.\"	$OpenBSD: vacation.1,v 1.15 2006/12/13 14:23:32 jmc Exp $
.\"	$NetBSD: vacation.1,v 1.5 1995/08/31 21:57:08 jtc Exp $
.\"
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.\"	@(#)vacation.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/28/95
.\"
.Dd April 28, 1995
.Dt VACATION 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm vacation
.Nd return ``I am not here'' indication
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm vacation
.Fl i
.Op Fl r Ar interval
.Nm vacation
.Op Fl a Ar alias
.Ar login
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
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
.Pa .forward
file.
For example, your
.Pa .forward
file might have:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\eeric, "|/usr/bin/vacation -a allman eric"
.Ed
.Pp
which would send messages to you (assuming your login name was eric) and
reply to any messages for
.Dq eric
or
.Dq allman .
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl a Ar alias
Handle messages for
.Ar alias
in the same manner as those received for the user's
login name.
.It Fl i
Initialize the vacation database files.
It should be used before you modify your
.Pa .forward
file.
.It Fl r
Set the reply interval to
.Ar interval
days.
The default is one week.
An interval of
.Dq 0
means that
a reply is sent to each message, and an interval of
.Dq Li infinite
(actually, any non-numeric character) will never send more than
one reply.
It should be noted that intervals of
.Dq Li \&0
are quite
dangerous, as it allows mailers to get into
.Dq I am on vacation
loops.
.El
.Pp
No message will be sent unless
.Ar login
(or an
.Ar alias
supplied using the
.Fl a
option) is part of either the
.Dq To:
or
.Dq Cc:
headers of the mail.
No messages from
.Dq ???-REQUEST ,
.Dq Postmaster ,
.Dq Tn UUCP ,
.Dq MAILER ,
or
.Dq MAILER-DAEMON
will be replied to (where these strings are
case insensitive) nor is a notification sent if a
.Dq Precedence: bulk ,
.Dq Precedence: list ,
or
.Dq Precedence: junk
line is included in the mail headers.
The people who have sent you messages are maintained as a
.Xr db 3
database in the file
.Pa .vacation.db
in your home directory.
.Pp
.Nm
expects a file
.Pa .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:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
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
.Ed
.Pp
Any occurrence of the string
.Li $SUBJECT
in
.Pa .vacation.msg
will be replaced by the subject of the message that triggered the
.Nm
program.
.Pp
.Nm
reads the incoming message from standard input, checking the message
headers for either the
.Ux
.Dq From
line or a
.Dq Return-Path
header to determine the sender.
If both are present the sender from the
.Dq Return-Path
header is used.
.Pp
Fatal errors, such as calling
.Nm
with incorrect arguments, or with non-existent
.Ar login Ns Ar s ,
are logged in the system log file, using
.Xr syslog 3 .
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width "vacation.dirxxx" -compact
.It Pa ~/.vacation.db
database file
.It Pa ~/.vacation.msg
message to send
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr syslog 3 ,
.Xr sendmail 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
command appeared in
.Bx 4.3 .