1MAILBOT(1) Double Precision, Inc. MAILBOT(1)
2
6 mailbot - A MIME-aware autoresponder utility
7
9 mailbot [options] {program} [arg...]
10 In .mailfilter:
12 if (/^Subject: *info/)
14 {
15 cc "| mailbot -t /usr/share/autoresponse/info -d autoresponsedb \
16 -A 'From: info@domain.com' /usr/bin/sendmail -f ''"
17 }
18
20 mailbot reads an E-mail message on standard input and creates an E-mail
21 message replying to the original message's sender. A program is
22 specified as an argument to mailbot after all of mailbot options.
23 program is expected to read the created autoreply on its standard
24 input, and mail it. If program is not specified, mailbot runs 'sendmail
25 -f ""'.
26 mailbot has several options for suppressing duplicate autoresponse
28 messages. If mailbot chooses not to send an autoresponse, it quietly
29 terminates without running program. The autoresponse is optionally
30 formatted as a MIME delivery status notification.
31 The text of the autoresponse is specified by the -t or the -m argument.
33 Either one is required. Everything else is optional. The only exception
34 is the -T replydraft option, which requires the -l option instead of
35 either -t or -m. The default behavior is to send an autoresponse unless
36 the original message has the "Precedence: junk" or the "Precedence:
37 bulk" header, or the "Precedence: list" header, or the "List-ID:"
38 header, or if its MIME content type is "multipart/report" (this is the
39 MIME content type for delivery status notifications). The -M option
40 formats the the autoresponse itself as a MIME delivery status
41 notification.
42
44 -A "header: value"
45 Add a header to the autoresponse. Multiple -A options are allowed.
46 In most situations, the -A option must be used to set the “From:”
47 header in the autogenerated response.
48 -faddress
50 Address the autoresponse to address, which must be an RFC 2822[1]
51 address. By default mailbot takes the autoresponse address from the
52 From: (or the Reply-To:) header in the original message. -f, if
53 present, overrides and explicitly sets the autoresponse address.
54 "address" must immediately follow the -f option without an
55 intervening space (it's a single command line argument). An -f
56 option without an address takes the address from the SENDER
57 environment variable.
58 -t filename
60 Read text autoresponse from filename, which must contain a plain
61 text message in “flowed-text” format. In a “flowed-text”-formatted
62 message, each line that ends with a space character indicates that
63 the line logically flows into the next line. This allows the
64 message to be reformatted for any shown display width.
65 Note
67 Messages in languages (see the -c option) which use spaces as
68 word delimiters must have two spaces at the end of a flowed
69 line. The last space on a flowed line is logically removed, and
70 the first space separates the last word on the previous line
71 from the first word on the next line. Otherwise, the two words
72 will not have a logical space between them if they get
73 repositioned as part of adjusting the message's width for
74 display.
75 Messages in ideographic languages that do not use spaces as
77 word delimiters need only one space trailing a flowed line.
78 Note
80 The trailing whitespace has no visual impact when shown by
81 software that does not implemented flowed text format, and
82 always displays messages using their original width.
83 -c charset
85 Set the autoresponse's MIME character set to charset. Run mailbot
86 without any arguments to see the default character set.
87 -m filename
89 Read a MIME autoresponse from filename. This is similar to the -t
90 option, except that filename contains MIME headers, followed by a
91 blank line, and the corresponding MIME content. The contents of
92 filename are inserted in the autoresponse without further
93 processing.
94 The specified file must contain the “Content-Type” header
96 specifying the “text/plain” MIME type, with the “format=flowed”,
97 “delsp=yes”, and the “charset” attributes, which override the -c
98 parameter. If the specified file has a “Content-Transfer-Encoding”
99 header it must be either “7bit” or “8bit”, it may not be
100 “quoted-printable”. mailbot always drops any existing
101 “Content-Transfer-Encoding” header and always adds the
102 “Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit” header, even with the -m, since
103 the salutation inserted into the message includes the sender's
104 name, which may contain 8-bit characters. Example:
105 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; delsp=yes;
107 charset="iso-8859-1"
108 Mary had a little lamb,
110 Its fleece was white as snow.
111 And everywhere Mary went,
112 The lamb was sure to go.
113 Note
115 When the -m option is specified mailbot ignores the locale's
116 character set and formats the autoreply according to the
117 character set read from the “Content-Type” header.
118 -M address
120 Format the autoresponse as a delivery status notification (RFC
121 1894[2]). address is an RFC 2822[1] E-mail address that generates
122 the DSN. Note that the -A option should still be used in addition
123 to -M in order to set the From: header on the autoresponse. -M
124 sets the DSN address only. The -M option automatically sets -T
125 replydsn
126 -R type
128 Specify the feedback report type, with type set to abuse, fraud,
129 other, or virus. Must be used together with “-T feedback” or “-T
130 replyfeedback”.
131 -T format
133 Set the reply format. format must be one of the following values:
134 • “reply” - the default reply format.
136 • “replyall” - like “reply”, except also puts the recipients in
138 the original message's “To:” and “Cc:” headers into the “Cc:”
139 header of the generated reply.
140 • “replydsn” - like “reply”, except the message is formatted as a
142 delivery status notification.
143 • “replydraft” - like “reply”, with the text of the autoresponse
145 coming from a maildir specified by the -l option. See
146 “Autoreplies from a maildir folder”, below.
147 • “forward” - attach the original message as forwarded text.
149 • “forwardatt” - attach the original message as a forwarded
151 message attachment.
152 • “feedback” - generate an Email Feedback Report message (see RFC
154 5965[3]). The “-R” option is required when this is specified.
155 • “replyfeedback” - like “feedback”, but also adds a “To:”
157 header, addressed to the original message's sender.
158 -N
160 Do not quote the contents of the original message in the message
161 created by “reply”, “replyall”, “replydsn”, “feedback”, and
162 “replyfeedback” options.
163 Note
165 The original message gets quoted, in the absence of this
166 option, only if the original message was formatted as plain
167 text. mailbot is unable to quote an original message which was
168 formatted as HTML, or any other non-plaintext format.
169 Note
171 For “replydsn”, “feedback”, and “replyfeedback” options, the
172 convention is to attach the original message, or only its
173 headers, separately; so this option should always be specified
174 for these three reply formats.
175 -a
177 Attach the entire message, for “replydsn”, “feedback”, and
178 “replyfeedback”, instead of only its headers.
179 -e
181 Generate a reply (“reply”-formats) to the address listed in any
182 “Errors-To” or “Return-Path” header, if present, instead of the
183 “From” header.
184 -S “salutation”
186 Use the given salutation in the “reply”. The default value is “%F
187 writes:”. The following substitutions are recognized in the
188 salutation string:
189 • %% - an explicit % character.
191 • %n - a newline character.
193 • %C - the “X-Newsgroup:” header from the original message.
195 • %N - the “Newsgroups:” header from the original message.
197 • %i - the “Message-ID:” header from the original message.
199 • %f - the original message's sender's address.
201 • %F - the original message's sender's name.
203 • %S - the “Subject:” header from the original message
205 • %d - the original message's date, in the local timezone.
207 • %{...}d - use strftime() to format the original message's date.
209 A plain %d is equivalent to %{%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S %z}d.
210 All other characters in the salutation string are left as is.
212 -F “marker”
214 When generating a forward, use the marker to separate the forwarded
215 message from the autoreply text, instead of the default “---
216 Forwarded message ---”
217 -r addrlist
219 addrlist is a comma-separated list of RFC 2822[1] E-mail addresses.
220 mailbot sends an autoresponse only if the original message has at
221 least one of the specified addresses in any To: or Cc: header.
222 -d filename
224 Create a small database, filename, that keeps track of senders'
225 E-mail addresses, and prevent duplicate autoresponses going to the
226 same address (suppress autoresponses going back to the same
227 senders, for subsequent received messages). The -d option is only
228 available if maildrop has GDBM/DB extensions enabled.
229 -D x
231 Do not send duplicate autoresponses (see the -d option) for at
232 least x days (default: 1 day). The -d option creates a database of
233 E-mail addresses and the times an autoresponse was last mailed to
234 them. Another autoresponse to the same address will not be mailed
235 until at least the amount of time specified by the -D option has
236 elapsed.
237 -s "subject"
239 Set the Subject: header on the autoresponse to subject.
240 -n
242 Show the resulting message, do not send it. Used for debugging
243 purposes.
244 --feedback-original-envelope-id "<envelopeid>",
246 --feedback-original-mail-from "<mailfrom>",
247 --feedback-reporting-mta "dns; hostname",
248 --feedback-source-ip aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd, --feedback-incidents n,
249 --feedback-authentication-results "results",
250 --feedback-original-rcpt-to "<rcptto>",
251 --feedback-reported-domain example.com
252 Optional parameters to include in the feedback report generated by
253 “feedback” and “replyfeedback”. mailbot always adds “Arrival-Date”
254 with the current time, as well as “Version” and “User-Agent”.
255 “--feedback-authentication-results”, “--feedback-original-rcpt-to”
257 and “--feedback-reported-domain” may be specified more than once.
258 Where appropriate, UTF-8 encoding should be used for non-ASCII
260 characters.
261 -l maildir
263 Specifies the maildir for the “-T replydraft” option. See
264 “Autoreplies from a maildir folder”, below.
265 Autoreplies from a maildir folder
267 In .mailfilter:
268 cc "| mailbot -T replydraft -l './Maildir/.Vacation' \
270 -d autoresponsedb \
271 -A 'From: info@domain.com' /usr/bin/sendmail -f ''"
272 to "./Maildir"
273 The -T replydraft reply format takes the content of the autoresponse
275 from the most recent message in a maildir. The -l option specifies the
276 maildir. The above example takes the message from $HOME/Maildir/.Drafts
277 which should be a maildir (with the usual cur, new, and tmp
278 subdirectories). It would typically get created by Courier-IMAP as a
279 folder named “Vacation”.
280 This makes it possible to install autoreplies via an IMAP client by
282 creating a folder named “Vacation”, and copying a message into it. The
283 contents of the message become the autoresponse.
284 If the named maildir does not exist, or is empty, mailbot does nothing.
286 If the named maildir has more than one message, the most recent message
287 gets used.
288 The above example uses additional mailbot options to suppress duplicate
290 autoresponses, and to set the “From:” header on the autoresponse.
291
293 maildrop(1)[4], reformail(1)[5], reformime(1)[6].
294
296 Sam Varshavchik
297 Author
298
300 1. RFC 2822
301 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2822
302 2. RFC 1894
304 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1894
305 3. RFC 5965
307 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5965
308 4. maildrop(1)
310 http://www.courier-mta.org/maildrop/maildrop.html
311 5. reformail(1)
313 http://www.courier-mta.org/maildrop/reformail.html
314 6. reformime(1)
316 http://www.courier-mta.org/maildrop/reformime.html
317Courier Mail Server 11/04/2020 MAILBOT(1)