Ricing the SSH Shell prompt

See the GitHub page (see references) to see how to install. Remember to check the code. Don't install before you checked the code and feel safe.

Why do this exist

Many years ago, a tiered night shift IT engineer needed to perform a customer requested change to a specific server at 2 AM. Supporting hundreds of servers for a hundred customers is a lot to remember.
Long story short, he did a perfect job, but on the wrong server.
After, a not so nice call from the VP in charge of IT purchases, I requested our support manager to make something that prevents shit like this. The quick KISS solution was to use FIGlet fonts to enter Server name, internal IP and Customer name into motd.

Examples, figurine -f big "db10.example.com"

Using FIGlet

Message Of The Day method

Install FIGlet apt install figlet and create the message of the day (motd)

######################################
This is a test CT for non-serious use!
######################################

Add a file nano /etc/update-motd.d/05-ip with this hostname -I | figlet

Using a script in the /etc/profile.d

Create the script nano /etc/profile.d/ip.sh

echo ""
echo ".----------------------------------------."
echo "| This is a test CT for non-serious use! |"
echo "'----------------------------------------'"
echo ""
hostname -I | figlet
echo ""

Now with Neon Colors

You can download the latest binary from here, or you can compile from source:

go install github.com/arsham/figurine@latest

Using the ready compiled binary

Download, from the author's GitHub, the figurine binary and extract it to a directory by tar -xvzf figurine_linux_amd64_v1.3.0.tar.gz and cd deploy. Now you can copy it to the servers.

Today, I have it on all Debian/Ubuntu Servers, like Proxmox.
I don't usually have it on VM's, but the size of the binary isn't big.

Usually I create the needed text with figurine or FIGlet on my PC and then copy the ready-made over to the VM.

Copy the executable, figurine to /usr/local/bin of the node.

scp figurine [email protected]:/usr/local/bin

Create the SSH login message on your PC

#!/bin/bash
# Fonts liked starwars, Nancyj, Stampranello, Contessa, Contrast, Shadow
#clear # Skip the default Debian Copyright and Warranty text
echo
echo "---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"
echo "Lan networks: "
/usr/local/bin/figurine -f "Term.flf" "$(hostname -I)" #LAN IP
echo ""
echo "MGMT network: "
/usr/local/bin/figurine -f "Term.flf" "10.10.10.43" #MGMT IP
echo ""
echo "---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"
#echo ""
/usr/local/bin/figurine -f "Slant.flf" " $USER "
echo ""
echo ""
/usr/local/bin/figurine -f "3d.flf" " $(hostname -a) "
/usr/local/bin/figurine -f "Cybermedium.flf" " $(hostname -d) "
echo ""

Or copy the script from your PC into /etc/profile.d/

scp figurine.sh [email protected]:/etc/profile.d 

Or edit it on the node nano /etc/profile.d/post.sh

Set the privileges for post.sh

• Only for root logins: chmod 600 /etc/profile.d/post.sh
• Show to everyone chmod 644 /etc/profile.d/post.sh.

Commands and flags

• List of fonts figurine -l --list
• List of fonts and samples figurine -ls --list --sample
• List samples with your text figurine -ls Sample Text
• To set a font figurine -f "Poison.flf" This is Text
• Help figurine -h

This application is very lightweight, so feel free to add it to your .zshrc or .bashrc file, so each time you open a new shell it shows you a nice message.

How to use hostname -flags

• hostname -a returns the alias name of the host system (if any).
  • returns an empty line if no alias name is set
  • enumerates all configured addresses on all network interfaces
• hostname -A returns all FQDNs of the host
  • enumerates all configured addresses on all network interfaces
• hostname -b is used to always set a hostname, default used if none specified
• hostname -d returns the Domain if local domains are set
  • will not return anything (not even a blank line) if no local domain is set
• hostname -f returns the FQDN. It contains short hostname and DNS domain name.
• hostname -F is used to set the hostname specified in a file (only by root or sudo user)
• hostname -i returns the IP addresses, only if the hostname is resolvable.
• hostname -I returns all IP addresses, doesn’t depend on resolvability of hostname.
• hostname -s returns the hostname in short.

References

FIGlet started as newban, 1991 and became FIGlet 2.0 1993.
Latest stable releases is 2.2.5 31 May 2012 FTP, fonts FTP

FIGlet ^[1] Figurine ^[2] rfiglet ^[3]