The manpage says:
> On Debian GNU/Linux this file is a symbolic link pointing to /var/run.
> The contents of this file are regenerated upon every system boot based
> on the contents of /etc/motd.tail.
I do not know how one can go from this to "to get traditional behavior, delete the symlink and make /etc/motd a regular file." Great, so it's a symlink to a file that gets regenerated. Now how do I make it do the traditional thing? The manpage doesn't offer any help, and I couldn't figure it out if I didn't know the answer already.
Furthermore, having a configuration switch depend on whether a file is a symbolic link or not is just asinine.
I've been using Debian/Ubuntu since ~ 1999, and it took be about 20 seconds to figure this out. "ls /etc/motd. Oh, it's a symlink, ok, rm /etc/motd. Done."
In Debian, almost everything in /etc can be edited, and the system is designed to preserve the sysadmin's changes. Maybe this isn't obvious to new users, but if you've been using Debian for a while, this behaviour is exactly what you would expect.
Also, a quick visit to #debian or #ubuntu IRC would have resolved this in a few minutes.
I do not know how one can go from this to "to get traditional behavior, delete the symlink and make /etc/motd a regular file." Great, so it's a symlink to a file that gets regenerated. Now how do I make it do the traditional thing? The manpage doesn't offer any help, and I couldn't figure it out if I didn't know the answer already.
Furthermore, having a configuration switch depend on whether a file is a symbolic link or not is just asinine.