MOTDs

MOTDs -- Messages of the Day

Panix's system status updates

Current MOTDs

Announcements of system changes are posted through the Message of the Day (MOTD) mechanism. Anyone who uses Panix needs to know how to find these messages, and needs to keep up with them on a regular basis.

Users who login to any of the panix hosts will, by default, see these messages upon login.

Because that is not always convenient, and because dialup-IP customers often do not login directly to Panix hosts, we have set up other means of accessing the messages.

They are available through a mailing list.
To subscribe, send email to majordomo@panix.com; the subject is irrelevant; the body should be
subscribe motd-system
To unsubscribe from the list:
Send email to majordomo@panix.com; the subject is irrelevant; the body should be
unsubscribe motd-system
They are available through a newsreader.
The ones affecting the system generally are posted in panix.motd.system.
They are available via finger.
From outside Panix, if you have access to a finger client, type:
finger motd:1@panix.com
This gives you the most recent MOTD. (You can leave out "@panix.com" if you're fingering from a Panix user host.)
Note: You need to specify motd:1.

If you use your UNIX shell account on Panix, the following are also available:

Normal (default) MOTD delivery upon login
"Hush" style: If you put a file called .hushlogin into your home directory, you will not see the MOTD displayed, but you will receive via email any MOTD posted since your last login. (If you activate .hushlogin, you don't need to subscribe to the mailing list.)
MOTDs remain on the system for a time (varying with the kind of information they contain and how relevant it remains) and many past MOTDs can be retrieved in at least two ways:

From within the help system (S(system Help) in the menu).
That's the first link on this page.

Via the command
motd -v
from a UNIX shell prompt; this presents them in reverse chronological order; respond y to the subject of any message you want to read, n to the subject of any message you want to skip, and q when you've finished.

There is also a "social" motd for panix events, and a separate mailing list and newsgroup for this list. The newsgroup is panix.motd.social. To join (leave) the mailing list, send email to majordomo; subject irrelevant, with
subscribe (unsubscribe) motd-social
in the body.

helpmaster@panix.com | Last modified: Friday, 09-Feb-2007 14:30:03 EST

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