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$Id: vacation.1,v 8.11 2000/03/17 07:32:50 gshapiro Exp $

vacation - return ``I am not here'' indication vacation -i [ -r interval ] [ -x ] vacation [ -a alias ] [ -f database ] [ -m message ] [ -s address ] [ -t time ] [ -z ] login Vacation 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 .forward file. For example, your .forward file might have: \eeric, "|/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 .Ar alias in the same manner as those received for the user's login name.

-f " filename" Use filename as name of the database instead of ~/.vacation.db . 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.

-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.

-s " address" Use address instead of the sender address in the From line to determine the reply address.

-t " time" Ignored, available only for compatibility with Sun's vacation program.

-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.

-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.

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'', ``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) database in the file .vacation.db 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:

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

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.

Fatal errors, such as calling vacation with incorrect arguments, or with non-existent login s, are logged in the system log file, using syslog(8).

1.8i ~/.vacation.db database file

~/.vacation.msg message to send

sendmail(8), syslog(8) The vacation command appeared in 4.3BSD.