mailbot — A MIME-aware autoresponder utility
mailbot [options] {program} [arg...]
In .mailfilter:
if (/^Subject: *info/)
{
cc "| mailbot -t /usr/share/autoresponse/info -d autoresponsedb \
-A 'From: info@domain.com' /usr/bin/sendmail -f ''"
}
mailbot reads an E-mail message on standard input
and creates an E-mail message replying to the original message's sender.
A
program is specified as an argument to
mailbot after all of mailbot options.
program is expected to read the
created autoreply on its standard input, and mail it.
If program is not specified,
mailbot runs 'sendmail -f ""'.
mailbot has several options for suppressing duplicate autoresponse messages. If mailbot chooses not to send an autoresponse, it quietly terminates without running program. The autoresponse is optionally formatted as a MIME delivery status notification.
The text of the autoresponse is specified by the -t or
the -m argument. Either one is required.
Everything else is optional.
The only exception is the -T replydraft option, which requires
the -l option instead of either -t or
-m.
The default behavior is to send an autoresponse unless the original message
has the "Precedence: junk" or the
"Precedence: bulk" header, or the
"Precedence: list" header, or the
"List-ID:" header,
or if
its MIME content type is "multipart/report"
(this is the MIME content type for delivery status notifications).
The -M option formats the
the autoresponse itself as a MIME delivery status notification.
header: value"
Add a header to the autoresponse. Multiple -A
options are allowed.
In most situations, the -A option must be
used to set the “From:” header in the autogenerated
response.
address
Address the autoresponse to address, which must
be an
RFC 2822
address.
By default mailbot takes the autoresponse
address from the
From: (or the Reply-To:) header
in the original message.
-f, if present, overrides and explicitly sets the
autoresponse address.
"address" must immediately follow the
-f option without an intervening space
(it's a single command line argument).
An -f option without an address
takes the address from the SENDER environment variable.
filename
Read text autoresponse from filename,
which must contain a plain text message in “flowed-text” format.
In a “flowed-text”-formatted message, each line that ends with
a space character indicates that the line logically flows into the next line.
This allows the message to be reformatted for any shown display width.
Messages in languages (see the -c
option) which use spaces as word delimiters must have two
spaces at the end of a flowed line. The last space on a flowed line is logically
removed, and the first space separates the
last word on the previous line from the first word on the next line. Otherwise,
the two words will not have a logical space between them if they get
repositioned as part of adjusting the message's width for display.
Messages in ideographic languages that do not use spaces as word delimiters need only one space trailing a flowed line.
The trailing whitespace has no visual impact when shown by software that does not implemented flowed text format, and always displays messages using their original width.
charset
Set the autoresponse's MIME character set to
charset.
Run mailbot without any arguments to see the
default character set.
filename
Read a MIME autoresponse from filename.
This is similar to the -t option,
except that filename contains MIME headers,
followed by a blank line, and the corresponding
MIME content. The contents of filename are
inserted in the autoresponse without further processing.
The specified file must contain the
“Content-Type” header specifying the
“text/plain” MIME type, with the
“format=flowed”,
“delsp=yes”, and the
“charset” attributes, which override the
-c parameter.
If the specified file has a “Content-Transfer-Encoding”
header it must be either “7bit” or “8bit”,
it may not be “quoted-printable”.
mailbot always drops any
existing “Content-Transfer-Encoding” header and
always adds the
“Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit” header, even with
the -m, since the salutation inserted into the
message includes the sender's name, which may contain 8-bit
characters. Example:
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; delsp=yes; charset="iso-8859-1" Mary had a little lamb, Its fleece was white as snow. And everywhere Mary went, The lamb was sure to go.
When the -m option is specified
mailbot ignores the locale's character
set and formats the autoreply according to the character set read from the
“Content-Type” header.
address
Format the autoresponse as a delivery status notification
(RFC 1894).
address is an
RFC 2822
E-mail address that generates the DSN.
Note that the -A option should still be used in
addition to -M in order to set the
From: header on the autoresponse.
-M sets the DSN address only.
The -M option automatically sets
-T
replydsn
type
Specify the feedback report type, with
type set to
abuse,
fraud,
other, or
virus.
Must be used together with “-T feedback” or
“-T replyfeedback”.
format
Set the reply format. format
must be one of the following values:
“reply” - the default reply format.
“replyall” - like “reply”, except also puts the recipients in the original message's “To:” and “Cc:” headers into the “Cc:” header of the generated reply.
“replydsn” - like “reply”, except the message is formatted as a delivery status notification.
“replydraft” - like “reply”, with
the text of the autoresponse coming from a maildir specified
by the -l option. See “Autoreplies
from a maildir folder”, below.
“forward” - attach the original message as forwarded text.
“forwardatt” - attach the original message as a forwarded message attachment.
“feedback” - generate an Email Feedback Report message (see RFC 5965). The “-R” option is required when this is specified.
“replyfeedback” - like “feedback”, but also adds a “To:” header, addressed to the original message's sender.
Do not quote the contents of the original message in the message
created by
“reply”,
“replyall”,
“replydsn”,
“feedback”, and
“replyfeedback” options.
The original message gets quoted, in the absence of this option, only if the original message was formatted as plain text. mailbot is unable to quote an original message which was formatted as HTML, or any other non-plaintext format.
For “replydsn”,
“feedback”, and
“replyfeedback” options,
the convention is to attach the original message, or only its
headers, separately; so this option should always be specified
for these three reply formats.
Attach the entire message, for
“replydsn”,
“feedback”, and
“replyfeedback”, instead of only its
headers.
Generate a reply (“reply”-formats) to the address listed in any “Errors-To” or “Return-Path” header, if present, instead of the “From” header.
Use the given salutation
in the “reply”.
The default value is “%F writes:”.
The following substitutions are recognized in the salutation
string:
%% - an explicit %
character.
%n - a newline character.
%C - the
“X-Newsgroup:” header from the original message.
%N - the “Newsgroups:”
header from the original message.
%i - the “Message-ID:”
header from the original message.
%f - the original message's sender's address.
%F - the original message's sender's name.
%S - the
“Subject:” header from the original message
%d - the original message's date, in the
local timezone.
%{
- use ...}dstrftime() to format the original
message's date.
A plain %d is equivalent to
%{%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S %z}d.
All other characters in the salutation string are left as is.
When generating a forward, use the
marker to separate the forwarded
message from the autoreply text, instead of the default
“--- Forwarded message ---”
addrlist
addrlist is a comma-separated list of
RFC 2822
E-mail addresses.
mailbot sends an autoresponse only if
the original message has at least one of the specified addresses in any
To: or Cc: header.
filename
Create a small database, filename,
that keeps track of senders' E-mail addresses,
and prevent duplicate autoresponses going to the same address
(suppress autoresponses going back to the same senders, for subsequent
received messages).
The -d option is only available if
maildrop has GDBM/DB extensions enabled.
x
Do not send duplicate autoresponses (see the
-d option) for at least
x days (default: 1 day). The
-d option creates a database of E-mail addresses and
the times an
autoresponse was last mailed to them. Another autoresponse to the same
address will not be mailed until at least the amount of time specified by
the -D option has elapsed.
subject"
Set the Subject: header on the autoresponse to
subject.
Show the resulting message, do not send it. Used for debugging purposes.
"<envelopeid>",
--feedback-original-mail-from "<mailfrom>",
--feedback-reporting-mta "dns; hostname",
--feedback-source-ip aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd,
--feedback-incidents n,
--feedback-authentication-results "results",
--feedback-original-rcpt-to "<rcptto>",
--feedback-reported-domain example.comOptional parameters to include in the feedback report generated by “feedback” and “replyfeedback”. mailbot always adds “Arrival-Date” with the current time, as well as “Version” and “User-Agent”.
“--feedback-authentication-results”, “--feedback-original-rcpt-to” and “--feedback-reported-domain” may be specified more than once.
Where appropriate, UTF-8 encoding should be used for non-ASCII characters.
maildirSpecifies the maildir for the “-T replydraft” option. See “Autoreplies from a maildir folder”, below.
In .mailfilter:
cc "| mailbot -T replydraft -l './Maildir/.Vacation' \ -d autoresponsedb \ -A 'From: info@domain.com' /usr/bin/sendmail -f ''" to "./Maildir"
The -T replydraft reply format takes the content of
the autoresponse from the most recent message in a maildir.
The -l option specifies the maildir. The above
example takes the message from $HOME/Maildir/.Drafts
which should be a maildir (with the usual cur,
new, and tmp subdirectories).
It would typically get created by Courier-IMAP as a folder named
“Vacation”.
This makes it possible to install autoreplies via an IMAP client by creating a folder named “Vacation”, and copying a message into it. The contents of the message become the autoresponse.
If the named maildir does not exist, or is empty, mailbot does nothing. If the named maildir has more than one message, the most recent message gets used.
The above example uses additional mailbot options to suppress duplicate autoresponses, and to set the “From:” header on the autoresponse.