redhat man page for motd

MOTD(5) 						     Linux Programmer's Manual							   MOTD(5)

NAME
       motd - message of the day

DESCRIPTION
       The contents of /etc/motd are displayed by login(1) after a successful login but just before it executes the login shell.

       The  abbreviation "motd" stands for "message of the day", and this file has been traditionally used for exactly that (it requires much less
       disk space than mail to all users).

FILES
       /etc/motd

SEE ALSO
       login(1), issue(5)

Linux								    1992-12-29								   MOTD(5)