/etc/motd

September 14, 2016 | linux | ubuntu |

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:~#

I never thought to look at where this message comes from, but apparently it lives in /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:~#

This is pretty neat! You can also do some fancy things like Ubuntu does and make this message change depending on various events such as security updates being available or a server restart being required. You can explore the scripts that Ubuntu uses in the /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

Recent Favorite Blog Posts

This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.

No-One Escapes the Permanent Underclass from Fernando Borretti
Is it ethical to use AI? from charity.wtf
The logical destination of LLMs from Andy Bell
Revised rules of engineering leadership. from Irrational Exuberance
The circus freaks of open source from Drew DeVault's blog
Clanker: A Word For The Machine from Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings
I ran a half-marathon! from gluecko.se
My Running Tips from Kevin Bell's Blog

Articles from blogs I follow around the net

Art Doesn't Scale

Listening to two acquaintances argue about if AI art is "art" is not a new experience for me, the now eternal debate between Doomer and Boomer. In this particular context, I'm listening to it as I wait for my surprisingly expensive iced latte in downtown C...

via matduggan.com July 17, 2026

Cherry Blossom

I'll spend the day, make her a mixtape

via elusive wordsmith July 17, 2026

i can finally talk about something i worked on!

It feels like it was about 18 months ago, but could be as long as three years ago, that my friend told me about a TV show he was developing. It was a brilliant idea, I thought. A science fiction action comedy? YES PLEASE. It was funny, and clever, and...

via WIL WHEATON dot NET July 16, 2026

Generated by openring