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| | vacation - reply to mail automatically |
SYNOPSIS
| | vacation [-a alias] [-f database_file] [-j] [-m message_file] [-s sender] [-tN] username |
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The vacation utility automatically replies to incoming mail.
Installation
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The installation consists of an interactive program which sets up vacation's basic configuration.
To install vacation, type it with no arguments on the command line. The program creates a .vacation.msg file, which contains the message that is automatically sent to all senders when vacation is enabled, and starts an editor for you to
modify the message. (See USAGE section.) Which editor is invoked is determined by the VISUAL or EDITOR environment variable, or vi(1) if neither of those environment
variables are set.
A .forward file is also created if one does not exist in your home directory. Once created, the .forward file will contain a line of the form:
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\username, "|/usr/bin/vacation username"
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One copy of an incoming message is sent to the username and another copy is piped into vacation.
If a .forward file is present in your home directory, it will ask whether you want to remove it, which disables vacation and ends the installation.
The program automatically creates .vacation.pag and .vacation.dir, which contain a list of senders when vacation is enabled.
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Activation and Deactivation
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The presence of the .forward file determines whether or not vacation is disabled or enabled. To disable vacation, remove the .forward file, or move it to a new name.
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Initialization
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The -I option clears the vacation log files, .vacation.pag and .vacation.dir, erasing the list of senders from a previous vacation session. (See OPTIONS section.)
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Additional Configuration
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vacation provides configuration options that are not part of the installation, these being -a, -f, -j, -m, -s, and -t. (See OPTIONS section.)
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The following options are supported:
- -I
- Initializes the .vacation.pag and .vacation.dir files and enables vacation. If the -I flag is not specified, and a user argument is given, vacation reads the first line from the standard input (for a From: line, no colon). If absent, it produces an error message.
Options -a, -f, -j, -m, -t, and -s are configuration options to be used in conjunction with vacation in the .forward file, not on the command line.
For example,
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\username, "|/usr/bin/vacation -t1m username"
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repeats replies to the sender every minute.
- -a alias
- Indicates that alias is one of the valid aliases for the user running vacation, so that mail addressed to that alias generates
a reply.
- -f file
- Uses file instead of .vacation as the base name for the database file.
- -j
- Does not check whether the recipient appears in the To: or the Cc: line. Warning: use of this option can result in vacation replies being sent to mailing lists and other inappropriate places; its
use is therefore strongly discouraged.
- -m file
- Uses file instead of .vacation.msg as the message to send for the reply.
- -s sender
- Replies to sender instead of the value read from the UNIX From line of the incoming message.
- -tN
- Changes the interval between repeat replies to the same sender. The default is 1 week. A trailing s, m, h, d, or w scales N to seconds, minutes, hours, days, or weeks, respectively.
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Files
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.vacation.msg should include a header with at least a Subject: line (it should not include a To: line). For example:
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Subject: I am on vacation
I am on vacation until July 22. If you have something urgent,
please contact Joe Jones (jones@fB0).
--John
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If the string $SUBJECT appears in the .vacation.msg file, it is replaced with the subject of the original message when the reply is sent; thus, a .vacation.msg file such as
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Subject: I am on vacation
I am on vacation until July 22.
Your mail regarding "$SUBJECT" will be read when I return.
If you have something urgent, please contact
Joe Jones (jones@fB0).
--John
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will include the subject of the message in the reply.
No message is sent if the To: or the Cc: line does not list the user to whom the original message was sent or one of a number of aliases for them, if the initial From line includes the string -REQUEST@, or if a Precedence: bulk or Precedence: junk line is included in the header.
vacation will also not respond to mail from either postmaster or Mailer-Daemon.
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~/.forward
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~/.vacation.msg
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A list of senders is kept in the dbm format files .vacation.pag and .vacation.dir in your home directory. These files are dbm files and cannot be viewed directly with text editors.
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See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
| Availability | SUNWcsu |
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