User Commands vacation(1)
NAME
vacation - reply to mail automatically
SYNOPSIS
vacation [-I]
vacation [-a alias] [-e filterfile] [-f databasefile]
[-j] [-m messagefile] [-s sender] [-tN] username
vacation [-f databasefile] -l
DESCRIPTION
The vacation utility automatically replies to incoming mail.
Installation
The installation consists of an interactive program which
sets up vacation's basic configuration.
To install vacation, type it with no arguments on the com-
mand 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:
One copy of an incoming message is sent to the username and
another copy is piped into vacation:
\username, "/usr/bin/vacation username"
If a .forward file is present in your home directory, it
will ask whether you want to remove it, which disables vaca-
tion 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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User Commands vacation(1)
Activation and Deactivation
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.
Initialization
The -I option clears the vacation log files, .vacation.pag
and .vacation.dir, erasing the list of senders from a previ-
ous vacation session. (See OPTIONS section.)
Additional Configuration
vacation provides configuration options that are not part of
the installation, these being -a, -e, -f, -j, -m, -s, and
-t. (See OPTIONS section.)
Reporting
vacation provides a reporting option, -l. See OPTIONS.
OPTIONS
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, -e, -f, -j, -m, -s, and -t are configuration
options to be used in conjunction with vacation in the .for-
ward file, not on the command line. For example,
\username, "/usr/bin/vacation -t1m username"
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.
-e filterfile Uses filterfile instead of
.vacation.filter as the source of the
domain and email address filters.
-f databasefile Uses databasefile instead of .vacation
as the base name for the database file.
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User Commands vacation(1)
-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 mail-
ing lists and other inappropriate
places; its use is therefore strongly
discouraged.
-m messagefile Uses ~/messagefile as the message to
send for the reply instead of
~/.vacation.msg. messagefile is a rela-
tive path to the desired vacation mes-
sage file. To prevent directory/file
"not found" errors, messagefile should
be on the same disk partition as ~/.for-
ward.
-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.
The -l option is neither for initialization nor configura-
tion., but for reporting. The -foption can also be used in
conjunction with the -l.
-l Lists the addresses to which a reply has been sent
since the last invocation of vacation -I, along with a
date and time stamp.
USAGE
.vacation.msg should include a header with at least a Sub-
ject: line (it should not include a To: line). For example:
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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User Commands vacation(1)
If the string $SUBJECT appears in the .vacation.msg file, it
is replaced with the subject of the original message when
the reply is sent. Thus, a .vacation.msg file such as
Subject: I am on vacation
I am on vacation until July 22.
Your mail regarding "$SUBJECT" will be read when I return.
If you have something urgent, please contact
Joe Jones (jones@fB0).
--John
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 postmas-
ter or Mailer-Daemon.
In addition to the above criteria, if a .vacation.filter
file exists, it is used to constrain further the set of
addresses to which a reply is sent. Each line in that file
should be either a domain name, an email address, a negated
domain name or a negated email address. A negated line
starts with the single character !.
Each line is compared in the order listed to the sender
address. A line containing an email address matches if the
sender address is exactly the same except for case, which is
ignored. A line containing a domain name matches if the
sender address is something@domain-name or
something@something.domain-name. A reply is sent if the
first match is an entry that is not negated. If the first
match is a negated entry, or if no lines match, then no
reply is sent.
A sample filter file might look like the following:
!host.subdomain.sun.com
sun.com
!wife@mydomain.com
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User Commands vacation(1)
mydomain.com
onefriend@hisisp.com
anotherfriend@herisp.com
Blank lines and lines starting with "#" are ignored.
FILES
~/.forward
~/.vacation.filter
~/.vacation.msg
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.
ATRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
ATRIBUTE TYPE ATRIBUTE VALUE
Availability SUNWsndmu
SEE ALSO
vi(1), sendmail(1M), dbm(3UCB), getusershell(3C),
aliases(4), shells(4), attributes(5)
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