[GH-ISSUE #544] Add Auto-Submitted, In-Reply-To, References, Precedence headers in autoreply messages #517

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opened 2026-02-27 11:12:11 +03:00 by kerem · 3 comments

kerem commented

2026-02-27 11:12:11 +03:00

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Originally created by @themr0c on GitHub (Apr 10, 2014).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/modoboa/modoboa/issues/544

According to https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3834#section-3.1 some fields are mandatory in autoreply messages:

The In-Reply-To and References fields SHOULD be provided in the header of a response message if there was a Message-ID field in the subject message.

The Auto-Submitted field, with a value of "auto-replied", SHOULD be included in the message header of any automatic response.

The Subject field SHOULD contain a brief indication that the message is an automatic response, followed by contents of the Subject field (or a portion thereof) from the subject message. The prefix "Auto:" MAY be used as such an indication. If used, this prefix SHOULD be followed by an ASCII SPACE character (0x20).

A response MAY include a Precedence field. The field-body of the Precedence field MAY consist of the text "junk", "list", "bulk", or other text deemed appropriate by the responder.

[NB: for Precedence: auto_reply is also an option]

Actual message is like :

Return-Path: <uuu@uuu.uuu>
Delivered-To: ttt@ttt.ttt
Received: [...]
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Subject: I'm off
From: Uuu Uuu <uuu@uuu.uuu>
To: ttt@ttt.ttt
Message-ID: <NNN@vvv.vvv.vvv>
User-Agent: Modoboa
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2014 09:06:09 +0200

I'm currently off. I'll answer as soon as I come back.

Best regards,

Originally created by @themr0c on GitHub (Apr 10, 2014). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/modoboa/modoboa/issues/544 According to https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3834#section-3.1 some fields are mandatory in autoreply messages: The In-Reply-To and References fields SHOULD be provided in the header of a response message if there was a Message-ID field in the subject message. The Auto-Submitted field, with a value of "auto-replied", SHOULD be included in the message header of any automatic response. The Subject field SHOULD contain a brief indication that the message is an automatic response, followed by contents of the Subject field (or a portion thereof) from the subject message. The prefix "Auto:" MAY be used as such an indication. If used, this prefix SHOULD be followed by an ASCII SPACE character (0x20). A response MAY include a Precedence field. The field-body of the Precedence field MAY consist of the text "junk", "list", "bulk", or other text deemed appropriate by the responder. [NB: for Precedence: auto_reply is also an option] Actual message is like : ``` Return-Path: <uuu@uuu.uuu> Delivered-To: ttt@ttt.ttt Received: [...] Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: I'm off From: Uuu Uuu <uuu@uuu.uuu> To: ttt@ttt.ttt Message-ID: <NNN@vvv.vvv.vvv> User-Agent: Modoboa Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2014 09:06:09 +0200 I'm currently off. I'll answer as soon as I come back. Best regards, ```

kerem

2026-02-27 11:12:11 +03:00

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kerem commented

2026-02-27 11:12:11 +03:00

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@tonioo commented on GitHub (Jul 20, 2014):

Actually this feature is more complicated to add than expected.

The current autoreply script is using Postfix's pipe service. Unfortunately, this one does not provide the original message-id, so we can't add the In-Reply-To header to the response.

It seems the right way to build an autoreply is to build a MILTER but that's a completly different story! I see three options :

Keep the current script as is
Build a MILTER to replace the current script
Use sieve (and its vacation extension) to replace the current script

I think the last solution would be the quickest to implement but it would be available to sieve/managesieve servers only.

What do you think?

@tonioo commented on GitHub (Jul 20, 2014): Actually this feature is more complicated to add than expected. The current autoreply script is using Postfix's [pipe](http://www.postfix.org/pipe.8.html) service. Unfortunately, this one does not provide the original message-id, so we can't add the In-Reply-To header to the response. It seems the right way to build an autoreply is to build a MILTER but that's a completly different story! I see three options : - Keep the current script as is - Build a MILTER to replace the current script - Use sieve (and its vacation extension) to replace the current script I think the last solution would be the quickest to implement but it would be available to sieve/managesieve servers only. What do you think?

kerem commented

2026-02-27 11:12:11 +03:00

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@piwats commented on GitHub (Jul 20, 2014):

Hi,

according to http://wiki2.dovecot.org/Pigeonhole/Sieve/Examples#Vacation_auto-reply
it is possible to include the original subject using the variables extension.

Since dovecot can do sieve, why not use it for the auto-replies?

-Paul

@piwats commented on GitHub (Jul 20, 2014): Hi, according to http://wiki2.dovecot.org/Pigeonhole/Sieve/Examples#Vacation_auto-reply it is possible to include the original subject using the variables extension. Since dovecot can do sieve, why not use it for the auto-replies? -Paul

kerem commented

2026-02-27 11:12:11 +03:00

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@tonioo commented on GitHub (May 3, 2015):

This issue was moved to modoboa/modoboa-postfix-autoreply#3

@tonioo commented on GitHub (May 3, 2015): This issue was moved to modoboa/modoboa-postfix-autoreply#3