## The Situation!

*   Mac OS X 10.4.11 Server
    *   Postfix, Cyrus, Dovecot
*   Couldn't put vacation in user's homedir
*   Couldn't find vacation binary
*   Other sieve programs only worked with SquirrelMail, only with user
    homedirs
*   Roundcube plugin needed FTP access... to put stuff in homedirs
*   Apple's Mail Server documentation to set up sieve is crap

## The Resolution

Use Cyrus IMAP's sieve to set up a script that auto replies. It needs to be set up first.

    sudo mkdir /usr/sieve
    sudo chown cyrusimap:mail /usr/sieve

Add yourself to user group that can administer sieve by editing `/etc/imapd.conf`:

    admins: cyrusimap, admin

Now add `sieve 2000/tcp #Sieve mail filtering` to `/etc/services`. Restart mail:

    sudo serveradmin stop mail
    sudo serveradmin start mail

Server should now be listening on port 2000:

    netstat -an | grep 2000
    tcp4       0      0  *.2000                 *.*                    LISTEN
    tcp6       0      0  *.2000                 *.*                    LISTEN

Make a vacation script. It can be anywhere. Here's the example from [the Mail Server admin guide](http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Mail_Service_v10.4.pdf):

    #--------
    # This is a sample script for vacation rules.
    # Read the comments following the pound/hash to find out
    # what the script is doing.
    #---------
    #

    # Make sure the vacation extension is used.
    require "vacation";

    # Define the script as a vacation script
    vacation

    # Send the vacation response to any given sender only once every seven days no matter how many messages are sent from him.
    :days 7

    #For every message sent to these addresses
    :addresses ["stone-purchasing@zeus.eng.uiowa.edu"]

    # Make a message with the following subject
    :subject "Out of Office Reply"

    # And make the body of the message the following
    "Test auto reply";

    # End of Script

Enter the sieve shell

    /usr/bin/cyrus/test/sieveshell --user=testuser --authname=admin localhost
    connecting to localhost
    Please enter your password:
    > put vacation.msg
    > activate vacation.msg
    > quit

This creates `/usr/sieve/t/testuser`. Type 'help' for help. Use 'deactivate' to remove all scripts. Test. Fin.