Re: motd handling in jessie
Josh Triplett <josh@joshtriplett.org> writes:
> 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?
I do feel like we're losing some value by not showing users the uname
information by default, and I'd like to still see us update that at boot.
I certainly agree that running shell code from PAM by default is not a
good idea.
That said, by far the best way to handle MOTD is to write out a static
file using whatever configuration management system you're using, based on
all the information that it gathers about the system (via something like
ohai or facter). That lets you flesh out the MOTD with lots of details
that are actually interesting. But that's not something Debian needs to
be doing; each site can handle that.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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