MOTD(5)                   FreeBSD File Formats Manual                  MOTD(5)

NAME
     motd - file containing message(s) of the day

DESCRIPTION
     The file /var/run/motd is normally displayed by login(1) after a user has
     logged in but before the shell is run.  It is generally used for
     important system-wide announcements.  During system startup, a line
     containing the kernel version string is prepended to /etc/motd.template
     and the contents are written to /var/run/motd.

     /var/run/motd can be updated without a system reboot by manually
     restarting the motd service after updating /etc/motd.template:
           service motd restart

     Individual users may suppress the display of this file by creating a file
     named ".hushlogin" in their home directories or through login.conf(5).

FILES
     /etc/motd.template
                       The template file that system administrators can edit.
     /var/run/motd     The message of the day.
     $HOME/.hushlogin  Suppresses output of /var/run/motd.

EXAMPLES
     FreeBSD 12.1-RELEASE (GENERIC) #0: Sun Dec 29 03:08:31 PST 2019

     /home is full.  Please cleanup your directories.

SEE ALSO
     login(1), login.conf(5)

HISTORY
     Prior to FreeBSD 13.0, motd lived in /etc.

FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6        October 18, 2020        FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6