This page describes how to set up the unix vacation program to send away notifications to people who send you email while you are on vacation or otherwise away from your email for a length of time.

We do *not* recommend the old practice or using a .forward file in your home directory to send your email to the vacation program. This causes problems with vacation replying to spam and other unwanted messages. Instead, we recommend you use the following instructions to add a section to your .procmailrc file activate vacation processing.

Relevant files

The following files are used to set up vacation processing.

• .procmailrc This file controls the filtering and delivery of your inbound mail

• .vacation.msg This file contains the template for the email reply you want vacation to send back to your correspondants.

Accessing the files

From a linux computer

Linux users will find or create the needed files in their home directory after logging in.

From a Windows computers

Windows users within the department have two options:

1. Log into a DSS linux computer via SSH using puTTY, F-Secure SSH or another SSH program.

2. Access \\pdc\USERNAME where USERNAME is your DSS login name. To open a windows onto your home directory:

   1. Click Start

   2. Select Run...

   3. Enter \\pdc\USERNAME

   4. Click OK

   • You may have to turn on viewing hidden files to see the two files we need to update.

To Turn ON vacation processing

1. Open the .vacation.msg file with your favorite editor, such as emacs, vi, or pico:

   emacs ~/.vacation.msg
   

2. If it exists, it will look something like this:

   Subject: Out of the Office
   From: "Lance Brown (via vacation program)" <brown@stat.duke.edu>
   
   This is an automated reply to your message concerning:
   
   "$SUBJECT"
   
   I will be out of the office July 18th through July 24th.
   If you require ISDS IT assistance, please send your message to 
   help@stat.duke.edu and the people covering for me will receive it.
   You may also call the Duke OIT Help Desk at 919-684-2200.
   
   Thanks,
     --[Lance]
   
   -- 
   Lance A. Brown
   Senior Systems Programmer
   Department of Statistical Science, Duke University
   

   The first two lines set up the Subject: and From: header for the messages that will be sent to your correspondants, the rest of the file will be the body of the email sent. The string $SUBJECT is replaced with the subject of the original message when the reply is sent. If you've used vacation before, this file will contain your old message. If it is empty, you can copy this message into it and modify for your needs.

3. Save the file once you are done editing it.

4. Open the .procmailrc file with your favorite editor.

   emacs ~/.procmailrc
   

5. At the end of the file look for a stanza that looks like:

   ###
   ### Vacation Processor
   ###
   #:0c
   #|/usr/bin/vacation -a labrown@duke.edu brown
   

   Anything following a hash mark, '#', is a comment. If you don't have this section in your .procmailrc then add it, adjusting the -a labrown@duke option to the vacation program to account for any addresses you receive mail for besides your main DSS address. If you have multiple addresses, you can add multiple -a address@foo.com options to the vacation command line.

6. Remove the hash sign, '#', character from the beginning of the last two lines

   :0c
   |/usr/bin/vacation -a labrown@duke.edu brown
   

   to activate the vacation program.

7. Save the .procmailrc file.

To Turn OFF vacation processing

1. Open your .procmailrc file in your favorite editor.

   emacs ~/.procmailrc
   

2. Locate the Vacation Processor stanza at the end of the file.

3. Add a hash mark, '#', at the beginning of the last two lines of that stanza:

   #:0c
   #|/usr/bin/vacation -a labrown@duke.edu brown
   

4. Save the .procmailrc file.