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the sendmail distribution.
$Id: vacation.1,v 8.29.2.1 2002/06/21 21:28:06 ca Exp $
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 alias in the same manner as those received for the user's login name.
-C " cfpath" Specify pathname of the sendmail configuration file. This option is ignored if -U is specified. This option defaults to the standard sendmail configuration file, located at /etc/mail/sendmail.cf on most systems.
-d Send error/debug messages to stderr instead of syslog. Otherwise, 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). This should only be used on the command line, not in your .forward file.
-f " filename" Use filename as name of the database instead of ~/.vacation.db or ~/.vacation.{dir,pag} . 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. This should only be used on the command line, not in your .forward file.
-I Same as -i (for backwards compatibility). This should only be used on the command line, not in your .forward file.
-l List the content of the vacation database file including the address and the associated time of the last auto-response to that address. This should only be used on the command line, not in 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. The -r option should only be used when the vacation database is initialized (see -i above).
-s " address" Use address instead of the incoming message sender address on the From line as the recipient for the vacation message.
-t " time" Ignored, available only for compatibility with Sun's vacation program.
-U Do not attempt to lookup login in the password file. The -f and -m options must be used to specify the database and message file since there is no home directory for the default settings for these options.
-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. This should only be used on the command line, not in your .forward file.
-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.
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.
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'', ``???-RELAY'', ``???-OWNER'', ``OWNER-???'', ``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) or dbm(3) database in the file .vacation.db or .vacation.{dir,pag} 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
1.8i ~/.vacation.db default database file for db(3)
1.8i ~/.vacation.{dir,pag} default database file for dbm(3)
~/.vacation.msg default message to send