Run TTY script every time I open a GUI terminal

Question

When I log in to a TTY I get the following nice text:

Ubuntu 16.04.03 LTS
Log-in: username
Password:
Last log-in date/time
Welcome to Ubuntu 16.04.03 LTS

 * Documentation:
 * Management:
 * Support:

9 packages to update
4 updates are security updates

I would like the last 2 lines repeated every time I open a GUI terminal for all users in the adm group (but will settle for having the entire thing displayed each and every time I open a GUI Terminal for all users)

I tried the obvious:

fab-root@fab-ux-predator:~
$ cd /etc/update-motd.d/
fab-root@fab-ux-predator:/etc/update-motd.d
$ ./90-updates-available 
fab-root@fab-ux-predator:/etc/update-motd.d
$ cat /var/lib/update-notifier/updates-available
cat: /var/lib/update-notifier/updates-available: Permission denied
fab-root@fab-ux-predator:/etc/update-motd.d
$

What am I missing?

P.S. Obviously I can chmod o+r the file, but how future-proof would that be?

Feature of updates-available creation by /usr/lib/update-notifier/update-motd-updates-available ? — stumblebee, Jan 29 '18 at 22:44

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 30 '18 at 01:04

4

It is a bit slow but it will generate the package/update information. Append this to the users .bashrc file:

/usr/lib/update-notifier/apt-check --human-readable

edited Jan 30 '18 at 01:04

muru

197,895
55
485
740

answered Jan 30 '18 at 00:06

stumblebee

3,547

Going to try both solutions tonight... Upvoted both already. – Fabby Jan 30 '18 at 19:54
Sorry for not coming back yet, but there haven't been any updateable packages yet... – Fabby Feb 01 '18 at 19:33
@Fabby Thorough testing is a good thing. Haste is not very forgiving :-) – stumblebee Feb 02 '18 at 18:02
I tested, and on my machine with the OS running on an SSD with not too many packages installed, it runs<1sec. :-) Looking good! – Fabby Feb 02 '18 at 18:14
@Fabby There user will probably hardly notice the delay if it is preceded with a fortune. – stumblebee Feb 02 '18 at 20:03

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 30 '18 at 01:07

2

The entire output is in /run/motd.dynamic:

$ grep motd /etc/pam.d -R
/etc/pam.d/sshd:# This includes a dynamically generated part from /run/motd.dynamic
/etc/pam.d/sshd:# and a static (admin-editable) part from /etc/motd.
/etc/pam.d/sshd:session    optional     pam_motd.so  motd=/run/motd.dynamic
/etc/pam.d/sshd:session    optional     pam_motd.so noupdate
/etc/pam.d/login:# This includes a dynamically generated part from /run/motd.dynamic
/etc/pam.d/login:# and a static (admin-editable) part from /etc/motd.
/etc/pam.d/login:session    optional   pam_motd.so motd=/run/motd.dynamic
/etc/pam.d/login:session    optional   pam_motd.so noupdate

So, in your .bashrc, you could append:

[[ -r /run/motd.dynamic ]] && cat /run/motd.dynamic

Or:

[[ -r /run/motd.dynamic ]] && grep update /run/motd.dynamic

answered Jan 30 '18 at 01:07

muru

197,895
55
485
740

Does this file only get updated when someone logs in? – stumblebee Jan 30 '18 at 01:16
Seems so: https://askubuntu.com/q/105689/158442 – muru Jan 30 '18 at 01:19
... so opening a new terminal will show stale information if no one has logged in recently :-(. – Stephen Kitt Jan 30 '18 at 07:42
That's already better than what I currently have! @StephenKitt – Fabby Jan 30 '18 at 19:53
@StephenKitt Fabby can probably set up a cron job to force update the MOTD every day or so. The scripts generating the MOTD will add a noticeable delay to shell startup if run every time. – muru Jan 31 '18 at 04:37
@muru yes, or perhaps better, as an apt hook... – Stephen Kitt Jan 31 '18 at 05:19
Sorry for not coming back yet, but there haven't been any updateable packages yet... – Fabby Feb 01 '18 at 19:33
@Fabby Meh. I've seen TTAs (time-to-accept) of more than 1.5 years. This is nothing. – muru Feb 02 '18 at 01:06
Sorry Muru, but Stumblebee's solution worked better for me :( – Fabby Feb 13 '18 at 19:45

Run TTY script every time I open a GUI terminal

2 Answers2

Linked

Related