#+date: [2026-06-01 Mon 12:02:02]
#+title: Bring MOTD to macOS
#+description: Learn how to quickly and easily create a custom message of the day for macOS systems.
#+slug: macos-motd
#+filetags: :mac:

* Messages of the Day (=motd=)

A [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_of_the_day][message of the day]] is, in computer terms, a welcome message that provides
information and may help users logging onto the system. This is useful for
numerous reasons, depending on the system, such as community announcements,
compliance requirements, contextual information for that system, etc.

In this post, I'll be walking through a simple way to generate a message of the
day for macOS. You can see the end result in this screenshot below:

#+caption: macOS message of the day
#+attr_html: :alt Terminal output of motd.sh showing the system and user information upon launching a new shell.
[[https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20260601-macos-motd/macos-motd.webp]]

For an example of a system-provided =motd=, here's the =motd= on my Ubuntu server
showing the server's default information and any relevant add-ons, such as the
LAN cockpit URL:

#+caption: Ubuntu message of the day
#+attr_html: :alt Terminal output of Ubuntu's default server message of the day, showing system information.
[[https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20260601-macos-motd/ubuntu-motd.webp]]

* Create the Message

First, we need to create the message. In this example, I've created a custom
shell script below that uses terminal formatting to generate a structured
output. This script checks for:

- username
- hostname
- profile management
- WiFi SSID
- IP address
- Mullvad status
- battery status
- uptime

To do this, create a script in your user directory:

#+begin_src shell
nano ~/.motd.sh
#+end_src

Then paste the content below and modify as needed:

#+begin_src shell
BOLD='\033[1m'
DIM='\033[2m'
RESET='\033[0m'

HOST=$(scutil --get ComputerName 2>/dev/null || hostname)

IP=$(ipconfig getifaddr en0 2>/dev/null || ipconfig getifaddr en1 2>/dev/null)
IP=${IP:-unavailable}

SSID=$(networksetup -getairportnetwork en0 2>/dev/null | sed 's/^Current Wi-Fi Network: //')
case "$SSID" in
  ""|"You are not associated with an AirPort network.")
    SSID="unavailable"
    ;;
esac

BATTERY=$(pmset -g batt 2>/dev/null | awk -F'; *' '
  NR==2 {
    gsub(/^ +| +$/, "", $2)
    gsub(/^ +| +$/, "", $3)
    sub(/ present: true$/, "", $3)
    print $2 ", " $3
  }
')
BATTERY=${BATTERY:-unavailable}

UPTIME=$(uptime | sed 's/^.*up //; s/, [0-9]* user.*//; s/, load averages.*//')
UPTIME=${UPTIME:-unavailable}

if profiles status -type enrollment 2>/dev/null | grep -qi "MDM enrollment: Yes"; then
  MANAGED="yes"
else
  MANAGED="no"
fi

VPN="unavailable"

if command -v mullvad >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  STATUS=$(mullvad status 2>/dev/null)
  VPN=$(printf '%s\n' "$STATUS" | head -1)
  VPN=${VPN:-unavailable}
fi

printf "\n"
printf "  ${DIM}%-14s${RESET}${BOLD}%s${RESET} ${DIM}%s${RESET}\n" "$USER" "$(uname -sr)"
printf "  ${DIM}%-14s${RESET}%s\n" "host" "$HOST"
printf "  ${DIM}%-14s${RESET}%s\n" "managed" "$MANAGED"
printf "  ${DIM}%-14s${RESET}%s\n" "wifi" "$SSID"
printf "  ${DIM}%-14s${RESET}%s\n" "ip" "$IP"
printf "  ${DIM}%-14s${RESET}%s\n" "mullvad" "$VPN"
printf "  ${DIM}%-14s${RESET}%s\n" "battery" "$BATTERY"
printf "  ${DIM}%-14s${RESET}%s\n" "uptime" "$UPTIME"
printf "\n"
#+end_src

Finally, modify the script file to enable execution:

#+begin_src sh
chmod +x ~/.motd.sh
#+end_src

* Load the Message

At this point, the script is ready. We simply need to tell macOS to execute it
whenever the user launches a new shell.

To do this, open the =.zprofile= file and add a line referencing the script:

#+begin_src shell
nano ~/.zprofile
#+end_src

#+begin_src
# Display Message of the Day (MOTD)
./motd.sh
#+end_src

All done! This method is easily customizable and allows for use of dotfile
management systems, such as stow, since the files live in the user's home
directory.