zaway provides a way for you to automatically send replies when other people contact you using zwrite(1).zaway subscribes itself to class "MESSAGE", instance "*", so that it can monitor your incoming messages.
It does not affect the operation of any other client receiving messages. zaway is typically run when you
are leaving your terminal or display temporarily. zaway usually never exits; when you return to your
terminal you should type the interrupt character (usually ^C) in order to make zaway exit.
OPTIONS-mSTRING
Use STRING as the body of the auto-reply message. Any message file (specified on the command line
or the default) is ignored.
-w Watch the invoking user's location status. If the user is locatable anywhere, no auto-replies
will be sent.
-h Displays a short usage message and exits.
zaway uses a message file (which defaults to $HOME/.away) to describe what reponses should be sent to
which senders. The general format of this file is:
>name
>name
message
>name
message
Any number of user names may be specified preceding the message to send to those senders. If a user name
appears more than once, the message will be a concatenation of each of the appropriate messages. There
are two special names: "*" indicates that the following message should be sent to all senders and "%"
indicates that the following message should only be sent if the user name has not matched yet.
If no file is specified, and no default file can be found, the following message is returned:
I'm sorry, but I am currently away from the terminal and am not able to receive your message.
If a user name does not match any of those listed in the file, and no "*" or "%" field is specified, no
return message is sent. All messages are preceded by a signature "Automated reply:". To avoid loops,
messages are not sent in response to messages beginning with an "Automated reply:" signature or sent by
the same Kerberos principal as the user running zaway.