How to make a dynamic motd-module in Puppet?

Question

We are using Puppet to generate our /etc/motd file. Unfortunately the hostnames do not always have the same length.

This creates a /etc/motd with sometimes a space too much or too little after the hostname.

 #############################################
 ##  This server is managed from Amsterdam  ##
 #############################################
 #############################################
 ##               web-tst-01                 ##
 #############################################

What can be done so that the number of spaces is dynamically changed based on the length of the hostname?

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 22 '13 at 14:16

3

use an erb template to generate motd if you are not yet doing it.
generate the host line with ruby code, assuming hostname has your hostname
```
<% (hostname.center 40, " ").center 44, '#' %>
```

edited Aug 22 '13 at 14:16

Michael Hampton

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answered Aug 22 '13 at 13:24

johnshen64

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Hello, placing <% (hostname.center 40, " ").center 44, '#' %> in /etc/puppet/modules/motd/templates/motd.erb generates an empty line. – ujjain Sep 02 '13 at 13:26
That means your hostname is not set. – johnshen64 Sep 02 '13 at 15:16
This is not true. The entire line is empty... hostname is set, because <%= hostname %> works fine. – ujjain Sep 03 '13 at 07:44
My bad, the = after % was missing! <%= (hostname.center 43, " ").center 45, '#' %> – ujjain Sep 03 '13 at 08:56

How to make a dynamic motd-module in Puppet?

1 Answers1