Auto-Submitted
The header field (RFC 3834) that marks a message as generated automatically, with the value auto-generated or auto-replied, so other automatic systems do not respond to it.
What it means
Three values are defined: no, for a message sent by a person; auto-generated, for one created by an automatic process that is not responding to anything, such as a scheduled report; and auto-replied, for an automatic response to another message, such as a vacation notice. RFC 3834 asks responders not to answer any message whose Auto-Submitted value is other than no, which keeps two automatic systems from replying to each other forever.
Delivery reports may use auto-replied, and RFC 3834 says auto-generated must not be used for them. For notifications and transactional mail, Auto-Submitted: auto-generated is the accurate label, and well-behaved out-of-office responders will not answer it.
Example
Auto-Submitted: auto-generatedRelated terms
Sources
What this definition rests on. The wording is ours; the facts are theirs.
- RFC 3834, section 5: The Auto-Submitted header fieldrfc-editor.org
- RFC 3834, section 2: When (not) to send automatic responsesrfc-editor.org
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