Index for Section 1

Alphabetical listing for V

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vacation(1)
NAME
  vacation - Informs senders of mail that recipient is absent

SYNOPSIS
  vacation -I

  The vacation command returns a message to the sender of a mail message,
  saying that the recipient is on vacation or otherwise absent.

OPTIONS
  -I  Initializes the $HOME/.vacation.pag and $HOME/.vacation.dir files.
      Execute this option before you modify your $HOME/.forward file.

DESCRIPTION
  The vacation command accepts standard input and attempts to send a vacation
  message to the user specified in that input, which should be a mail
  message.  The vacation command is usually invoked in your $HOME/.forward
  file, which is used to forward your mail to another username.	 When you
  want vacation messages to be sent to users who send you mail, enter the
  following in your $HOME/.forward file:

       \user, "|vacation user"

  Replace user by your username.  This allows mail sent to you to be both
  received by you and piped to the vacation command; vacation reads the mail
  message, determines the sender, and sends a reply.  The sender receives a
  vacation message, and the original mail is waiting in your mailbox when you
  return.

  When vacation is invoked without the -I option, as in the .forward file, it
  reads the first line from the standard input for a From line to determine
  the sender. If this is not present, an error message is produced. (All
  properly formatted incoming mail should include a From line.) No vacation
  message is sent if the From header line indicates that the message is from
  Postmaster; from MAILER-DAEMON; if the initial From line includes the
  string -REQUEST@; or if a Precedence: bulk or Precedence: junk line is
  included in the header.

  You must initialize vacation for your username by issuing the command
  vacation -I before you can use the vacation command.

  The vacation command expects a $HOME/.vacation.msg file containing a
  message to be sent back to each sender. The .vacation.msg file should be an
  entire message, including any desired headers, such as From or Subject.
  This message will be sent only once a week to each unique message sender.
  (If this file does not exist, vacation uses /usr/share/lib/vacation.def, a
  system-wide default vacation message, if it exists.)

  The names of people who have sent you messages are kept in the files
  $HOME/.vacation.pag and $HOME/.vacation.dir.	These files are created when
  you initialize vacation for your username with vacation -I.

EXAMPLES
  If your username is myra and you want to send a message once a week to each
  person who has sent you mail, initialize vacation by entering:

       vacation -I

  Next, add the following line to your $HOME/.forward file (create this file
  if it does not exist):

       \myra, "|vacation myra"

  If you want to send a vacation message other than the system default
  message in /usr/share/lib/vacation.def, create the file .vacation.msg in
  your home directory and enter the message in it.  For example:

       From: myra@k.table (Myra Louise Minter)
       Subject: I am on vacation.
       Delivered-By-the-Graces-Of: the Vacation program

       I am on vacation until October 1.  If you have something urgent,
       please telephone Lucy or Sue.

	       -- Myra

FILES
  /usr/share/lib/vacation.def
      System-wide default vacation message.

  $HOME/.forward
      Contains address to which mail is forwarded.

  $HOME/.vacation.dir
      Contains the names of people who have sent you mail while the vacation
      command was being used.

  $HOME/.vacation.pag
      Contains the names of people who have sent you mail while the vacation
      command was being used.

  $HOME/.vacation.msg
      Contains your personal vacation message.

SEE ALSO
  Commands:  mail(1), mailx(1), sendmail(8)

Index for Section 1

Alphabetical listing for V

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