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Vacation

[Summary] [Method 1] [Method 2]

Summary

When you are on a vacation leave, it would be courteous to leave a note of absence on your mail program. You will, however, need to have some working knowledge of UNIX and text editors such as Emacs and vi. If you need assistance, please read the Emacs Help File or see a lab consultant during their office hours.

Below are the instructions to setup and turn off vacation:

Method 1 - Using WebMail

Setting it up
  • Login to our WebMail system at https://webmail.decf.berkeley.edu
  • Click on Options
  • Click on DECF Account Utilities
  • Click on Setup Mail Forwarding and Vacation Message
  • Fill out the form for setting up your vacation. If you want to forward your email to another person, set up your mailforwarding also.
  • Click on Save Options
Turn off vacation
  • Login to our WebMail system at https://webmail.decf.berkeley.edu
  • Click on Options
  • Click on DECF Account Utilities
  • Click on Setup Mail Forwarding and Vacation Message
  • Click on No radio button under Turn on vacation
  • Click on Save Options

 

Method 2 - Login into kepler.berkeley.edu

A. To setup vacation:

  1. SSH to kepler.berkeley.edu.
  2. Type pico ~/.forward
  3. Add the following line to your .forward file:
    \your-kepler-loginname
    "|/usr/bin/vacation your-kepler-loginname"
    "other_email@yahoo.com"

    Example:
    \arthur
    "|/usr/bin/vacation arthur"
    "arthur@yahoo.com"

    **Note that there is a backslash ("\") on the first line, but there is no backslash on the second line.

  4. Now Save the file by typing CTRL-x
  5. Type pico ~/.vacation.msg
  6. Add your vacation message to this file. For example:
    I am on vacation until September 1, at which point I will begin reading my mail. If you have something urgent, please contact Lancelot (lancelot@newton).

    King_Arthur

  7. Now Save the file by typing CTRL-x
  8. At the system prompt, run the following command: vacation -I

B. To turn off vacation:

  1. SSH to kepler.berkeley.edu.
  2. Type pico ~/.forward
  3. Edit ~/.forward, deleting ALL of the lines that you added when you set up vacation (see above instructions).
  4. Now Save the file by typing CTRL-x
  5. At the system prompt on a console, run the following command:
    rm ~/.vacation.dir ~/.vacation.pag ~/.vacation.db

 

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