[cobalt-users] RE: [cobalt-developers] Autoresponders...

["Tony" <isplists@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Procmail is installed by default on Raq2's & Raq3's.
Here's how to set up an autoresponder system. You'll need
to be familiar with telnet/command line commands such as
'touch' and 'chmod' and the unix text editors..either vi or pico.

1. Create a new user which will be used just for autoresponders.
   ie: ars001   /home/sites/site1/users/ars001
2. Create an e-mail alias on this user account for each autoresponder you
want.
   ie: info@xxxxxxxxxx, pricelist@xxxxxxxxxx etc
3. Create a directory inside the users directory to hold the autoresponder
text files.
   ie: /home/sites/site1/users/ars001/ars/
4. Create your autoresponder text files in this directory, named according
to the alias name.
   ie: /home/sites/site1/users/ars001/ars/info.txt
       /home/sites/site1/users/ars001/ars/pricelist.txt
5. Copy the procmail recipe below into a file called .procmailrc in the AR
user directory.
   ie: /home/sites/site1/users/ars001/.procmailrc
   (Chmod 700)
6. Recopy the same block of code for each autoresponder you want to create
and change all
   the addresses accordingly.
7. Also create an empty file called .procmail-log in this users directory if
you want to
   log the procmail activity. Change 'VERRBOSE=off' to 'VERBOSE=on'. You
should only do
   this for troubleshooting though as the log file will grow quickly.
8. To test send an empty email to your new autoresponder address. ie:
info@xxxxxxxxxx
9. You'll automatically receive an email back with the contents of the
info.txt file.
   Unlike the vacation program you can do this as many times as you wish.
10. If you want to track who's requesting the autoresponders change the very
last line:

'$DEFAULT'  to:

! youremailadress@xxxxxxxxxx

That's an exclamation point followed by a blank space then a valid email
address.
This email address will then receive an email with the address of the person
who requested
that particular autoresponder.


###########################################
SHELL=/bin/sh
LOGFILE=$HOME/.procmail-log
VERBOSE=off

:0 hc
* ^TOcatalog@xxxxxxxxxx
* !^FROM_DAEMON
* !^X-Loop: catalog@xxxxxxxxxx
  | (formail -rtb -I"Precedence: junk" \
     -I"From: <catalog@xxxxxxxxxx>" \
     -A"X-Loop: catalog@xxxxxxxxxx"; \
     cat $HOME/ars/catalog.txt \
     ) | $SENDMAIL -oi -t
:0 A:
$DEFAULT
############################################

Also on the Raq2 & 3 you will have to change the permissions on the
AR users directory to 700 due to an upgraded procmail.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cobalt-developers-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:cobalt-developers-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Steven
> Werby
> Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2000 11:43 AM
> To: cobalt-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [cobalt-developers] Autoresponders...
>
>
> Michael <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > We are having problems with receiving an autoresponse on one of our
> domains.
> > We received this reply from a tech support person but it
> doesn't seem like
> > it makes sense.  Can anyone confirm this?
> >
> > "This is happening because the Vacation Auto-Responder only send out one
> > mesg., Then after a couple of weeks will purge a db that contains the
> email
> > addresses and will send them again."
>
> This is standard behavior.  The vacation autoresponder is not a true
> autoresponder.  It is designed to let people emailing you know
> that you are
> on vacation.  If you're on vacation for a few days it would be
> irritating to
> get an email back telling me you're on vacation every time I
> email you so by
> default the Cobalt vacation autoresponder notifies the sender
> only once and
> won't notify them again until 7 days have lapsed and I email you again.
>
> If you want, you can edit /usr/local/sbin/vacation.pl and change 604800 (#
> of seconds in a week) to a much lower value.  You could even
> change it to 1
> so that in effect the vacation autoresponder becomes a true autoresponder.
> If you do that your users will likely have a lot of irritated friends and
> associates though.
>
> If you really want a true autoresponder, your best bet is to use procmail.
> procmail is a great program.  It can be used to route emails to
> users/folders, create an email file server, autoresponders and much more.
> You'll just need to locate a procmail recipe for an
> autoresponder.  Setting
> up procmail and installing or writing a procmail autoresponder is not
> exactly an easy task if you're not very Linux-savvy.  If you need
> assistance
> with this you can contact me off-list, though I can't promise
> I'll have the
> time to help.  You may want to read more on procmail at
> http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/users/reriksso/procmail/mini-faq.html to get
> started.
>
> Steven Werby {steven-lists@xxxxxxxxxxxx}