Posted: . At: 10:46 AM. This was 6 years ago. Post ID: 11724
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How to have a nice text banner associated with your Linux user account.

Your Linux user account details may be seen with the finger command, i.e finger jason. But the user can add more information to this as well.

Create a file in your home directory named .plan and put this into it.

***************************************************************************^M
NOTICE TO USERS
 
 
This computer system is the private property of its owner, whether
individual, corporate or government. It is for authorized use only.
Users (authorized or unauthorized) have no explicit or implicit
expectation of privacy.
 
Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be
intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and
disclosed to your employer, to authorized site, government, and law
enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of government
agencies, both domestic and foreign.
 
By using this system, the user consents to such interception, monitoring,
recording, copying, auditing, inspection, and disclosure at the
discretion of such personnel or officials. Unauthorized or improper use
of this system may result in civil and criminal penalties and
administrative or disciplinary action, as appropriate. By continuing to
use this system you indicate your awareness of and consent to these terms
and conditions of use. LOG OFF IMMEDIATELY if you do not agree to the
conditions stated in this warning.
 
****************************************************************************

Then; create a .project file and put whatever you are working on into it.

This is what the user account should output when someone uses the finger command to get information about it.

jason@Yog-Sothoth:~$ finger jason
Login: jason          			Name: Jason Statham
Directory: /home/jason              	Shell: /bin/bash
On since Tue Jan  9 10:12 (AEDT) on tty2 from :1
No mail.
Project:
Working on a Linux related post.
 
Plan:
***************************************************************************^M
NOTICE TO USERS
 
 
This computer system is the private property of its owner, whether
individual, corporate or government. It is for authorized use only.
Users (authorized or unauthorized) have no explicit or implicit
expectation of privacy.
 
Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be
intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and
disclosed to your employer, to authorized site, government, and law
enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of government
agencies, both domestic and foreign.
 
By using this system, the user consents to such interception, monitoring,
recording, copying, auditing, inspection, and disclosure at the
discretion of such personnel or officials. Unauthorized or improper use
of this system may result in civil and criminal penalties and
administrative or disciplinary action, as appropriate. By continuing to
use this system you indicate your awareness of and consent to these terms
and conditions of use. LOG OFF IMMEDIATELY if you do not agree to the
conditions stated in this warning.
 
****************************************************************************

There is also a .pgpkey file which the user may place their public GnuPG key into. This could also be very useful.

But the fingerd deamon is not running on a modern Linux distribution, so it will not work over a network.

The .nofinger file, set to be accessible to all users, placed in your home directory, will hide your user account from finger when it accesses your account. But the finger service is so dated, it would not be worth running it in 2018.

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