Internet Servers Inc
Internet Servers Inc


How to configure autorespond/autoreply

  1. Copy the "autoreply" program from "/usr/local/contrib" to your "usr/bin" directory:
    cp /usr/local/contrib/autoreply ~/usr/bin/autoreply

  2. Make sure it executable:
    chmod 755 ~/usr/bin/autoreply

  3. Create an autoreply message (the message sent back to the customer) in your home directory:
    pico ~/.autoreply (pico is an easy-to-use editor)

  4. Add something like the following to your "etc/aliases" file:
    info: NAME@DOMAIN_NAME, "|/usr/bin/autoreply -f info-reply -a info"

  5. Run "vnewaliases" to update your "etc/aliases.db" file.
With the above example, when your customer sends you mail at "info@DOMAIN_NAME" it will send back whatever you have in the ~/.autoreply file.

By the way, you can use the "-m" option to specify a different message file (i.e. "autoreply -m /etc/mymessage"). Be sure you use the full path from your virtual server's root directory.

The "-f" allows you to change who the autoreply message will be from (in the example above the "From:" field the customer gets will read "info-reply@DOMAIN_NAME"). The "-a" specifies who autoreply can reply for; this should be the same as what is in front of the ":" in the "aliases" file.

Note that in the example above mail sent to "info@DOMAIN_NAME" will also be sent to "NAME@DOMAIN_NAME". Without the "NAME@DOMAIN_NAME", the mail from the customer would not be seen.