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https://github.com/openSUSE/mail-reminder

Small utility to use in a cron job, to send mail reminders (about upcoming meetings or deadlines, for instance)
https://github.com/openSUSE/mail-reminder

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Small utility to use in a cron job, to send mail reminders (about upcoming meetings or deadlines, for instance)

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README 

        
mail-reminder

=============



mail-reminder is a small utility that is intended to be used in a daily cron

job to send mail reminders about events. Events can be weekly, biweekly or

monthly recurring events, or events defined in a schedule.



The events considered by mail-reminder are defined in .conf files. By default,

mail-reminder handles all .conf files in the data subdirectory from the

mail-reminder directory. Alternatively, .conf files can be passed as arguments.



Since it's too easy to send mails by accident while testing mail-reminder, the

default behavior is to use a debug output. Once everything is configured

properly, the --no-debug option can be used so that mails will be sent.



Cron configuration example

==========================



Here's a crontab line that can be used to run mail-reminder every day at 4pm.



0 16 * * * /path/to/mail-reminder



Alternatively, the following line can be used but will generally send mails

around midnight:



@daily /path/to/mail-reminder



Configuration files

===================



Configuration files are using a simple key-file format.



There are four sections that can be used:



[event]

## Contains the main description of the events (mandatory).

## Following keys exist:

#

# 'type' key is mandatory. Possible value:

#   - weekly: weekly events

#   - biweekly: biweekly events (every two weeks :-))

#   - monthly: monthly events

#   - schedule: events defined in the [schedule] section

type=

#

# 'biweekly_week' key is mandatory if 'type' key is 'biweekly'. This should be

# either 0 or 1, to decide which of the week from every two weeks is the right

# one.

biweekly_week=

#

# 'day' key is mandatory if 'type' key is one of 'weekly', 'biweekly',

# 'monthly'. For 'weekly' and 'biweekly', its value should be between 1 (Monday)

# and 7 (Sunday). For 'monthly', its value should be between 1 and 31 (note that

# if 29, 30 or 31 is used, the last day of the month will trigger the reminder

# if the configured day doesn't exist in the month -- like in February)

day=



[mail]

## Contains the information about when and what to send by mail (mandatory).

## One of 'mail_on_rel_days' and 'mail_on_day_week_before' keys must be present.

#

# 'mail_on_rel_days' can be used to send a reminder a few days before an event.

# Its value should be between -6 (6 days before event) and -1 (the day before

# event).

mail_on_rel_days=

#

# 'mail_on_day_week_before' can be used to send a reminder the week before an

# event, on a fixed day. Its value should be between 1 (Monday) and 7 (Sunday).

mail_on_day_week_before=

#

# 'template' key is mandatory. It defines the path to a mail template to be used

# for the reminder.

template=



[template variables]

## Contains some variable definitions, for variables to be used in the mail

## template (optional).

#

# Definition are in the following form:

# variable=value



[schedule]

## List of events for a configuration of type 'schedule' (mandatory if type is

## 'schedule).

#

# Definition are in the following form:

# date=description

# 'date' is in the YYYY-MM-DD format. For instance: 2012-03-31

#

# Note that the description will automatically be set as a template variable

# for the event.



Mail template

=============



The mail template should contain all headers of the mail that are needed for the

mail to make sense (generally: From, To, Subject) and the mail body.



Variable substitution will be used. For instance, if the 'user' variable is

defined in the 'template variables' section, then all uses of '%(user)s' in the

template will be expanded to the value of the 'user' variable.



The following variables can always be used:



 - year: year of next event

 - month: month year of next event (between 1 and 12)

 - day: day in month of next event (between 1 and 31)

 - date: date of next event in human-readable format (Thursday 05 April 2012)



A variable that is not defined cannot be used in the template; it will result in

an error.



Configuration examples

======================



Here is an example of a weekly event occurring each Wednesday, for which a

reminder will be set on Tuesday:



  [event]

  type=weekly

  # Meeting on Wednesday (Monday = 1)

  day=3

  

  [mail]

  # Mail the day before

  mail_on_rel_days=-1

  template=meeting.mail

  

  [template variables]

  hour=20

  minute=00



Here is an example of a schedule of events, with reminders being sent on a fixed

day the week before an event:



  [event]

  type=schedule

  

  [mail]

  # Mail on Wednesday of the week before next event (Monday = 1)

  mail_on_day_week_before=3

  template=schedule.mail

  

  [template variables]

  cycle=

  

  [schedule]

  2012-04-29=Planning starts

  2012-05-20=Implentation starts

  2012-06-04=Testing starts



Mail template example

=====================



The following is a simple example of mail template. The configuration file has

'status=not too important' in the 'template variables' section.



  From: Reminder Script 

  To: [email protected]

  Subject: [reminder] Next event is on %(date)s

  

  Hi Jane,

  

  This is a reminder that your next event is on %(date)s.

  This event is %(status)s.

  

  Thanks,

  

  -- 

  Reminder Script