rcvtrip(C)                      19 June 1992                      rcvtrip(C)


 Name

    rcvtrip - notify 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 away on a trip and you won't be answering your mail
    for some time.  MMDF runs rcvtrip on your behalf rather than you running
    it 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 received 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 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 decides it should send a reply to the message, 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 previ-
    ously been notified unless you pre-load their address into the triplog
    file (refer to the ``Files'' section).  The reply begins with some stan-
    dard text (supplied by rcvtrip) followed by whatever text the user has
    placed in the tripnote file, or the following message if the tripnote
    file is missing:

       Your mail has been received by the Mail System.
       The person you are trying to contact is not here right now.
       The Mail System does not know where to forward your message,
       so it will be stored here until the recipient returns to read it.
       This may take some time.

    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       if it exists, becomes an output file for logging
                        diagnostic information.  If the -d option is speci-
                        fied, then extensive output is generated for debug-
                        ging 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 stan-
                        dard comparisons against your username and first-
                        level aliases of your username do not occur.

    $HOME/.maildelivery is your mail delivery specification file.  The previ-
                        ous example shows the line that should be added to
                        .maildelivery to enable use of rcvtrip.  In this
                        line, the $(sender) argument is optional (but recom-
                        mended).  You may need to give the full pathname of
                        rcvtrip if it is not in your search path.

 See also

    maildelivery(F)

 Credit

    MMDF was developed at the University of Delaware and is used with permis-
    sion.