J.K.Wight@newcastle.ac.uk (Jim Wight) (07/19/90)
> During the normal login sequence, /bin/login will dump /etc/motd to > the terminal, say whether or not you have mail, then start up the > shell. (Ok, I've omitted a couple details...) > > But, when one of our novice users logs in through xdm and starts up a > login xterm, (s)he will never see /etc/motd. (The default setup is a > single large login xterm, so even folks with x-phobia can make some > use of them as terminals...) > > So, would it be reasonable to augment xterm (yet again) to dump > /etc/motd (among other things) into its window before starting a login > shell? Anyone have a patch for it? > > I've got a crude hack set up in /etc/.login (sourced before ~/.cshrc > and ~/.login) right now - if "WINDOWID" is set it cats /etc/motd. > > Any better ideas? I've implemented this by testing within xdm's Xsession script for the existence of an motd file and displaying it in a window. Session startup only continues once the window has been dismissed. I make use of Xsession rather than Xstartup because I provide a hushlogin feature which creates or modifies a file in the user's home directory. I wrote my own InterViews program to display the file but I believe that xmessage could do much the same job. I look for the motd file in the xdm directory as the scheme is designed for a bunch of diskless workstations. Jim --- J.K.Wight@newcastle.ac.uk Computing Laboratory, University of Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 91 222 8238