I edited the default /etc/update-motd.d/00-header, adding some color to make it easier to read:
printf "Welcome to e[1;34m%se[0m e[2m(%s %s %s)e[0mn" "$DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION" "$(uname -o)" "$(uname -r)" "$(uname -m)"
I can run that line of code just fine in a terminal, but when I edit 00-header with this information, I get the escape codes printed out in plaintext:
Welcome to e[1;36mUbuntu 13.10e[0m e[2m(GNU/Linux 3.11.0-23-generic i686)e[0m
How can I add a splash of color to the message of the day?
Answers:
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Method 1
Assuming you are on Ubuntu – which uses dash to run system scripts:
That file, /etc/update-motd.d/00-header, is executed by /bin/dash, (not /bin/bash,) which is pretty minimalistic (and fast) –
it seems to not support the “e” in this place – use “33” instead.
It is different in when to expand escape codes.
Method 2
On Debian/Ubuntu the motd is configured in /etc/pam.d/sshd:
session optional pam_motd.so motd=/run/motd.dynamic session optional pam_motd.so noupdate
which means that upon successful login the system will run something like:
cat /run/motd.dynamic if [[ -f /etc/motd ]]; then cat /etc/motd; fi
where /etc/motd is the static part (only printed, not sourced).
Debian 9 / Ubuntu 16.04:
For generating the dynamic part run-parts is used for /etc/update-motd.d directory:
/usr/bin/env -i PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin run-parts --lsbsysinit /etc/update-motd.d
For slightly more readable code you can use tput setaf {color number}. Note that to preserve colors we have to set TERM variable.
#!/bin/sh
export TERM=xterm-256color
read one five fifteen rest < /proc/loadavg
echo "$(tput setaf 2)
Kernel: `uname -v | awk -v OFS=' ' '{print $4, $5}'`
$(tput setaf 4)Load Averages......: ${one}, ${five}, ${fifteen} (1, 5, 15 min)
$(tput setaf 5)
______________
< Hello World! >
--------------
\ ^__^
\ (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||
$(tput sgr0)"
save the file as e.g. /etc/update-motd.d/10-uname
and make sure it’s executable:
chmod +x /etc/update-motd.d/10-uname
Basic colors are numbered:
- 1 – Red
- 2 – Green
- 3 – Yellow
- 4 – Blue
- 5 – Magenta
- 6 – Cyan
- 7 – White
The code above generate:
Depending on your taste you can produce more colorful output using lolcat or headings from figlet. Generated output uses standard bash syntax:
^[(B^[[m
^[[32m
Kernel: 4.9.65-3+deb9u2 (2018-01-04)
^[[34mLoad Averages......: 0.04, 0.05, 0.05 (1, 5, 15 min)
^[[35m
______________
< Hello World! >
--------------
^__^
(oo)_______
(__) )/
||----w |
|| ||
^[(B^[[m
Debian 8 / Ubuntu 14.04
The dynamic part is updated using /etc/init.d/motd start that executes following:
uname -snrvm > /var/run/motd.dynamic
All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0