From: glover@credit.erin.utoronto.ca (Mike Glover)
Subject: Re: Really stupid questions
Organization: University of Toronto, Erindale Campus
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 04:36:23 GMT

In article <009653DD.EFDB4180@vms.csd.mu.edu> 2760carpente@vms.csd.mu.edu writes:
>I have a few really stupid questions.  Feel free to laugh at me, but I would
>really appericiate it if someone could take the time to answer my question.
>I spent 4 years working with VMS and DOS/WIN3 but now I want learn about UNIX. 
>I have seen the errors of my way.... 
First if someone laughs at you give them a BIG raspberry (thptt!!!!) courtesy
of me.  At least you admit the errors of your ways.  (So any potential flames
out there,  put an ashtray on it.) (I might not be able to forgive MS/Windows
but I will ignore that and continue)

>1) I have a file .plan in my root dir.  How do I set it up to display everytime
>   somebody fingers me.
First you must have your permissions on your home directory set such that any
one can read any files in your home dir (like .plan).  Then check the perms
on the .plan file.  The permissions should be read for all people if you 
want everyone to be able to read the .plan file.

>2) How do I set up my .sig file to append to all my messages?  What mailer is 
>   better: elm or vanilla mail
If you are posting news the .sig gets attached automatically.  If you are 
using 'vanilla mail' then you can type ~r .signature when you want it to
be included.  The best is to do a man on mail.  (The man pages can be very
usefull if you sit down and read them)  The choice between Elm and mail is
a personal preference and both should be looked at.

>3) Which shell is better?  I am currently using /bin/csh, but people keep
>   telling me that I should use the Bourne shell. /bin/sh
Heres a horseshoe in your world...How about tcsh.  I believe it to be the best
shell I have run across yet.  I have used sh/csh/tcsh/ksh.  Of all of them
I believe tcsh to be heads and shoulders above the rest.   If you are doing
shell programming I prefer sh (but thats a personal choice)

>4) Is the faq for this group at pit-manager.mit.edu?
Yes.  In fact I beleive the questions are general enough to be in the FAQ. I
don't know I haven't read the FAQ in a while.  If you are a beginner then
the FAQ is a very good starting point because it contains a complete list
of all novices questions.  It also has a good set of answers for them.

>
>Thank you.... 
No problem.  I'm procastinating studing for stats anyay.

>It did say comp.unix.questions??????
Yep.

>
>__    ___ __   ___   __    
>  \     /   |     \    | Vinny Carpenter            | It takes a big man to 
>   \   /    |      \   | Marquette University       | cry.  It takes an even
>      /     |    |  \  | 2760carpente@vms.csd.mu.edu| bigger man to laugh at
>     /      |    |     | vcarpent@nyx.cs.du.edu     | that man -Jack Handey
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>                             METALLICA IS GOD
(If Metallica is God,  then what the hell dose Satan look like?  Pat Boone?)

ttfn,
	Mike

-- 
_______________________________________________________________________________
 ___                    "Mickey Mouse wears a timex watch."_ ???
 U|     		glover@credit.erin.utoronto.ca  (Mike Glover)
 C|S			University of Toronto Computing Services