MotD Generator for displaying custom system information

Idea

This tool displays useful system information after logging into a Linux system (or Windows with FireMotD.ps1), such as version, CPU information, memory, disk information, number of updates, and many more useful things.

Screenshots

Digipolis:

Elastic:

Eline:

Modern:

Blue:

Red:

Gray:

Original:

Powershell:

Status

Production ready. Making sysadmins happy since 2014.

How To

Please check https://outsideit.net/firemotd for more information on how to use this plugin.

Help

In case you find a bug or have a feature request, please make an issue on GitHub.

Install Dependencies

Using yum

sudo yum install bc sysstat jq moreutils

Using apt-get

sudo apt-get install bc sysstat jq moreutils

Usage Help

Usage:
 FireMotD [-v] -t <Theme Name>
 FireMotD [-v] -C ['String']
 FireMotD [-vhVs]

Options:
   -h  | --help               			Shows this help and exits
   -v  | --verbose            			Verbose mode (shows messages)
   -V  | --version            			Shows version information and exits
   -t  | --theme <Theme Name> 			Shows Motd info on screen, based on the chosen theme
   -TF | --TemplateFile <Path to template> 	Shows theme based on json templates
   -C  | --colortest          			Prints color test to screen
   -M  | --colormap           			Prints color test to screen, with color numbers in it
   -S  | --save               			Saves data to /var/tmp/FireMotD.json
  -HV  | --hideversion        			Hides version number
 -sru  | --skiprepoupdate     			Skip the repository package update (apt only)

256-color themes:
 original
 modern
 gray
 orange
 invader

16-color themes:
 red
 blue
 clean

HTML theme:
 html

Examples:
 FireMotD -t original
 FireMotD -t html > /tmp/motd.html
 FireMotD -TF FireMotD-theme-Elastic.json
 FireMotD --theme Modern
 FireMotD --colortest
 FireMotD -M
 sudo FireMotD --saveupdates

Note:
 Some functionalities may require superuser privileges. Eg. check for updates.
 If you have problems, try something like:
 sudo FireMotD -S

System Install

You need to have make installed on the system, if you want to use the Makefile.

To install to /usr/local/bin/FireMotD

sudo make install

With this you can probably run FireMotD from anywhere in your system. If not, you need to add /usr/local/bin to your $PATH variable. To adjust the installation path, change the var IDIR=/usr/local/bin in the Makefile to the path you want.

To install bash autocompletion support

sudo make bash_completion

With this you can use TAB to autocomplete parameters and options with FireMotD. Does not require the sudo make install above (system install), but requires the bash-completion package to be installed and working. Then you should logout-login or source the bash completion file, eg. $ . /etc/bash_completion.d/FireMotD

If you don't have root access, just install everything on your user's folder and source the file from your user's .profile file

Crontab to get system information

Root privilege is required for this operation. Only /etc/crontab and the files in /etc/cron.d/ have a username field.

The recommended way to generate /var/tmp/FireMotD.json is by creating a separate cron file for firemotd like this:

sudo vim /etc/cron.d/firemotd
# FireMotD system updates check (randomly execute between 0:00:00 and 5:59:59)
0 0 * * * root perl -e 'sleep int(rand(21600))' && /usr/local/bin/FireMotD -S &>/dev/null

But you can also put it in root's crontab (without the user field):

sudo crontab -e
# FireMotD system updates check (randomly execute between 0:00:00 and 5:59:59)
0 0 * * * perl -e 'sleep int(rand(21600))' && /usr/local/bin/FireMotD -S &>/dev/null

Apt configuration to update updates count

On systems with apt (Debian, Ubuntu, ...) add the following configuration lines to refresh the updates count after an apt action (install, remove, ...) was performed.

Create the apt configuration file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/15firemotd containing:

DPkg::Post-Invoke {
  "if [ -x /usr/local/bin/FireMotD ]; then echo -n 'Updating FireMotD available updates count ... '; /usr/local/bin/FireMotD -sru -S; echo ''; fi";
};

Adding FireMotD to run on login

Choosing where to run your script is kind of situational. Some files will only run on remote logins, other local logins, or even both. You should find out what suits best your needs on each case.

To add FireMotD to a single user

Edit the user's ~/.profile file, ~/.bash_profile file, or the ~/.bashrc file

nano ~/.profile

Add the FireMotD call at the end of the file (choose your theme)

/usr/local/bin/FireMotD -t red

To add FireMotD to all users

You may call FireMotD from a few different locations for running globally.
Eg./etc/bash.bashrc, /etc/profile.

You may also create a initialization script init.sh which will call the FireMotD script in /etc/profile.d when logging in. You can put whatever you like in this init.sh script. Everything in it will be executed at the moment someone logs in your system. Example:

#!/bin/bash
 
/usr/local/bin/FireMotD --Theme Red

On Nagios Exchange

https://exchange.nagios.org/directory/Utilities/FireMotD/details

Copyright

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.