586 lines
12 KiB
Groff
586 lines
12 KiB
Groff
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.\"
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.\" $Id: vacation.1,v 1.3 1999/01/04 04:28:02 psamuel Exp $
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.\"
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.TH vacation 1 "23 Sep 1998"
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.SH NAME
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vacation \- reply to mail automatically
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.SH SYNOPSIS
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.B vacation
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.br
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.B vacation
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.RI [ -I ]
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.br
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.B vacation
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.RI [ -s ]
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.br
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.B vacation
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.RI [ -j ]
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.RI [ -n ]
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.RI [ -tN ]
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.I username
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.SH DESCRIPTION
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.B vacation
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automatically replies to incoming mail. This version of
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.B vacation
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has been specifically tailored for use with a
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.B qmail
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mail transport agent. It will almost certainly fail if used with a
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different mail transport agent.
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.SH USAGE
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.SS Preparing to go away on vacation
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.LP
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Run
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.B vacation
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without any command line arguments.
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.LP
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The first time you run
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.BR vacation ,
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a default reply message will be created in
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.BR ~/.vacation.msg .
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If this file already exists, it will not be overwritten. You'll be
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given the opportunity to see the contents of this file as well as the
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chance to edit it to make your own changes.
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.LP
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Once you are satisfied with the contents of the reply message,
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you will be asked if you would like to enable
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.BR vacation .
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.LP
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If you answer
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.IR yes ,
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a default
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.B ~/.qmail
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file will be created. The contents of this file are:
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.in 2i
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.br
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$home/Maildir/
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.in
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(If you see an environment variable above - such as
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.I $home
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or
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.I $user
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- it will be expanded to its correct value during
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.B vacation's
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setup phase).
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.LP
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These instructions tell the
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.B qmail-local
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mail delivery agent to send an automatic reply to the sender of the
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message and to save a copy of the message in your default mailbox.
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.LP
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Answering
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.I yes
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also instructs
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.B vacation
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to initialise the
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.I dbm
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database file(s). The
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.I dbm
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database file(s) will contain details of who was sent an automatic
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reply and when it was sent. If the
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.I dbm
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database file(s) already exist, the contents will be cleared.
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.LP
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If you answer
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.I no
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when asked if you wish to enable
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.BR vacation ,
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neither the
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.B ~/.qmail
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nor the
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.I dbm
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database file(s) will be created.
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.SS Returning from vacation
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Run
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.B vacation
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without any command line arguments.
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.LP
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.B vacation
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displays the contents of your
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.B ~/.qmail
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file and asks if you would like to remove the file, thereby disabling
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.BR vacation .
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.LP
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If you answer
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.IR yes ,
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your
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.B ~/.qmail
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file will be removed.
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.B vacation
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will then display the contents of the
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.I dbm
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database, listing the mail addresses of those who were sent an
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automatic reply to their mail while you were away and the date on which
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the automatic reply was sent. The
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.I dbm
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database will then be cleared.
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.LP
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If you answer
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.IR no ,
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your
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.B ~/.qmail
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file will not be removed and the contents of the
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.I dbm
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database will remain unchanged.
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.SS Processing incoming mail
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When not in setup mode,
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.B vacation
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reads an incoming mail message from standard input and automatically
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sends a reply message to the sender. The reply text is taken from
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.BR ~/.vacation.msg .
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If this file does not exist, a default message will be used.
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.B vacation
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will
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.I not
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generate a reply if any of the following conditions are met:
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.TP
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.B -
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The sender address includes the string
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.BR -REQUEST@ .
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.TP
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.B -
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The sender is you.
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.TP
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.B -
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The sender's name is any of:
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.in 2i
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daemon
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.br
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postmaster
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.br
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mailer-daemon
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.br
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mailer
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.br
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root
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.in
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.TP
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.B -
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The sender matches any of the mail addresses listed in the optional
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files
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.B ~/.vacation.aliases
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and
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.BR ~/.vacation.noreply .
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See the
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.B FILES
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section below for more details on these files.
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.TP
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.B -
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There is a
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.B Precedence: bulk
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or
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.B Precedence: junk
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header.
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.TP
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.B -
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There is a
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.B Mailing-List:
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header.
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.TP
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.B -
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Your mail address, or any address you have listed in the optional
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.B ~/.vacation.aliases
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file does
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.I not
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appear in either the
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.B To:
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or
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.B Cc:
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headers. This feature can be disabled using the
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.B -j
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option. See the
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.B OPTIONS
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section below for more details on this option.
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.TP
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.B -
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An automatic reply has already been sent to the same address during
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the last week. The timeout value may be changed using the
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.B -t
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option. See the
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.B OPTIONS
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section below for more details on this option.
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.TP
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.B -
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.B -n
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was specified on the command line and the user does not have a
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.B ~/.vacation.msg
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file.
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.SH OPTIONS
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.TP 10
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.I none
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If no command line options are provided,
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.B vacation
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will run as an interactive setup program. If you do not have a
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.B ~/.qmail
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file,
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.B vacation
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will assume you wish to enable its services. If you have a
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.B ~/.qmail
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file,
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.B vacation
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will assume you wish to disable its services.
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.TP 10
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.B -I
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Hands free initialisation.
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.B vacation
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will create your
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.BR ~/.qmail ,
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.B ~/.vacation.msg
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and
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.I dbm
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database files. If
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.I any
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of these files already exist, their contents will be replaced by the
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.B vacation
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defaults.
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.B vacation
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will exit after the initialisation process, regardless of any other
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command line options provided.
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.TP 10
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.B -s
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Show the contents of the
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.I dbm
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database. The contents will not be cleared and your
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.B ~/.qmail
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and
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.B ~/.vacation.msg
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files will remain intact.
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.B vacation
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will exit after displaying the contents of the
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.I dbm
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database, regardless of any other command line options provided.
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.TP 10
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.B -j
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Do not examine the incoming message
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.B To:
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or
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.B Cc:
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headers to determine if the message was sent directly to you rather
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than an alias. Using this option means that mail sent to an alias of
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which you are a member may generate an automatic reply. This option is
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only useful when specified in the
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.B ~/.qmail
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file.
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.TP 10
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.B -n
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Do not generate a reply message if the user's
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.B ~/.vacation.msg
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does not exist. Updates to the
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.I dbm
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database will still be performed. This option is for those users who
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wish to quickly disable
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.B vacation
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by removing their
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.B ~/.vacation.msg
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file. It can also be used at sites where users do not have shell
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accounts but can remove their own files via ftp or perhaps a purpose
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built web interface.
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.TP 10
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.BI -t N
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Change the interval between repeat replies to the same sender. The
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default is 1 week. A trailing
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.BR s ,
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.BR m ,
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.BR h ,
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.BR d ,
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or
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.B w
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scales the number
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.I N
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to seconds, minutes, hours, days or weeks respectively. For example, to
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set the interval value to 3 days you would specify
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.B -t3d.
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There should be
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.I no
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spaces between the
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.B -t
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and
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.IR N .
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This option is only useful when specified in the
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.B ~/.qmail
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file.
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.TP 10
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.I username
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Your login name. When
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.B vacation
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sees this argument it will examine standard input for an incoming mail
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message. The value of this argument is not actually used by this
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implementation of
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.B vacation
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as your login name is provided by a
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.B qmail
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environment variable. However an argument
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.I must
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be supplied so that
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.B vacation
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knows when to process incoming mail and when to provide an interactive
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setup session. Using your login name for this argument simply maintains
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a look and feel similar to the
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.B sendmail
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version of
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.BR vacation .
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.SH ENVIRONMENT
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.LP
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If the environment variable
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.B $VISUAL
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is set and is not null, its value determines the editor used to edit
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the
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.BR ~/.vacation.msg .
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If
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.B $VISUAL
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is not set or its value is null, the environment variable
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.B $EDITOR
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is examined. If it is set and is not null, its value determines the
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editor to be used. If
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.B $EDITOR
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is not set or its value is null, the default editor
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.B vi
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will be used.
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.LP
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If the environment variable
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.B $PAGER
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is set and is not null, its value determines the page viewing program
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to be used to display the
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.B ~/.vacation.msg
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and the contents of the
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.I dbm
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database. If it is not set or its value is null, the default page
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viewer
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.B less
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will be used.
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.SH FILES
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.TP 10
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.B ~/.vacation.msg
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Contains the text of the automatic reply message. It should
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.I not
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contain any
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.B From:
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or
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.B To:
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headers. If the string
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.B $SUBJECT
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appears in
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.BR ~/.vacation.msg ,
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it will be replaced with the subject of the original message. The
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default message is:
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.in 2i
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Subject: away from my mail
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I will not be reading my mail for a while. Your mail regarding
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"$SUBJECT"
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will be read when I return.
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.in
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.TP 10
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.B ~/.qmail
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Contains the delivery instructions for
|
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the local mail delivery agent,
|
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|
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.BR qmail-local .
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|
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The default contents of this file are:
|
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|
|
||
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.in 2i
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||
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| /usr/local/bin/vacation \fIusername\fP
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.br
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$home/Maildir/
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.in
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||
|
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|
||
|
|
(If you see an environment variable above - such as
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|
|
.I $home
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||
|
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or
|
||
|
|
.I $user
|
||
|
|
- it will be expanded to its correct value during
|
||
|
|
.B vacation's
|
||
|
|
setup phase).
|
||
|
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|
||
|
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The first line instructs
|
||
|
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.B qmail-local
|
||
|
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to generate an automatic reply and the second line instructs
|
||
|
|
.B qmail-local
|
||
|
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to save the incoming message in your default mailbox. Failure to
|
||
|
|
include this line will result in automatic replies being generated but
|
||
|
|
.I no
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|
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mail will be saved in your default Mailbox.
|
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|
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.TP 10
|
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.B ~/.vacation.*
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|
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The
|
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.I dbm
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||
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database file(s) used to store sender mail addresses and time stamps.
|
||
|
|
The actual name of this file, or files, depends on the implementation
|
||
|
|
of
|
||
|
|
.B Perl
|
||
|
|
you have at your site. Possibilities include
|
||
|
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.B ~/.vacation.pag
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|
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and
|
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.B ~/.vacation.dir
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or
|
||
|
|
.BR ~/.vacation.db .
|
||
|
|
The actual names are unimportant as
|
||
|
|
.B Perl
|
||
|
|
deals with them internally.
|
||
|
|
.TP 10
|
||
|
|
.B ~/.vacation.aliases
|
||
|
|
This optional file contains a list of mail addresses, one per line.
|
||
|
|
Each address should be a fully qualified alias for yourself. This file
|
||
|
|
serves two purposes.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Unless started
|
||
|
|
with the
|
||
|
|
.B -j
|
||
|
|
option,
|
||
|
|
.B vacation
|
||
|
|
examines the incoming message
|
||
|
|
.B To:
|
||
|
|
and
|
||
|
|
.B Cc:
|
||
|
|
headers. If your mail address, or any of the mail addresses specified
|
||
|
|
in
|
||
|
|
.BR ~/.vacation.aliases ,
|
||
|
|
match any of the addresses in these headers, an automatic reply will
|
||
|
|
be generated for the message. If there is no match, an automatic reply
|
||
|
|
will not be generated. This restricts
|
||
|
|
.B vacation
|
||
|
|
to replying to mail explicitly addressed to you or any of your
|
||
|
|
aliases.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
The second purpose is to avoid sending an automatic reply to any
|
||
|
|
incoming mail from yourself or one of your aliases - you already know
|
||
|
|
you're on vacation!
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Lines beginning with a
|
||
|
|
.I #
|
||
|
|
character and blank lines will be ignored.
|
||
|
|
.TP 10
|
||
|
|
.B ~/.vacation.noreply
|
||
|
|
This file contains a list of mail addresses, one per line. If an
|
||
|
|
incoming mail message matches one of the listed addresses, an
|
||
|
|
automatic reply will not be generated for that message. The addresses
|
||
|
|
need not be fully qualified. If you will be sending yourself mail from
|
||
|
|
a remote site, you may wish to include your remote address to avoid
|
||
|
|
sending yourself an automatic reply.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Lines beginning with a
|
||
|
|
.I #
|
||
|
|
character and blank lines will be ignored.
|
||
|
|
.SH CAVEATS
|
||
|
|
If you already have a
|
||
|
|
.B ~/.qmail
|
||
|
|
file, which contains delivery instructions other than those specified
|
||
|
|
by
|
||
|
|
.BR vacation ,
|
||
|
|
there is a risk that it will be deleted by
|
||
|
|
.BR vacation .
|
||
|
|
It is good practise to keep a copy of your
|
||
|
|
.B ~/.qmail
|
||
|
|
file.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
If you are hand editing your
|
||
|
|
.B ~/.qmail
|
||
|
|
file, remember to include a delivery instruction to save the message in
|
||
|
|
your default Mailbox, which should be
|
||
|
|
.BR $home/Maildir/ .
|
||
|
|
You
|
||
|
|
.I must
|
||
|
|
expand any environment variables - such as
|
||
|
|
.I $home
|
||
|
|
or
|
||
|
|
.I $user
|
||
|
|
- as
|
||
|
|
.B qmail-local
|
||
|
|
will not expand them for you.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
If you have a detailed
|
||
|
|
.B ~/.vacation.msg
|
||
|
|
with text different from the default, there is a risk that it will be
|
||
|
|
deleted by
|
||
|
|
.BR vacation .
|
||
|
|
It is good practise to keep a copy of your
|
||
|
|
.B ~/.vacation.msg
|
||
|
|
file.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
If you are hand editing your
|
||
|
|
.B ~/.vacation.msg
|
||
|
|
file, the first block of lines up to the first blank line will form
|
||
|
|
part of the mail headers.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
There is
|
||
|
|
.I no
|
||
|
|
need to run this version of
|
||
|
|
.B vacation
|
||
|
|
through
|
||
|
|
.BR qmail 's
|
||
|
|
.B preline
|
||
|
|
program.
|
||
|
|
.B preline
|
||
|
|
is used to insert a
|
||
|
|
.B UUCP
|
||
|
|
style
|
||
|
|
.B From
|
||
|
|
header into the message. This version of
|
||
|
|
.B vacation
|
||
|
|
does not need that header. In fact, running this version of
|
||
|
|
.B vacation
|
||
|
|
through
|
||
|
|
.B preline
|
||
|
|
will cause problems if the incoming message is larger than your system's
|
||
|
|
standard I/O buffer size.
|
||
|
|
.B preline
|
||
|
|
expects to pipe the entire message through a subsequent command.
|
||
|
|
However
|
||
|
|
.B vacation
|
||
|
|
only examines the headers of the message, and then stops reading from
|
||
|
|
standard input. This upsets
|
||
|
|
.B preline
|
||
|
|
if the size of the message is larger than a single I/O buffer. In this
|
||
|
|
case
|
||
|
|
.B preline
|
||
|
|
will terminate with a transient error to
|
||
|
|
.B qmail-send
|
||
|
|
and you'll see the following message in your mail logs:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
.in 1i
|
||
|
|
.B deferral: preline:_fatal:_unable_to_copy_input:_broken_pipe/
|
||
|
|
.in
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
The same problem exists if you use the traditional
|
||
|
|
.B sendmail
|
||
|
|
version of
|
||
|
|
.B vacation
|
||
|
|
with
|
||
|
|
.BR qmail .
|
||
|
|
That version of
|
||
|
|
.B vacation
|
||
|
|
requires the use of
|
||
|
|
.B preline
|
||
|
|
to provide it with the
|
||
|
|
.B UUCP
|
||
|
|
style
|
||
|
|
.B From
|
||
|
|
header.
|
||
|
|
.SH VERSION
|
||
|
|
Version 1.3
|
||
|
|
.SH AUTHOR
|
||
|
|
Peter Samuel, Uniq Professional Services
|
||
|
|
.br
|
||
|
|
<Peter.Samuel@uniq.com.au>
|
||
|
|
.SH AVAILABILITY
|
||
|
|
The latest version of
|
||
|
|
.B vacation
|
||
|
|
for
|
||
|
|
.B qmail
|
||
|
|
should always be available from
|
||
|
|
.I ftp://ftp.uniq.com.au/pub/tools
|
||
|
|
.SH SEE ALSO
|
||
|
|
.BR vi (1),
|
||
|
|
.BR less (1),
|
||
|
|
.BR dot-qmail (5),
|
||
|
|
.BR qmail (7),
|
||
|
|
.BR qmail-command (8),
|
||
|
|
.BR qmail-local (8),
|
||
|
|
.BR qmail-send (8).
|