vacation Top Level

vacation

Vacation is a program to provide automatic response to mail messages.

If you plan to go on vacation sometime soon or are going to be away from your Internet mailbox for a while, you might want to use the program on The World called ``vacation''. The steps for using this program are below. In brief, you prepare the message you want to be sent to people who write you, initialize the vacation database and create a file named ".forward" which redirects a copy of your incoming mail to the vacation program (and saves another copy in your mail spool, so you can read it when you come back.) The instructions below also explain how to turn the vacation program off.

When ``vacation'' is activated for your account, any mail sent to you will automatically receive a response with a message of your choosing. Note that only mail directly sent to you will get a response: in particular, ``vacation'' is bright enough to not send its responses to normally-configured mailing lists. For information on the rules vacation follows to achieve that, see:

	
	world%  man vacation

Below are the steps for using "vacation" (and for turning it off). You'll need to use a text editor to create the files you need, you can use any of the editors available on The World.

Create a .vacation.msg file that contains the message that you wish to include in your automatic response. For example:
```
   I will respond to your message regarding
   $SUBJECT as soon as I return from Kuwait.
```
If you use the special keyword $SUBJECT, this will be replaced with the Subject: header from the original sender's message.
Initialize the database and configuration files that vacation will use with:
```
          world% vacation -i -r#
```
The ``-r'' option controls the time span vacation will wait before sending another automatic response to a person who has already received one vacation response. If you set ``-r3'', then no matter how frequently a given user sends you mail, the recipient will be sent a notification message at most once every 3 days. This feature reduces unnecessary mail traffic for the system and undue irritation for those who send you mail
Create a file name .forward with the contents:
```
   \yourloginname, "|/usr/local/bin/vacation yourloginname"
```
Replace the ``yourloginname'' with your own World login name; (not your full email address). If you are jones@world.std.com, it would look like:
```
   \jones, "|/usr/local/bin/vacation jones"
```
Creating the .forward file is what actually turns on the vacation program. It goes into effect the moment you save the .forward file. You don't need to set any permissions or anything. Feel free to call us (at 617-739-0202) and we can check to make sure it's right, or have a friend send you mail.
When it comes time to stop ``vacation'' responses, just remove the .forward file with:
```
         world% rm .forward
```
If you wish to save it for later use, move it to another file name with:
```
         world% mv .forward forward
```
This covers the basics of using ``vacation''. If you need further information, check the manual page:
```
	world% man vacation
```
or drop a note staff@world.std.com for technical support.

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