Vacation Message (UNIX)

Introduction

The Vacation program allows you to setup your email account to automatically reply to any incoming message. For example, if you will be unable to read your email for an extended period of time, you might want the vacation program to respond to messages with contact information.

Note: If you are already forwarding your email to another address or filtering your mail, you must first rename your .forward file by typing mv .forward .forward.old at the UNIX prompt, then follow the instruction below.

Enabling the Vacation Program

When you leave, you will want to enable the vacation message to let everyone know that you will be away.

To enable the vacation message:

• At a UNIX prompt, type setenv EDITOR pico
• Next type vacation and hit return.
• The system will automatically create a default vacation message for you. This is the message which will be sent when you receive mail. Edit this message as you see fit.
• When you are done editing the message, hit Control-X to save and exit.
• Once you have exited, the vacation program will ask you if you want to see it, hit y. Verify that the message is correct.
• Next, the vacation program will ask you if you want to edit it. If the message is already correct, hit n if not, hit y to fix it.
• Finally, the vacation program will ask you if you want to enable the vacation message. Answer y to enable.
  The vacation message is enabled, and it will respond to every message that you receive.

Disabling the Vacation Program

When you return, you will want to disable the vacation message so that you can return your mail to normal function.

To disable the vacation message:

• Type vacation and hit return.
• When asked if you want to view the vacation message, hit n.
• When asked if you want to edit the vacation message, hit n
• When asked if you want to remove it and disable the vacation feature, hit y.

The vacation feature will be disabled.

Using Vacation while using forward or filtering.

As stated earlier, if your are forwarding or filtering your email, you must first disable those features by typing mv .forward .forward.old at the UNIX prompt before using vacation.

Using Vacation and forwarding your email to another address:

• Follow the section on "Enabling the Vacation Program"
• Edit your .forward file by typing pico .forward at the UNIX prompt.
  Additional information about using pico is available.
• Delete the word ttrojan where, ttrojan is your username. Type the email address to which you wish to forward all your mail.
• The .forward file would look like this:
  tommy@hotmail.com, "|/usr/bin/vacation ttrojan"
• Lastly, exit pico, by typing Control-X. Pico will prompt you to save your changes.

Using Vacation and filtering e-mail:

• Follow the section on "Enabling the Vacation Program"
• Follow the documentation on Filtering Email.
• Edit your .forward file by typing pico .forward at the UNIX prompt.
• Delete the word \ttrojan where, ttrojan is your username. Type "|/usr/bin/filter"
• The .forward file would look like this:
  "|/usr/usc/bin/filter", "|/usr/bin/vacation ttrojan"
• Lastly, exit pico, by typing Control-X. Pico will prompt you to save your changes.

Last updated: Monday, August 17, 2009, 11:37AM PDT