Run script on shell login for all users

Question

I have a script named "als" that parses the aliases in a user's .bashrc file that I'd like to run for any user logging in via SSH.

This should display similar to a Message of the day (MOTD) banner. MOTD banners are static data though.

Here's the code.

#!/bin/bash
echo
echo Your aliases:
echo \(from ~/.bashrc\)
echo
cat .bashrc | egrep 'alias.+\=' | tr -s [:space:] | sed 's_^ alias_alias_' | sed 's_alias__' | sort | sed 's_=_\t\t_' | sed 's_^ __'

It works if I append ./als to my ~/.profile file, but this only executes for me. Again, I'd like this to run for all users on shell login

Solution

You could save your script in /etc/profile.d/als.sh. According to Ubuntu EnvironmentVariables manual:

Files with the .sh extension in the /etc/profile.d directory get executed whenever a bash login shell is entered (e.g. when logging in from the console or over ssh), as well as by the DisplayManager when the desktop session loads.

You should also modify relative path with absolute path:

 cat /home/$USER/.bashrc | egrep 'alias.+\=' | tr -s [:space:] | sed 's_^ alias_alias_' | sed 's_alias__' | sort | sed 's_=_\t\t_' | sed 's_^ __'  

And this should works for all users.

Comments

[user38537]

This does work. Thank you. That's exactly what I was after. I was going to nail down the absolute path when I found out how to run for all shell logins.

[R. Karlus]

It worked for every logged user except root. How can I do this for the root user?

[Lety]

@Rhuan Karlus do you mean when you run commands with sudo? In this case, you shoud read "sudo caveat" paragraph in the link posted above

[R. Karlus]

That's exactly what I needed @Lety !! Thank you very much.