motd question

[Chuck Swiger]

Louis LeBlanc wrote:
> Probably not possible, but I was wondering (and have for some time,
> though I can't find any info on it either way) whether /etc/motd is
> strictly a text in/text out file, or if there is a way to get it to
> execute a command, the output of which is to be included in the text
> output?

/etc/motd is a text file, and is displayed due to the following section 
/etc/login.conf:

default:\
         :passwd_format=md5:\
         :copyright=/etc/COPYRIGHT:\
         :welcome=/etc/motd:\

FYI, most other flavors of Unix have a "cat /etc/motd" in the default shell init 
files.  Anyway, if you want to dynamicly generate motd, you could invoke your 
program via cron or simply put something in /etc/profile which will display 
whatever it is you want to see (if for all users), or in ~/.profile [ ~/.login, 
~/.zlogin, etc]....

-- 
-Chuck