source: postlfs/config/logon.xml@ 89ef45fc

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
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   "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../../general.ent">
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<sect1 id="postlfs-config-logon" xreflabel="Customizing your Logon with /etc/issue">
  <?dbhtml filename="logon.html"?>

  <sect1info>
    <othername>$LastChangedBy$</othername>
    <date>$Date$</date>
  </sect1info>

  <title>Customizing your Logon with /etc/issue</title>

  <indexterm zone="postlfs-config-logon">
    <primary sortas="e-etc-issue">/etc/issue</primary>
  </indexterm>

  <para>When you first boot up your new LFS 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 <emphasis>not</emphasis> interpret the
  escape sequences shown below.</para>

  <para>One of the most common things which people want to do is 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 issue the command <command>clear &gt; /etc/issue</command>.  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 characters (normally '^[[H^[[2J') on the
  first line alone.</para>

  <note><para>Terminal escape sequences are special codes recognized by the
  terminal.  The ^[ represents an ASCII ESC character.  The sequence ESC [ H
  puts the cursor in the upper left hand corner of the screen and ESC 2 J
  erases the screen.  For more information on terminal escape sequences see
  <ulink url='http://rtfm.etla.org/xterm/ctlseq.html'/></para></note>

  <para>The following sequences are recognized by <command>agetty</command>
  (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 character
  sequences to display various information.  All <filename>issue</filename>
  sequences 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><literal>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., i686.
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., 2.6.11.12.
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 OS, e.g., the build-date etc.</literal></screen>

</sect1>