Unfortunately, 'man motd' does little more than state the > obvious, and describe a method by which to surpress the motd altogether. > This, of course, occurs to me as I ssh into my home machine from work! > Thanks, > ~John As Adam pointed out, "fortune" is what you want. I assume it's available for FBSD (can't check right now as I'm at a Linux box). I don't think you can run fortune from /etc/motd file. Install the one word command "fortune" in the run command file for whatever shell you are using. Since I use bash, that's file .bashrc. This will cause fortune to give you a message every time you log in, including every time you open an Xterm. It might drive you crazy after awhile. regards, Robert
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