Forwarding / Redirecting Email
To forward email to another email address, create a plain text file called ".forward" in the home directory. It should consist of the email address the mail should go to. Note the dot in front of .forward is required. All incoming mail will now go to the email address specified in the .forward file. Old existing mail will remain in the account. The .forward only applies to new e-mails.
Automatic E-mail Notification
Users can setup an automatic reply to notify users that they will be away and will read their email on their return. Following the procedure below:
- Login to Postie
- Type "man vacation" at the Unix prompt. This displays the manual page on how the vacation program works. Space bar displays the next page and "q" to quit the manual page.
postie: man vacation
- Setup the vacation notification:
postie: vacation
I will not be reading my mail for a while.
Your mail regarding "$SUBJECT" will be read when I return.
Edit the auto reply message above and save the file. The $SUBJECT notation substitutes the subject of the senders message into the auto reply message. - Enable automatic email notifications:
postie: vacation -I - When you return from your vacation, remember to remove the Auto Reply notification:
postie: rm .forward - No message is sent if the `To:' or `Cc:' line does not list the original recipient (you). For example, replies are not sent to mailing lists, etc.
- By default the vacation message will reply once each week to the same sender. To send auto replies more frequently, edit the .forward file and set the -t option to select the time interval.
e.g. \username,"| /usr/bin/vacation -t1d username"
limits the interval between replies to the same sender to once per day.