LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Richard Sharpe <sharpe@ns.aus.com>
  To  : LinuxSa@linuxsa.org.au
  Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 14:48:13 +0900

/etc/issue and /etc/issue.net and other UNICES

Hi,

I have been looking at the issue of /etc/issue and /etc/issue.net for
various Linux distros and wondered about other versions of UNIX.

These two files are printed out when you log on, but before the Username
prompt. When you login via a console or a serial port, /etc/issue is used,
while network logons use /etc/issue.net.

These files are both rewritten by /etc/rc.d/rc.local when you boot, so you
need to modify that file if you want to change these messages to add your
own code to /etc/rc.d/rc.local (which runs last[1] during the startup of
many versions of Linux).

Now, RedHat, TurboLinux and Mandrake do slightly different things with
/etc/issue and /etc/issue.net. RedHat is the simplest, and Mandrake and
TurboLinux do similar things.

Each write a standard message to these files. RedHat puts in a message puts
the contents of /etc/redhat-release in that file, if it exists. Amusingly,
Mandrake comes with a file called /etc/redhat-release as well :-) It then
goes on to add info about the kernel version. Lastly, it copies /etc/issue
to /etc/issue.net.

Mandrake and TurboLinux on the other hand each allows you to have separate
content in /etc/issue and /etc/issue.net. The main difference is that
Mandrake has stuff in /etc/rc.local that deals with the security levels
that Mandrake understands, and is really quite neat. Turbo is lagging a bit
behind.

So, the main thing to be aware of is: if you want a custom message then you
have to modify /etc/rc.d/rc.local, either to get rid of the overwrite on
each boot, or to add you messages.

It turns out that you can also have messages output for both KDE and Gnome
in their respective login dialog boxes. With a little work, you can even
have a message box with heaps of legal mumbo jumbo displayed before the
dialog box comes up.

Now, after that lond intro, my question is, what versions of UNIX use
/etc/issue and /etc/issue.net? Does Slowaris? I can't remember what DEC
OSF/1^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Digital UNIX^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Tru64 UNIX does.


[1] Well, if you have a link in /etc/rc.d/rc[2345].d called S99really-last,
then rc.local will not run last :-)


Regards
-------
Richard Sharpe, sharpe@ns.aus.com
Samba (Team member, www.samba.org), Ethereal (Team member, www.zing.org)
Co-author, SAMS Teach Yourself Samba in 24 Hours
Author: First Australian 5-day, intensive, hands-on Linux SysAdmin course
Author: First Australian 2-day, intensive, hands-on Samba course

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