RCVTRIP(C) UNIX System V
Name
rcvtrip - notifies mail sender that recipient is away
Syntax
/usr/bin/rcvtrip [-d] [address]
Description
The rcvtrip command makes it possible for you to notify the
sender of a message that you are on holiday and you won't be
answering your mail for some time. MMDF runs rcvtrip on
your behalf rather than by you directly.
To enable use of rcvtrip, put the following line in your
.maildelivery file:
* - pipe R rcvtrip $(sender)
Make sure that your .maildelivery file is not writable by
anyone but you. You may also place a ``custom'' reply
message in a file named tripnote. Finally, you should
create an empty triplog file.
When rcvtrip processes a message, it performs the following
steps:
1. Decide if this type of message should receive a reply.
2. Decide to whom the reply should be sent.
3. Decide whether this sender has already gotten a reply.
The rcvtrip command decides whether this is the type of
message that should get a reply by looking at the contents
of the "Resent-To:", "Resent-Cc:", "To:" and "Cc:" header
fields. If the recipient has an .alter_egos file (described
next), then one of the addresses in that file must appear in
the one of these header fields for a reply to be sent. If
the recipient does not have an .alter_egos file, then the
recipient's name or a first-order alias of the recipient's
name (for example, dlong-->long) must appear in one of these
header fields for a reply to be sent. This procedure
ensures that rcvtrip will not reply to messages sent to
mailing lists, unless the recipient's name (or some variant
of the recipient's name) is explicitly mentioned in a header
field.
If rcvtrip has decided that it should send a reply for the
message, then it looks at several other address fields to
determine to whom the reply should be sent. It uses, in
order of precedence:
1. addresses in `Resent-Reply-To:'
2. addresses in `Resent-From:' and, if present, `Resent-
Sender:'
3. addresses in `Reply-To:'
4. addresses in `From:' and either `Sender:', if present,
or the address argument from the command line.
The rcvtrip command notifies any originator of mail who has
not previously been notified unless you pre-load their
address into the triplog file (refer to the Files section).
The reply begins with some standard text (supplied by
rcvtrip) followed by whatever text the user has placed in
the tripnote file (or a canned message if the tripnote file
is missing). The originators' names are recorded in
triplog, along with the date and time the message came in,
an indication of whether it was answered (`+'=yes), and the
first few characters of the subject. This appears as:
+ jpo@nott.ac.uk Wed Oct 8 16:08 >> about your last message
Files
$HOME/tripnote contains a reply message to be sent to those
sending you mail.
$HOME/triplog contains a list of who sent a message, what
was its subject, when it arrived, and if a response was
sent. It can also be initialized by hand to contain the
addresses, one per line, which are not to receive replies.
$HOME/logfile, it it exists, becomes an output file for
logging diagnostic information. If the -d option is
specified, then extensive output is generated for debugging
purposes. It is not a good idea to leave -d enabled if this
file is left lying around, as the output can be quite
voluminous.
$HOME/.alter_egos, an optional file composed of
`user@domain' lines for all addresses to be considered
`you'. This is needed if you have multiple hosts forwarding
their mail to you. If this file is present, then the
standard comparisons against your username and first-level
aliases of your username do not occur.
$HOME/.maildelivery is your mail delivery specification
file. The previous example shows the line that should be
added to .maildelivery to enable use of rcvtrip. In this
line, the $(sender) argument is optional (but recommended).
You may need to give the full pathname of rcvtrip if it is
not in your search path.
See Also
maildelivery(F)
(printed 4/27/90) RCVTRIP(C)