Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84; site hao.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!hao!pag From: pag@hao.UUCP (Peter Gross) Newsgroups: net.unix Subject: Re: Automatic mail answerers Message-ID: <1627@hao.UUCP> Date: Fri, 12-Jul-85 14:57:21 EDT Article-I.D.: hao.1627 Posted: Fri Jul 12 14:57:21 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jul-85 17:01:55 EDT References: <3051@decwrl.UUCP> Organization: High Altitude Obs./NCAR, Boulder CO Lines: 24 > An even more amusing situation can occur when a person sends mail to > somebody to say he is going out of town, then sets up his own answering > maching -- if the other person already had an answerer set up! The > infinite loop can be avoided if automatic mail answerers are coded to keep > track of who they have already sent to, and send no more than once to a > given address. > > This is implemented in the (otherwise despicable) VMS mail system, and has > saved a lot of trouble. 4.2 bsd comes with a program called "vacation" which does this (keep track of who it has sent to). Most people probably don't know about it because it is buried in the the sendmail directory. If you have a 4.2bsd source license, the place to look is: /usr/src/usr.lib/sendmail/aux That directory contains both source and manual page for vacation. (I plan to put it to the test shortly, as I leave for 4 weeks vacation.) -- --peter gross UUCP: {hplabs,seismo}!hao!pag CSNET: pag@ncar.csnet ARPA: pag%ncar@csnet-relay.arpa