32.5 Mail Signature

You can add a standard piece of text—your mail signature—to the end of every message. This signature may contain information such as your telephone number or your physical location. The variable mail-signature determines how Emacs handles the mail signature.

The default value of mail-signature is t; this means to look for your mail signature in the file ~/.signature. If this file exists, its contents are automatically inserted into the end of the mail buffer. You can change the signature file via the variable mail-signature-file.

If you change mail-signature to a string, that specifies the text of the signature directly.

If you change mail-signature to nil, Emacs will not insert your mail signature automatically. You can insert your mail signature by typing C-c C-w (message-insert-signature) in the mail buffer. Emacs will look for your signature in the signature file.

By convention, a mail signature should be marked by a line whose contents are ‘-- ’. If your signature lacks this prefix, it is added for you. The remainder of your signature should be no more than four lines.