Run program at user login

Message

Aitikin · Post by **Aitikin** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 7:31 am

I'm looking for a way to run a program at every user's login. Actually it's a simple combination of two programs, cowsay and fortune. It's not an extremely high priority for me, but it'd be nice to get it working. I'd also like to know if there's a way to get the output into a signature file like is mentioned here but I can't get that to work.

Actually all I can get to work from that guide is cowsay `fortune`. Any help would be appreciated.

Aries-Belgium · Post by **Aries-Belgium** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 7:39 am

Put the commands in ~/.profile

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fortune > ~/sig.txt

Good luck

Aitikin · Post by **Aitikin** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 7:51 am

Ok, I did that, didn't get me anything though. What information would be key for you to help me? Like my rank'll tell ya, I'm still a n00b.

spufi · Post by **spufi** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 8:37 am

Aitikin wrote:Ok, I did that, didn't get me anything though. What information would be key for you to help me? Like my rank'll tell ya, I'm still a n00b.

Which part didn't work? Generating the ~/sig.txt file upon login, or that you don't see the signature when using a new mail? Usually I tend to set things like this in the ~/.bash_profile file (maybe a quick and dirty way ...), but it works.

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fortune | cowsay  > ~/sig.txt

What this line will do: execute fortune and pipe it (taking the output of a program and pass it on to another program after the |-sign without displaying it), ie. cowsay and moving the output of this program to the file 'sig.txt' which resides in your home-directory (~).

So:

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bknid@pc50016:~$ fortune | cowsay  > ~/sig.txt  
bknid@pc50016:~$ cat sig.txt
 ______________________________________
/ Q: What do agnostic, insomniac       \
| dyslexics do at night? A: Stay awake |
\ and wonder if there's a dog.         /
 --------------------------------------
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||
bknid@pc50016:~$

Keep in mind btw that you're gonna use (simple) 'ASCII-art' (cowsay) in your signature, which implies that - for it to be displayed entirely correct - you need to format your mails in plain text OR make sure courier-type fonts are being used. And that the recipients won't override font-formatting when receiving/displaying mails.

Here's how your signature will look like if you don't use plain text (which you should anyway: html mails are evil

) or specificly set courier-type fonts:

______________________________________
/ Q: What do agnostic, insomniac \
| dyslexics do at night? A: Stay awake |
\ and wonder if there's a dog. /
--------------------------------------
\ ^__^
\ (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||

Garbled and dead-ugly! Apart from cowsay or figlet being nifty programs, I would advise against using these programs to make up a signature, for the reason as shown above. (although this is of course entirely up to you).

Aitikin · Post by **Aitikin** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 5:38 pm

Actually the cowsay was more for the console login, the sig I wanted to be just a random fortune, so I take it that just taking the pipe to cowsay out will fix it?

spufi · Post by **spufi** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 7:13 pm

Aitikin wrote:Actually the cowsay was more for the console login, the sig I wanted to be just a random fortune, so I take it that just taking the pipe to cowsay out will fix it?

Yep, in that case Aries-Belgium's suggestion will suffice.

Aitikin · Post by **Aitikin** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 7:14 pm

Thanks. Works just right now.