mailbot(1)
NAME
mailbot - A MIME-aware autoresponder utility
SYNOPSIS
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 ''"
}
DESCRIPTION
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.
OPTIONS
-A "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.
-faddress
Address the autoresponse to address, which must be an RFC 2822[1]
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.
-t 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.
Note
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.
Note
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.
-c charset
Set the autoresponse's MIME character set to charset. Run mailbot
without any arguments to see the default character set.
-m 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.
Note
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.
-M address
Format the autoresponse as a delivery status notification (RFC
1894[2]). address is an RFC 2822[1] 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
-R 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".
-T 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[3]). 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.
-N
Do not quote the contents of the original message in the message
created by "reply", "replyall", "replydsn", "feedback", and
"replyfeedback" options.
Note
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.
Note
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.
-a
Attach the entire message, for "replydsn", "feedback", and
"replyfeedback", instead of only its headers.
-e
Generate a reply ("reply"-formats) to the address listed in any
"Errors-To" or "Return-Path" header, if present, instead of the
"From" header.
-S "salutation"
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.
* %{...}d - use strftime() 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.
-F "marker"
When generating a forward, use the marker to separate the forwarded
message from the autoreply text, instead of the default "---
Forwarded message ---"
-r addrlist
addrlist is a comma-separated list of RFC 2822[1] 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.
-d 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.
-D 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.
-s "subject"
Set the Subject: header on the autoresponse to subject.
-n
Show the resulting message, do not send it. Used for debugging
purposes.
--feedback-original-envelope-id "<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.com
Optional 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.
-l maildir
Specifies the maildir for the "-T replydraft" option. See
"Autoreplies from a maildir folder", below.
Autoreplies from a maildir folder
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.
SEE ALSO
maildrop(1)[4], reformail(1)[5], reformime(1)[6].
AUTHOR
Sam Varshavchik
Author
NOTES
1. RFC 2822
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2822
2. RFC 1894
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1894
3. RFC 5965
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5965
4. maildrop(1)
http://www.courier-mta.org/maildrop/maildrop.html
5. reformail(1)
http://www.courier-mta.org/maildrop/reformail.html
6. reformime(1)
http://www.courier-mta.org/maildrop/reformime.html
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