update-motd(8)

NAME
update-motd - immediately update the dynamic MOTD and print it to stdout

SYNOPSIS
update-motd [--show-only]

DESCRIPTION
The PAM MOTD module updates the Message-of-the-Day automatically on user logins. But sometimes, the system administrator may want to update the MOTD immediately or on demand. This simple program performs the same actions handled by PAM on login, and prints the new MOTD to stdout. Note that only the system administrator can typically write to the MOTD, and thus this utility should be executed as the root user. The program also accepts the --show-only option to not update, just show the MOTD. Regular users can use this option to see the dynamically generated MOTD even when the root user did not generate it in advance. The show-motd package contains the /etc/profile.d/update-motd.sh snipped to show MOTD in interactive shells when the PAM MOTD module did not show it on login. For best practices and additional information, please see update-motd(5).

FILES
/etc/motd, /var/run/motd, /etc/update-motd.d

SEE ALSO
motd(5), pam_motd(8), run-parts(8), update-motd(5)

AUTHOR
This manpage and the update-motd framework was written by Dustin Kirkland <dustin.kirkland@gmail.com> for Ubuntu systems (but may be used by others). Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 3 published by the Free Software Foundation. On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL.