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qmail-autoresponder(1)	     General Commands Manual	  qmail-autoresponder(1)

NAME
     qmail-autoresponder - Produce automatic responses with qmail

SYNOPSIS
     qmail-autoresponder  [ -cLNqT ] [ -O NAME[=VALUE] ] [ -n NUM ] [ -s STR ] [
     -t TIME ] [ MESSAGE-FILE ] DIRECTORY

DESCRIPTION
     qmail-autoresponder sends an automatically-generated message in response to
     an incoming message.  It also tracks the number of responses  it  sends  to
     each sender in order to limit the rate at which it sends responses, to pre-
     vent mail flooding or denial of service attacks.  By default, it limits the
     number  of  responses  it	sends  to  a maximum of one message per hour per
     sender.  It will not respond to any known mailing list, nor will it respond
     to either bounces or loops.

     The MESSAGE-FILE is used as the response message, and must contain  a  com-
     plete  mail  message including From: and Subject: headers.  If the MESSAGE-
     FILE argument is not present, it defaults to message.txt.	All  occurrences
     of %S in the message file are replaced with the original message's subject,
     %s with the original message's sender (to which the response will be sent),
     and %r with the original message's recipient.  To put a percent sign in the
     message, write it as %%.

   RESPONSE COUNTING
     For  each	response  qmail-autoresponder sends, it creates a file in DIREC-
     TORY.  The name of that file consists of the current UNIX	time  number,  a
     period,  the  process ID of qmail-autoresponder, a period, and the envelope
     sender address (with any / characters replaced with : to  prevent	creation
     of  files	outside of DIRECTORY).	When it receives a message, it scans DI-
     RECTORY.  Any files that are older than the time interval (see  below)  are
     deleted and ignored.  If the number of remaining files with the same sender
     address  is  greater than or equal to the maximum number of replies, no re-
     sponse is generated.

   LOGGING
     If DIRECTORY contains a writeable file named log.txt, then a line is  added
     to  this  file  each time a sender is processed.  The format of these lines
     are as follows:
	    TIMESTAMP +SENDER
	    TIMESTAMP -SENDER
     The first line indicates a message was sent to the sender, and  the  second
     that  a  message was not sent.  The timestamp is expressed as standard UNIX
     time (the number of seconds since Jan 1 1970 GMT).

OPTIONS
     qmail-autoresponder supports options specified on the command  line,  in  a
     file named config.txt, and as individual files in DIRECTORY.  If config.txt
     is  present,  any individual config files are ignored.  Option files in the
     directory (either config.txt or individual files) override options  set  on
     the command line.

     The  config.txt  file  contains  one setting per line, with the option name
     separated from the value by a =.  The value extends from the first  charac-
     ter after the = to the end of the line.  Lines starting with # are ignored.

     The  message may also be placed in this configuration file. It is separated
     from the settings by a single blank line. If present,  message.txt  is  not
     read for the response message.

     For example:
	    copymsg=1
	    # Keep all the X-* headers along with the subject.
	    headerkeep=subject:x-*
	    bcc=sendmeacopy@example.com
	    starttime=2018-03-14 15:59:00
	    subject=This is a very long response subject that does not include the original

	    From: Automatic Responder <recipient@example.com>
	    Subject: Vacation response (%S)

	    This is an automated response to your email...

   COMMAND LINE
     -c     Equivalent to -O copymsg=1

     -L     Create  new files (instead of making links) for each recipient file.
	    This uses more inodes, but may be required for filesystems (such  as
	    Coda) that don't handle links properly.

     -N     Write  the	generated response to standard output instead of sending
	    it.

     -n NUM
	    Equivalent to -O msglimit=NUM

     -O NAME[=VALUE]
	    Sets named option NAME to VALUE.  If VALUE is omitted, a value of  1
	    is used.  See below for all the named options.

     -q     Quiet.  Don't show error messages.

     -s STR
	    Equivalent to -O subject_prefix=STR

     -T     Do not add a To: <SENDER> line to the response.

     -t TIME
	    Equivalent to -O timelimit=TIME

   NAMED OPTIONS
     bcc (string)
	    If	given,	all  responses are copied to this address in addition to
	    the original sender.

     copymsg (boolean)
	    Copy the original message into the response.

     endtime (string)
	    Set the ending time for which this autoresponder  is  active.   Mes-
	    sages  received after this time will not cause a response to be gen-
	    erated.

     headerkeep (string)
	    If this option is given, only the headers listed in  the  value  are
	    copied  from  the  message into the response.  Separate header names
	    with a colon.  If neither this nor headerstrip are used, all headers
	    are copied.

     headerstrip (string)
	    If this option is given and headerkeep is not, the headers listed in
	    the value are omitted when copying from the  message  into	the  re-
	    sponse.   Separate	header	names  with  a	colon.	Header names are
	    treated as patterns, and so may contain * to match any string.   For
	    example, the pattern x-* will match the headers X-DomainKeys: and X-
	    SpamLevel:.

     msglimit (integer)
	    Set the maximum number of replies per timelimit (defaults to 1).

     no_inreplyto (boolean)
	    Do	not  add  an  In-Reply-To: header to the outgoing message.  Nor-
	    mally, if a Message-Id: header is found  in  the  original	message,
	    qmail-autoresponder will add the contents of that header to the out-
	    going  message.   This allows some email programs to group responses
	    more intelligently.

     numlines (integer)
	    Limits the maximum number of lines copied from the original  message
	    body into the response.  This option is only relevant if the copymsg
	    option  is	also  used.  If not given, all the lines in the original
	    message body are copied.  This limit does not impact how many  lines
	    of the header are copied.

     separator (string)
	    Add a separator line (or lines) between the response message and the
	    copied message.

     starttime (string)
	    Set  the starting time for which this autoresponder is active.  Mes-
	    sages received before this time will not cause a response to be gen-
	    erated.

     subject_prefix (string)
	    Add a subject line to the response message composed  of  the  prefix
	    STR followed by the original subject.  This can also be accomplished
	    by putting the following line at the start of the message file:

	    Subject: STR %S

     timelimit (integer)
	    Set  the  interval	during	which responses are counted (in seconds)
	    (defaults to 1 hour).

RETURN VALUE
     Exits zero if there were no problems, otherwise exits 111.

ENVIRONMENT
     DTLINE
	    qmail-autoresponder searches for this line (generated  by  qmail-lo-
	    cal)  in  the  input and bounces the message if it is present (which
	    indicates a mail loop).  It then adds the line to the output.

     SENDER
	    This contains the envelope sender address and is used as the address
	    to send the reply to.

							  qmail-autoresponder(1)

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