herald

A small Linux daemon and CLI that prints a daily quote at the top of every new terminal and at login. Cached, configurable refresh, local fallback pool.

source releases install issues

Quick install (Debian / Ubuntu)

One line. Sets up the signed ra-yavuz apt repo if not already added, refreshes the package index, and installs herald. Idempotent, safe to re-run:

sudo bash -c 'set -e; install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings && curl -fsSL https://ra-yavuz.github.io/apt/pubkey.gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/ra-yavuz.gpg && echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/ra-yavuz.gpg] https://ra-yavuz.github.io/apt stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ra-yavuz.list && apt update && apt install -y herald'

Or via the bundled installer script (equivalent, with prerequisite checks and a friendlier output summary):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ra-yavuz/herald/main/scripts/get.sh | sudo bash

If you already have the ra-yavuz apt repo, all you need is sudo apt update && sudo apt install herald. The sudo apt update step is required: without it apt will not see new packages or new versions. Future upgrades: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade. Full removal: sudo apt purge herald.

Step by step (manual repo setup)

# 1. Trust the signing key
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://ra-yavuz.github.io/apt/pubkey.gpg \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/ra-yavuz.gpg > /dev/null

# 2. Add the apt source
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/ra-yavuz.gpg] https://ra-yavuz.github.io/apt stable main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ra-yavuz.list

# 3. Refresh the package index, then install
sudo apt update
sudo apt install herald

Platform support

Tested on Ubuntu (Linux only). Should also work on WSL2 Ubuntu / Debian distros, since those are Linux. macOS is not supported: herald hooks into /etc/profile.d/, update-motd.d/, and a systemd timer, none of which apply on Darwin.

What it does

Two display surfaces, both off by default:

Terminal greeting: every new interactive shell prints today's quote. Hooked into /etc/profile.d/ and a marker block in the invoking user's ~/.bashrc (since /etc/bash.bashrc on Ubuntu does not source profile.d).
Login MOTD: SSH, console, or display-manager login shows the quote in the banner. Hooked into /etc/update-motd.d/ (requires the update-motd package on Debian/Ubuntu).

Toggle independently:

sudo herald terminal on        # eye candy: every new terminal
sudo herald motd on            # login banner: SSH / console / DM
sudo herald all on             # both
sudo herald all off            # neither
herald status                  # what's enabled

Quote source and refresh cadence

Online: zenquotes.io, 1.5s timeout per refresh. Fallback: a bundled local pool of ~30 curated quotes (/usr/share/herald/quotes.json). The tool works offline.

Refresh cadence is configurable in hours, default every 3 hours:

sudo herald set-refresh 24     # once a day
sudo herald set-refresh 168    # once a week
sudo herald set-refresh 1      # hourly
sudo herald set-refresh 0      # disable timer (manual only)
sudo herald refresh            # fetch right now

Implementation: a systemd timer (herald-refresh.timer) writes a cached JSON object at /var/cache/herald/today.json. Both display surfaces read from the cache, so login/shell startup is fast.

Optional prefix

sudo herald set-prefix "Welcome to tripolis. Coffee, then code."
sudo herald clear-prefix

Stored at /etc/herald.prefix. Printed verbatim above the quote.

Sample output

$ herald
  "Premature optimization is the root of all evil."
    -- Donald Knuth

Plays nicely with other ra-yavuz tools

herald is fully independent. It does not know about, depend on, or modify any other tool. If you have inhibit-charge installed with its terminal greeting enabled, both lines appear in every new terminal: battery state above, herald quote below. They share /etc/profile.d/ but each snippet is independent.

Disclaimer / no warranty

Provided as is, without warranty of any kind. Quotes are fetched from a third-party service (zenquotes.io); the author does not curate or control their content. The author is not liable for the content of fetched quotes, for events outside their control (third-party API outage, supply-chain compromise, downstream modifications), or for any damage caused by installing or running this software. Disable online fetching with sudo herald set-refresh 0 if you prefer to use only the bundled local pool. Full text: repo README, license: MIT.