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VACATION(1)		     General Commands Manual		     VACATION(1)

NAME
     vacation -- return "I am not here" indication

SYNOPSIS
     vacation -i [-r interval]
     vacation -l
     vacation -x
     vacation [-a alias] [-c ccaddr] [-d] [-f db] [-m msg] [-j] [-z] 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. Using -a alias multiple times is possible.

     -c ccaddr
	     Copy the vacation messages to ccaddr.

     -d      Print messages to stderr instead of syslog.

     -f db   Uses db as the database file.

     -m msg  Uses msg as the message file.

     -j      Reply to the message even if our address cannot  be  found  in  the
	     "To:"  or	"Cc:" headers.	This option is very dangerous and should
	     be used with extreme care.

     -z      Set the envelope sender of the reply message to "<>".

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

     -r      Set  the reply interval to interval days.	The default 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  in-
	     tervals  of  "0"  are  quite dangerous, as it allows mailers to get
	     into "I am on vacation" loops.

     -x      Reads a list of addresses from standard input, one  per  line,  and
	     adds  them  to  the  vacation database.  Mail coming from these ex-
	     cluded addresses will not get a reply.  Whole domains  can  be  ex-
	     cluded using the syntax "@domain".

     -l      Print the contents of the vacation database files.  For each entry,
	     the address the reply has been sent to and the associated time will
	     be printed to standard output.

     When  started  without  arguments, vacation will guide the user through the
     configuration process.

     No message will be sent unless login (or an alias supplied using the -a op-
     tion) is part of either the "To:" or "Cc:" headers of the	mail.	No  mes-
     sages    from    "???-REQUEST",	"Postmaster",	"UUCP",   "MAILER",   or
     "MAILER-DAEMON" will be replied to (where these strings are  case	insensi-
     tive)  nor  is  a	notification  sent if a "Precedence: bulk", "Precedence:
     list",  "Precedence:  junk",   "X-Spam-Flag:   yes"   or	"Auto-submitted:
     (something  other than no)" line is included in the mail headers.	The peo-
     ple 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).  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

     Any occurrence of the string $SUBJECT in .vacation.msg will be replaced  by
     the subject of the message that triggered the vacation program.

     vacation  reads the incoming message from standard input, checking the mes-
     sage headers for either the Unix "From" line or a "Return-Path"  header  to
     determine	 the   sender.	  If  both  are  present  the  sender  from  the
     "Return-Path" header is used.  Sendmail(8) includes this "From" line  auto-
     matically.

     Fatal  errors,  such  as calling vacation with incorrect arguments, or with
     non-existent logins, are logged on the standard error  output  and  in  the
     system log file, using syslog(3).

DIAGNOSTICS
     The vacation utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

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

SEE ALSO
     aliases(5), sendmail(8), syslogd(8)

HISTORY
     The vacation command appeared in 4.3BSD.

AUTHOR
     vacation  was  developed  by  Eric Allman and the University of California,
     Berkeley in 1983.
     This version is maintained by Marco d'Itri <md@linux.it> and contains  code
     taken from the three free BSD and some patches applied to a linux port.

Linux				  June 15, 2003 		     VACATION(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=vacation&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.1.quarterly>

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