1 VACATION(1) VACATION(1)
6 vacation - E-mail auto-responder
9 \e[1mvacation
\e[22m[
\e[1m-a
\e[4m
\e[22malias
\e[24m] [
\e[1m-C
\e[4m
\e[22mcffile
\e[24m] [
\e[1m-d
\e[22m] [
\e[1m-f
\e[4m
\e[22mdatabase
\e[24m] [
\e[1m-i
\e[22m] [
\e[1m-I
\e[22m] [
\e[1m-j
\e[22m] [
\e[1m-l
\e[22m]
10 [
\e[1m-m
\e[4m
\e[22mmessage
\e[24m] [
\e[1m-R
\e[4m
\e[22mreturnaddr
\e[24m] [
\e[1m-r
\e[4m
\e[22minterval
\e[24m] [
\e[1m-s
\e[4m
\e[22maddress
\e[24m] [
\e[1m-t
\e[4m
\e[22mtime
\e[24m] [
\e[1m-U
\e[22m]
11 [
\e[1m-x
\e[22m] [
\e[1m-z
\e[22m]
\e[4mlogin
\e[0m
14 \e[1mVacation
\e[22mreturns a message,
\e[4m~/.vacation.msg
\e[24m by default, to the sender
15 informing them that you are currently not reading your mail. The mes-
16 sage is only sent to each sender once per reply interval (see
\e[1m-r
\e[0m
17 below). The intended use is in a
\e[4m.forward
\e[24m file. For example, your
18 \e[4m.forward
\e[24m file might have:
20 \eric, "|/usr/bin/vacation -a allman eric"
22 which would send messages to you (assuming your login name was eric)
23 and reply to any messages for ``eric'' or ``allman''.
27 \e[1m-a
\e[4m
\e[22malias
\e[0m
28 Handle messages for
\e[4malias
\e[24m in the same manner as those received
29 for the user's login name.
31 \e[1m-C
\e[4m
\e[22mcfpath
\e[0m
32 Specify pathname of the sendmail configuration file. This
33 option is ignored if
\e[1m-U
\e[22mis specified. This option defaults to
34 the standard sendmail configuration file, located at
35 /etc/mail/sendmail.cf on most systems.
37 \e[1m-d
\e[22mSend error/debug messages to stderr instead of syslog. Other-
38 wise, fatal errors, such as calling
\e[1mvacation
\e[22mwith incorrect
39 arguments, or with non-existent
\e[4mlogin
\e[24ms, are logged in the system
40 log file, using syslog(8). This should only be used on the com-
41 mand line, not in your
\e[4m.forward
\e[24m file.
43 \e[1m-f
\e[4m
\e[22mfilename
\e[0m
44 Use
\e[4mfilename
\e[24m as name of the database instead of
\e[4m~/.vacation.db
\e[0m
45 or
\e[4m~/.vacation.{dir,pag}
\e[24m. Unless the
\e[4mfilename
\e[24m starts with / it
48 \e[1m-i
\e[22mInitialize the vacation database files. It should be used
49 before you modify your
\e[4m.forward
\e[24m file. This should only be used
50 on the command line, not in your
\e[4m.forward
\e[24m file.
52 \e[1m-I
\e[22mSame as
\e[1m-i
\e[22m(for backwards compatibility). This should only be
53 used on the command line, not in your
\e[4m.forward
\e[24m file.
55 \e[1m-j
\e[22mRespond to the message regardless of whether the login is listed
56 as a recipient for the message. Do not use this flag unless you
57 are sure of the consequences. For example, this will cause to
58 reply to mailing list messages which may result in removing you
61 \e[1m-l
\e[22mList the content of the vacation database file including the
62 address and the associated time of the last auto-response to
63 that address. This should only be used on the command line, not
64 in your
\e[4m.forward
\e[24m file.
66 \e[1m-m
\e[4m
\e[22mfilename
\e[0m
67 Use
\e[4mfilename
\e[24m as name of the file containing the message to send
68 instead of
\e[4m~/.vacation.msg
\e[24m. Unless the
\e[4mfilename
\e[24m starts with /
71 \e[1m-R
\e[4m
\e[22mreturnaddr
\e[0m
72 Set the reply envelope sender address
74 \e[1m-r
\e[4m
\e[22minterval
\e[0m
75 Set the reply interval to
\e[4minterval
\e[24m days. The default is one
76 week. An interval of ``0'' or ``infinite'' (actually, any non-
77 numeric character) will never send more than one reply. The
\e[1m-r
\e[0m
78 option should only be used when the vacation database is ini-
79 tialized (see
\e[1m-i
\e[22mabove).
81 \e[1m-s
\e[4m
\e[22maddress
\e[0m
82 Use
\e[4maddress
\e[24m instead of the incoming message sender address on
83 the
\e[4mFrom
\e[24m line as the recipient for the vacation message.
85 \e[1m-t
\e[4m
\e[22mtime
\e[0m
86 Ignored, available only for compatibility with Sun's vacation
89 \e[1m-U
\e[22mDo not attempt to lookup
\e[4mlogin
\e[24m in the password file. The -f and
90 -m options must be used to specify the database and message file
91 since there is no home directory for the default settings for
94 \e[1m-x
\e[22mReads an exclusion list from stdin (one address per line).
95 Mails coming from an address in this exclusion list won't get a
96 reply by
\e[1mvacation
\e[22m. It is possible to exclude complete domains
97 by specifying ``@domain'' as element of the exclusion list.
98 This should only be used on the command line, not in your
\e[4m.for-
\e[0m
101 \e[1m-z
\e[22mSet the sender of the vacation message to ``<>'' instead of the
102 user. This probably violates the RFCs since vacation messages
103 are not required by a standards-track RFC to have a null
106 \e[1mVacation
\e[22mreads the first line from the standard input for a UNIX
107 ``From'' line to determine the sender. Sendmail(8) includes this
108 ``From'' line automatically.
110 No message will be sent unless
\e[4mlogin
\e[24m (or an
\e[4malias
\e[24m supplied using the
\e[1m-a
\e[0m
111 option) is part of either the ``To:'' or ``Cc:'' headers of the mail.
112 No messages from ``???-REQUEST'', ``???-RELAY'', ``???-OWNER'',
113 ``OWNER-???'', ``Postmaster'', ``UUCP'', ``MAILER'', or ``MAILER-DAE-
114 MON'' will be replied to (where these strings are case insensitive) nor
115 is a notification sent if a ``Precedence: bulk'' or ``Precedence:
116 junk'' line is included in the mail headers. The people who have sent
117 you messages are maintained as a db(3) or dbm(3) database in the file
118 \e[4m.vacation.db
\e[24m or
\e[4m.vacation.{dir,pag}
\e[24m in your home directory.
120 \e[1mVacation
\e[22mexpects a file
\e[4m.vacation.msg
\e[24m, in your home directory, contain-
121 ing a message to be sent back to each sender. It should be an entire
122 message (including headers). For example, it might contain:
124 From: eric@CS.Berkeley.EDU (Eric Allman)
125 Subject: I am on vacation
126 Delivered-By-The-Graces-Of: The Vacation program
129 I am on vacation until July 22. If you have something urgent,
130 please contact Keith Bostic <bostic@CS.Berkeley.EDU>.
134 ~/.vacation.db default database file for db(3)
136 ~/.vacation.{dir,pag}
137 default database file for dbm(3)
139 ~/.vacation.msg default message to send
142 sendmail(8), syslog(8)
145 The
\e[1mvacation
\e[22mcommand appeared in 4.3BSD.
149 $Date: 2013-11-22 20:52:02 $ VACATION(1)