VACATION(1) manual page
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vacation - E-mail auto-responder
vacation [-a alias]
[-C cffile] [-d] [-f database] [-i] [-I] [-j] [-l] [-m message] [-R returnaddr]
[-r interval] [-s address] [-t time] [-U] [-x] [-z] login
Vacation
returns a message, ~/.vacation.msg by default, to the sender informing them
that you are currently not reading 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 ‘‘allman’’.
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 configuration file, located at /etc/mail/sendmail.cf on
most systems.
- -d
- Send error/debug messages to stderr instead of syslog. 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.
- -j
- Respond
to the message regardless of whether the login is listed as a recipient
for the message. Do not use this flag unless you are sure of the consequences.
For example, this will cause to reply to mailing list messages which may
result in removing you from the list.
- -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 returnaddr
- Set the reply envelope sender address
- -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 specify 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 exclusion 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
directory, containing a message to be sent back to each sender. It should
be an entire message (including headers). For example, it might contain:
- ~/.vacation.db
- default database file for db(3)
- ~/.vacation.{dir,pag}
- default database file
for dbm(3)
- ~/.vacation.msg
- default message to send
sendmail(8)
, syslog(8)
The vacation command appeared in 4.3BSD.
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