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1994-03-29
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Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!hookup!news.sprintlink.net!connected.com!connected.com!nancym
From: Nancy McGough <nancym@ii.com>
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions,comp.mail.misc,comp.unix.questions,alt.internet.services,comp.answers,alt.answers,news.answers
Subject: Signature and Finger FAQ
Followup-To: news.newusers.questions,comp.mail.misc,comp.unix.questions,alt.internet.services
Date: 29 Mar 1994 20:50:21 -0800
Organization: Infinite Ink, Seattle, Washington, USA
Lines: 229
Sender: nancym@goshen.connected.com
Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu
Message-ID: <nancym.765002830@connected.com>
Reply-To: Nancy McGough <nancym@ii.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: goshen.connected.com
X-Newsreader: NN [version 6.4.18]
Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu news.newusers.questions:15966 comp.mail.misc:6966 comp.unix.questions:23796 alt.internet.services:19250 comp.answers:4350 alt.answers:2267 news.answers:17002
Archive-name: signature_finger_faq
THE SIGNATURE AND FINGER FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
===================================================
Your signature and finger files are two ways you can tell people more
about yourself. This article describes how to set these up on Unix
systems. The following subjects are covered:
* Automatic Signature - General Instructions
* Automatic Signature - Specific Instructions for Pine
* Automatic Signature - Specific Instructions for Elm
* Automatic Signature - Specific Instructions for NN
* Troubleshooting Signature Problems
* Changing Your Default Finger Info: chfn
* Adding More to Your Finger Info: .plan & .project
* Finding Out Who Fingers You
* Contributing to this FAQ
This article is in digest format so you may be able to use your newsreader
or mailer to easily skip to a subject you're interested in. In nn you can
type G% to have each subject presented on a submenu. In trn (and its
relatives like rn) you can type ^G (CTRL and G key pressed simultaneously)
to skip to the next line that begins with ``Subject: ''. (Please mail me
commands that other newsreaders and mailers have for efficient browsing of
digests.)
Date: 29 Mar 1994 00:00:00 GMT
From: Nancy McGough <nancym@ii.com>
Subject: Automatic Signature - General Instructions
Q: How can I have a signature automatically appended to my news articles
and mail messages?
A: The answer depends on your newsreader and mailer but the following
procedure works for many Unix newsreaders and mailers.
Type... In order to...
------- --------------
cd Go to your home directory.
pico .signature Use the pico editor to create a .signature file.
(Replace "pico" with your favorite editor.)
<your signature> Note that most systems require your sig to be <= 4
lines. And it's good netiquette to make it as
short as possible (I like 1 line or less!).
chmod 644 .signature Make .signature readable by all.
ls -l .signature Check the permission: it should say -rw-r--r--
chmod +x . Make home directory searchable by all.
ls -ld . Check permission of home dir: it should say drwx?-x?-x
The ?'s may be r's or hyphens or one of each (i.e.,
drwx--x--x, drwxr-xr-x, drwxr-x--x, drwx--xr-x).
ls -la Check permission of files in home dir. If any are
world or group writable (?????w??w?) you'll probably
want to change this by doing a "chmod go-w FileName".
For more info on changing permissions see chmod
man pages.
Next if you use pine, elm, or nn follow the additional instructions described
below. After you've set everything up use your mailer to mail a test message
to yourself, and your newsreader and/or news poster (such as nnpost or Pnews)
to post an article to a test newsgroup (use a local newsgroup and local
distribution to save bandwidth). If it doesn't work see the Troubleshooting
subject below.
Date: 29 Mar 1994 00:00:00 GMT
From: Nancy McGough <nancym@ii.com>
Subject: Automatic Signature - Specific Instructions for Pine
In addition to the general signature instructions above Pine users should
edit their $HOME/.pinerc file so that it contains the following:
signature-file=~/.signature
feature-list=signature-at-bottom
Note that these variables should already be in your .pinerc and you
will just need to remove the # comment mark (if there is one) and
add text after the =. If you want more than one feature in your
feature-list then list them all in one comma-separated list e.g.
``feature-list=old-growth,signature-at-bottom''.
Date: 29 Mar 1994 00:00:00 GMT
From: Nancy McGough <nancym@ii.com>
Subject: Automatic Signature - Specific Instructions for Elm
In addition to the general signature instructions above Elm users should
edit their $HOME/.elm/elmrc file so that it contains the following:
signature = ~/.signature
sigdashes = ON
Note that if you want to have a different signature for local mail
(i.e., addresses that don't contain a ! or @) then you can use the
localsignature and remotesignature variables instead of the signature
variable (which specifies one sig for all mail).
Date: 29 Mar 1994 00:00:00 GMT
From: Nancy McGough <nancym@ii.com>
Subject: Automatic Signature - Specific Instructions for NN
In addition to the general signature instructions above NN users should
edit their $HOME/.nn/init file so that it contains the following:
set query-signature off
set append-signature-mail on
set append-signature-post off
Note that the reason that you need to ``set append-signature-post off'' is
that the news transport (such as inews) automatically appends a signature
if it exists. If you ``set append-signature-post on'' then both nn and
inews append your sig so you get two!
Date: 29 Mar 1994 00:00:00 GMT
From: Nancy McGough <nancym@ii.com>
Subject: Troubleshooting Signature Problems
If the procedures above don't work, read the man pages for your newsreader,
news poster, or mailer and search for the string "signature". There may be a
variable you need to set in order for the .signature to be appended.
Type... In order to...
------- --------------
man CommandName |less Open man pages for CommandName (elm, pine, nn, tin
trn, Pnews, etc.) and pipe through less. If your
system doesn't have less replace it with "more".
/signature Search for first occurrence of "signature".
n Search for next occurrence of "signature".
Repeat the search until you find the appropriate
section of the manual.
u Page up half a screen. (This only works in less)
Date: 29 Mar 1994 00:00:00 GMT
From: Nancy McGough <nancym@ii.com>
Subject: Changing Your Default Finger Info: chfn
People around the world can find out more about you by "fingering"
you. This is done by typing:
finger YourEmailAddress
On many Unix systems you can change some of your default information,
such as your name, by typing the following at your Unix prompt:
chfn
If chfn is not available you can try "passwd -f". For more information
see the chfn, passwd, and finger man pages.
Date: 29 Mar 1994 00:00:00 GMT
From: Nancy McGough <nancym@ii.com>
Subject: Adding More to Your Finger Info: .plan & .project
The .project and .plan files, if they exist, are displayed when you
are fingered. Setting these up is essentially the same as setting
up a .signature file (described above).
Type... In order to...
------- --------------
cd Go to your home directory.
pico .plan Use the pico editor to create a .plan file.
(Replace "pico" with your favorite editor.)
chmod 644 .plan Make .plan readable by all.
ls -l .plan Check the permission: it should say -rw-r--r--
chmod +x . Make home directory searchable by all.
ls -ld . Check permission of home dir: it should say drwx?-x?-x.
The ?'s may be r's or hyphens or one of each.
ls -la Check permission of files in home dir. If any are
world or group writable (?????w??w?) you'll probably
want to change this by doing a "chmod go-w FileName".
For more info on changing permissions see chmod
man pages.
If you want a .project file follow the same procedure. Note that only the
first line of the .project is displayed (so you might as well only make
it one line!).
To test your changes finger yourself by typing the following at the Unix prompt:
finger YourEmailAddress
To ensure that people from other systems can finger you you should ask a friend
who's not on your system to finger you too.
Date: 29 Mar 1994 00:00:00 GMT
From: Nancy McGough <nancym@ii.com>
Subject: Finding Out Who Fingers You
This is not always possible and when it is it's fairly complicated to
set up. For details see the news.answers article "Unix - Frequently
Asked Questions (4/7) [Frequent posting]", item "4.9) How do I keep
track of people who are fingering me?" (This article is archived at
rtfm.mit.edu: pub/usenet/news.answers/unix-faq/faq/part4)
Date: 29 Mar 1994 00:00:00 GMT
From: Nancy McGough <nancym@ii.com>
Subject: Contributing to this FAQ
If you have any corrections, additions, or new digest items to contribute
to this FAQ please mail them to me (nancym@ii.com). I'm especially
interested in signature instructions for specific mailers and newsreaders.