Be aware if you belong to mailing lists, this sort of thing is frowned upon.

Be further aware that this is a tricky thing to get right on the first try - doubly so if you're trying to get out the door on vacation. :-)

ObPerl: use Mail::Alias;

There's a great wealth of people trying to solve it without generating loops (like the example above) and without replying to every message received from a given individual.

(Of course, now we're talking about some kind of simple data persistance problem... or maybe not so simple, depending on how long you'll be away, and how much mail you'll get...)

As a final caution, a recent discussion about this cropped up on comp.risks - be guarded about the kinds of information you put in your vacation autoresponder.

People who put their lights on timers, stop the newspaper, and have the neighbor's kid take in the mail, still don't think twice before automating a program to send mail to the world specifying who they are, who they work for, where they're going, how long they'll be away, who their boss is (for emergency contact purposes), etc., etc.

It's quite possible that your vacation autoresponder will inadvertantly send it's message to a much wider audience than you anticipate at first glance - or that the information might be forwarded, as in the case of a list. If you must use an autoresponder, keep it simple.

ObMailGeek: anybody know of a "Standard" header that "most" autoresponders will stick in the 822 headers? TIA.

Peace,
-McD