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VACATION(1)                 General Commands Manual                VACATION(1)

NAME
     vacation - return "I am not here" indication

SYNOPSIS
     vacation -dIi [-f databasefile] [-m messagefile] [-r interval]
              [-t interval]
     vacation -dj [-a alias] [-F F|R|S] [-f databasefile] [-m messagefile]
              [-s sender] [-T A|D] 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, "|/usr/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".

     Available options:

     -a alias
             Handle messages for alias in the same manner as those received
             for the user's login name.

     -d      Turn debugging on; don't send an actual message, but print it on
             stdout.

     -f database_file
             Use the specified database_file prefix and append .db to it
             instead of $HOME/.vacation.db.

     -F F|R|S
             Make vacation additionally look in From: (F), Return-Path: (R),
             or Sender: (S) headers to determine the From: field.

     -i

     -I      Initialize the vacation database files.  It should be used before
             you modify your .forward file.

     -j      Do not check if the recipient is present in the To: or Cc: lines.
             Usage of this option is strongly discouraged because it will
             result in vacation replying to mailing lists or other
             inappropriate places (e.g., messages that you have been Bcc to).

     -m message_file
             Use message_file instead of $HOME/.vacation.msg.

     -s sender
             Reply to sender instead of the value read from the message.

     -r interval

     -t interval
             Set the reply interval to interval days.  If the interval number
             is followed by w, d, h, m, or s then the number is interpreted as
             weeks, days, hours, minutes, or seconds respectively.  The
             default interval 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.

     -T A|D  Make vacation additionally look in Apparently-To: (A) or
             Delivered-To: (D) headers to determine the To: field.

     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).

     No notification is sent if a "Precedence: bulk" "Precedence: list"
     "Precedence: junk" line or an "Auto-Submitted:" line with any qualifier
     except "no" are included in the mail headers.  vacation will include
     these headers in its response to avoid auto-responder loops.

     The people who have sent you messages are maintained as a db(3) database
     in the file .vacation.db 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).  If the message contains the string $SUBJECT then it
     will will be replaced with the subject of the original message.  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

           I am on vacation until July 22.
           Your mail regarding "$SUBJECT" will be read when I return.
           If you have something urgent, please contact Keith Bostic
           <bostic@CS.Berkeley.EDU>.
           --eric

     vacation reads the first line from the standard input for a UNIX "From"
     line to determine the sender.  sendmail(1) 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(3).

FILES
     ~/.vacation.db   database file
     ~/.vacation.msg  message to send

SEE ALSO
     sendmail(1), syslog(3)

     RFC 2076 , RFC 3834

HISTORY
     The vacation command appeared in 4.3BSD.

BUGS
     Adding -T A or -T D should only be done for misconfigured or non-
     compliant MTAs.  Doing so may auto-respond to messages that were not
     supposed to be replied to.

NetBSD 10.99                      May 6, 2019                     NetBSD 10.99