MOTD script doesn't show colors

Question

I am using a Raspberry Pi with a Debian based distro (I think it's called Raspbian). I put a file called 10-pi into the /etc/update-motd.d directory and made it executable. When I run the executable (bash) myself it shows me a nice MOTD with colors. When I login with ssh to my Pi however, I see the right MOTD but it shows everything in white. Anybody knows why this might be?

Here is my 10-pi file:

#!/bin/bash

let upSeconds="$(/usr/bin/cut -d. -f1 /proc/uptime)"
let secs=$((${upSeconds}%60))
let mins=$((${upSeconds}/60%60))
let hours=$((${upSeconds}/3600%24))
let days=$((${upSeconds}/86400))
UPTIME=`printf "%d days, %02dh%02dm%02ds" "$days" "$hours" "$mins" "$secs"`

# get the load averages
read one five fifteen rest < /proc/loadavg

echo "$(tput setaf 2)
   .~~.   .~~.    `date +"%A, %e %B %Y, %r"`
  '. \ ' ' / .'   `uname -srmo`$(tput setaf 1)
   .~ .~~~..~.
  : .~.'~'.~. :   Uptime.............: ${UPTIME}
 ~ (   ) (   ) ~  Memory.............: `cat /proc/meminfo | grep MemFree | awk {'print $2'}`kB (Free) / `cat /proc/meminfo | grep MemTotal | awk {'print $2'}`kB (Total)
( : '~'.~.'~' : ) Load Averages......: ${one}, ${five}, ${fifteen} (1, 5, 15 min)
 ~ .~ (   ) ~. ~  Running Processes..: `ps ax | wc -l | tr -d " "`
  (  : '~' :  )   IP Addresses.......: `/sbin/ifconfig eth0 | /bin/grep "inet addr" | /usr/bin/cut -d ":" -f 2 | /usr/bin/cut -d " " -f 1` and `wget -q -O - http://icanhazip.com/ | tail`
   '~ .~~~. ~'    Weather............: `curl -s "http://rss.accuweather.com/rss/liveweather_rss.asp?metric=1&locCode=EUR|UK|UK001|NAILSEA|" | sed -n '/Currently:/ s/.*: \(.*\): \([0-9]*\)\([CF]\).*/\2\3, \1/p'`
       '~'
$(tput sgr0)"

This is what it looks like when I execute the file myself: Output when executed manually

Answer 1

You could add the line:

export TERM="xterm-256color"

to the top of the script to ensure that the script is executed with the correct environment to display colours.

Alternatively, you can specify the colours directly as opposed to using echo and tput indirectly and so:

#!/bin/bash

let upSeconds="$(/usr/bin/cut -d. -f1 /proc/uptime)"
let secs=$((${upSeconds}%60))
let mins=$((${upSeconds}/60%60))
let hours=$((${upSeconds}/3600%24))
let days=$((${upSeconds}/86400))
UPTIME=`printf "%d days, %02dh%02dm%02ds" "$days" "$hours" "$mins" "$secs"`

# get the load averages
read one five fifteen rest < /proc/loadavg

printf "\033[1;32m
   .~~.   .~~.    `date +"%A, %e %B %Y, %r"`
  '. \ ' ' / .'   `uname -srmo`\033[0;31m
   .~ .~~~..~.
  : .~.'~'.~. :   Uptime.............: ${UPTIME}
 ~ (   ) (   ) ~  Memory.............: `cat /proc/meminfo | grep MemFree | awk {'print 
$2'}`kB (Free) / `cat /proc/meminfo | grep MemTotal | awk {'print $2'}`kB (Total)
( : '~'.~.'~' : ) Load Averages......: ${one}, ${five}, ${fifteen} (1, 5, 15 min)
 ~ .~ (   ) ~. ~  Running Processes..: `ps ax | wc -l | tr -d " "`
  (  : '~' :  )   IP Addresses.......: `/sbin/ifconfig eth0 | /bin/grep "inet addr" | 
/usr/bin/cut -d ":" -f 2 | /usr/bin/cut -d " " -f 1` and `wget -q -O - 
http://icanhazip.com/ | tail`
   '~ .~~~. ~'    Weather............: `curl -s 
      "http://rss.accuweather.com/rss/liveweather_rss.asp? 
   metric=1&locCode=EUR|UK|UK001|NAILSEA|" | sed -n '/Currently:/ s/.*: \(.*\): \([0- 
   9]*\)\([CF]\).*/\2\3, \1/p'`
       '~'
\033[1;37m"