Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2014 13:08:11 -0600 (MDT) From: Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com> To: freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.org Subject: /etc/motd summary Message-ID: <alpine.BSF.2.11.1409081223060.15689@wonkity.com>
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Summarizing the responses and changes to /etc/motd: Using ANSI has both philosphical and practical problems, and should be avoided. In short, it has cooties. Extra horizontal whitespace is the least likely to cause problems as command delimiters, and inoffensive to most responders. Rearranging the information into a list of URLs is a net win. Shorter is better. A simpler motd that links to a single web page might be acceptable. My suggestions: Short-term: Here is the most popular/least objectionable version with all of the suggestions implemented as best I could: http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/motd/motd.whitespace-url I suggest that I commit this in time for 10.1. Longer-term: Creating a "FreeBSD Technical Support Resources" page, or updating an existing one, is something we can and should do anyway. Once we have that, it can be used in motd. (Or proposed, anyway. To me, it seems like a conceptually bigger step than using ANSI. Fahrradschuppen ahoy!) man(1) is very weak for new users. A doc PR just showed up today mentioning that it does not describe the various sections. That is actually in intro(1), intro(2), and so on. Congratulations if you remember those, it's usually a hunt for me. Man page notation is also a problem for new users, and also not explained in man(1). Is it explained anywhere in the man pages? Even if it is, some examples in man(1) would help.
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