VACATION(1)

NAME
vacation - reply to mail automatically

SYNOPSIS
vacation start
vacation stop
vacation -i [ -r interval ]
vacation [ -a alias ] login

DESCRIPTION
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:

eric, "|$MAILBIN/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''.

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.

USAGE

To start vacation, run the command
    vacation start
It will create a .vacation.msg file (if you don't already have one) in your home directory containing the message you want to send people who send you mail, and a .forward file in your home directory containing a line of the form:

    name, "|$MAILBIN/bin/vacation name"

where name is your login name.

To stop vacation, run the command
    vacation stop
It will move the .forward file to .vacforward, and the automatic replies will stop.

The people who have sent you messages are maintained as an ndbm(3) database in the files .vacation.pag and .vacation.dir in your home directory.

The -i flag initializes the vacation database files. It should be used before you modify your .forward file.

The -r flag sets the reply interval to interval days. The default is one week. An interval of ``0'' means that a reply is sent to each message, and an interval of ``infinite'' (actually, any non-numeric character) will never send more than one reply. It should be noted that intervals of ``0'' are quite dangerous, as it allows mailers to get into ``I am on vacation'' loops.

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@ucbmonet.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 Joe Kalash <kalash@ucbingres.Berkeley.EDU>.
	--eric

Vacation reads the first line from the standard input for a UNIX-style ``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 logins, are logged in the system log file, using syslog(8).

FILES
~/.vacation.dir	database file
~/.vacation.msg	message to send
~/.vacation.pag	database file

SEE ALSO
sendmail(8), syslog(8)