I was asked to put together a vacation extension. I'm attaching it
here since some didn't like the last draft I posted as base64-encoded
MIME enclosure.
I'll put a copy at http://www.club.cc.cmu.edu/~tjs/sieve-vacation.txt
as well in case a mailer mangles it. It's six pages, but I wanted to
try and get all the weird cases not to mail correct.
This hasn't been submitted to the Internet-Drafts repository because
I'm not sure it's quite right; I'll probably do it tomorrow after the
first round of nits.
Hope this helps -- thanks...
--
Tim Showalter
tjs(_at_)andrew(_dot_)cmu(_dot_)edu
Network Working Group T. Showalter
Internet Draft: Sieve Vacation Carnegie Mellon
Document: draft-showalter-sieve-vacation-00beta.txt November 1997
Expire in six months (31 May 1998)
Sieve -- Vacation Extension
Status of this memo
This document is an Internet-Draft. Internet-Drafts are working
documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas,
and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as ``work in progress.''
To learn the current status of any Internet-Draft, please check the
``1id-abstracts.txt'' listing contained in the Internet-Drafts Shadow
Directories on ftp.is.co.za (Africa), ftp.nordu.net (Europe),
munnari.oz.au (Pacific Rim), ds.internic.net (US East Coast), or
ftp.isi.edu (US West Coast).
The protocol discussed in this document is experimental and subject
to change. Persons planning on either implementing or using this
protocol are STRONGLY URGED to get in touch with the author before
embarking on such a project.
Abstract
This document describes an extension to the Sieve mail filtering
language for an autoresponder similar to that of the Unix "vacation"
command. The extension is offered in the hopes of making frequently
used commands availible (and discouraging users from implementing it
themselves).
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0. Meta-information on this draft
This information is intended to facilitate discussion. It will be
removed when this document leaves the Internet-Draft stage.
0.1. Discussion
This draft is intended to be compared with the Sieve mail filtering
language, an internet-draft being discussed on the MTA Filters
mailing list at <ietf-mta-filters(_at_)imc(_dot_)org>. Subscription requests
can be sent to <ietf-mta-filters-request(_at_)imc(_dot_)org> (send an email
message with the word "subscribe" in the body). More information on
the mailing list along with a WWW archive of back messages is
available at <http://www.imc.org/ietf-mta-filters>.
1. Introduction
This is an extension to the Sieve language defined by [SIEVE] for
notification that messages will not be immediately answered.
Conventions for notations are as in [SIEVE] section 1.1, including
use of [KEYWORDS].
2. Capability identifier
Sieve implementations that implement vacation have an identifier of
"VACATION" for use with the capability mechanism (i.e., "support").
3. Vacation Action
Syntax: vacation <reason-string>
The "vacation" action implements a vacation autoresponder similar to
the one availible under many versions of UNIX. Its purpose is to
provide correspondants with notification that the user is away for an
extended period of time and that they should not expect quick
responses.
Vacation is similar to reply as defined in [SIEVE]. There are a few
differences:
First, "vacation" SHOULD NOT respond to a message sent from the
user's address. Therefore, the Sieve implementation should know what
the user's address is. If the user has more than one address for a
given site, all addresses should also not get a reply message.
Second, "vacation" MUST NOT reply to mail from "postmaster" or any
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other address where the left-hand side ends in "-request" (that is, a
mailing list administrative address).
Third, "vacation" MUST NOT reply to a message that does not list the
users' address in the "To:" or "Cc:" header. The intention is that
mail to a mailing list that the user is subscribed to should never
get a "vacation" response.
Finally, "vacation" MUST keep track of all of the addresses that it
has responded to in the past seven (7) days and MUST NOT respond to
them a second time within this period. The "vacation" action may
send out notifications less frequently, but should not send them out
more frequently.
The simplest way to use vacation is just this:
Example: vacation "I'm away until Octber 19. If it's an emergency,
call 911, I guess." ;
By mingling vacation with other rules, users can do something more
selective.
Example: if header "from" contains "boss(_at_)frobnitzm(_dot_)edu" {
forward "pleeb(_at_)xanadu(_dot_)wv(_dot_)us";
} else {
vacation "Sorry, I'm away, I'll read your message when I
get around to it.";
}
4. Formal Grammar
The grammar used in this section is the same as the ABNF described in
[ABNF].
action =/ vacation ;; "vacation" is now a legal action
vacation = vacation WSP string
5. Author's Address
Tim Showalter
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
E-Mail: tjs(_at_)andrew(_dot_)cmu(_dot_)edu
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Appendices
Appendix A. References
[ABNF] Crocker, D., "Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF",
Internet Mail Consortium, RFC 2234, November, 1997.
[KEYWORDS] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", RFC 2119, Harvard University, March 1997.
[SIEVE] Showalter, T. "Sieve: A Mail Filtering Language", Carenegie
Mellon, Work in Progress.
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