Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!hookup!news-dc.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!news-stock.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!news-tokyo.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!news-hk.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!news-peer.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!chaos.crhc.uiuc.edu!news2.acs.oakland.edu!beacon.synthcom.com!hermes.rdrop.com!usenet From: tierna@agora.rdrop.com (Britt ) Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions,news.answers Subject: FAQ on making and using a .signature file Followup-To: news.newusers.questions Date: 22 Oct 1996 07:43:47 GMT Organization: SunDial Earth Station, Portland Or Lines: 160 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.edu Message-ID: <54htvj$kie@hermes.rdrop.com> Reply-To: tierna@agora.rdrop.com NNTP-Posting-Host: agora.rdrop.com Summary: A short informational on getting your .signature to work. Keywords: sig .sig signature .signature footer Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu news.newusers.questions:377071 news.answers:85210 Archive-name: usenet/signature-faq News-newusers-questions-archive-name: signature-faq Last-modified: 1996/5/27 Author: tierna@agora.rdrop.com - with tips gathered from posts and submissions and credited wherever possible Comment: Available for FTP from rtfm.mit.edu in usenet/news/newusers/questions from agora.rdrop.com /pub/users/tierna and by email from tierna@agora.rdrop.com FAQ on making and using a .signature file by Britt Klein Last updated: 27 May 1996 (NOTICE: To send a reply in email to the writer of this post, use the "r" key. Personal correspondence and complete reposts without comment should _not_ be posted to the newsgroups.) Available for FTP from rtfm.mit.edu in usenet/news/newusers/questions by email from tierna@agora.rdrop.com, and by ftp from agora.rdrop.com in /pub/users/tierna. What follows are the bare basics on how to create a .signature file and get it to append to your news posts and email. It *should* work for most shell account users. Mail programs covered are Elm, Pine, mail and mailx, and mailtool. Anything in quotes is a prompt-line command and should work verbatim. (Also, the terminology herein is quite near the lowest level of enduser. This is on purpose, as the last thing new users need is to be confused by too much technicalese.) This is formulated for *nix-based systems, outside of that realm I'm out of my level of expertise big-time. I never claimed to know everything, just enough to get around. Also, the best information I have on Netscape is that there is no way to have it automatically append a .signature file. You'll have to manually read it in. (And that's _all_ I know of Netscape.) Yes, DO email for clarification or further information or advice. I've troubleshot this function on shell accounts many times and might be able to help if you have trouble. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THE ABSOLUTE BASICS: Get thee to thy home directory and therein edit thyself a file. Name it `.signature'. Remember that inews and other news systems (the ones that make up the majority of the news software on Usenet, actually) will cut off everything after the fourth line, so it's good to stay below that limit. Also, don't use ANSI. It might look good on your screen, but zillions of people across the Net will see it as nothing more than a bunch of control characters and very likely underestimate your intelligence. If you've never used an editor, I suggest pico, as it's infinitely user-friendly. ("pico .signature") Save it. Make sure the .signature file is world readable ("chmod 644 .signature"). Now, your news posting software _should_ look for and automatically append it to your posts. If you're using Elm or Pine for email, they ought to do same. Some versions of mail and mailx will, also. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ELM: If you are using Elm and it doesn't automatically read on the end of your messages, go to your .elm directory ("cd .elm") and edit your elmrc to get the pointers looking for a .signature file (often the problem is that line is commented out with a #, delete it). This assumes your Elm, as mine, supplies a .elm directory and elmrc file when invoked. If not, the following section should be the answer: - - - - - 1. If you do not yet have a .elm/elmrc file, create one with the following steps: elm (start elm) o (options) > (save) q (quit elm) 2. Edit the .elm/elmrc file with your favorite text editor (newer versions create a .elm directory and put the file `elmrc' into it. If that doesn't happen, you'll need to create it at this point, then edit), and insert the two lines localsignature = $HOME/.signature remotesignature = $HOME/.signature according to the comment lines in that file (Remember, to have those lines read, take out the #'s at the beginning.) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - PINE: Torsten Dreier kindly supplied the information on getting things working in Pine: In your home directory you should have a file called '.pinerc'. Check with 'ls -alg'. This file is the pine configuration. Edit it and search for the section 'feature list'. To this section add the command 'signature-at-bottom' which will move the signature in replies to the end of the original (quoted) text. Zoli also supplied the following information: Pine handles news exactly as email - so this works for both; on the other hand, recent versions do not require manually editing .pinerc: the feature-list (and other) settings can be changed from within its main menu via Setup-Config - not only this avoids messing up .pinerc, but also provides a neat context-sensitive help. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - MAIL and MAILX: Thomas Okken gives the following assistance for people who use mail or mailx but still want a .signature on their email: The FAQ says that some versions of mail and mailx will automatically append the .signature file. My experience is only with systems where this does *not* work, so I thought I'd contribute the solution I found. I have tried and used this with BSD mail on SunOS 4.1.1 and with mailx on HP-UX 9.01; it should work with lots of other systems too. Here's what to do: Make a file called "addsig" and put it in your private bin directory or some other convenient place. (Convenient = out of the way; it will work automatically, after all.) My home directory is "/users/tokken", so the file I create is called "/users/tokken/bin/addsig". This is what the file should look like: #!/bin/csh if (-f /users/tokken/.signature) then (cat - ; echo -- ; cat /users/tokken/.signature) | /usr/lib/sendmail $* else /usr/lib/sendmail $* endif Replace "/users/tokken/.signature" with "/your/home/dir/.signature". Make the file "addsig" executable (chmod +x addsig). Finally, edit your .mailrc file, or make a new one, and add this line: set sendmail=/users/tokken/bin/addsig Of course, "/users/tokken/bin/addsig" should be changed to whatever you called the file created earlier. That's it! From now on, your signature will be appended to mail you send with BSD mail or mailx. Note: this will not work if your system mailer is not "/usr/lib/sendmail". It could also be "/usr/bin/sendmail", but you'd best ask your system administrator if "addsig" does not work. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - NOTE: Newsposting software normally does *not* show your .signature when it asks about sending. The only sure way to know is to post to a TEST newsgroup to see. Don't append manually thinking it's not there until you know for certain. And remember, to test your .signature, send email to yourself or a friend, and send your posts to alt.test or misc.test with the Subject: ignore so you don't clutter up areas not meant for such things. That way you'll not get floods of email chiding you for improper newsgroup use. Worldwide test groups send automatic replies to posts unless you include the words "ignore" or "no reply" in the body of the message. (Recommended reading: Professor Timo Salmi's FAQ on test posts periodically posted to news.newusers.questions.) - Britt -- And so it came to pass |\ _,,,---,,_ |\ _,,,---,,_ that on Yom Kippur at /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ one hour past noon did |,4- ) )-,_. ,\ ( `'-' |,4- ) )-,_. ,\ ( `'-' Boots beget Alef and '---''(_/--' `-'\_) '---''(_/--' `-'\_) Beth, Gimel and |\ _,,,---,,_ |\ _,,,---,,_ Daleth; and the /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ family rejoiced |,4- ) )-,_. ,\ ( `'-' |,4- ) )-,_. ,\ ( `'-' and it was good. '---''(_/--' `-'\_) '---''(_/--' `-'\_)