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.