vacation(1)                                                     vacation(1)




 NAME    [Toc]    [Back]
      vacation - return ``I am not here'' indication

 SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]
      vacation -i

      vacation [ [-a alias] ...] login

 DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]
      The vacation program 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 in $HOME.  For example, your
      .forward file might contain:

           \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.  The \ preceding eric is
      required to force direct delivery to eric's mailbox and prevent an
      infinite loop through the .forward file.  The double quotes are needed
      to tell sendmail(1M) to treat the enclosed as a unit, rather than
      separate recipients.  It is also important to specify the full path
      for the vacation program, and there must be no white space between the
      | character and the start of the path name.

      No message is sent unless login or an alias supplied using the -a
      option is a substring of either the To: or Cc: headers of the mail.
      No messages from ???-REQUEST, Postmaster, UUCP, MAILER, or MAILER-
      DAEMON are replied to, nor is a notification sent if a Precedence:
      bulk or Precedence: junk line is included in the mail headers.  Only
      one message per week is sent to each unique sender (at each unique
      host system).  The people who have sent you messages are recorded in a
      database in the files .vacation.pag and .vacation.dir in your home
      directory.

      The vacation program 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 say:

           >From: [email protected] (Eric Allman)
           Subject: I am on vacation
           X-Delivered-By-The-Graces-Of: The vacation program
           Precedence: bulk

           I am on vacation until July 22.  If you have something urgent,
           please contact Joe Kalash <[email protected]>.
                --eric

      Header lines in this file must be left justified and must not be
      preceded by any other lines, including blank lines (see sendmail(1M)).



 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 1 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003






 vacation(1)                                                     vacation(1)




      If there is no .vacation.msg file, vacation uses the following file
      (if it exists):

           /usr/share/lib/vacation.def

      Otherwise, it logs an error.

      vacation reads the first line from the standard input (the incoming
      mail message in the example .forward file above) for a UNIX style From
      line to determine the sender.  sendmail(1M) includes this From line
      automatically, and its absence indicates non-mail input.

    Options    [Toc]    [Back]
      The vacation program supports the following options:

           -i             Initializes the vacation database files.  This
                          option should be used before modifying a .forward
                          file.

           -a alias       Identifies another name that can legitimately
                          appear in the To: line of the mail header instead
                          of your login name.  More than one -a option can
                          be specified.

 EXTERNAL INFLUENCES    [Toc]    [Back]
    Environment Variables
      LANG determines the language in which error messages are printed.

 DIAGNOSTICS    [Toc]    [Back]
      On error, vacation exits with a value from <sysexits.h> and causes
      sendmail to report an error back to the sender of the original
      message.  Errors such as the absence of .vacation.msg or calling
      vacation with incorrect arguments, are logged using syslogd on the
      system where vacation actually runs (see syslogd(1M)).  The syslog
      file (/var/adm/syslog/mail.log by default - see /etc/syslog.conf and
      syslogd(1M) for customizations) should be inspected when vacation
      generates mailer error messages.

      Remember that if the machine is configured for shared mail, inbound
      mail is handled at the mail server rather than on mail client nodes.
      This means that syslog diagnostics appear in the mail server's syslog;
      not the client's syslog.

 WARNINGS    [Toc]    [Back]
      Errors in the .forward file can lead to loss of mail and infinite mail
      loops.

      Always send test mail to yourself after configuring vacation to be
      sure that it is working properly.  This is akin to checking telephone
      forwarding before leaving for an extended period, and can prevent loss
      of messages.



 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 2 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003






 vacation(1)                                                     vacation(1)




      Some mail recipients look for RFC-822 compliant To: header in their
      incoming mail messages. Such recipients have to set the option
      NoRecipientAction to add_to in the sendmail configuration file,
      sendmail.cf.

 AUTHOR    [Toc]    [Back]
      vacation was developed by Eric Allman and the University of
      California, Berkeley.

 FILES    [Toc]    [Back]
      $HOME/.vacation.dir                       Database file.
      $HOME/.vacation.msg                       Message to send.
      $HOME/.vacation.pag                       Database file.
      /usr/share/lib/vacation.def               System-wide default header
                                                and message.
      /etc/syslog.conf                          Dictates where error
                                                messages are recorded.

 SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]
      sendmail(1M), syslogd(1M), ndbm(3X).


 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 3 -   HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003