Spice up your MOTD

MOTD stands for "Message Of The Day". On most systems the file /etc/motd
serves to output messages when someone logs in to the system. In this
installment of Tips and Tricks we learn how use fortune and cowsay to create
a fancy MOTD.

First we need to install two packages:

+-----------------------------

----------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 4.1                                                          |
| Installing cowsay and fortune                                             |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| # emerge fortune-mod cowsay                                               |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Next we should choose a character from the following choices:

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 4.2                                                          |
| Choosing your character                                                   |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| # ls /usr/share/cowsay-3.03/cows/                                         |
| # cowsay -f ren "foo"                                                     |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Finally, we update /etc/motd:

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 4.3                                                          |
| Updating /etc/motd                                                        |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| # fortune | cowsay -f ren > /etc/motd                                     |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

You can generate a new motd daily by creating the following file in
/etc/cron.daily:

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code Listing 4.4                                                                       |
| Setting up the cron job                                                                |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| # echo '#!/bin/sh' >> /etc/cron.daily/motd                                             |
| # echo '/usr/bin/fortune | /usr/bin/cowsay -f ren > /etc/motd' >> /etc/cron.daily/motd |
| # chmod +x /etc/cron.daily/motd                                                        |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

If you want to spice up your motd even more, read the forums thread[8] which
inspired this week's Tips and Tricks.

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-97905.html

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