FAQ on making and using a .signature file

From: tierna@agora.rdrop.com (Britt )
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: FAQ on making and using a .signature file
Date: 21 Nov 1996 21:13:47 GMT
Message-ID: <572gmb$s95@hermes.rdrop.com>
Reply-To: tierna@agora.rdrop.com
Summary: A short informational on getting your .signature to work.
Keywords: sig .sig signature .signature footer

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.
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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.
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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.)
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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 <fekete@bc.edu> 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.
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MAIL and MAILX:
 Thomas Okken <tokken@cs.ruu.nl> 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.
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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-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'
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Beth, Gimel and        |\      _,,,---,,_          |\      _,,,---,,_     
Daleth; and the        /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_      /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_
family rejoiced       |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'    |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'
and it was good.     '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)        '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)