vacation - Informs senders of mail that recipient is
absent
vacation -I
The vacation command returns a message to the sender of a
mail message, saying that the recipient is on vacation or
otherwise absent.
Initializes the $HOME/.vacation.pag and $HOME/.vacation.dir
files. Execute this option before you modify
your $HOME/.forward file.
The vacation command accepts standard input and attempts
to send a vacation message to the user specified in that
input, which should be a mail message. The vacation command
is usually invoked in your $HOME/.forward file, which
is used to forward your mail to another username. When
you want vacation messages to be sent to users who send
you mail, enter the following in your $HOME/.forward file:
\user, "|vacation user"
Replace user by your username. This allows mail sent to
you to be both received by you and piped to the vacation
command; vacation reads the mail message, determines the
sender, and sends a reply. The sender receives a vacation
message, and the original mail is waiting in your mailbox
when you return.
When vacation is invoked without the -I option, as in the
file, it reads the first line from the standard input for
a From line to determine the sender. If this is not present,
an error message is produced. (All properly formatted
incoming mail should include a From line.) No vacation
message is sent if the From header line indicates that the
message is from Postmaster; from MAILER-DAEMON; if the
initial From line includes the string -REQUEST@; or if a
Precedence: bulk or Precedence: junk line is included in
the header.
You must initialize vacation for your username by issuing
the command vacation -I before you can use the vacation
command.
The vacation command expects a $HOME/.vacation.msg file
containing a message to be sent back to each sender. The
file should be an entire message, including any desired
headers, such as From or Subject. This message will be
sent only once a week to each unique message sender. (If
this file does not exist, vacation uses
/usr/share/lib/vacation.def, a system-wide default vacation
message, if it exists.)
The names of people who have sent you messages are kept in
the files $HOME/.vacation.pag and $HOME/.vacation.dir.
These files are created when you initialize vacation for
your username with vacation -I.
If your username is myra and you want to send a message
once a week to each person who has sent you mail, initialize
vacation by entering: vacation -I
Next, add the following line to your $HOME/.forward file
(create this file if it does not exist):
\myra, "|vacation myra"
If you want to send a vacation message other than the system
default message in /usr/share/lib/vacation.def, create
the file in your home directory and enter the message in
it. For example:
From: myra@k.table (Myra Louise Minter) Subject: I am on
vacation. Delivered-By-the-Graces-Of: the Vacation program
I am on vacation until October 1. If you have something
urgent, please telephone Lucy or Sue.
-- Myra
System-wide default vacation message. Contains address to
which mail is forwarded. Contains the names of people who
have sent you mail while the vacation command was being
used. Contains the names of people who have sent you mail
while the vacation command was being used. Contains your
personal vacation message.
Commands: mail(1), mailx(1), sendmail(8)
vacation(1)
[ Back ] |