VACATION(1) VACATION(1)
NAME
vacation - E-mail auto-responder
SYNOPSIS
vacation [-a alias] [-C cffile] [-d] [-f database] [-i]
[-I] [-l] [-m message] [-r interval] [-s address] [-t
time] [-U] [-x] [-z] login
DESCRIPTION
Vacation returns a message, ~/.vacation.msg by default, to
the sender informing them that you are currently not read-
ing your mail. The message is only sent to each sender
once per reply interval (see -r below). The intended use
is in a .forward file. For example, your .forward file
might have:
\eric, "|/usr/bin/vacation -a allman eric"
which would send messages to you (assuming your login name
was eric) and reply to any messages for ``eric'' or ``all-
man''.
Available options:
-a alias
Handle messages for alias in the same manner as
those received for the user's login name.
-C cfpath
Specify pathname of the sendmail configuration
file. This option is ignored if -U is specified.
This option defaults to the standard sendmail con-
figuration file, located at /etc/mail/sendmail.cf
on most systems.
-d Send error/debug messages to stderr instead of sys-
log. Otherwise, fatal errors, such as calling
vacation with incorrect arguments, or with non-
existent logins, are logged in the system log file,
using syslog(8). This should only be used on the
command line, not in your .forward file.
-f filename
Use filename as name of the database instead of
~/.vacation.db or ~/.vacation.{dir,pag}. Unless
the filename starts with / it is relative to ~.
-i Initialize the vacation database files. It should
be used before you modify your .forward file. This
should only be used on the command line, not in
your .forward file.
-I Same as -i (for backwards compatibility). This
should only be used on the command line, not in
your .forward file.
-l List the content of the vacation database file
including the address and the associated time of
the last auto-response to that address. This
should only be used on the command line, not in
your .forward file.
-m filename
Use filename as name of the file containing the
message to send instead of ~/.vacation.msg. Unless
the filename starts with / it is relative to ~.
-r interval
Set the reply interval to interval days. The
default is one week. An interval of ``0'' or
``infinite'' (actually, any non-numeric character)
will never send more than one reply. The -r option
should only be used when the vacation database is
initialized (see -i above).
-s address
Use address instead of the incoming message sender
address on the From line as the recipient for the
vacation message.
-t time
Ignored, available only for compatibility with
Sun's vacation program.
-U Do not attempt to lookup login in the password
file. The -f and -m options must be used to spec-
ify the database and message file since there is no
home directory for the default settings for these
options.
-x Reads an exclusion list from stdin (one address per
line). Mails coming from an address in this exclu-
sion list won't get a reply by vacation. It is
possible to exclude complete domains by specifying
``@domain'' as element of the exclusion list. This
should only be used on the command line, not in
your .forward file.
-z Set the sender of the vacation message to ``<>''
instead of the user. This probably violates the
RFCs since vacation messages are not required by a
standards-track RFC to have a null reverse-path.
Vacation reads the first line from the standard input for
a UNIX ``From'' line to determine the sender. Sendmail(8)
includes this ``From'' line automatically.
No message will be sent unless login (or an alias supplied
using the -a option) is part of either the ``To:'' or
``Cc:'' headers of the mail. No messages from
``???-REQUEST'', ``???-RELAY'', ``???-OWNER'',
``OWNER-???'', ``Postmaster'', ``UUCP'', ``MAILER'', or
``MAILER-DAEMON'' will be replied to (where these strings
are case insensitive) nor is a notification sent if a
``Precedence: bulk'' or ``Precedence: junk'' line is
included in the mail headers. The people who have sent
you messages are maintained as a db(3) or dbm(3) database
in the file .vacation.db or .vacation.{dir,pag} in your
home directory.
Vacation expects a file .vacation.msg, in your home direc-
tory, containing a message to be sent back to each sender.
It should be an entire message (including headers). For
example, it might contain:
From: eric@CS.Berkeley.EDU (Eric Allman)
Subject: I am on vacation
Delivered-By-The-Graces-Of: The Vacation program
Precedence: bulk
I am on vacation until July 22. If you have something urgent,
please contact Keith Bostic <bostic@CS.Berkeley.EDU>.
--eric
FILES
~/.vacation.db default database file for db(3)
~/.vacation.{dir,pag}
default database file for dbm(3)
~/.vacation.msg default message to send
SEE ALSO
sendmail(8), syslog(8)
HISTORY
The vacation command appeared in 4.3BSD.
$Date: 2002/10/15 02:38:40 $ VACATION(1)