[SunHELP] Issue/motd

[Magnus Abrante]

> Anyone found any good programs for sending login messages
> to users when they logon. Just system specific advice
> and info. I curreently put stuff in /etc/motd
> but that I believe is only read if they start an xterm
> with the 'xterm -ls' option.
> 
> 
> Is there some little piece of software that will alert
> people to messages from the admin independents of whether they
> are using X, which X they are using etc??

Well, /etc/motd is read when a user logs in, and starting a xterm
with the -ls option will invoke the users shell as if the user logged in.

If you wish to send a message to everyone currently logged onto a machine
you can use the "wall" command, this command will however send the message
to all open terminals which corsponds to a login (aka people who have 
performed a rlogin, telnet and to the console of the people who are logged
on via X or such). If you use the "-a" options it will be sent to all 
pseudo-terminals as well (aka xterms etc), which of course can be a bit
annoying from the users point of view. :)

However i do not know any good tool which pops up a window with a message,
this might be a bit trickier to do since you have to own the display, or at 
least have permissions to write to it.
Unless you are running Sun Rays, where you have a command called "utwall" 
which can do that (or play an audiofile on the sunrays, among other things). 

    //Magnus Abrante
/* This is my opinion and not the one of my employer */