Talk: How to have PERL script execute automagically for random .sig

Lawrence Lim  <fba...@leonis.nus.sg> wrote:
>On 22 Apr 1995, Bob Allison forwarded:

>> You execute the script by simply typing in its name in your shell, i.e.:
>> sigscript

>Pardon me... But I've no knowledge of C lang ... So these Unix cmds will not 
>make too much sense to me...


It's not in C. It's a Perl script. There's no compiling it or anything. Just
save it as a file and make sure it's executable. This can be done by typing:

chmod u+x sigscript

at your shell prompt. The shell prompt is what's there when you're not running
tin or pine or something... :) It usually displays the terminal number followed
by a % or $, depending on the shell type. Mine says "hp-100% ". Think of it as
the equivalent of a DOS prompt... :)

> That's it. If you want to see the changes made automagically on every post,
>> then add the following line to your .login file:
 
>> setenv NEWSPOSTER '~/sigs/sigscript\;Pnews -h %h'
 
>What does the Pnews mean??... For my newsgrps I use somethin called 
>tin... So what are the neccessary amendments??...

It's the same. Pnews is the actual program called by tin (or trn, which I use,
or pretty much any other newsreader) that injects the article into the news
stream. I guess you can think of your newsreader as a program that manipulates
other programs: it loads articles, displays them (usually using the "more" cmd)
and allows you to reply, using whatever editor you choose (i.e. vi, emacs...)
and then using the posting program (Pnews).

>Also when I tried doin a `sh' on the file there's an error on the line 
>with srand... Says somethin bout unexpected... Perl gives no err.. but 
>then the random feature is still not invoked... 8PP...

Hmmm... Are you just typing the name of the script? As in "sigscript" by
itself? It should work, then, since the first couple lines (with the perl
path in it) tell it what to run it from (perl)... Try "cat .signature", then
run the script, then cat your .sig again and see if it's different- it should
be... <shrug>

>Oh BTW... Does this work in pine (ie email??)... Just asked... If I can 
>sort out the mess for tin... I might work on pine as well... 

It should... I don't know the env to set for it to work automagically, like the
setenv NEWSPOSTER line, but I'm sure there is one somewhere... <?> Hmm. You
could always execute the randomizer from within Pine by doing a shell escape-
just type "!sigscript" (if you're in a different directory, you might have to
supply the path, too, i.e. "!~/sigs/sigscript"). The ! is the shell-escape
command, so it'll run whatever you type after it as if you were in your shell
instead of in Pine... You can do this from anywhere else, too, like tin... 
 About the only other thing I can think of is you have to set your Pine options
to have it include your signature. Or you could do it manually (insert it with
your editor).
Anything else? :>
L8er...
                                        -Eric (not realizing he'd be giving out
                                               UNIX advice already...) :>
-- 
URL- http://www.engr.wisc.edu/~agnew (/sp.html) | Smashing Pumpkins FAQ mtnr.
"Reoccuring living bad dreams, at the vortex of lost souls, wailing lost
souls of shame..."   -SP, Spaced

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