source: postlfs/config/logon.xml@ 0990cf7a

<sect1 id="postlfs-config-logon">
<?dbhtml filename="logon.html"?>
<title>/etc/issue (Customizing your logon)</title>

<para>When you first boot up your new <acronym>LFS</acronym> system, the logon 
screen will
be nice and plain (as it should be in a bare-bones system).  Many people
however, will want their system to display some information in the logon
message.  This can be accomplished using the 
file <filename>/etc/issue</filename>.</para>

<para>The <filename>/etc/issue</filename> file is a plain text file
which will also accept certain Escape sequences (see below) in order to
insert information about the system.  There is also the file
<filename>issue.net</filename> which can be used when logging on remotely.  
<command>ssh</command> however, will only use it if you set the option in the 
configuration file and will also <emphasis>not</emphasis> interpret the 
escape sequences shown below.</para>

<para>One of the most common things which people want to do is to clear
the screen at each logon.  The easiest way of doing that is to put a
"clear" escape-sequence into <filename>/etc/issue</filename>.  A simple way of doing 
this is to do <userinput><command>clear &gt; /etc/issue</command></userinput>.  
This will insert the relevant escape code into the start of the
<filename>/etc/issue</filename> file.  Note that if you do this, when
you edit the file, you should leave the ^[c character on 
the first line alone.</para>

<para>The following escapes are recognized by agetty (the program which
usually parses <filename>/etc/issue</filename>).  This information is from
<command>man agetty</command> where you can find extra information
about the logon process.</para>

<para>The <filename>issue</filename> file can contain certain escape codes to 
display various information.  All escape codes consist of a backslash
(\) immediately followed by one of the letters explained 
below (so <option>\d</option> in <filename>/etc/issue</filename> would 
insert the current date).</para>

<screen>b   Insert the baudrate of the current line.
d   Insert the current date.
s   Insert the system name, the name of the operating system.
l   Insert the name of the current tty line.
m   Insert the architecture identifier of the machine, e.g., i486
n   Insert the nodename of the machine, also known as the hostname.
o   Insert the domainname of the machine.
r   Insert the release number of the kernel, e.g., 2.4.16.
t   Insert the current time.
u   Insert the number of current users logged in.
U   Insert the string "1 user" or "&lt;n&gt; users" where &lt;n&gt; is the
    number of current users logged in.
v   Insert the version of the <acronym>OS</acronym>, e.g., the build-date etc.</screen>

</sect1>