The following program gives you random signatures by using named pipes. It expects the signatures file to have records in the format of the fortune program - that is, each possible multiline record is terminated with "%%\n". Here's an example:
Make is like Pascal: everybody likes it, so they go in and change it.
--Dennis Ritchie
%%
I eschew embedded capital letters in names; to my prose-oriented eyes,
they are too awkward to read comfortably. They jangle like bad typography.
--Rob Pike
%%
God made the integers; all else is the work of Man.
--Kronecker
%%
I'd rather have :rofix than const. --Dennis Ritchie
%%
If you want to program in C, program in C. It's a nice language.
I use it occasionally... :-) --Larry Wall
%%
Twisted cleverness is my only skill as a programmer.
--Elizabeth Zwicky
%%
Basically, avoid comments. If your code needs a comment to be understood,
it would be better to rewrite it so it's easier to understand.
--Rob Pike
%%
Comments on data are usually much more helpful than on algorithms.
--Rob Pike
%%
Programs that write programs are the happiest programs in the world.
--Andrew Hume
%%We check whether we're already running by using a file with our PID in it. If sending a signal number 0 indicates that PID still exists (or, rarely, that something else has reused it), we just exit. We also look at the current Usenet posting to decide whether to look for a per-newsgroup signature file. That way, you can have different signatures for each newsgroup you post to. For variety, a global signature file is still on occasion used even if a per-newsgroup file exists.
You can even use sigrand on systems without named pipes if you remove the code to create a named pipe and extend the sleep interval before file updates. Then .signature would just be a regular file. Another portability concern is that the program forks itself in the background, which is almost like becoming a daemon. If you have no fork call, just comment it out.
The full program is shown in Example 16.12.
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
# sigrand - supply random fortunes for .signature file
use strict;
# config section variables
use vars qw( $NG_IS_DIR $MKNOD $FULLNAME $FIFO $ART $NEWS $SIGS $SEMA
$GLOBRAND $NAME );
# globals
use vars qw( $Home $Fortune_Path @Pwd );
################################################################
# begin configuration section
# should really read from ~/.sigrandrc
gethome();
# for rec/humor/funny instead of rec.humor.funny
$NG_IS_DIR = 1;
$MKNOD = "/bin/mknod";
$FULLNAME = "$Home/.fullname";
$FIFO = "$Home/.signature";
$ART = "$Home/.article";
$NEWS = "$Home/News";
$SIGS = "$NEWS/SIGNATURES";
$SEMA = "$Home/.sigrandpid";
$GLOBRAND = 1/4; # chance to use global sigs anyway
# $NAME should be (1) left undef to have program guess
# read address for signature maybe looking in ~/.fullname,
# (2) set to an exact address, or (3) set to empty string
# to be omitted entirely.
$NAME = ''; # means no name used
## $NAME = "me\@home.org\n";
# end configuration section -- HOME and FORTUNE get autoconf'd
################################################################
setup(); # pull in inits
justme(); # make sure program not already running
fork && exit; # background ourself and go away
open (SEMA, "> $SEMA") or die "can't write $SEMA: $!";
print SEMA "$$\n";
close(SEMA) or die "can't close $SEMA: $!";
# now loop forever, writing a signature into the
# fifo file. if you don't have real fifos, change
# sleep time at bottom of loop to like 10 to update
# only every 10 seconds.
for (;;) {
open (FIFO, "> $FIFO") or die "can't write $FIFO: $!";
my $sig = pick_quote();
for ($sig) {
s/^((:?[^\n]*\n){4}).*$/$1/s; # trunc to 4 lines
s/^(.{1,80}).*? *$/$1/gm; # trunc long lines
}
# print sig, with name if present, padded to four lines
if ($NAME) {
print FIFO $NAME, "\n" x (3 - ($sig =~ tr/\n//)), $sig;
} else {
print FIFO $sig;
}
close FIFO;
# Without a microsleep, the reading process doesn't finish before
# the writer tries to open it again, which since the reader exists,
# succeeds. They end up with multiple signatures. Sleep a tiny bit
# between opens to give readers a chance to finish reading and close
# our pipe so we can block when opening it the next time.
select(undef, undef, undef, 0.2); # sleep 1/5 second
}
die "XXX: NOT REACHED"; # you can't get here from anywhere
################################################################
# Ignore SIGPIPE in case someone opens us up and then closes the fifo
# without reading it; look in a .fullname file for their login name.
# Try to determine the fully qualified hostname. Look our for silly
# ampersands in passwd entries. Make sure we have signatures or fortunes.
# Build a fifo if we need to.
sub setup {
$SIG{PIPE} = 'IGNORE';
unless (defined $NAME) { # if $NAME undef in config
if (-e $FULLNAME) {
$NAME = `cat $FULLNAME`;
die "$FULLNAME should contain only 1 line, aborting"
if $NAME =~ tr/\n// > 1;
} else {
my($user, $host);
chop($host = `hostname`);
($host) = gethostbyname($host) unless $host =~ /\./;
$user = $ENV{USER} || $ENV{LOGNAME} || $Pwd[0]
or die "intruder alert";
($NAME = $Pwd[6]) =~ s/,.*//;
$NAME =~ s/&/\u\L$user/g; # can't believe some folks still do this
$NAME = "\t$NAME\t$user\@$host\n";
}
}
check_fortunes() if !-e $SIGS;
unless (-p $FIFO) { # -p checks whether it's a named pipe
if (!-e _) {
system("$MKNOD $FIFO p") && die "can't mknod $FIFO";
warn "created $FIFO as a named pipe\n";
} else {
die "$0: won't overwrite file .signature\n";
}
} else {
warn "$0: using existing named pipe $FIFO\n";
}
# get a good random number seed. not needed if 5.004 or better.
srand(time() ^ ($$ + ($$ << 15)));
}
# choose a random signature
sub pick_quote {
my $sigfile = signame();
if (!-e $sigfile) {
return fortune();
}
open (SIGS, "< $sigfile" ) or die "can't open $sigfile";
local $/ = "%%\n";
local $_;
my $quip;
rand($.) < 1 && ($quip = $_) while <SIGS>;
close SIGS;
chomp $quip;
return $quip || "ENOSIG: This signature file is empty.\n";
}
# See whether ~/.article contains a Newsgroups line. if so, see the first
# group posted to and find out whether it has a dedicated set of fortunes.
# otherwise return the global one. also, return the global one randomly
# now and then to spice up the sigs.
sub signame {
(rand(1.0) > ($GLOBRAND) && open ART) || return $SIGS;
local $/ = '';
local $_ = <ART>;
my($ng) = /Newsgroups:\s*([^,\s]*)/;
$ng =~ s!\.!/!g if $NG_IS_DIR; # if rn -/, or SAVEDIR=%p/%c
$ng = "$NEWS/$ng/SIGNATURES";
return -f $ng ? $ng : $SIGS;
}
# Call the fortune program with -s for short flag until
# we get a small enough fortune or ask too much.
sub fortune {
local $_;
my $tries = 0;
do {
$_ = `$Fortune_Path -s`;
} until tr/\n// < 5 || $tries++ > 20;
s/^/ /mg;
$_ || " SIGRAND: deliver random signals to all processes.\n";
}
# Make sure there's a fortune program. Search
# for its full path and set global to that.
sub check_fortunes {
return if $Fortune_Path; # already set
for my $dir (split(/:/, $ENV{PATH}), '/usr/games') {
return if -x ($Fortune_Path = "$dir/fortune");
}
die "Need either $SIGS or a fortune program, bailing out";
}
# figure out our directory
sub gethome {
@Pwd = getpwuid($<);
$Home = $ENV{HOME} || $ENV{LOGDIR} || $Pwd[7]
or die "no home directory for user $<";
}
# "There can be only one." --the Highlander
sub justme {
if (open SEMA) {
my $pid;
chop($pid = <SEMA>);
kill(0, $pid) and die "$0 already running (pid $pid), bailing out";
close SEMA;
}
}