vacation(1)                                                        User Commands                                                       vacation(1)

NAME

       vacation - reply to mail automatically

SYNOPSIS

       vacation [-I]

       vacation [-a alias] [-e filter_file] [-f database_file] [-j] [-m message_file] [-s sender] [-tN] username

DESCRIPTION

       The vacation utility automatically replies to incoming mail.

   Installation
       The installation consists of an interactive program which sets up vacation's basic configuration.

       To  install  vacation,  type it with no arguments on the command line. The program creates a .vacation.msg file, which contains the message
       that is automatically sent to all senders when vacation is enabled, and starts an editor for you to modify the  message.  (See  USAGE  sec-
       tion.)  Which  editor is invoked is determined by the VISUAL or EDITOR environment variable, or vi(1) if neither of those environment vari-
       ables are set.

       A .forward file is also created if one does not exist in your home directory. Once created, the .forward file will contain a  line  of  the
       form:

       One copy of an incoming message is sent to the username and another copy is piped into vacation:

       username, "|/usr/bin/vacation username"

       If  a  .forward  file  is  present  in your home directory, it will ask whether you want to remove it, which disables vacation and ends the
       installation.

       The program automatically creates .vacation.pag and .vacation.dir, which contain a list of senders when vacation is enabled.

   Activation and Deactivation
       The presence of the .forward file determines whether or not vacation is disabled or enabled. To disable vacation, remove the .forward file,
       or move it to a new name.

   Initialization
       The -I option clears the vacation log files, .vacation.pag and .vacation.dir, erasing the list of senders from a previous vacation session.
       (See OPTIONS section.)

   Additional Configuration
       vacation provides configuration options that are not part of the installation, these being -a, -e, -f, -j, -m, -s,  and  -t.  (See  OPTIONS
       section.)

OPTIONS

       The following options are supported:

       -I       Initializes  the  .vacation.pag and .vacation.dir files and enables vacation. If the -I flag is not specified, and a user argument
                is given, vacation reads the first line from the standard input (for a From: line, no colon). If absent, it produces an error mes-
                sage.

       Options  -a,  -e, -f, -j, -m, -s, and -t are configuration options to be used in conjunction with vacation in the .forward file, not on the
       command line. For example,

       username, "|/usr/bin/vacation -t1m username"

       repeats replies to the sender every minute.

       -a alias                Indicates that alias is one of the valid aliases for the user running vacation, so  that  mail  addressed  to  that
                               alias generates a reply.

       -e filter_file          Uses filter_file instead of .vacation.filter as the source of the domain and email address filters.

       -f database_file        Uses database_file instead of .vacation as the base name for the database file.

       -j                      Does  not check whether the recipient appears in the To: or the Cc: line. Warning: use of this option can result in
                               vacation replies being sent to mailing lists and other inappropriate places; its use is therefore strongly discour-
                               aged.

       -m message_file         Uses  ~/message_file  as  the  message to send for the reply instead of ~/.vacation.msg. message_file is a relative
                               path to the desired vacation message file. To prevent directory/file "not found" errors, message_file should be  on
                               the same disk partition as ~/.forward.

       -s sender               Replies to sender instead of the value read from the UNIX From line of the incoming message.

       -tN                     Changes  the interval between repeat replies to the same sender. The default is 1 week. A trailing s, m, h, d, or w
                               scales N to seconds, minutes, hours, days, or weeks, respectively.

USAGE

       .vacation.msg should include a header with at least a Subject: line (it should not include a To: line). For example:

       Subject: I am on vacation
       I am on vacation until July 22.  If you have something urgent,
       please contact Joe Jones (jones@fB0).
            --John

       If the string $SUBJECT appears in the .vacation.msg file, it is replaced with the subject of the original message when the reply  is  sent.
       Thus, a .vacation.msg file such as

       Subject: I am on vacation
       I am on vacation until July 22.
       Your mail regarding "$SUBJECT" will be read when I return.
       If you have something urgent, please contact
       Joe Jones (jones@fB0).
            --John

       will include the subject of the message in the reply.

       No  message  is  sent if the To: or the Cc: line does not list the user to whom the original message was sent or one of a number of aliases
       for them, if the initial From line includes the string -REQUEST@, or if a Precedence: bulk or Precedence: junk  line  is  included  in  the
       header.

       vacation will also not respond to mail from either postmaster or Mailer-Daemon.

       In addition to the above criteria, if a .vacation.filter file exists, it is used to constrain further the set of addresses to which a reply
       is sent. Each line in that file should be either a domain name or an email address. If the incoming sender address matches one of the lines
       in  the  file, a reply is sent. If no lines match, no reply is sent. For lines containing an email address, the match must be exact, except
       for case, which is ignored. For lines containing a domain name, the sender address must be either something@domain-name or  something@some-
       thing.domain-name. A sample filter file might look like the following:

       sun.com
       mydomain.com
       onefriend@hisisp.com
       anotherfriend@herisp.com

       Note: Blank lines and lines starting with  "#" are ignored.

FILES

       ~/.forward

       ~/.vacation.filter

       ~/.vacation.msg

       A  list  of  senders  is kept in the dbm format files .vacation.pag and .vacation.dir in your home directory. These files are dbm files and
       cannot be viewed directly with text editors.

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE         |      ATTRIBUTE VALUE        |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability                 |SUNWsndmu                    |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       vi(1), sendmail(1M), dbm(3UCB), getusershell(3C), aliases(4), shells(4), attributes(5)

SunOS 5.10                                                          19 Mar 2004                                                        vacation(1)