Sending a vacation message notice

Use this procedure to prepare and send a vacation message notice.

1. Initialize the vacation message in your $HOME (login) directory by typing:

   vacation -I

   This creates a .vacation.dir file and a .vacation.pag file where names of the people who send messages are kept.

2. Modify the .forward file.
   For example, carl types the following statement in the .forward file:

   carl, |"/usr/bin/vacation carl"

   The first carl entry is the user name to which mail is forwarded. The second carl entry is the user name of the sender of the vacation message. The sender of the mail message receives one vacation message from carl per week, regardless of how many messages are sent to carl from the sender. If you have your mail forwarded to someone else, the mail message from the sender is forwarded to the person defined in your .forward file.

   Use the -f flag to change the frequency intervals at which the message is sent. For example, carl types the following statement in the .forward file:

   carl, |"/usr/bin/vacation -f10d carl"

   The sender of mail messages receives one vacation message from carl every ten days, regardless of how many messages are sent to carl from the sender.

3. To send a message to each person who sends you mail, create the file $HOME/.vacation.msg and add your message to this file.
   The following is an example of a vacation message:

   From: carl@odin.austin (Carl Jones)
   Subject: I am on vacation.
   I am on vacation until October 1. If you have something urgent, 
   please contact Jim Terry <terry@zeus.valhalla>.
     --carl

   The sender receives the message that is in the $HOME/.vacation.msg file, or if the file does not exist, the sender receives the default message found in the /usr/share/lib/vacation.def file. If neither of these files exists, no automatic replies are sent to the sender of the mail message, and no error message is generated.

rm .forward .vacation.dir .vacation.pag .vacation.msg