MOTD.TAIL(5)		 Debian Administrators Manual		 MOTD.TAIL(5)



NAME
       motd.tail - Template for building the system message of the day

DESCRIPTION
       On  Debian  systems,  the  system message of the day is rebuilt at each
       startup, in order to display an accurate information. /etc/motd.tail is
       the file to edit permanent changes to the message of the day.

OVERVIEW
       The  initiation script /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh prepends a line contain
       ing information about the  system  to  /etc/motd.tail  and  stores  the
       resulting  file	in  /var/run/motd.  /etc/motd  is  a  symbolic link to
       /var/run/motd.  This is done to prevent changes to /etc as  the	system
       can not assume /etc to be writable.

       Changes	to /etc/motd effectively end up in a file under /var/run which
       will be regenerated upon reboot.

       A symbolic link to a different file, such as /etc/motd.static  disables
       this behaviour.

FILES
       /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh
	      The initiation script which builds /var/run/motd

       /etc/motd
	      Symbolic link to the system message of the day at /var/run/motd

       /etc/motd.tail
	      Template for building the system message of the day

       /var/run/motd
	      System message of the day file rebuilt at each computer start

SEE ALSO
       login(1), issue(5), motd(5).



Debian				  2007-04-28			  MOTD.TAIL(5)