vacation(1) General Commands Manual vacation(1)
NAME
vacation - return "I am not here" indication
SYNOPSIS
alias]... login
DESCRIPTION
The program returns a message to the sender of a message telling them that you are currently not reading your mail. The intended use is in
a file in For example, your file might contain:
which would send messages to you (assuming your login name was and reply to any messages for or The preceding is required to force direct
delivery to mailbox and prevent an infinite loop through the file. The double quotes are needed to tell sendmail(1M) to treat the enclosed
as a unit, rather than separate recipients. It is also important to specify the full path for the vacation program, and there must be no
white space between the character and the start of the path name.
No message is sent unless login or an alias supplied using the option is a substring of either the or headers of the mail. No messages
from or are replied to, nor is a notification sent if a or line is included in the mail headers. Only one message per week is sent to each
unique sender (at each unique host system). The people who have sent you messages are recorded in a database in the files and in your home
directory.
The program expects a file 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 say:
>From: eric@ucbmonet.Berkeley.EDU (Eric Allman)
Subject: I am on vacation
X-Delivered-By-The-Graces-Of: The vacation program
Precedence: bulk
I am on vacation until July 22. If you have something urgent,
please contact Joe Kalash <kalash@ucbingres.Berkeley.EDU>.
--eric
Header lines in this file must be left-aligned and must not be preceded by any other lines, including blank lines (see sendmail(1M)). If
there is no file, uses the following file (if it exists):
Otherwise, it logs an error.
reads the first line from the standard input (the incoming mail message in the example file above) for a UNIX style line to determine the
sender. sendmail(1M) includes this line automatically, and its absence indicates non-mail input.
Options
The program supports the following options:
Initializes the vacation database files.
This option should be used before modifying a file.
Identifies another name that can legitimately appear in the
line of the mail header instead of your login name. More than one option can be specified.
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
Environment Variables
determines the language in which error messages are printed.
DIAGNOSTICS
On error, exits with a value from and causes to report an error back to the sender of the original message. Errors such as the absence of
or calling with incorrect arguments, are logged using on the system where actually runs (see syslogd(1M)). The file by default; see and
syslogd(1M) for customizations) should be inspected when generates mailer error messages.
Remember that if the machine is configured for shared mail, inbound mail is handled at the mail server rather than on mail client nodes.
This means that diagnostics appear in the mail server's not the client's
WARNINGS
Errors in the file can lead to loss of mail and infinite mail loops.
Always send test mail to yourself after configuring to be sure that it is working properly. This is akin to checking telephone forwarding
before leaving for an extended period, and can prevent loss of messages.
Some mail recipients look for an RFC 822 compliant header in their incoming mail messages. Such recipients have to set the option to in
the configuration file,
AUTHOR
was developed by Eric Allman and the University of California, Berkeley.
FILES
Database file.
Message to send.
Database file.
System-wide default header and message.
Dictates where error messages are recorded.
SEE ALSO
sendmail(1M), syslogd(1M), ndbm(3X).
vacation(1)