SMITHJ@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu (07/20/89)
I've tries putting a file .signature in my home directory but it isn't used when I 'post'. Any help on what I'm doing wrong would be appreciated. Sincerely, Jeffery G. Smith
patrick@chinet.chi.il.us (Patrick A. Townson) (07/21/89)
In article <2959@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu> SMITHJ@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu writes: >I've tries putting a file .signature in my home directory but it isn't used >when I 'post'. Any help on what I'm doing wrong would be appreciated. > Sincerely, > Jeffery G. Smith I've found it sometimes helps to call it '.sig' rather than .signature. I know using MMDF mail I sometimes used to run into trouble trying to resend mail and articles to others because it was looking for '.signature' and found it, and found that it did not match my login name or something weird. When I renamed it '.sig' then it no longer could find '.signature' and quit bothering me. Of course, then I have to force it in manually at the bottom of articles and mail, but that is not a big hassle. In emacs using control x control i asks what file to append. -- Patrick Townson patrick@chinet.chi.il.us / ptownson@bu-cs.bu.edu / US Mail: 60690-1570 FIDO: 115/743 / AT&T Mail: 529-6378 (!ptownson) / MCI Mail: 222-4956
allbery@nc386.UUCP (Brandon S. Allbery) (07/27/89)
In article <9028@chinet.chi.il.us>, patrick@chinet (Patrick A. Townson) writes: +--------------- | In article <2959@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu> SMITHJ@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu writes: | >I've tries putting a file .signature in my home directory but it isn't used | >when I 'post'. Any help on what I'm doing wrong would be appreciated. | | I've found it sometimes helps to call it '.sig' rather than .signature. I | know using MMDF mail I sometimes used to run into trouble trying to resend | mail and articles to others because it was looking for '.signature' and | found it, and found that it did not match my login name or something weird. +--------------- Most versions of the news software floating around enforce a strict 4-line limit on .signature file lengths. This is probably the cause of the problem. Patrick: MMDF (probably) reads from .signature a single line to include in your mail address: From: "contents of .signature" <user@site.domain> (Or so I infer, given your statement and the behavior of MH when .signature processing is enabled; MH seems to like to emulate MMDF as much as possible, so this is a safe assumption.) ++Brandon -- Brandon S. Allbery, moderator of comp.sources.misc allbery@NCoast.ORG uunet!hal.cwru.edu!ncoast!allbery ncoast!allbery@hal.cwru.edu * This message brought to you courtesy the "Watcher" for the 4th NCoast *
rmtodd@servalan.uucp (Richard Todd) (07/29/89)
In article <1989Jul27.002746.6191@nc386.uucp> allbery@nc386.UUCP (Brandon S. Allbery) writes: >Patrick: MMDF (probably) reads from .signature a single line to include in >your mail address: > > From: "contents of .signature" <user@site.domain> > >(Or so I infer, given your statement and the behavior of MH when .signature >processing is enabled; MH seems to like to emulate MMDF as much as possible, >so this is a safe assumption.) Your inference is pretty good there, Brandon. That's exactly what the problem is. Strictly speaking it isn't MMDF that's doing it, just the mail user agents that come with MMDF (msg and a version of /usr/ucb/Mail hacked to grok MMDF's mailboxes). MMDF itself doesn't care, and if you use a different user agent, e.g. Mush, you won't have this problem. I'd love to hear someone explain why this reading of lines from the .signature file is a Good Thing, instead of getting the name from somewhere else, like an environment variable. My experience has been that it causes horrible confusion when people dink with their .signature files and suddenly become unable to send mail. I'd like even better to hear from someone who has a patch to nuke said feature from the MMDF user agents altogether. > * This message brought to you courtesy the "Watcher" for the 4th NCoast * Better be careful when around radio telescopes, Brandon :-). -- Richard Todd rmtodd@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu rmtodd@chinet.chi.il.us rmtodd@servalan.uucp Motorola Skates On Intel's Head!
allbery@nc386.UUCP (Brandon S. Allbery) (08/03/89)
In article <1989Jul29.005941.1270@servalan.uucp>, rmtodd@servalan (Richard Todd) writes: +--------------- | In article <1989Jul27.002746.6191@nc386.uucp> allbery@nc386.UUCP (Brandon S. Allbery) writes: | I'd love to hear someone explain why this reading of lines from the | .signature file is a Good Thing, instead of getting the name from somewhere | else, like an environment variable. My experience has been that it causes | horrible confusion when people dink with their .signature files and | suddenly become unable to send mail. I'd like even better to hear from | someone who has a patch to nuke said feature from the MMDF user agents | altogether. +--------------- It may be a compile-time option, like it is in MH; unfortunately, binary sites end up being pretty much screwed by such an arrangement. +--------------- | > * This message brought to you courtesy the "Watcher" for the 4th NCoast * | Better be careful when around radio telescopes, Brandon :-). +--------------- (heh, heh!) Actually, "Logopolis" is scheduled for this weekend (see sig) -- hopefully not to be followed by "Castrovalva".... ;-) ++Brandon -- Brandon S. Allbery, moderator of comp.sources.misc allbery@NCoast.ORG uunet!hal.cwru.edu!ncoast!allbery ncoast!allbery@hal.cwru.edu * This message brought to you courtesy the "Watcher" for the 4th NCoast * "ncoast #4 regenerates into ncoast #5 on 8/6/89!" -- the Watcher (aka nc386)
david@ms.uky.edu (David Herron -- One of the vertebrae) (08/06/89)
In article <1989Aug2.233524.3469@nc386.uucp> allbery@nc386.UUCP (Brandon S. Allbery) writes: >| In article <1989Jul27.002746.6191@nc386.uucp> allbery@nc386.UUCP (Brandon S. Allbery) writes: >| I'd love to hear someone explain why this reading of lines from the >| .signature file is a Good Thing, instead of getting the name from somewhere ... >It may be a compile-time option, like it is in MH; unfortunately, binary sites >end up being pretty much screwed by such an arrangement. ... There really isn't a good reason for why MMDF does .signature handling that way. All lI can offer is an explanation (from a bouncy keyboard). MMDF was written before Usenet became popular. The previous maintainers of MMDF were not Usenet users. ergo cum quid, MMDF never had someone offocially maintaining it who was inconvenienced by .signatures going into the From: line. The current maintainers (myself and Ed Bennett) are Usenet users ... -- <- David Herron; an MMDF guy <david@ms.uky.edu> <- ska: David le casse\*' {rutgers,uunet}!ukma!david, david@UKMA.BITNET <- "Amiga software is as good and as bad as PC software. The difference is <- that AmigaDOS waves bye-bye before it dies, while the PC just freezes."