Most e-mail systems, I'm told, know not to send "vacation" responses to mailing lists. So in most cases, this won't be a problem (eg. how often has anyone seen such a response message on a mailing list?).

Joe.

-----Original Message----- From: Frank Heckenbach [SMTP:frank@g-n-u.de] Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2001 11:01 PM To: gpc@gnu.de Subject: Re: `Reply-To' (solution)

Russell Whitaker wrote:

...

...

Recently there was a discussion about whether the mailing list software should automatically add `Reply-To' headers.

Peter now told me that the new majordomo version used has the option to set it on a per-user basis, so those who like it can have it, and those who'd feel disturbed by it won't be.

If you want it, just send a mail to majordomo@gnu.de with the following command in the body:

set gpc replyto your@mail.address

(where your@mail.address, of course, is the address with which you're subscribed to the list).

If someone also goes on vacation and uses an auto "vacation reply" will that set up an endless mail loop?

Good point. If it uses the `Reply-To' header, and sends multiple message to the same recipient (which I consider rather broken, anyway) and the mailing list software doesn't detect vacation replies or mail loops, then probably yes.

So I suggest everyone who uses vacation replies to not use the Reply-To feature unless they know for sure it won't cause problems (I'm not sure) ... and unless they want to find themselves kicked from the list when they return. ;-)

Frank

-- Frank Heckenbach, frank@g-n-u.de, http://fjf.gnu.de/ GPC To-Do list, latest features, fixed bugs: http://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/~gnu-pascal/todo.html