SIGED
What is SigEd ?
SigEd is a shell script 'editor wrapper'. It will allow you to use
your normal preferred editor and adds some very useful features
when used in conjunction with newsreaders and mailer programs.
Currently it can handle PGP signing, signature addition, signature
randomisation (from external program), and Cc: processing (for
newsreaders which don't handle it, e.g. TIN)
Where can I get it?
If you are reading this it is most likely that it is either from the
distribution source or from the installation directory at some site.
You can always get the latest version of siged from:
http://www.nyx.net/~pgregg/siged/
From there you will be able to download the distribution source.
How do I install it?
Installation should be pretty simple. I generally write code that
hopefully idiots cant mess up, (but then idiots can be so ingenious!).
!!!!!!!YOU WILL NEED ZSH INSTALLED ON YOUR MACHINE TO USE SIGED!!!!!!!
I plan to rewrite siged in perl, and so remove the need for zsh.
. Download the source distribution from the above location
. Uncompress (gunzip) and untar (tar -xf)
. change to the siged directory (created by the untar)
. Read this README file incase it has changed.
. Run 'configure', this is a 'sh' shell script which will locate
all the main programs on your system which siged will need to use.
'configure' will generate an 'options' file.
. Edit the 'options' file and change any defaults you require :
- You should do this:
e.g. When installing on nyx, INSTALL_HOST='nyx10', I have
to change this to INSTALL_HOST='nyx10.cs.du.edu'. This variable
is used to generate your email address i.e. user@INSTALL_HOST
- If you are installing siged as 'root' (which I don't think has
been ever done ;) you won't need to touch the INSTALL_LIB or
SIGED_EXECUTABLE variables, if, more likely, you are a normal
user you should change these to reflect where you wish to install
siged. My recommendations in this case are:
SIGED_EXECUTABLE='$HOME/bin/siged'
INSTALL_LIB='$HOME/lib/siged'
For installation to preceed correctly all these directories should
exist.
. Run 'create_siged', again this is a 'sh' shell script which will
combine the siged template scripts and your options into a siged
configured for your system. This script will also install all the
relevent siged files in the INSTALL_LIB and create a symlink from
SIGED_EXECUTABLE to siged in the INSTALL_LIB.
. SigEd is now installed. You can discard all the files you
downloaded, tarfiles, untarred directory, etc, everything you need
is in INSTALL_LIB
How do I use SigEd?
SigEd is designed to be a multi-user configured program, in that
you can configure siged's configuration at runtime, in order to
achieve this SigEd needs a $HOME/.sigedrc file from which to get your
preferences. SigEd comes with a secondary script (already installed)
to set this up for you. Run siged with the '-setup' command line
argument: siged -setup
Once this is complete you can have a look at the .sigedrc file.
The setup procedure will also direct you in setting up .signature
files, and will also allow you to securely set up PGP for yourself
(if you have not already done so) and generate your keys.
For those untrusting among you (and there are many, especially when
it comes to PGP ;) feel free to look through the code, see
INSTALL_LIB/siged_setup.
To use siged you have to select it as the 'editor' to run for any
newsreader or mailer you wish to use. Run siged -help for general
help on siged, and siged -info for details on how to install siged
for all major newsreaders/mailers.
To get best use of SigEd you should create a environment variable
SIGEDITOR to point to your preferred editor (this is not exactly
necessary in most cases, except trn, but will make siged start up
faster).
All comments and suggestions on SigEd are more than welcome, please direct them to me via email at: pgregg@nyx.net
Offers of chocolate chip cookies may be sent to me at: (please wrap well so they don't go soggy ;)
Paul Gregg
202 Belfast Road,
Antrim,
BT41 2EY
Northern Ireland,
UK.
If you plan on distribution SigEd to other sites, please download the
distribution source and do so as you did here, It is unlikely that the same
generated siged will work from one system to another, (which is why it is so
easy to install).
Please leave all files intact and do not distribute modified versions of
SigEd. Any requests for further abilities will be considered and (likely)
added.
I hope you find SigEd to be as useful and simple to use tool as I and many others have.
Regards
Paul Gregg.
