Difference Between /etc/issue.net and /etc/issue – Explained

linuxredhat

What are their purpose as they have the same content ?

[me@myserver ~]$ cat /etc/issue
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.10 (Santiago)
Kernel \r on an \m

[me@myserver ~]$ cat /etc/issue.net
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.10 (Santiago)
Kernel \r on an \m

Best Answer

Both /etc/issue.net and /etc/issue are used to display a banner (e.g. welcome line/ warning..) to SSH users before the login prompt:

  • /etc/issue.net is shown to the users who connect from the network.
  • /etc/issue is shown to both local users and network users unless /etc/issue.net is present and configured.

Also, to configure them to be displayed when you login via SSH, you need to uncomment #Banner and specify the desired filename at /etc/ssh/sshd_config, like:

Banner /etc/issue.net

The filename /etc/issue.net is the historical location for pre-login banners for network logins using protocols like telnet or rlogin. Some Unix vendors had a version of telnetd, rshd and/or rlogind that used /etc/issue for network logins too; others made it configurable like sshd does now.

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