/etc/motd
Symbolic link to /var/run/motd.
motd5
File containing message(s) of the day
Overview
The file /var/run/motd is normally displayed by login(1) after a user has logged in but before the shell is run. It is generally used for important system-wide announcements. During system startup, a line containing the kernel version string is prepended to /etc/motd.template and the contents are written to /var/run/motd.
/var/run/motd can be updated without a system reboot by manually restarting the motd service after updating /etc/motd.template:
service motd restart
Individual users may suppress the display of this file by creating a file named “.hushlogin” in their home directories or through login.conf(5).
Files
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/etc/motd.template -
The template file that system administrators can edit.
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/var/run/motd -
The message of the day.
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$HOME/.hushlogin -
Suppresses output of /var/run/motd.
Examples
FreeBSD 12.1-RELEASE (GENERIC) #0: Sun Dec 29 03:08:31 PST 2019 /home is full. Please cleanup your directories.
Releases
83 releases since FreeBSD 2.2.2-RELEASE; the text changed 38 times.