Setting up your vacation message

If you will be away from your email for an extended period of time, you might want to set up an automated response (a "vacation" message) so that people sending you messages will know not to expect a reply until you get back. CalMail users can set up vacation messages on the Web. Other users should read the section below.

CalMail

Users who have an account on Calmail can set up a vacation message by going to https://calmail.berkeley.edu/ and clicking on Manage Your Account. Log in, then click on Vacation Message.

In the Subject and Message text fields respectively, you can enter the subject and text of your vacation notice, and to enable it, you would set Send the following autoreply to Yes.

The Only reply if mail is sent to these addresses section is aimed at a situation, in which you have another email address that forwards to your CalMail address.

Click the Update Settings button to save your settings. Try sending yourself an email to be sure the message is working correctly.

To remove your vacation message, you will need to connect once again to the web site to update your settings (set Send the following autoreply to No).

For other accounts (LS.Berkeley.EDU, etc.)

Staff with email accounts with Unix access, such as LS.Berkeley.EDU, should be able to use the Unix vacation command to set up a vacation message.

To run the vacation program, you must log into your account using a terminal program. All campus servers now require the use of a program that uses SSH, a secure protocol, rather than the older Telnet protocol. Mac OS X users can use the Terminal program found in Utilities in the Applications folder. Windows users can use SSH client software such as the campus-licensed software HostExplorer (HE) 2008 with the Connectivity Secure Shell (CSS) 2008 security add-on. Contact your local LSCR support staff if you need assistance with the SSH software.

Launch your SSH program and connect to the address of your server. With the Mac Terminal program, type ssh <user>@LS.Berkeley.EDU at the prompt. If you're using SSH Secure Shell, select Connect from the File menu. Log on with your user name and password.

Type setenv EDITOR pico and press return to set your text editor to be pico for this session. (Pico is an easier editor for novices than vi, the default editor on some systems. This step is unnecessary on some systems or if you are comfortable with the default editor.)

Type vacation and press return to enter the vacation program. (If you get an error message such as vacation: Command not found, your Unix machine may not support this program. Contact your LSCR support staff for assistance.)

Follow the steps presented to create and edit your vacation message. Below is a sample session (other versions of the vacation program may display different prompts). Simply type y or n to respond to the prompts.

This program can be used to answer your mail automatically
when you go away on vacation.
You have a message file in /export/home/<username>/.vacation.msg.

Would you like to see it? y

From: <username> (via the vacation program)
Subject: away from my mail
I will be away from my mail for awhile. I will read
your mail regarding "$SUBJECT" when I return.

Would you like to edit it? y

At this point the vacation program opens Pico. Use the cursor keys to move around, and the commands listed at the bottom of the screen for more editing commands (^ stands for the Control key). Type Control-X to save your vacation message and get out of the editor.

To enable the vacation feature a ".forward" file is created.
Would you like to enable the vacation feature? y

Vacation feature ENABLED. Please remember to turn it off when you get back from vacation. Bon voyage.

If you want to have your messages forwarded to someone else, type the forwarding email address in the following command at the Unix prompt:

echo otheraccount@somewhere.com > .forward

When you return from vacation, start up the vacation program as described above and follow the prompts to turn off the vacation feature.