Creating a plan and a project file

Create a plan and a project file

What is a plan file and a project file

Pico and Pine are both run from the UNIX system. Your account has been set up to allocate a certain amount of space for your e-mail and other files. From UNIX you can finger an account to find out certain information about a person. If you know their e-mail address, you can type finger user@host and you should see something similar to the lines of text below.

Sunbird% finger bwjames@sunbird.usd.edu
[sunbird.usd.edu]
Login name: bwjames                       In real life: Brad W. James
Directory: /home/coyote/bwjames           Shell: /bin/csh
Last login Thu Apr 11 14:30 on TTYG from 192.236.44.171
No unread mail
No Plan.

From this information you can verify that you have the e-mail account correct. If you can finger the account, you can send mail to them. This is useful if you aren't sure what their e-mail address is but have an idea of what it might be. You can also check to see the last time a person was on their account and if they have any unread mail.

Now some people don't know about this next part, but you can add information to the text displayed when someone fingers your account. Notice the No Plan part. Well, I am going to have you add something to your account so that you have a plan. Follow the steps below carefully.

Steps to create a plan file from Pico

Log-on to Sunbird
enter your username
enter your password
make sure you're at your home directory cd
Sunbird% pico .plan starts the Pico editor with file name
type your message this is your plan message
control-x exits Pico asking you if you want to save
that's it -- we just need to change the permissions (so others can see this)
change permissions for file chmod 644 .plan
change permissions for your home dir chmod 755 .

Now finger your account and see if the plan works.

The other file that we can add to the information returned from the finger command is a project statement. If you are in Upward Bound type Upward Bound Program. If you are in Math and Science Initiative Program type Math and Science Initiative Program.

Steps to create a project file from Pico

Log-on to Sunbird
enter your username
enter your password
make sure you're at your home directory cd
Sunbird% pico .project starts the Pico editor with file name
type your message this is your project message (one line)
control-x exits Pico asking you if you want to save
that's it -- again -- we need to make sure the permissions for the file are ok
change the permissions for others to see file chmod 644 .project
and we already changed the permissions for your home dir

Again finger your account and see if you have the project and plan files entered correctly. The screen should look something similar to the one below. [If your permissions are not set correctly, others won't be able to see your plan or project files.]

Sunbird% finger trio@sunbird.usd.edu
[sunbird.usd.edu]
Login name: trio                       In real life: Chuck Swick
Directory: /home/coyote/bwjames           Shell: /bin/csh
Last login Thu Apr 11 14:30 on TTYG from 192.236.44.171
Mail last read Wed May 22 23:32:06 1996
Project: TRIO ==> TS - UB - MSIP - SSS
Plan. to help and to serve

I will check each of your accounts to make sure that you have a plan and a project file.
Make sure you get this done.

The .signature, .plan, and .project files all start with a period. In UNIX this makes the file invisible from the DIR or directory command. If you are interested in more information about UNIX there is a short reference/tutorial on UNIX here.

Pico Startup Screen

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