Postfix with Procmail Vacation Auto-Reply

Name: Postfix
HomePage: http://www.postfix.org/
Function: Postfix attempts to be fast, easy to administer, and secure, while at the same time being sendmail compatible enough to not upset existing users

Name: Procmail
HomePage: http://www.procmail.org/
Function: procmail is a set of rules for each mail that comes into the system.



1. First lets make postfix work with procmail

nano /etc/postfix/main.cf



main.cf:
mailbox_command = /usr/bin/procmail



2. Now we need to restart postfix

/etc/init.d/postfix restart

3. Now we need to setup the procmail file in everyone's home directory, download the following file

http://www.opensourcehowto.org/uploads/scripts/vacation.txt

4. Place the contents of vacation.txt in

nano /etc/skel/.procmailrc

5. Change the permissions on it so that only the users can read it

chmod 700 /etc/skel/.procmailrc

6. Once you have created the file, make sure that you change the following lines:

$VACATION_PASSWORD - this is to prevent others from enabling/disabling your vacation auto-reply.
$VACATION_DOMAIN_NAME - this is the domain name used for your emails (e.g. user@domain.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ).

7. Send an e-mail to yourself with the following information

subject - password vacation on
body - what ever vacation message you want people to get when they e-mail you