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rcvtrip(C)


rcvtrip -- notify mail sender that recipient is away

Syntax

/usr/bin/rcvtrip [ -d ] [ address ]

Description

The rcvtrip command makes it possible for you to notify the sender of a message that you are away on a trip and you will not be answering your mail for some time. MMDF runs rcvtrip on your behalf rather than you running it directly.

To enable use of rcvtrip, put the following line in your .maildelivery file:

   *    -    pipe    R    rcvtrip
Make sure that your .maildelivery file is not writable by anyone but you. You may also place a ``custom'' reply message in a file named tripnote. Finally, you should create an empty triplog file.

When rcvtrip processes a message, it decides:

The rcvtrip command decides whether this is the type of message that should get a reply by looking at the contents of the ``Resent-To:'', ``Resent-Cc:'', ``To:'' and ``Cc:'' header fields. If the recipient has an .alter_egos file (described next), then one of the addresses in that file must appear in one of these header fields for a reply to be sent. If the recipient does not have an .alter_egos file, then the recipient's name or a first-order alias of the recipient's name (for example, dlong-->long) must appear in one of these header fields for a reply to be sent. This procedure ensures that rcvtrip will not reply to messages sent to mailing lists, unless the recipient's name (or some variant of the recipient's name) is explicitly mentioned in a header field.

If rcvtrip decides it should send a reply to the message, it looks at several other address fields to determine to whom the reply should be sent. It uses, in order of precedence:

  1. addresses in ``Resent-Reply-To:''

  2. addresses in ``Resent-From:'' and, if present, ``Resent-Sender:''

  3. addresses in ``Reply-To:''

  4. addresses in ``From:'' and either ``Sender:'', if present, or the address argument from the command line.
The rcvtrip command notifies any originator of mail who has not previously been notified unless you pre-load their address into the triplog file (refer to the ``Files'' section). The reply begins with some standard text (supplied by rcvtrip) followed by whatever text the user has placed in the tripnote file, or the following message if the tripnote file is missing:
   Your mail has been received by the Mail System.
   The person you are trying to contact is not here right now.
   The Mail System does not know where to forward your message,
   so it will be stored here until the recipient returns to read it.
   This may take some time.
The originators' names are recorded in triplog, along with the date and time the message came in, an indication of whether it was answered (``+'' = yes), and the first few characters of the subject. This appears as:
   + jpo@nott.ac.uk    Wed Oct 8 16:08 >> about your last message

Files


$HOME/tripnote
contains a reply message to be sent to those sending you mail.

$HOME/triplog
contains a list of who sent a message, what was its subject, when it arrived, and if a response was sent. It can also be initialized by hand to contain the addresses, one per line, that are not to receive replies.

$HOME/logfile
if it exists, becomes an output file for logging diagnostic information. If the -d option is specified, then extensive output is generated for debugging purposes. It is not a good idea to leave -d enabled if this file is left lying around, as the output can be quite voluminous.

$HOME/.alter_egos
an optional file composed of ``user@domain'' lines for all addresses to be considered `you'. This is needed if you have multiple hosts forwarding their mail to you. If this file is present, then the standard comparisons against your username and first-level aliases of your username do not occur.

$HOME/.maildelivery
is your mail delivery specification file. The previous example shows the line that should be added to .maildelivery to enable use of rcvtrip. You may need to give the full pathname of rcvtrip if it is not in your search path.

See also

maildelivery(F)

Standards conformance

MMDF is not part of any currently supported standard; it was developed at the University of Delaware and is used with permission.
© 2003 Caldera International, Inc. All rights reserved.
SCO OpenServer Release 5.0.7 -- 11 February 2003