OSF

NAME

vacation − Informs senders of mail that recipient is absent

SYNOPSIS

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. 

FLAGS

-IInitializes the $HOME/.vacation.pag and $HOME/.vacation.dir files.  Execute this flag before you modify your $HOME/.forward file. 

DESCRIPTION

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.  vacation is usually invoked in your $HOME/.forward file, which is used to forward your mail to another username.  When you wish vacation messages to be sent to users who send you mail, enter the following in your $HOME/.forward file:

\user, "|vacation user"

where user is 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 flag, as in the .forward 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 .vacation.msg 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/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. 

EXAMPLES

If you 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/lib/vacation.def, create the file .vacation.msg 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

FILES

/usr/lib/vacation.defSystem-wide default vacation message. 

$HOME/.forwardContains address to which mail is forwarded. 

$HOME/.vacation.dir
Contains the names of people who have sent you mail while the vacation command was being used. 

$HOME/.vacation.pag
Contains the names of people who have sent you mail while the vacation command was being used. 

$HOME/.vacation.msg
Contains your personal vacation message. 

RELATED INFORMATION

Commands:  mail(1)/binmail(1), mailx(1)/Mail(1), sendmail(8).