mootd

MOOTD is a tiny MOTD server that generates randomised daily messages using Cowsay and Fortune. All it requires is a host with Docker installed.

 ________________________________________ 
/ All the existing 2.0.x kernels are too \
| buggy for 2.1.x to be the main goal.   |
|                                        |
\ -- Alan Cox                            /
 ---------------------------------------- 
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

Server

Installation

If you haven't already, install Docker. Then, use docker compose to build and run the container:

docker compose up -d

Configuration

Define environment variables in the compose file (or run command) to override the defaults.

Env	Default	Example	Description
TZ	UTC	London/Europe	Timezone used by the server.
RENEWAL_TIME	24:00:00	12:30:00	MOTD renewal time (HH:MM:SS).
CHANCE	10	100	Reciprocal chance for atypical cow. The example used gives a 1 in 100 chance of a random non-standard cow; the default is 1 in 10.

Client

The MOOTD "client" is a very simple bash script that you can execute in your .bashrc (or equivalent). It stores the current MOTD in a local file (~/.mootd by default), and updates it once it's expired.

Installation

To install the client, add mootd-client/mootd.sh to your .bashrc or equivalent:

echo 'source mootd-client/mootd.sh' >> ~/.bashrc

Configuration

You can modify several variables in the bash script to control how the client works. Most importantly, the RENEWAL_TIME and MOOTD_URL variables must match the server.

Env	Default	Example	Description
RENEWAL_TIME	24:00:00	12:30:00	MOTD renewal time (HH:MM:SS) for the server.
MOOTD_PATH	~/.mootd	/srv/mootd	Location to save MOOTD. Must be read/writable.
MOOTD_URL	https://mootd.samcole.me	https://mysite.com:8080	Server URL