This is the README for MOTD.NI.bs.tar.gz [Download] [Browse] [Up]
CHANGES FOR 3.0
The MOTD application no longer updates the /usr/adm/wtmp and /usr/adm/lastlog
files. This deficiency in Workspace has been corrected in 3.0. Thus, there
is no longer a LogoutHook component. You'll want to:
dremove loginwindow LogoutHook
if you were previously using the '/usr/local/bin/LogoutHook' component.
You should also do:
dwrite loginwindow LoginHook /LocalApps/MOTD.app/MOTD
to change the LoginHook from 'LocalApps/MOTD' to '/LocalApps/MOTD.app/MOTD'.
MOTD now handles '*.rtfd' files but it no longer assumes that if the first
character of a file is {, then it is in RTF format. It now only looks at
file name extensions (*.rtf & *.rtfd) to determine if a file contains RTF.
MOTD no longer uses the files mail.snd and newmail.snd on the
/LocalLibrary/Sounds directory (these *.snd files contained the "You have mail"
and "You have new mail" voice alerts). Instead, it contains localizable
sound files in the MOTD.app application bundle itself.
The system defaults have been moved from the MOTD.h to the file
Defaults.strings in the MOTD.app application bundle.
DESCRIPTION
The MOTD application (designed to run as a LoginHook under loginwindow or
be launched) displays the contents of the file /etc/motd (or any file you
choose) in a window when a user logs on. By default, the application checks
the modification date of the file against the user's last login time (as
recorded in /usr/adm/wtmp) and does nothing if the file hasn't changed.
The MOTD window has three buttons, one to hold the window on the screen
(it goes away automatically in 25 seconds--the hold button displays the
count down), another to quit (and proceed with the login) and a third to
cancel the login (only enabled if MOTD is run as a LoginHook). MOTD also
implements a Mail Alert panel which appears if there is unread mail. The
panel automatically goes away (in a couple of seconds) if there isn't a
new /etc/motd message.
To get an idea of what MOTD does (without installing it), as root do:
#touch /etc/motd
#MOTD
When used as a LoginHook, the window appears over a blank screen just as
the user logs in. MOTD supports RTF.
INSTALLATION
To install MOTD as a LoginHook, put it on /LocalApps, and as root do:
dwrite loginwindow LoginHook /LocalApps/MOTD.app/MOTD
alternatively, the file /etc/ttys can be modified to include the -LoginHook
arguments to loginwindow.
You may want to consider commenting out the following lines in
/usr/adm/monthly that trim the wtmp and lastlog files or else users may see
messages they've read over again and the loging information won't be correct:
# Trim the lastlog
# cp -p /usr/adm/lastlog /usr/adm/lastlog.old
# cat /dev/null > /usr/adm/lastlog
# Trim wtmp
# cp -p /usr/adm/wtmp /usr/adm/wtmp.old
# cat /dev/null > /usr/adm/wtmp
You may want to come up with some less frequent scheme for triming the wtmp
file. A program that can do this, trimwtmp.c, is included and can be added
to the /usr/adm/monthly cleanup. See the trimwtmp.c file for details.
Finally, restart the window server (login as EXIT or reboot) for this to
take effect. Update /etc/motd as appropriate.
If you don't want to make MOTD a requirement for users, then don't make it
a LoginHook but instead have interested users add it to their dock and set
it launch at startup using the 'Preferences...' panel of Workspace.
DEFAULTS
MOTD has the following defaults that can be changed (if used as a LoginHook,
they have to be changed in root's defaults database):
File -- The file to display, defaults to /etc/motd.
Wait -- The amount of time to display File, defaults to 25 seconds.
MailWait -- The amount of time to display mail alert, defaults to 2
seconds.
Hold -- Whether or not (Yes or No) to come up held, No by default. If
Yes then the Hold button won't appear.
OnlyOnce -- Whether or not (Yes or No) to check file date, Yes by default.
If No, displays file on every login.
The defaults can be changed via root's defaults database or by editing their
values in the Defaults.strings file in the MOTD.app application bundle.
MOTD also uses the SystemAlert default of the System entry in the defaults
database to control voice messages on the mail alerts. This value can be
set (by root if MOTD is a LoginHook) via the 'Use Voice Alerts' checkbox in
the Preferences application. You may need to force an entry for SystemAlert
by cycling the 'Use Voice Alerts' checkbox (turning off and on the check
mark) as root's defaults database may not contain an entry for SystemAlert
even though the checkbox is selected.
FILE FORMAT
The File is assumed to be any plain text format acceptable to a ScrollView.
MOTD also recognizes the 'rtf' and 'rtfd' file extensions as RTF (rich text
format) files and displays them as such. If you use RTF files with MOTD, it
is probably best to create separate files, motd and motd.rtf, and change
the File default above to use the motd.rtf (or motd.rtfd) file (dwrite the
new File default as root if MOTD is a LoginHook):
dwrite MOTD File /etc/motd.rtf
This prevents network logins being presented with the RTF structured text.
DIAGNOSTICS
MOTD is designed to run as a LoginHook for the loginwindow program and thus
always tries to return success (0), even on error, so that the user can
still log in if the program runs into trouble. The 'Cancel Login' button
causes the program to exit with failure (1) and abort the login.
BUGS
MOTD determines that a file is in RTF format based on its extension and
doesn't look at content.
An affirmative database value for Hold and OnlyOnce can be 'Yes' , YES' or
'yes' but not 'true' . Anything not starting with Y/y is considered 'No'.
The console device that MOTD enters into the wtmp file is hardcoded in
MOTD_main.m since basename(ttyname(0)) didn't work in the context of a
LoginHook.
The timeout should probably be a function of the number of lines of text
in the file being displayed.
AUTHORS
Christopher Lane (lane@sumex-aim.stanford.edu)
Symbolic Systems Resources Group
Knowledge Systems Laboratory
Stanford University
Izumi Ohzawa (izumi@violet.berkeley.edu)
Group in Neurobiology/School of Optometry
University of California, Berkeley
Steve Hayman (sahayman@cs.indiana.edu)
Computer Science Department Workstation Manager
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.