Re: motd question
On Mon, Aug 25, 2003 at 11:02:55AM -0700 or thereabouts, Joshua Oreman wrote: On Mon, Aug 25, 2003 at 12:37:44PM -0400 or thereabouts, Louis LeBlanc wrote: Probably not possible, but I was wondering (and have for some time, though I can't find any info on it either way) whether /etc/motd is strictly a text in/text out file, or if there is a way to get it to execute a command, the output of which is to be included in the text output? You could make it a FIFO and put a Perl script or something at the other end, if you want dynamically-generated output. [ ... ] Be careful. Really! This approach can come back and bite you in the butt. Basically, be absolutely sure the writer process is started during bootup. Otherwise it'll hang indefinitely when logging in; you need to drop to single-user to fix it. -- Josh TIA Lou -- Louis LeBlanc [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fully Funded Hobbyist, KeySlapper Extrordinaire :) http://www.keyslapper.org ԿԬ Make it right before you make it faster. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: motd question
On 08/26/03 01:20 PM, Joshua Oreman sat at the `puter and typed: On Mon, Aug 25, 2003 at 11:02:55AM -0700 or thereabouts, Joshua Oreman wrote: On Mon, Aug 25, 2003 at 12:37:44PM -0400 or thereabouts, Louis LeBlanc wrote: Probably not possible, but I was wondering (and have for some time, though I can't find any info on it either way) whether /etc/motd is strictly a text in/text out file, or if there is a way to get it to execute a command, the output of which is to be included in the text output? You could make it a FIFO and put a Perl script or something at the other end, if you want dynamically-generated output. [ ... ] Be careful. Really! This approach can come back and bite you in the butt. Basically, be absolutely sure the writer process is started during bootup. Otherwise it'll hang indefinitely when logging in; you need to drop to single-user to fix it. Yeah, I really just wanted to get the output of an alias, but it's not important enough to go through all that for. I just figured it would be a pretty cool - although quite geeky thing to have the real time printed out with each login: The alias is as follows: $ gtime Right now, the official U.S. time is: 16:20:43 Tuesday, August 26, 2003 and it's expansion is: $ alias gtime alias gtime='lynx -dump http://www.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Eastern/d/-5 | head -5' Pretty interesting, but definitely not worth the hassle that would obviously be required. Thanks for the feedback everyone. Lou -- Louis LeBlanc [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fully Funded Hobbyist, KeySlapper Extrordinaire :) http://www.keyslapper.org ԿԬ QOTD: It's sort of a threat, you see. I've never been very good at them myself, but I'm told they can be very effective. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
motd question
Probably not possible, but I was wondering (and have for some time, though I can't find any info on it either way) whether /etc/motd is strictly a text in/text out file, or if there is a way to get it to execute a command, the output of which is to be included in the text output? TIA Lou -- Louis LeBlanc [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fully Funded Hobbyist, KeySlapper Extrordinaire :) http://www.keyslapper.org ԿԬ Make it right before you make it faster. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: motd question
Louis LeBlanc wrote: Probably not possible, but I was wondering (and have for some time, though I can't find any info on it either way) whether /etc/motd is strictly a text in/text out file, or if there is a way to get it to execute a command, the output of which is to be included in the text output? /etc/motd is a text file, and is displayed due to the following section /etc/login.conf: default:\ :passwd_format=md5:\ :copyright=/etc/COPYRIGHT:\ :welcome=/etc/motd:\ FYI, most other flavors of Unix have a cat /etc/motd in the default shell init files. Anyway, if you want to dynamicly generate motd, you could invoke your program via cron or simply put something in /etc/profile which will display whatever it is you want to see (if for all users), or in ~/.profile [ ~/.login, ~/.zlogin, etc] -- -Chuck ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: motd question
On Mon, Aug 25, 2003 at 12:37:44PM -0400 or thereabouts, Louis LeBlanc wrote:
Probably not possible, but I was wondering (and have for some time,
though I can't find any info on it either way) whether /etc/motd is
strictly a text in/text out file, or if there is a way to get it to
execute a command, the output of which is to be included in the text
output?
You could make it a FIFO and put a Perl script or something at the
other end, if you want dynamically-generated output. For example:
--snip--
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use constant FILE = /etc/motd;
use POSIX qw/setsid mkfifo/;
# Comment these if you want it to run in foreground:
exit 0 if fork;
setsid;
while (1) {
unless (-p FILE) {
unlink FILE;
mkfifo FILE, 0644;
}
my $fortune_msg;
open FORTUNE, /usr/bin/env fortune | or die Can't open pipe from fortune:
$!\n;
$fortune_msg .= $_ while FORTUNE;
close FORTUNE;
open FIFO, .FILE or die Can't open .FILE. for writing: $!\n;
print FIFO $fortune_msg;
close FIFO;
sleep 2;
}
--snip--
would generate a `fortune' message every time someone read motd. Run it like so:
# /path/to/fortunemotd.pl
Note that this script will *DELETE YOUR EXISTING MOTD*... back it up first.
If you want to use this for something else, for example a .signature, change
the `use constant FILE = the-file-goes-here-in-quotes' line.
If you have two (or more) of these things running, it can produce unexpected results.
Be careful.
-- Josh
TIA
Lou
--
Louis LeBlanc [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Fully Funded Hobbyist, KeySlapper Extrordinaire :)
http://www.keyslapper.org ԿԬ
Make it right before you make it faster.
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