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Going on $vacation?
Not Just Pine at the Dollar Sign |
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 By
Brian Shicoff
With our Winter break approaching, I thought it would be appropriate this time to write something about a nifty little application called vacation.
Ever just go on a break and come back with more email messages than you think you can respond to in a day? And don't the ones from your friends wondering where you are and why you aren't emailing them bother you? You end up having to spend so much time just to write out emails to all of them letting you know that you weren't checking your mail and that you are back now and everything is fine. Well, don't you wish you didn't have to waste that time?
Now you have the option of using an application called vacation. For any incoming email, this program will automatically send a message back to the person who emailed you. You can specify what is in the message you send them back, but most messages will include something to the effect of 'I am on vacation till the 16th. I will be checking my mail then.'
To start this application, type 'vacation' at the dollar sign. Then you will be prompted to enter your message. The standard message is: I will not be reading my mail for a while. Your mail regarding "$SUBJECT" will be read when I return.
Upon entering your message, you will be asked whether or not you would like to enable the vacation application by allowing the creation of a '.forward' file. If you choose to, all of your mail will reach your account as it normally would.
To disable the vacation feature when you get back to checking your mail, reach your home directory and then remove a .forward file which vacation created.
Please note that enabling the vacation feature will automatically send your message to any incoming mail including mail sent to you by any mailing lists which you are on. Thus, it is a wise idea not to run vacation if you are constantly receiving a lot of mail from mailing lists.
Sometimes the greatest benefit of running vacation is that if people know you are not going to be available until a certain date, they might find other ways to communicate with you, or just not send you a large amount of email.
In fact, you might consider putting a telephone number or some other means of contacting you inside your message.
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