The /etc/motd is a file on Unix-like systems that contains a "message of the day", used to send a common message to all users in a more efficient manner than sending them all an e-mail message. Other systems might also have an motd feature, such as the motd info segment on MULTICS.
The idea that a set of information could be printed everytime I open a new terminal enticed me. But what was even more enticing is the customization of that message.
- I wanted the ability to turn on/off features of the
motd. - I also wanted the ability to either pre-process and/or post-process the information gathered by any or all of the
motdsegments so I could colorize them, strip them of certain information, etc. - Most importantly, I wanted the ability to describe the information which the client would want to print by specifying both a
configurationand atemplatefile.
I did a majority of this work already inside a Python script. Unfortunately, it wasn't until I finished that I noticed that my performance was noticeable. [No, I mean really noticeable! Each new open terminal would take quite a few seconds to start. This was in contrast to terminals which would instantaneously open.]
I ran profilers on the code and found a number of bottle necks which I could and should eliminate. I thought about caching values on disk and only refreshing that data periodically by running a cron (or some other scheduler) task periodically.
After deliberating my options for a few seconds I hastily decided that it would be a good exercise to start from scratch.
Hence, modified message of the day or mmotd.