Re: motd handling in jessie

[Josh Triplett <josh@joshtriplett.org>]

Michael Biebl wrote:
> I'm also no longer convinced, that running a huge shell machinery (as
> root) during login via PAM is a good idea.

Agreed.

> If we go the update-motd route, I'd like to see the update-motd calls be
> removed from login (and boot) and instead have the dynamic part of
> /etc/motd be updated via a cron job.

Please, no.  Under normal circumstances, the only dynamic bit of the
motd comes from uname, and only changes on reboot; updating it via cron
just wastes cycles and adds noise to syslog.

I'm not particularly convinced that even the existing uname line has
much value.  So what about this: why don't we move all of that machinery
to an update-motd package or similar (priority optional), which can hook
into PAM as desired to display its message, and have the default motd of
the base system be completely static, with nothing run at boot *or*
login?

- Josh Triplett