vacation(1) vacation(1)
NAME
vacation - automatically respond to incoming mail messages
SYNOPSIS
vacation [-a alias] [-d] [-e exemption-file] [-f forward-id]
[-i forward-id] [-j] [-l logfile] [-M canned_msg_file]
[-m savefile]
vacation -n
DESCRIPTION
When a new mail message arrives, the mail command first checks
the recipient's forwarding file, /var/mail/:forward/user, to
see if the message is to be forwarded elsewhere (to some other
recipient or as the input to some command). vacation is used
to set up forwarding via a Post-Processing Mail Personal
Surrogate so that the new message is both saved into the
user's mailbox and a canned response is sent to the message's
originator.
Your vacation message is not sent back if a Precedence: header
is found with a value of bulk or junk, or if your login name
is not found in one of the To:, Cc:, or Bcc: headers. Also,
the message is not sent back if the mail came from an account
with one of the names postmaster, mailer-daemon, operator or
root, or includes the substrings -request, uucp, mailer or
-relay, or if you have specified an exemption list and the
user is found in there. Case is ignored in all checks.
Command-line options are:
-a alias The -a option allows you to add an additional name
to check for to allow a vacation message to be
delivered. This is useful if multiple mailboxes
are forwarded to one mailbox, or if a user's
account on one machine is forwarded to another
machine. Multiple -a options may be specified.
-d The day's date will be appended to the filename
specified by -m.
-e exemption-file
Specify a filename which contains a list of
usernames to whom a vacation message is not to be
sent.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 1
vacation(1) vacation(1)
-f forwarding-id
The mail will be forwarded to this user id in
addition to being stored in the user's mailbox.
-i forwarding-id
The mail will be forwarded to this user id instead
of being stored in the user's mailbox. If both -f
and -i are given, the mail will not be stored in
the user's mailbox.
-j Do not check whether the recipient appears in the
To:, Cc: or Bcc: headers. In other words, send
replies to users even if the mail is not directly
addressed to your login name or an alias for it.
-l logfile File to keep track of which originators have
already seen the canned response. If not
specified, it defaults to $HOME/.maillog. The log
file prevents the originator from seeing the
vacation message multiple times.
-M canned_msg_file
File to send back as the canned response. Any
occurrences of the string $SUBJECT in the message
file will be replaced with the subject of the
message being responded to. If canned_msg_file is
not specified, it defaults to
/usr/share/lib/mail/std_vac_msg, which contains:
Subject: AUTOANSWERED!!!
I am on vacation. I will read (and answer if necessary)
your e-mail message when I return.
This message was generated automatically and you will
receive it only once, although all messages you send
me while I am away WILL be saved.
-m savefile Normally, the user's mailbox is used to store the
mail. This option allows a different filename to
be specified. If the file cannot be written, the
user's mailbox will be used.
-n Remove the vacation processing. It is equivalent
to:
mail -F ""
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 2
vacation(1) vacation(1)
FILES
/usr/share/lib/mail/std_vac_msg
default canned response
/var/mail/* users' standard mailboxes
/var/mail/:forward/* users' forwarding information
/usr/lib/mail/vacation2 program that actually sends back the
canned response
REFERENCES
mail(1), vacation(1BSD)
NOTICES
vacation uses the personal surrogate facility of mail to
implement notifications.
If you are using /usr/bin/vacation, you must use /bin/mail as
the mail delivery agent.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 3