diff --git a/tutorials/changing-motd.md b/tutorials/changing-motd.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4036eea --- /dev/null +++ b/tutorials/changing-motd.md @@ -0,0 +1,77 @@ +# Changing welcome message (MOTD) +Every time you start a new session, Termux will show you a welcome message - often referred as *MOTD* (message of the day) -, but the default message can get boring after a few times. However the login message is a script that can be changed, that's what you're going to see in this tutorial. + +## Editing the script +You can find `motd.sh` in the directory `/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/etc/profile.d/motd.sh`, that's the script responsible for showing the MOTD. + +After ensuring the file is there, you can open it with any text editor (I'll be using, for instance, *Vim*). For ease of access you can create an alias in your `.bashrc`, append this to yours and access it by typing `termux-intro`. Don't forget to change `vim` to your preferred text editor: + +```bash +alias termux-intro="vim /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/etc/profile.d/motd.sh" +``` + +Feel free to remove the original content of this file. Just make sure the first line is `#!/usr/bin/bash`. + +## Making your custom script + +The file is a *bash script*, therefore you cannot just type what you want to be shown, that also means you can run commands. For outputting plain text, you can use the command `echo`: + +```bash +echo Welcome to my super duper server! +echo Please give a star on GitHub ;) +``` + +But - of course - you can do cooler stuff, like running `fastfetch` on startup: + +```bash +# Shows no logo for cleaner MOTD, you can remove '--logo none' to show your OS logo. +fastfetch --logo none +``` + +This will output something like: + +```bash +u0_a411@localhost +----------------- +OS: Android REL 13 aarch64 +Host: samsung SM-A307GT +Kernel: Linux 4.4.302-p6 +Uptime: 1 day, 2 hours, 20 mins +Packages: 175 (dpkg) +Shell: bash 5.3.3 +Terminal: dropbear +CPU: 2 x exynos7885 (8) @ 2.08 GHz +GPU: Mali-G71 [Integrated] +Memory: 1.92 GiB / 3.63 GiB (53%) +Swap: 46.50 MiB / 1.51 GiB (3%) +Disk (/): 1.85 GiB / 4.61 GiB (40%) - ext4 [Read-only] +Disk (/storage/emulated): 16.44 GiB / 50.71 GiB (32%) - fuse +Local IP (tun0): 676.76.767.676/67 +Local IP (wlan0): 192.168.18.87/24 * +Battery: 100% [AC Connected] +``` + +Another example is outputting device info from _termux-api_, which must be installed both with `pkg install termux-api` and as an extension from the app store you originally downloaded Termux. See the example for showing the battery temperature when logging in: + +```bash +# We're parsing the result of 'termux-battery-status' with 'jq' and printing that with 'echo'. +echo Battery temperature `termux-battery-status | jq .temperature`°C +``` + +And you can make cool ASCII arts using the package `figlet`: + +```bash +figlet foobar +``` + +Will output: + +``` + __ _ + / _| ___ ___ | |__ __ _ _ __ +| |_ / _ \ / _ \| '_ \ / _` | '__| +| _| (_) | (_) | |_) | (_| | | +|_| \___/ \___/|_.__/ \__,_|_| +``` + +After saving the file, you can start a new session or SSH into your server to see the new MOTD.