motd or login banner per user

maginotjr · 01-26-2009, 07:48 AM

Hi...

I want to show for each user that login through ssh an specific message, like a todo list for that specific user, I know that I can user /etc/motd or /etc/issue to display a message system wide but I don't know how to do the same only for an specific user...
can anyone help me on that?

thkx!
[ ]ś

tredegar · 01-26-2009, 07:56 AM

At the end of each user's ~/.bashrc file you could put cat ~/todolist

colucix · 01-26-2009, 08:43 AM

In alternative to what suggested by tredegar (which is an excellent advice, anyway) you can create a directory under /etc containing custom welcome messages for each users and put the username in the name of each file. For example:

Code:

# ls /etc/welcome
welcome_colucix     welcome_maginotjr     welcome_tredegar

then in /etc/bashrc (or equivalent) add the following line at the end

Code:

test $TERM == xterm && cat /etc/welcome/welcome_$USER

in this way you can mantain your list of MOTD without writing in each user's home directory every time you have to change them.

maginotjr · 01-26-2009, 08:52 AM

thank you guys, very good advices!

best regards and thks again,
[ ]'s

rweaver · 01-26-2009, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maginotjr

thank you guys, very good advices!

best regards and thks again,
[ ]'s

One last point, make sure you put in some kind of check to see if the file exists before attempting to display it or your users will see errors (colucix did this with test, just make sure you include a similar mechanism.)

maginotjr · 01-26-2009, 09:13 AM

Code:

if [ -f /etc/motd.d/${USER} ]; then
     cat /etc/motd.d/${USER};
fi

rweaver · 01-26-2009, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maginotjr

Code:

if [ -f /etc/motd.d/${USER} ]; then
     cat /etc/motd.d/${USER};
fi

Yeap!

sebasyan · 11-19-2009, 12:41 PM

Hey guys, do you know how to avoid printing the motd banner after successfull ftp login?

Thanks,

Sebas

rweaver · 11-19-2009, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sebasyan

Hey guys, do you know how to avoid printing the motd banner after successfull ftp login?

Thanks,

Sebas

That would depend on what ftp server you're using. Some don't print the motd banner at all and some use a special banner in the ftp root or a different file entirely.

What ftp daemon are you using?

centuren · 03-09-2012, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tredegar

At the end of each user's ~/.bashrc file you could put cat ~/todolist

Putting this in a user's ~/.bashrc file will the output on every new instance of bash (including sudo bash) rather than just on connect. Using ~/.profile instead is a better option, if this is a desired approach (e.g. someone wants a nice msg when connection to a system on which they have no admin access).