VACATION(1)		  BSD General Commands Manual		   VACATION(1)

NAME
     vacation — return ``I am not here'' indication

SYNOPSIS
     vacation -i [-r interval]
     vacation [-a alias] 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.

     -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 mes‐
	     sage, 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.

     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 insensi‐
     tive) nor is a notification sent if a “Precedence: bulk” or “Precedence:
     junk” line is included in the mail headers.  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).  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

     Vacation reads the first line from the standard input for a UNIX “From”
     line to determine the sender.  Sendmail(8) 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(8).

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

SEE ALSO
     sendmail(8), syslog(8)

HISTORY
     The vacation command appeared in 4.3BSD.

4.3 Berkeley Distribution	April 28, 1995	     4.3 Berkeley Distribution

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