RESPONSE COUNTING

For each response qmail-autoresponder sends, it creates a file in DIRECTORY. The name of that file consists of the current UNIX time number, a period, the process ID of qmail-autoresponder, a period, and the envelope sender address (with any / characters replaced with : to prevent creation of files outside of DIRECTORY). When it receives a message, it scans DIRECTORY. Any files that are older than the time interval (see below) are deleted and ignored. If the number of remaining files with the same sender address is greater than or equal to the maximum number of replies, no response is generated.

LOGGING

If DIRECTORY contains a writeable file named log.txt, then a line is added to this file each time a sender is processed. The format of these lines are as follows:

TIMESTAMP +SENDER
TIMESTAMP -SENDER

COMMAND LINE

-c

Equivalent to -O copymsg=1

-L

Create new files (instead of making links) for each recipient file. This uses more inodes, but may be required for filesystems (such as Coda) that don't handle links properly.

-N

Write the generated response to standard output instead of sending it.

-n NUM

Equivalent to -O msglimit=NUM

-O NAME[=VALUE]

Sets named option NAME to VALUE. If VALUE is omitted, a value of 1 is used. See below for all the named options.

-q

Quiet. Don't show error messages.

-s STR

Equivalent to -O subject_prefix=STR

-T

Do not add a To: <SENDER> line to the response.

-t TIME

Equivalent to -O timelimit=TIME

NAMED OPTIONS

bcc (string)

If given, all responses are copied to this address in addition to the original sender.

copymsg (boolean)

Copy the original message into the response.

endtime (string)

Set the ending time for which this autoresponder is active. Messages received after this time will not cause a response to be generated.

headerkeep (string)

If this option is given, only the headers listed in the value are copied from the message into the response. Separate header names with a colon. If neither this nor headerstrip are used, all headers are copied.

headerstrip (string)

If this option is given and headerkeep is not, the headers listed in the value are omitted when copying from the message into the response. Separate header names with a colon. Header names are treated as patterns, and so may contain * to match any string. For example, the pattern x-* will match the headers X-DomainKeys: and X-SpamLevel:.

msglimit (integer)

Set the maximum number of replies per timelimit (defaults to 1).

no_inreplyto (boolean)

Do not add an In-Reply-To: header to the outgoing message. Normally, if a Message-Id: header is found in the original message, qmail-autoresponder will add the contents of that header to the outgoing message. This allows some email programs to group responses more intelligently.

numlines (integer)

Limits the maximum number of lines copied from the original message body into the response. This option is only relevant if the copymsg option is also used. If not given, all the lines in the original message body are copied. This limit does not impact how many lines of the header are copied.

separator (string)

Add a separator line (or lines) between the response message and the copied message.

starttime (string)

Set the starting time for which this autoresponder is active. Messages received before this time will not cause a response to be generated.

subject_prefix (string)

Add a subject line to the response message composed of the prefix STR followed by the original subject. This can also be accomplished by putting the following line at the start of the message file:

Subject: STR %S
    

timelimit (integer)

Set the interval during which responses are counted (in seconds) (defaults to 1 hour).