To avoid long and complex commandlines you can use a configuration file instead. (This is mainly for DOS because it can't handle very long commandlines and just truncates them. If you run into this problem, then you must use a configuration file.)
To use a configuration file, you must start makeSIGN like this:
makesign configurationfile
This will cause makeSIGN to read the given configuration file instead of the
commandline parameters. If you set the configuration file to -
it
will be read from standard input.
The configuration file is a simple text file. You can set the following options (one per line):
(To all you Linux users out there: The case of the configuration options is not important.)
makeSIGN will produce no signature longer than 4 lines. The common length of a signature is 4 lines and some people might be bothered if you use longer ones. The STRICT= option cannot be used when FOOTER= or HEADER= are set to standard input.
All mottoes will be considered equal: The control lines in the motto files are ignored, there are neither "better" nor "worse" mottoes.
makeSIGN will use the footer and header given by FOOTER= and HEADER= and will ignore the footer and header given in the motto files.
makeSIGN doesn't print any error messages. This might be useful if you want to pipe the signature to another program.
The signature is prepended by the line "--
". This is the
common delimiter of a signature in eMails or News articles.
makeSIGN will print all status and error messages. It's mainly for debugging and makes the program look very busy :-)
The given file footerfile
is appended to the random motto. If you
set the footer file to -
it will be read from standard input.
The given file headerfile
is prepended to the random motto. If you
set the header file to -
it will be read from standard input.
This is the file to where the signature is written. This argument must be
given. If you set the output file to -
the signature will be written
to standard output.
In these files the mottoes are stored. You can use up to 20 files at once. At least one file must be given. The format of these files is described at the motto files section.
(You can use YES
instead of TRUE
in all cases.)
All in all not pretty much of a difference to the commandline parameters. If makeSIGN can't parse a line it will print an error. If you want to write a comment into the file then the line must begin with a '#'. Blank lines are not allowed. If you set options that antagonize each other (like QUIET=TRUE and VERBOSE=TRUE or multiple OUTFILE= lines) then the last line becomes active.
If you want to see an example for a configuration file, then have a look at the examples section.