/etc/motd
I have been using Linux for many years, but only recently found out about /etc/motd
. When you SSH into a server, it displays a message that varies depending on your Linux distribution. For instance, a stock Debian installation looks like this:
The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software; the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by applicable law. Last login: Wed Sep 14 23:38:34 2016 user@hostname:~#
/etc/motd
. I believe this stands for "message of the day". This means that you can have this message say anything that you would like by editing the contents of /etc/motd
. For example, you can use this Text to ASCII generator to put the hostname of your server in stunning ASCII text and make it look like this:
Levs-MacBook-Pro:~ levlaz$ ssh dev.levops.net _ _ _ __| | _____ _| | _____ _____ _ __ ___ _ __ ___| |_ / _` |/ _ \ \ / / |/ _ \ \ / / _ \| '_ \/ __| | '_ \ / _ \ __| | (_| | __/\ V /| | __/\ V / (_) | |_) \__ \_| | | | __/ |_ \__,_|\___| \_(_)_|\___| \_/ \___/| .__/|___(_)_| |_|\___|\__| |_|dev:~#
/etc/update-motd.d/
directory on a standard install.
Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.
Check out some more stuff to read down below.
Most popular posts this month
- 2024
- Reinstalling Windows at 1am
- SQLite DB Migrations with PRAGMA user_version
- My Custom Miniflux CSS Theme
- How to Disable Wayland in Debian Testing
Recent Favorite Blog Posts
This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.
- The AGI economy is coming faster than you think from Freethink
- Rolling the ladder up behind us from Xe Iaso's blog
- In Praise of “Normal” Engineers from charity.wtf
- Reports of Bluesky's death have been greatly exaggerated from The Torment Nexus
- What Would a Kubernetes 2.0 Look Like from matduggan.com
- We Can Just Measure Things from Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings
- The Gentle Singularity from Sam Altman
- Whale Watching from https://popagandhi.com/
Articles from blogs I follow around the net
How Many Mildliner Colours Are There Now?
I made a mildliner reference site to keep track of all the colours
via Robb Knight • Posts • Atom Feed June 27, 2025Resupply stablecoin lender exploited for $9.3 million
An attacker was able to exploit a vulnerability in a smart contract used by the Resupply stablecoin lender to extract about $9.3 million from the project. After depositing around $200,000, they were able to inflate the price of anoth…
via Web3 is Going Just Great June 27, 2025Self-driving is finally happening
I still remember how the car industry got all excited back in 2017 about how steering wheels would soon be obsolete. Every concept car then was a living room on wheels, seats facing inwards. The self-driving revolution was imminent, they said. Well, it …
via David Heinemeier Hansson June 27, 2025Generated by openring