Provided by: xmotd_1.17.3b-8_amd64 bug

NAME

       xmotd - message-of-the-day browser for X (and dumb terminals, VT100, etc.)

SYNOPSIS

       xmotd [X-toolkit options] [xmotd-options] file [file2 ... ]

       xmotd [X-toolkit options] [xmotd-options] directory

       or (in text-mode)

       xmotd [-stampfile stamp-file] [-wakeup sleep-period] file [file2 ...]

DESCRIPTION

       xmotd  is  a  utility program (for X11 and dumb terminals) that can be executed during the
       login process to  display  pertinent  messages  (i.e.  the  message  of  the  day)  or  to
       periodically  check,  while  the user is logged in, whether one or more message files have
       been modified and display them if they have. Under X11, it displays a customizable  bitmap
       in  the  top-left  corner.  It provides for up to 3 lines of title-text (the length of the
       text depends on the size of the font chosen). It has a "Dismiss" button below  the  bitmap
       and  a  read-only text-widget that displays the message (or messages) of the day. The date
       of the message (and optionally, the filename) is displayed just above the text.

       xmotd can be configured to run in various modes: to always pop-up after login or to pop-up
       only  when the motd changes; to pop-down automatically (without user-intervention) after a
       specified delay; to run in the background and periodically check if the motd  has  changed
       and display it. By default, xmotd displays a message only if the file(s) was updated since
       the last time the user read it.

       If xmotd has to display more than one file,  the  user  is  obliged  to  press  the  "Next
       Message"  button  to view subsequent messages; the text of the button changes to "Dismiss"
       when the last message is displayed.

       xmotd defaults to text-only mode (output to stdout when it cannot connect to an X display.
       This  mode  is  useful for running xmotd from user's ~/.login file in cases where they can
       also login via dialup.

       This version of xmotd cannot display messages marked-up with HTML and  xpm  colour  pixmap
       logos,  because the code that provided that functionality does not comply with Debian Free
       Software Guidelines.

OPERATION

       xmotd is usually run from the system Xsession file via xdm(1), CDE login and/or  from  the
       user's  ~/.login  file.  At  sites where xdm is not used, xmotd may be run from the user's
       ~/.xinitrc where a (possibly) malicious user may intentionally or  accidently  remove  the
       xmotd invocation from the file.

       When  xmotd  first  runs,  it  creates a timestamp file (by default called .xmotd ) in the
       user's home-directory. On subsequent invocations, xmotd uses the  date  of  this  file  to
       decide  whether  or not the message-of-the-day (motd) files have been updated. If the date
       of the motd file is later than the date on the ~/.xmotd file, then xmotd will display  the
       motd file; otherwise it will silently exit (if there are no more files to be displayed and
       if -wakeup was not used). When invoked with -wakeup, xmotd daemonizes itself and  goes  to
       sleep  for  the  specified  sleep-period,  periodically waking-up to see if the motds have
       changed and then displaying them.

       By default, xmotd pops-down only when the "Dismiss" button is clicked;  the  rest  of  the
       login-procedure then continues. This interactive behaviour can be overridden so xmotd will
       pop-down without user intervention, after a specified timeout period.

OPTIONS

       All the standard X options are valid. In addition, the following options, which  may  also
       be set as resources in the app-defaults file (See RESOURCES), are available:

       -always

               overrides  xmotd  default  behavior;  the  ~/.xmotd  time-stamp is ignored and the
               message (or messages) is always displayed. Zero-length (empty) files are displayed
               when this option is specified.

       -atom atom-name

               register  xmotd  with name atom-name. By default, only one xmotd is allowed to run
               (per user). You can permit multiple instances of  xmotd  to  run  by  giving  each
               instance  an  unique  name.   xmotd  will  intern  an atom with the X server, that
               combines the atom-name and the user's login-id (e.g.  "xmotd.elf"  ;  the  default
               atom  name  is  "xmotd");  subsequent invocations of xmotd will check if this atom
               exists and exit if it does.

       -bitmaplogo bitmap-filename

               specifies that the bitmap bitmap-filename is to  be  displayed  in  place  of  the
               default  bitmap,  the "X" logo.  Ideally, the specified bitmap should have a width
               and height of 100 pixels. If xpm support is compiled-in, xpm colour pixmaps may be
               substituted instead. See NOTES for additional details.

       -help

               displays command-line options usage.

       -paranoid

               (used  with -warnfile) displays the warning message unconditionally at every login
               (even when there are no messages to be displayed).

       -popdown timeout

               exit or pop-down without user intervention, timeout seconds after  being  invoked.
               The  user  can  dismiss  xmotd  at any time before the timeout, by clicking on the
               "Dismiss" button. This option is only valid at the initial login; it is ignored on
               subsequent pop-ups when xmotd is invoked with -wakeup.

       -showfilename

               displays  the  filename  of  the file currently being viewed (as it appears on the
               command-line), alongside the date.

       -stampfile stamp-filename

               overrides the  default  timestamp  filename,  ~/.xmotd,  and  uses  stamp-filename
               instead.

       -tail

               display  the  end  of a file; the text is automatically scrolled so the end of the
               file is visible.

       -usedomains

               uses local domain-name based time-stamping in cases where user's  home-directories
               are  shared  (NFS  mounted)  across various domains.  Time-stamps are created (and
               checked) with appropriate domain-names appended.

       -warnfile warning-filename

               specifies a file  containing  a  standard  message  used  to  warn  users  of  the
               consequences  of deviance and sundry unlawful things they should not even think of
               doing on your network; your network's rules of use, information about disk quotas,
               modem charges and printer accounting fees (used with -paranoid).

       -wakeup sleep-period

               causes  xmotd  to run in the background and wakeup periodically every sleep-period
               hours to check whether the files have been  modified  and  therefore  need  to  be
               (re-)displayed. The sleep period is specified as a floating point number where the
               fractional portion indicates the number of minutes. For example, a sleep-period of
               0.25  indicates  15  minutes  (one  quarter  of an hour) and a sleep-period of 1.5
               indicates one and one-half hours; the minimum (enforced) sleep-period is 1 minute.
               The -wakeup option is useful at sites where users with personal workstations never
               log-out. See NOTES for additional details.

       file [file2 ... ]

               one or more files to be displayed may be specified. The file(s) contain  the  text
               of the message(s) of the day. If HTML support is compiled-in the motd files should
               be marked-up with HTML.

       directory

               Instead of supplying one or more files on the command-line, xmotd may be  supplied
               a  directory containing file(s) to be displayed. xmotd will scan the directory and
               display all the files contained therein, that need to be displayed.  This  feature
               is  useful  when  used with the -wakeup option; upon waking-up, xmotd will re-scan
               the directory for any files (including  new  files  that  have  been  subsequently
               added) that need to be displayed.

EXAMPLES

       Give xmotd a geometry option to tell it to pop-up at a location other than 0,0 and read-in
       the message-of-the-day from the file /usr/local/motd:

          xmotd -geometry +20+20 /usr/local/motd

       Use a bigger window (900x600) and automatically position it (at top-left corner at 20,20),
       always  pop-up  xmotd  displaying  the  contents  of  /usr/local/motd, ignoring the user's
       ~/.xmotd timestamp-file and pop-down after 20 seconds:

          xmotd -geom 900x600+20+20 -always -popdown 20 /usr/local/motd

       Use a custom bitmap in the file /usr/local/xmotd.bm:

          xmotd -geom +5+5 -bitmaplogo /usr/local/xmotd.bm /usr/local/motd

       In the following example, all the  files  in  /usr/local/messages/  will  be  checked  for
       modification  times greater than the time-stamp and only those files will be displayed and
       every eight and a half hours, xmotd will check if any files  have  changed  (or  new  ones
       added) and display them if necessary:

          xmotd -geom +5+5 -wakeup 8.5 /usr/local/messages/

       To display a warning-message every time the user logs-in (even when no messages need to be
       displayed), and to display the filenames of the files being viewed, use:

          xmotd -geom +5+5 -warnfile /usr/local/WARNING -paranoid \
             -showfilename /usr/local/motds/

       X resources may be changed from the command-line  using  the  -xrm  option.  This  example
       (typed  as  a  single  line)  illustrates how xmotd can be customized exclusively from the
       command-line:

           xmotd -always \
               -xrm "*title.label: Top 10 Disk Hogs\n As of midnight\n " \
               -xrm "*title.foreground: yellow" \
               -xrm "*form.background: red" \
               -xrm "*title.background: red" \
               -xrm "*logo.background: pink" \
               -xrm "*text*font: -adobe-times-bold-*-normal-*-*-180-*" \
               -geometry 500x650-1-1 \
               -bitmaplogo /usr/common/choke.xbm
               -popdown 10 \
               /usr/common/accounting/top &

RESOURCES

       editres(1) may be used to edit resources. The application class-name is XMotd.

       The resource: XMotd*Always (set to either True or False)  is  equivalent  to  the  -always
       command-line option.

       The  resource:  XMotd*Atom  (set  to  the  name  of  the atom xmotd is registered with) is
       equivalent to the -atom command-line option.

       The resource: XMotd*BitmapLogo (set to the path and filename of the bitmap/pixmap-file) is
       equivalent to the -bitmaplogo command-line option.

       The  resource:  XMotd*Browser (set to the path and filename of the browser to be used when
       users click on an URL (HTML version only)) is  equivalent  to  the  -browser  command-line
       option.

       The  resource:  XMotd*Paranoid (set to True/False) is equivalent to the -paranoid command-
       line option.

       The resource: XMotd*Popdown (set to the number of seconds) is equivalent to  the  -popdown
       command-line option.

       The  resource:  XMotd*UseDomains  (set  to  True/False)  is  equivalent to the -usedomains
       command-line option.

       The resource: XMotd*ShowFilename (set to True/False) is equivalent  to  the  -showfilename
       command-line option.

       The  resource:  XMotd*Warnfile  (set  to  the  path  and  filename of the warning-file) is
       equivalent to the -warnfile command-line option.

       The resource: XMotd*Tail (set to True/False)  is  equivalent  to  the  -tail  command-line
       option.

       The  resource:  XMotd*Wakeup  (set  to  an  floating-point  number  representing hours) is
       equivalent to the -wakeup command-line option.

       The resource: XMotd*title.label (set to a possibly  multi-line  string)  may  be  used  to
       customize the title.

       By  default,  the  title  is  the  single line:"Message Of The Day\n\n\n" (the 2-character
       sequence, "\n", indicates a carriage-return).

       For example, if you want a 2 line title that reads:

                This is the
             Message of the Day

       the resource can be specified as:

              *title.label: \       This is the\nMessage of the Day\n\n

       Note that the first backslash quotes the leading spaces that indent the  words,  "This  is
       the".

WIDGET HIERARCHY

       The widget hierarchy is as follows (Class-name & object-name):
       XMotd xmotd
               Form form
                   Label logo
                   Label title
                   Label hline
                   Label info
                   Command quit
                   Text text     OR      Html text

FILES

       $ProjectRoot/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession

       (where $ProjectRoot is /usr/X11R6 or, perhaps /usr/X11).

       For systems running CDE put a script that invokes xmotd in /etc/dt/config/Xsession.d/

       $HOME/.xmotd (default timestamp filename)

       $HOME/.login

SEE ALSO

       X(1), xdm(1), editres(1), login(1), xv(l), gimp(l), xpaint(l), cat(1), less(l)

NOTES

       The  -always  option is considered fascist; it is provided merely for completeness and for
       testing purposes.

       If xpm support is compiled-in, xmotd -help will print the words  "bitmap/pixmap"  for  the
       -bitmaplogo description instead of just "bitmap".

       Under  dumb-terminal  mode,  all  command-line  options  are ignored with the exception of
       -stampfile and -wakeup; the -always option is equivalent to  cat'ing  the  motd  from  the
       ~/.login  file;  and  -popdown is not really relevant. Both -warnfile and -paranoid may be
       simulated with appropriate cat(1) and more(1) commands.

       xmotd processes invoked with -wakeup will continue  sleeping,  "S"  in  the  ps(1)  status
       field,  after  the  user  has  logged-out until the sleep timeout expires. Only when xmotd
       wakes-up, will it detect that the user has logged-out and exit.  xmotd's  logout-detection
       routine  relies  on  the xdm(1) support scripts GiveConsole (which chown's /dev/console to
       the user) and TakeConsole (which chown's /dev/console back to root)  setting  the  correct
       permissions  and  ownership  on  /dev/console. When xmotd wakes-up, it attempts to open(2)
       /dev/console for reading; if this open fails, it is an indication that the user has logged
       out because TakeConsole has changed ownership of the console.

BUGS

       There are no provisions for displaying embedded images in the HTML version of xmotd (until
       a stable XmHTML widget is available, or perhaps when xmotd is ported to the GTK).

       At least one other.

QUOTES

                       ...and our lives are forever changed
                             we will never be the same
                       the more you change the less you feel

                      --Tonight, tonight,
                      "Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness"
                      Billy Corgan, The Smashing Pumpkins

                    Omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.
                 (All things change, and we change with them).

                      --Matthias Borbonius:
                      Deliciae Poetarum Germanorum, i. 685

                        To everything there is a season,
                   And a time to every purpose under heaven.

                      --Ecclesiastes 3:1-4

AUTHORS

       Luis Fernandes <elf@ee.ryerson.ca> is the primary author and maintainer.

       Richard Deal <rdeal@atl.lmco.com> contributed the directory-scanning code.

       Stuart A. Harvey <sharvey@primenet.com> contributed the URL  support  code  for  the  HTML
       version.

       David M. Ronis <ronis@onsager.chem.mcgill.ca> contributed code to support xpm logos.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright 1993 (as xbanner, no public release)

       Copyright 1994-97, 1999,  2001, 2003 Luis A. Fernandes

       Permission  to use, copy, hack, and distribute this software and its documentation for any
       purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear
       in  all  copies  and  that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in
       supporting documentation.

       This application is presented as is without any implied or written warranty.

       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 2 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.

       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program;
       if  not,  write  to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139,
       USA.

       The HTML widget Copyright 1993, Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.  See  the
       file libhtmlw/HTML.c for the complete text of the NCSA copyright.

       NOTE:  THE HTML WIDGET IS NOT DISTRIBUTED IN THE "LITE" VERSION OF THE xmotd DISTRIBUTION,
       WHICH IS THEREFORE FULLY COMPLIANT WITH THE GPL.