Specification of the Exim Mail Transfer Agent
Philip Hazel
Copyright (c) 2007 University of Cambridge
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-Revision 4.68 -23 August 2007 -PH -
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
1.1. Exim documentation
1.2. FTP and web sites
1.3. Mailing lists
1.4. Exim training
1.5. Bug reports
1.6. Where to find the Exim distribution
1.7. Limitations
1.8. Run time configuration
1.9. Calling interface
1.10. Terminology
2. Incorporated code
3. How Exim receives and delivers mail
3.1. Overall philosophy
3.2. Policy control
3.3. User filters
3.4. Message identification
3.5. Receiving mail
3.6. Handling an incoming message
3.7. Life of a message
3.8. Processing an address for delivery
3.9. Processing an address for verification
3.10. Running an individual router
3.11. Duplicate addresses
3.12. Router preconditions
3.13. Delivery in detail
3.14. Retry mechanism
3.15. Temporary delivery failure
3.16. Permanent delivery failure
3.17. Failures to deliver bounce messages
4. Building and installing Exim
4.1. Unpacking
4.2. Multiple machine architectures and operating systems
4.3. DBM libraries
4.4. Pre-building configuration
4.5. Support for iconv()
4.6. Including TLS/SSL encryption support
4.7. Use of tcpwrappers
4.8. Including support for IPv6
4.9. The building process
4.10. Output from "make"
4.11. Overriding build-time options for Exim
4.12. OS-specific header files
4.13. Overriding build-time options for the monitor
4.14. Installing Exim binaries and scripts
4.15. Installing info documentation
4.16. Setting up the spool directory
4.17. Testing
4.18. Replacing another MTA with Exim
4.19. Upgrading Exim
4.20. Stopping the Exim daemon on Solaris
5. The Exim command line
5.1. Setting options by program name
5.2. Trusted and admin users
5.3. Command line options
6. The Exim run time configuration file
6.1. Using a different configuration file
6.2. Configuration file format
6.3. File inclusions in the configuration file
6.4. Macros in the configuration file
6.5. Macro substitution
6.6. Redefining macros
6.7. Overriding macro values
6.8. Example of macro usage
6.9. Conditional skips in the configuration file
6.10. Common option syntax
6.11. Boolean options
6.12. Integer values
6.13. Octal integer values
6.14. Fixed point numbers
6.15. Time intervals
6.16. String values
6.17. Expanded strings
6.18. User and group names
6.19. List construction
6.20. Changing list separators
6.21. Empty items in lists
6.22. Format of driver configurations
7. The default configuration file
7.1. Main configuration settings
7.2. ACL configuration
7.3. Router configuration
7.4. Transport configuration
7.5. Default retry rule
7.6. Rewriting configuration
7.7. Authenticators configuration
8. Regular expressions
8.1. Testing regular expressions
9. File and database lookups
9.1. Examples of different lookup syntax
9.2. Lookup types
9.3. Single-key lookup types
9.4. Query-style lookup types
9.5. Temporary errors in lookups
9.6. Default values in single-key lookups
9.7. Partial matching in single-key lookups
9.8. Lookup caching
9.9. Quoting lookup data
9.10. More about dnsdb
9.11. Pseudo dnsdb record types
9.12. Multiple dnsdb lookups
9.13. More about LDAP
9.14. Format of LDAP queries
9.15. LDAP quoting
9.16. LDAP connections
9.17. LDAP authentication and control information
9.18. Format of data returned by LDAP
9.19. More about NIS+
9.20. SQL lookups
9.21. More about MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and InterBase
9.22. Specifying the server in the query
9.23. Special MySQL features
9.24. Special PostgreSQL features
9.25. More about SQLite
10. Domain, host, address, and local part lists
10.1. Expansion of lists
10.2. Negated items in lists
10.3. File names in lists
10.4. An lsearch file is not an out-of-line list
10.5. Named lists
10.6. Named lists compared with macros
10.7. Named list caching
10.8. Domain lists
10.9. Host lists
10.10. Special host list patterns
10.11. Host list patterns that match by IP address
10.12. Host list patterns for single-key lookups by host address
10.13. Host list patterns that match by host name
10.14. Behaviour when an IP address or name cannot be found
10.15. Temporary DNS errors when looking up host information
10.16. Host list patterns for single-key lookups by host name
10.17. Host list patterns for query-style lookups
10.18. Mixing wildcarded host names and addresses in host lists
10.19. Address lists
10.20. Case of letters in address lists
10.21. Local part lists
11. String expansions
11.1. Literal text in expanded strings
11.2. Character escape sequences in expanded strings
11.3. Testing string expansions
11.4. Forced expansion failure
11.5. Expansion items
11.6. Expansion operators
11.7. Expansion conditions
11.8. Combining expansion conditions
11.9. Expansion variables
12. Embedded Perl
12.1. Setting up so Perl can be used
12.2. Calling Perl subroutines
12.3. Calling Exim functions from Perl
12.4. Use of standard output and error by Perl
13. Starting the daemon and the use of network interfaces
13.1. Starting a listening daemon
13.2. Special IP listening addresses
13.3. Overriding local_interfaces and daemon_smtp_ports
13.4. Support for the obsolete SSMTP (or SMTPS) protocol
13.5. IPv6 address scopes
13.6. Disabling IPv6
13.7. Examples of starting a listening daemon
13.8. Recognizing the local host
13.9. Delivering to a remote host
14. Main configuration
14.1. Miscellaneous
14.2. Exim parameters
14.3. Privilege controls
14.4. Logging
14.5. Frozen messages
14.6. Data lookups
14.7. Message ids
14.8. Embedded Perl Startup
14.9. Daemon
14.10. Resource control
14.11. Policy controls
14.12. Callout cache
14.13. TLS
14.14. Local user handling
14.15. All incoming messages (SMTP and non-SMTP)
14.16. Non-SMTP incoming messages
14.17. Incoming SMTP messages
14.18. SMTP extensions
14.19. Processing messages
14.20. System filter
14.21. Routing and delivery
14.22. Bounce and warning messages
14.23. Alphabetical list of main options
15. Generic options for routers
16. The accept router
17. The dnslookup router
17.1. Problems with DNS lookups
17.2. Private options for dnslookup
17.3. Effect of qualify_single and search_parents
18. The ipliteral router
19. The iplookup router
20. The manualroute router
20.1. Private options for manualroute
20.2. Routing rules in route_list
20.3. Routing rules in route_data
20.4. Format of the list of hosts
20.5. Format of one host item
20.6. How the list of hosts is used
20.7. How the options are used
20.8. Manualroute examples
21. The queryprogram router
22. The redirect router
22.1. Redirection data
22.2. Forward files and address verification
22.3. Interpreting redirection data
22.4. Items in a non-filter redirection list
22.5. Redirecting to a local mailbox
22.6. Special items in redirection lists
22.7. Duplicate addresses
22.8. Repeated redirection expansion
22.9. Errors in redirection lists
22.10. Private options for the redirect router
23. Environment for running local transports
23.1. Concurrent deliveries
23.2. Uids and gids
23.3. Current and home directories
23.4. Expansion variables derived from the address
24. Generic options for transports
25. Address batching in local transports
26. The appendfile transport
26.1. The file and directory options
26.2. Private options for appendfile
26.3. Operational details for appending
26.4. Operational details for delivery to a new file
26.5. Maildir delivery
26.6. Using tags to record message sizes
26.7. Using a maildirsize file
26.8. Mailstore delivery
26.9. Non-special new file delivery
27. The autoreply transport
27.1. Private options for autoreply
28. The lmtp transport
29. The pipe transport
29.1. Concurrent delivery
29.2. Returned status and data
29.3. How the command is run
29.4. Environment variables
29.5. Private options for pipe
29.6. Using an external local delivery agent
30. The smtp transport
30.1. Multiple messages on a single connection
30.2. Use of the $host and $host_address variables
30.3. Use of $tls_cipher and $tls_peerdn
30.4. Private options for smtp
30.5. How the limits for the number of hosts to try are used
31. Address rewriting
31.1. Explicitly configured address rewriting
31.2. When does rewriting happen?
31.3. Testing the rewriting rules that apply on input
31.4. Rewriting rules
31.5. Rewriting patterns
31.6. Rewriting replacements
31.7. Rewriting flags
31.8. Flags specifying which headers and envelope addresses to rewrite
31.9. The SMTP-time rewriting flag
31.10. Flags controlling the rewriting process
31.11. Rewriting examples
32. Retry configuration
32.1. Changing retry rules
32.2. Format of retry rules
32.3. Choosing which retry rule to use for address errors
32.4. Choosing which retry rule to use for host and message errors
32.5. Retry rules for specific errors
32.6. Retry rules for specified senders
32.7. Retry parameters
32.8. Retry rule examples
32.9. Timeout of retry data
32.10. Long-term failures
32.11. Deliveries that work intermittently
33. SMTP authentication
33.1. Generic options for authenticators
33.2. The AUTH parameter on MAIL commands
33.3. Authentication on an Exim server
33.4. Testing server authentication
33.5. Authentication by an Exim client
34. The plaintext authenticator
34.1. Plaintext options
34.2. Using plaintext in a server
34.3. The PLAIN authentication mechanism
34.4. The LOGIN authentication mechanism
34.5. Support for different kinds of authentication
34.6. Using plaintext in a client
35. The cram_md5 authenticator
35.1. Using cram_md5 as a server
35.2. Using cram_md5 as a client
36. The cyrus_sasl authenticator
36.1. Using cyrus_sasl as a server
37. The dovecot authenticator
38. The spa authenticator
38.1. Using spa as a server
38.2. Using spa as a client
39. Encrypted SMTP connections using TLS/SSL
39.1. Support for the legacy "ssmtp" (aka "smtps") protocol
39.2. OpenSSL vs GnuTLS
39.3. GnuTLS parameter computation
39.4. Requiring specific ciphers in OpenSSL
39.5. Requiring specific ciphers or other parameters in GnuTLS
39.6. Configuring an Exim server to use TLS
39.7. Requesting and verifying client certificates
39.8. Revoked certificates
39.9. Configuring an Exim client to use TLS
39.10. Multiple messages on the same encrypted TCP/IP connection
39.11. Certificates and all that
39.12. Certificate chains
39.13. Self-signed certificates
40. Access control lists
40.1. Testing ACLs
40.2. Specifying when ACLs are used
40.3. The non-SMTP ACLs
40.4. The SMTP connect ACL
40.5. The EHLO/HELO ACL
40.6. The DATA ACLs
40.7. The SMTP MIME ACL
40.8. The QUIT ACL
40.9. The not-QUIT ACL
40.10. Finding an ACL to use
40.11. ACL return codes
40.12. Unset ACL options
40.13. Data for message ACLs
40.14. Data for non-message ACLs
40.15. Format of an ACL
40.16. ACL verbs
40.17. ACL variables
40.18. Condition and modifier processing
40.19. ACL modifiers
40.20. Use of the control modifier
40.21. Summary of message fixup control
40.22. Adding header lines in ACLs
40.23. ACL conditions
40.24. Using DNS lists
40.25. Specifying the IP address for a DNS list lookup
40.26. DNS lists keyed on domain names
40.27. Multiple explicit keys for a DNS list
40.28. Data returned by DNS lists
40.29. Variables set from DNS lists
40.30. Additional matching conditions for DNS lists
40.31. Negated DNS matching conditions
40.32. Handling multiple DNS records from a DNS list
40.33. Detailed information from merged DNS lists
40.34. DNS lists and IPv6
40.35. Rate limiting incoming messages
40.36. Ratelimit options for what is being measured
40.37. Ratelimit options for handling fast clients
40.38. Using rate limiting
40.39. Reading ratelimit data without updating
40.40. Address verification
40.41. Callout verification
40.42. Additional parameters for callouts
40.43. Callout caching
40.44. Sender address verification reporting
40.45. Redirection while verifying
40.46. Client SMTP authorization (CSA)
40.47. Bounce address tag validation
40.48. Using an ACL to control relaying
40.49. Checking a relay configuration
41. Content scanning at ACL time
41.1. Scanning for viruses
41.2. Scanning with SpamAssassin
41.3. Calling SpamAssassin from an Exim ACL
41.4. Scanning MIME parts
41.5. Scanning with regular expressions
41.6. The demime condition
42. Adding a local scan function to Exim
42.1. Building Exim to use a local scan function
42.2. API for local_scan()
42.3. Configuration options for local_scan()
42.4. Available Exim variables
42.5. Structure of header lines
42.6. Structure of recipient items
42.7. Available Exim functions
42.8. More about Exim's memory handling
43. System-wide message filtering
43.1. Specifying a system filter
43.2. Testing a system filter
43.3. Contents of a system filter
43.4. Additional variable for system filters
43.5. Defer, freeze, and fail commands for system filters
43.6. Adding and removing headers in a system filter
43.7. Setting an errors address in a system filter
43.8. Per-address filtering
44. Message processing
44.1. Submission mode for non-local messages
44.2. Line endings
44.3. Unqualified addresses
44.4. The UUCP From line
44.5. Resent- header lines
44.6. The Auto-Submitted: header line
44.7. The Bcc: header line
44.8. The Date: header line
44.9. The Delivery-date: header line
44.10. The Envelope-to: header line
44.11. The From: header line
44.12. The Message-ID: header line
44.13. The Received: header line
44.14. The References: header line
44.15. The Return-path: header line
44.16. The Sender: header line
44.17. Adding and removing header lines in routers and transports
44.18. Constructed addresses
44.19. Case of local parts
44.20. Dots in local parts
44.21. Rewriting addresses
45. SMTP processing
45.1. Outgoing SMTP and LMTP over TCP/IP
45.2. Errors in outgoing SMTP
45.3. Incoming SMTP messages over TCP/IP
45.4. Unrecognized SMTP commands
45.5. Syntax and protocol errors in SMTP commands
45.6. Use of non-mail SMTP commands
45.7. The VRFY and EXPN commands
45.8. The ETRN command
45.9. Incoming local SMTP
45.10. Outgoing batched SMTP
45.11. Incoming batched SMTP
46. Customizing bounce and warning messages
46.1. Customizing bounce messages
46.2. Customizing warning messages
47. Some common configuration settings
47.1. Sending mail to a smart host
47.2. Using Exim to handle mailing lists
47.3. Syntax errors in mailing lists
47.4. Re-expansion of mailing lists
47.5. Closed mailing lists
47.6. Variable Envelope Return Paths (VERP)
47.7. Virtual domains
47.8. Multiple user mailboxes
47.9. Simplified vacation processing
47.10. Taking copies of mail
47.11. Intermittently connected hosts
47.12. Exim on the upstream server host
47.13. Exim on the intermittently connected client host
48. Using Exim as a non-queueing client
49. Log files
49.1. Where the logs are written
49.2. Logging to local files that are periodically "cycled"
49.3. Datestamped log files
49.4. Logging to syslog
49.5. Log line flags
49.6. Logging message reception
49.7. Logging deliveries
49.8. Discarded deliveries
49.9. Deferred deliveries
49.10. Delivery failures
49.11. Fake deliveries
49.12. Completion
49.13. Summary of Fields in Log Lines
49.14. Other log entries
49.15. Reducing or increasing what is logged
49.16. Message log
50. Exim utilities
50.1. Finding out what Exim processes are doing (exiwhat)
50.2. Selective queue listing (exiqgrep)
50.3. Summarizing the queue (exiqsumm)
50.4. Extracting specific information from the log (exigrep)
50.5. Selecting messages by various criteria (exipick)
50.6. Cycling log files (exicyclog)
50.7. Mail statistics (eximstats)
50.8. Checking access policy (exim_checkaccess)
50.9. Making DBM files (exim_dbmbuild)
50.10. Finding individual retry times (exinext)
50.11. Hints database maintenance
50.12. exim_dumpdb
50.13. exim_tidydb
50.14. exim_fixdb
50.15. Mailbox maintenance (exim_lock)
51. The Exim monitor
51.1. Running the monitor
51.2. The stripcharts
51.3. Main action buttons
51.4. The log display
51.5. The queue display
51.6. The queue menu
52. Security considerations
52.1. Building a more "hardened" Exim
52.2. Root privilege
52.3. Running Exim without privilege
52.4. Delivering to local files
52.5. IPv4 source routing
52.6. The VRFY, EXPN, and ETRN commands in SMTP
52.7. Privileged users
52.8. Spool files
52.9. Use of argv[0]
52.10. Use of %f formatting
52.11. Embedded Exim path
52.12. Use of sprintf()
52.13. Use of debug_printf() and log_write()
52.14. Use of strcat() and strcpy()
53. Format of spool files
53.1. Format of the -H file
54. Adding new drivers or lookup types
===============================================================================
1. INTRODUCTION
Exim is a mail transfer agent (MTA) for hosts that are running Unix or
Unix-like operating systems. It was designed on the assumption that it would be
run on hosts that are permanently connected to the Internet. However, it can be
used on intermittently connected hosts with suitable configuration adjustments.
Configuration files currently exist for the following operating systems: AIX,
BSD/OS (aka BSDI), Darwin (Mac OS X), DGUX, Dragonfly, FreeBSD, GNU/Hurd, GNU/
Linux, HI-OSF (Hitachi), HI-UX, HP-UX, IRIX, MIPS RISCOS, NetBSD, OpenBSD,
OpenUNIX, QNX, SCO, SCO SVR4.2 (aka UNIX-SV), Solaris (aka SunOS5), SunOS4,
Tru64-Unix (formerly Digital UNIX, formerly DEC-OSF1), Ultrix, and Unixware.
Some of these operating systems are no longer current and cannot easily be
tested, so the configuration files may no longer work in practice.
There are also configuration files for compiling Exim in the Cygwin environment
that can be installed on systems running Windows. However, this document does
not contain any information about running Exim in the Cygwin environment.
The terms and conditions for the use and distribution of Exim are contained in
the file NOTICE. Exim is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public
Licence, a copy of which may be found in the file LICENCE.
The use, supply or promotion of Exim for the purpose of sending bulk,
unsolicited electronic mail is incompatible with the basic aims of the program,
which revolve around the free provision of a service that enhances the quality
of personal communications. The author of Exim regards indiscriminate
mass-mailing as an antisocial, irresponsible abuse of the Internet.
Exim owes a great deal to Smail 3 and its author, Ron Karr. Without the
experience of running and working on the Smail 3 code, I could never have
contemplated starting to write a new MTA. Many of the ideas and user interfaces
were originally taken from Smail 3, though the actual code of Exim is entirely
new, and has developed far beyond the initial concept.
Many people, both in Cambridge and around the world, have contributed to the
development and the testing of Exim, and to porting it to various operating
systems. I am grateful to them all. The distribution now contains a file called
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, in which I have started recording the names of contributors.
1.1 Exim documentation
----------------------
This edition of the Exim specification applies to version 4.69 of Exim.
Substantive changes from the 4.68 edition are marked in some renditions of the
document; this paragraph is so marked if the rendition is capable of showing a
change indicator.
This document is very much a reference manual; it is not a tutorial. The reader
is expected to have some familiarity with the SMTP mail transfer protocol and
with general Unix system administration. Although there are some discussions
and examples in places, the information is mostly organized in a way that makes
it easy to look up, rather than in a natural order for sequential reading.
Furthermore, the manual aims to cover every aspect of Exim in detail, including
a number of rarely-used, special-purpose features that are unlikely to be of
very wide interest.
An "easier" discussion of Exim which provides more in-depth explanatory,
introductory, and tutorial material can be found in a book entitled The Exim
SMTP Mail Server (second edition, 2007), published by UIT Cambridge (http://
www.uit.co.uk/exim-book/).
This book also contains a chapter that gives a general introduction to SMTP and
Internet mail. Inevitably, however, the book is unlikely to be fully up-to-date
with the latest release of Exim. (Note that the earlier book about Exim,
published by O'Reilly, covers Exim 3, and many things have changed in Exim 4.)
If you are using a Debian distribution of Exim, you will find information about
Debian-specific features in the file /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/README.Debian.
The command man update-exim.conf is another source of Debian-specific
information.
As the program develops, there may be features in newer versions that have not
yet made it into this document, which is updated only when the most significant
digit of the fractional part of the version number changes. Specifications of
new features that are not yet in this manual are placed in the file doc/
NewStuff in the Exim distribution.
Some features may be classified as "experimental". These may change
incompatibly while they are developing, or even be withdrawn. For this reason,
they are not documented in this manual. Information about experimental features
can be found in the file doc/experimental.txt.
All changes to the program (whether new features, bug fixes, or other kinds of
change) are noted briefly in the file called doc/ChangeLog.
This specification itself is available as an ASCII file in doc/spec.txt so that
it can easily be searched with a text editor. Other files in the doc directory
are:
OptionLists.txt list of all options in alphabetical order
dbm.discuss.txt discussion about DBM libraries
exim.8 a man page of Exim's command line options
experimental.txt documentation of experimental features
filter.txt specification of the filter language
pcrepattern.txt specification of PCRE regular expressions
pcretest.txt specification of the PCRE testing program
Exim3.upgrade upgrade notes from release 2 to release 3
Exim4.upgrade upgrade notes from release 3 to release 4
The main specification and the specification of the filtering language are also
available in other formats (HTML, PostScript, PDF, and Texinfo). Section 1.6
below tells you how to get hold of these.
1.2 FTP and web sites
---------------------
The primary site for Exim source distributions is currently the University of
Cambridge's FTP site, whose contents are described in Where to find the Exim
distribution below. In addition, there is a web site and an FTP site at
exim.org. These are now also hosted at the University of Cambridge. The
exim.org site was previously hosted for a number of years by Energis Squared,
formerly Planet Online Ltd, whose support I gratefully acknowledge.
As well as Exim distribution tar files, the Exim web site contains a number of
differently formatted versions of the documentation. A recent addition to the
online information is the Exim wiki (http://wiki.exim.org), which contains what
used to be a separate FAQ, as well as various other examples, tips, and
know-how that have been contributed by Exim users.
An Exim Bugzilla exists at http://bugs.exim.org. You can use this to report
bugs, and also to add items to the wish list. Please search first to check that
you are not duplicating a previous entry.
1.3 Mailing lists
-----------------
The following Exim mailing lists exist:
exim-users@exim.org General discussion list
exim-dev@exim.org Discussion of bugs, enhancements, etc.
exim-announce@exim.org Moderated, low volume announcements list
exim-future@exim.org Discussion of long-term development
You can subscribe to these lists, change your existing subscriptions, and view
or search the archives via the mailing lists link on the Exim home page. If you
are using a Debian distribution of Exim, you may wish to subscribe to the
Debian-specific mailing list pkg-exim4-users@lists.alioth.debian.org via this
web page:
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/pkg-exim4-users
Please ask Debian-specific questions on this list and not on the general Exim
lists.
1.4 Exim training
-----------------
Training courses in Cambridge (UK) used to be run annually by the author of
Exim, before he retired. At the time of writing, there are no plans to run
further Exim courses in Cambridge. However, if that changes, relevant
information will be posted at http://www-tus.csx.cam.ac.uk/courses/exim/.
1.5 Bug reports
---------------
Reports of obvious bugs can be emailed to bugs@exim.org or reported via the
Bugzilla (http://bugs.exim.org). However, if you are unsure whether some
behaviour is a bug or not, the best thing to do is to post a message to the
exim-dev mailing list and have it discussed.
1.6 Where to find the Exim distribution
---------------------------------------
The master ftp site for the Exim distribution is
ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/email/exim
This is mirrored by
ftp://ftp.exim.org/pub/exim
The file references that follow are relative to the exim directories at these
sites. There are now quite a number of independent mirror sites around the
world. Those that I know about are listed in the file called Mirrors.
Within the exim directory there are subdirectories called exim3 (for previous
Exim 3 distributions), exim4 (for the latest Exim 4 distributions), and Testing
for testing versions. In the exim4 subdirectory, the current release can always
be found in files called
exim-n.nn.tar.gz
exim-n.nn.tar.bz2
where n.nn is the highest such version number in the directory. The two files
contain identical data; the only difference is the type of compression. The
.bz2 file is usually a lot smaller than the .gz file.
The distributions are currently signed with Philip Hazel's GPG key. The
corresponding public key is available from a number of keyservers, and there is
also a copy in the file Public-Key. The signatures for the tar bundles are in:
exim-n.nn.tar.gz.sig
exim-n.nn.tar.bz2.sig
For each released version, the log of changes is made separately available in a
separate file in the directory ChangeLogs so that it is possible to find out
what has changed without having to download the entire distribution.
The main distribution contains ASCII versions of this specification and other
documentation; other formats of the documents are available in separate files
inside the exim4 directory of the FTP site:
exim-html-n.nn.tar.gz
exim-pdf-n.nn.tar.gz
exim-postscript-n.nn.tar.gz
exim-texinfo-n.nn.tar.gz
These tar files contain only the doc directory, not the complete distribution,
and are also available in .bz2 as well as .gz forms.
1.7 Limitations
---------------
* Exim is designed for use as an Internet MTA, and therefore handles
addresses in RFC 2822 domain format only. It cannot handle UUCP "bang
paths", though simple two-component bang paths can be converted by a
straightforward rewriting configuration. This restriction does not prevent
Exim from being interfaced to UUCP as a transport mechanism, provided that
domain addresses are used.
* Exim insists that every address it handles has a domain attached. For
incoming local messages, domainless addresses are automatically qualified
with a configured domain value. Configuration options specify from which
remote systems unqualified addresses are acceptable. These are then
qualified on arrival.
* The only external transport mechanisms that are currently implemented are
SMTP and LMTP over a TCP/IP network (including support for IPv6). However,
a pipe transport is available, and there are facilities for writing
messages to files and pipes, optionally in batched SMTP format; these
facilities can be used to send messages to other transport mechanisms such
as UUCP, provided they can handle domain-style addresses. Batched SMTP
input is also catered for.
* Exim is not designed for storing mail for dial-in hosts. When the volumes
of such mail are large, it is better to get the messages "delivered" into
files (that is, off Exim's queue) and subsequently passed on to the dial-in
hosts by other means.
* Although Exim does have basic facilities for scanning incoming messages,
these are not comprehensive enough to do full virus or spam scanning. Such
operations are best carried out using additional specialized software
packages. If you compile Exim with the content-scanning extension,
straightforward interfaces to a number of common scanners are provided.
1.8 Run time configuration
--------------------------
Exim's run time configuration is held in a single text file that is divided
into a number of sections. The entries in this file consist of keywords and
values, in the style of Smail 3 configuration files. A default configuration
file which is suitable for simple online installations is provided in the
distribution, and is described in chapter 7 below.
1.9 Calling interface
---------------------
Like many MTAs, Exim has adopted the Sendmail command line interface so that it
can be a straight replacement for /usr/lib/sendmail or /usr/sbin/sendmail when
sending mail, but you do not need to know anything about Sendmail in order to
run Exim. For actions other than sending messages, Sendmail-compatible options
also exist, but those that produce output (for example, -bp, which lists the
messages on the queue) do so in Exim's own format. There are also some
additional options that are compatible with Smail 3, and some further options
that are new to Exim. Chapter 5 documents all Exim's command line options. This
information is automatically made into the man page that forms part of the Exim
distribution.
Control of messages on the queue can be done via certain privileged command
line options. There is also an optional monitor program called eximon, which
displays current information in an X window, and which contains a menu
interface to Exim's command line administration options.
1.10 Terminology
----------------
The body of a message is the actual data that the sender wants to transmit. It
is the last part of a message, and is separated from the header (see below) by
a blank line.
When a message cannot be delivered, it is normally returned to the sender in a
delivery failure message or a "non-delivery report" (NDR). The term bounce is
commonly used for this action, and the error reports are often called bounce
messages. This is a convenient shorthand for "delivery failure error report".
Such messages have an empty sender address in the message's envelope (see
below) to ensure that they cannot themselves give rise to further bounce
messages.
The term default appears frequently in this manual. It is used to qualify a
value which is used in the absence of any setting in the configuration. It may
also qualify an action which is taken unless a configuration setting specifies
otherwise.
The term defer is used when the delivery of a message to a specific destination
cannot immediately take place for some reason (a remote host may be down, or a
user's local mailbox may be full). Such deliveries are deferred until a later
time.
The word domain is sometimes used to mean all but the first component of a
host's name. It is not used in that sense here, where it normally refers to the
part of an email address following the @ sign.
A message in transit has an associated envelope, as well as a header and a
body. The envelope contains a sender address (to which bounce messages should
be delivered), and any number of recipient addresses. References to the sender
or the recipients of a message usually mean the addresses in the envelope. An
MTA uses these addresses for delivery, and for returning bounce messages, not
the addresses that appear in the header lines.
The header of a message is the first part of a message's text, consisting of a
number of lines, each of which has a name such as From:, To:, Subject:, etc.
Long header lines can be split over several text lines by indenting the
continuations. The header is separated from the body by a blank line.
The term local part, which is taken from RFC 2822, is used to refer to that
part of an email address that precedes the @ sign. The part that follows the @
sign is called the domain or mail domain.
The terms local delivery and remote delivery are used to distinguish delivery
to a file or a pipe on the local host from delivery by SMTP over TCP/IP to
another host. As far as Exim is concerned, all hosts other than the host it is
running on are remote.
Return path is another name that is used for the sender address in a message's
envelope.
The term queue is used to refer to the set of messages awaiting delivery,
because this term is in widespread use in the context of MTAs. However, in
Exim's case the reality is more like a pool than a queue, because there is
normally no ordering of waiting messages.
The term queue runner is used to describe a process that scans the queue and
attempts to deliver those messages whose retry times have come. This term is
used by other MTAs, and also relates to the command runq, but in Exim the
waiting messages are normally processed in an unpredictable order.
The term spool directory is used for a directory in which Exim keeps the
messages on its queue - that is, those that it is in the process of delivering.
This should not be confused with the directory in which local mailboxes are
stored, which is called a "spool directory" by some people. In the Exim
documentation, "spool" is always used in the first sense.
===============================================================================
2. INCORPORATED CODE
A number of pieces of external code are included in the Exim distribution.
* Regular expressions are supported in the main Exim program and in the Exim
monitor using the freely-distributable PCRE library, copyright (c)
University of Cambridge. The source is distributed in the directory src/
pcre. However, this is a cut-down version of PCRE. If you want to use the
PCRE library in other programs, you should obtain and install the full
version of the library from ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/
programming/pcre.
* Support for the cdb (Constant DataBase) lookup method is provided by code
contributed by Nigel Metheringham of (at the time he contributed it) Planet
Online Ltd. The implementation is completely contained within the code of
Exim. It does not link against an external cdb library. The code contains
the following statements:
Copyright (c) 1998 Nigel Metheringham, Planet Online Ltd
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version. This code implements Dan Bernstein's
Constant DataBase (cdb) spec. Information, the spec and sample code for
cdb can be obtained from http://www.pobox.com/~djb/cdb.html. This
implementation borrows some code from Dan Bernstein's implementation
(which has no license restrictions applied to it).
* Client support for Microsoft's Secure Password Authentication is provided
by code contributed by Marc Prud'hommeaux. Server support was contributed
by Tom Kistner. This includes code taken from the Samba project, which is
released under the Gnu GPL.
* Support for calling the Cyrus pwcheck and saslauthd daemons is provided by
code taken from the Cyrus-SASL library and adapted by Alexander S.
Sabourenkov. The permission notice appears below, in accordance with the
conditions expressed therein.
Copyright (c) 2001 Carnegie Mellon University. All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the
distribution.
3. The name "Carnegie Mellon University" must not be used to endorse
or promote products derived from this software without prior
written permission. For permission or any other legal details,
please contact
Office of Technology Transfer
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
(412) 268-4387, fax: (412) 268-7395
tech-transfer@andrew.cmu.edu
4. Redistributions of any form whatsoever must retain the following
acknowledgment:
"This product includes software developed by Computing Services at
Carnegie Mellon University (http://www.cmu.edu/computing/."
CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO
THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY
AND FITNESS, IN NO EVENT SHALL CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY BE LIABLE
FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN
AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS
SOFTWARE.
* The Exim Monitor program, which is an X-Window application, includes
modified versions of the Athena StripChart and TextPop widgets. This code
is copyright by DEC and MIT, and their permission notice appears below, in
accordance with the conditions expressed therein.
Copyright 1987, 1988 by Digital Equipment Corporation, Maynard,
Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
All Rights Reserved
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted,
provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that
both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in
supporting documentation, and that the names of Digital or MIT not be
used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the
software without specific, written prior permission.
DIGITAL DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE,
INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS, IN NO
EVENT SHALL DIGITAL BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF
USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR
OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
* Many people have contributed code fragments, some large, some small, that
were not covered by any specific licence requirements. It is assumed that
the contributors are happy to see their code incorporated into Exim under
the GPL.
===============================================================================
3. HOW EXIM RECEIVES AND DELIVERS MAIL
3.1 Overall philosophy
----------------------
Exim is designed to work efficiently on systems that are permanently connected
to the Internet and are handling a general mix of mail. In such circumstances,
most messages can be delivered immediately. Consequently, Exim does not
maintain independent queues of messages for specific domains or hosts, though
it does try to send several messages in a single SMTP connection after a host
has been down, and it also maintains per-host retry information.
3.2 Policy control
------------------
Policy controls are now an important feature of MTAs that are connected to the
Internet. Perhaps their most important job is to stop MTAs being abused as
"open relays" by misguided individuals who send out vast amounts of unsolicited
junk, and want to disguise its source. Exim provides flexible facilities for
specifying policy controls on incoming mail:
* Exim 4 (unlike previous versions of Exim) implements policy controls on
incoming mail by means of Access Control Lists (ACLs). Each list is a
series of statements that may either grant or deny access. ACLs can be used
at several places in the SMTP dialogue while receiving a message from a
remote host. However, the most common places are after each RCPT command,
and at the very end of the message. The sysadmin can specify conditions for
accepting or rejecting individual recipients or the entire message,
respectively, at these two points (see chapter 40). Denial of access
results in an SMTP error code.
* An ACL is also available for locally generated, non-SMTP messages. In this
case, the only available actions are to accept or deny the entire message.
* When Exim is compiled with the content-scanning extension, facilities are
provided in the ACL mechanism for passing the message to external virus and
/or spam scanning software. The result of such a scan is passed back to the
ACL, which can then use it to decide what to do with the message.
* When a message has been received, either from a remote host or from the
local host, but before the final acknowledgment has been sent, a locally
supplied C function called local_scan() can be run to inspect the message
and decide whether to accept it or not (see chapter 42). If the message is
accepted, the list of recipients can be modified by the function.
* Using the local_scan() mechanism is another way of calling external scanner
software. The SA-Exim add-on package works this way. It does not require
Exim to be compiled with the content-scanning extension.
* After a message has been accepted, a further checking mechanism is
available in the form of the system filter (see chapter 43). This runs at
the start of every delivery process.
3.3 User filters
----------------
In a conventional Exim configuration, users are able to run private filters by
setting up appropriate .forward files in their home directories. See chapter 22
(about the redirect router) for the configuration needed to support this, and
the separate document entitled Exim's interfaces to mail filtering for user
details. Two different kinds of filtering are available:
* Sieve filters are written in the standard filtering language that is
defined by RFC 3028.
* Exim filters are written in a syntax that is unique to Exim, but which is
more powerful than Sieve, which it pre-dates.
User filters are run as part of the routing process, described below.
3.4 Message identification
--------------------------
Every message handled by Exim is given a message id which is sixteen characters
long. It is divided into three parts, separated by hyphens, for example
"16VDhn-0001bo-D3". Each part is a sequence of letters and digits, normally
encoding numbers in base 62. However, in the Darwin operating system (Mac OS X)
and when Exim is compiled to run under Cygwin, base 36 (avoiding the use of
lower case letters) is used instead, because the message id is used to
construct file names, and the names of files in those systems are not always
case-sensitive.
The detail of the contents of the message id have changed as Exim has evolved.
Earlier versions relied on the operating system not re-using a process id (pid)
within one second. On modern operating systems, this assumption can no longer
be made, so the algorithm had to be changed. To retain backward compatibility,
the format of the message id was retained, which is why the following rules are
somewhat eccentric:
* The first six characters of the message id are the time at which the
message started to be received, to a granularity of one second. That is,
this field contains the number of seconds since the start of the epoch (the
normal Unix way of representing the date and time of day).
* After the first hyphen, the next six characters are the id of the process
that received the message.
* There are two different possibilities for the final two characters:
1. If localhost_number is not set, this value is the fractional part of
the time of reception, normally in units of 1/2000 of a second, but for
systems that must use base 36 instead of base 62 (because of
case-insensitive file systems), the units are 1/1000 of a second.
2. If localhost_number is set, it is multiplied by 200 (100) and added to
the fractional part of the time, which in this case is in units of 1/
200 (1/100) of a second.
After a message has been received, Exim waits for the clock to tick at the
appropriate resolution before proceeding, so that if another message is
received by the same process, or by another process with the same (re-used)
pid, it is guaranteed that the time will be different. In most cases, the clock
will already have ticked while the message was being received.
3.5 Receiving mail
------------------
The only way Exim can receive mail from another host is using SMTP over TCP/IP,
in which case the sender and recipient addresses are transferred using SMTP
commands. However, from a locally running process (such as a user's MUA), there
are several possibilities:
* If the process runs Exim with the -bm option, the message is read
non-interactively (usually via a pipe), with the recipients taken from the
command line, or from the body of the message if -t is also used.
* If the process runs Exim with the -bS option, the message is also read
non-interactively, but in this case the recipients are listed at the start
of the message in a series of SMTP RCPT commands, terminated by a DATA
command. This is so-called "batch SMTP" format, but it isn't really SMTP.
The SMTP commands are just another way of passing envelope addresses in a
non-interactive submission.
* If the process runs Exim with the -bs option, the message is read
interactively, using the SMTP protocol. A two-way pipe is normally used for
passing data between the local process and the Exim process. This is "real"
SMTP and is handled in the same way as SMTP over TCP/IP. For example, the
ACLs for SMTP commands are used for this form of submission.
* A local process may also make a TCP/IP call to the host's loopback address
(127.0.0.1) or any other of its IP addresses. When receiving messages, Exim
does not treat the loopback address specially. It treats all such
connections in the same way as connections from other hosts.
In the three cases that do not involve TCP/IP, the sender address is
constructed from the login name of the user that called Exim and a default
qualification domain (which can be set by the qualify_domain configuration
option). For local or batch SMTP, a sender address that is passed using the
SMTP MAIL command is ignored. However, the system administrator may allow
certain users ("trusted users") to specify a different sender address
unconditionally, or all users to specify certain forms of different sender
address. The -f option or the SMTP MAIL command is used to specify these
different addresses. See section 5.2 for details of trusted users, and the
untrusted_set_sender option for a way of allowing untrusted users to change
sender addresses.
Messages received by either of the non-interactive mechanisms are subject to
checking by the non-SMTP ACL, if one is defined. Messages received using SMTP
(either over TCP/IP, or interacting with a local process) can be checked by a
number of ACLs that operate at different times during the SMTP session. Either
individual recipients, or the entire message, can be rejected if local policy
requirements are not met. The local_scan() function (see chapter 42) is run for
all incoming messages.
Exim can be configured not to start a delivery process when a message is
received; this can be unconditional, or depend on the number of incoming SMTP
connections or the system load. In these situations, new messages wait on the
queue until a queue runner process picks them up. However, in standard
configurations under normal conditions, delivery is started as soon as a
message is received.
3.6 Handling an incoming message
--------------------------------
When Exim accepts a message, it writes two files in its spool directory. The
first contains the envelope information, the current status of the message, and
the header lines, and the second contains the body of the message. The names of
the two spool files consist of the message id, followed by "-H" for the file
containing the envelope and header, and "-D" for the data file.
By default all these message files are held in a single directory called input
inside the general Exim spool directory. Some operating systems do not perform
very well if the number of files in a directory gets large; to improve
performance in such cases, the split_spool_directory option can be used. This
causes Exim to split up the input files into 62 sub-directories whose names are
single letters or digits. When this is done, the queue is processed one
sub-directory at a time instead of all at once, which can improve overall
performance even when there are not enough files in each directory to affect
file system performance.
The envelope information consists of the address of the message's sender and
the addresses of the recipients. This information is entirely separate from any
addresses contained in the header lines. The status of the message includes a
list of recipients who have already received the message. The format of the
first spool file is described in chapter 53.
Address rewriting that is specified in the rewrite section of the configuration
(see chapter 31) is done once and for all on incoming addresses, both in the
header lines and the envelope, at the time the message is accepted. If during
the course of delivery additional addresses are generated (for example, via
aliasing), these new addresses are rewritten as soon as they are generated. At
the time a message is actually delivered (transported) further rewriting can
take place; because this is a transport option, it can be different for
different forms of delivery. It is also possible to specify the addition or
removal of certain header lines at the time the message is delivered (see
chapters 15 and 24).
3.7 Life of a message
---------------------
A message remains in the spool directory until it is completely delivered to
its recipients or to an error address, or until it is deleted by an
administrator or by the user who originally created it. In cases when delivery
cannot proceed - for example, when a message can neither be delivered to its
recipients nor returned to its sender, the message is marked "frozen" on the
spool, and no more deliveries are attempted.
An administrator can "thaw" such messages when the problem has been corrected,
and can also freeze individual messages by hand if necessary. In addition, an
administrator can force a delivery error, causing a bounce message to be sent.
There are options called ignore_bounce_errors_after and timeout_frozen_after,
which discard frozen messages after a certain time. The first applies only to
frozen bounces, the second to any frozen messages.
While Exim is working on a message, it writes information about each delivery
attempt to its main log file. This includes successful, unsuccessful, and
delayed deliveries for each recipient (see chapter 49). The log lines are also
written to a separate message log file for each message. These logs are solely
for the benefit of the administrator, and are normally deleted along with the
spool files when processing of a message is complete. The use of individual
message logs can be disabled by setting no_message_logs; this might give an
improvement in performance on very busy systems.
All the information Exim itself needs to set up a delivery is kept in the first
spool file, along with the header lines. When a successful delivery occurs, the
address is immediately written at the end of a journal file, whose name is the
message id followed by "-J". At the end of a delivery run, if there are some
addresses left to be tried again later, the first spool file (the "-H" file) is
updated to indicate which these are, and the journal file is then deleted.
Updating the spool file is done by writing a new file and renaming it, to
minimize the possibility of data loss.
Should the system or the program crash after a successful delivery but before
the spool file has been updated, the journal is left lying around. The next
time Exim attempts to deliver the message, it reads the journal file and
updates the spool file before proceeding. This minimizes the chances of double
deliveries caused by crashes.
3.8 Processing an address for delivery
--------------------------------------
The main delivery processing elements of Exim are called routers and transports
, and collectively these are known as drivers. Code for a number of them is
provided in the source distribution, and compile-time options specify which
ones are included in the binary. Run time options specify which ones are
actually used for delivering messages.
Each driver that is specified in the run time configuration is an instance of
that particular driver type. Multiple instances are allowed; for example, you
can set up several different smtp transports, each with different option values
that might specify different ports or different timeouts. Each instance has its
own identifying name. In what follows we will normally use the instance name
when discussing one particular instance (that is, one specific configuration of
the driver), and the generic driver name when discussing the driver's features
in general.
A router is a driver that operates on an address, either determining how its
delivery should happen, by assigning it to a specific transport, or converting
the address into one or more new addresses (for example, via an alias file). A
router may also explicitly choose to fail an address, causing it to be bounced.
A transport is a driver that transmits a copy of the message from Exim's spool
to some destination. There are two kinds of transport: for a local transport,
the destination is a file or a pipe on the local host, whereas for a remote
transport the destination is some other host. A message is passed to a specific
transport as a result of successful routing. If a message has several
recipients, it may be passed to a number of different transports.
An address is processed by passing it to each configured router instance in
turn, subject to certain preconditions, until a router accepts the address or
specifies that it should be bounced. We will describe this process in more
detail shortly. First, as a simple example, we consider how each recipient
address in a message is processed in a small configuration of three routers.
To make this a more concrete example, it is described in terms of some actual
routers, but remember, this is only an example. You can configure Exim's
routers in many different ways, and there may be any number of routers in a
configuration.
The first router that is specified in a configuration is often one that handles
addresses in domains that are not recognized specially by the local host. These
are typically addresses for arbitrary domains on the Internet. A precondition
is set up which looks for the special domains known to the host (for example,
its own domain name), and the router is run for addresses that do not match.
Typically, this is a router that looks up domains in the DNS in order to find
the hosts to which this address routes. If it succeeds, the address is assigned
to a suitable SMTP transport; if it does not succeed, the router is configured
to fail the address.
The second router is reached only when the domain is recognized as one that
"belongs" to the local host. This router does redirection - also known as
aliasing and forwarding. When it generates one or more new addresses from the
original, each of them is routed independently from the start. Otherwise, the
router may cause an address to fail, or it may simply decline to handle the
address, in which case the address is passed to the next router.
The final router in many configurations is one that checks to see if the
address belongs to a local mailbox. The precondition may involve a check to see
if the local part is the name of a login account, or it may look up the local
part in a file or a database. If its preconditions are not met, or if the
router declines, we have reached the end of the routers. When this happens, the
address is bounced.
3.9 Processing an address for verification
------------------------------------------
As well as being used to decide how to deliver to an address, Exim's routers
are also used for address verification. Verification can be requested as one of
the checks to be performed in an ACL for incoming messages, on both sender and
recipient addresses, and it can be tested using the -bv and -bvs command line
options.
When an address is being verified, the routers are run in "verify mode". This
does not affect the way the routers work, but it is a state that can be
detected. By this means, a router can be skipped or made to behave differently
when verifying. A common example is a configuration in which the first router
sends all messages to a message-scanning program, unless they have been
previously scanned. Thus, the first router accepts all addresses without any
checking, making it useless for verifying. Normally, the no_verify option would
be set for such a router, causing it to be skipped in verify mode.
3.10 Running an individual router
---------------------------------
As explained in the example above, a number of preconditions are checked before
running a router. If any are not met, the router is skipped, and the address is
passed to the next router. When all the preconditions on a router are met, the
router is run. What happens next depends on the outcome, which is one of the
following:
* accept: The router accepts the address, and either assigns it to a
transport, or generates one or more "child" addresses. Processing the
original address ceases, unless the unseen option is set on the router.
This option can be used to set up multiple deliveries with different
routing (for example, for keeping archive copies of messages). When unseen
is set, the address is passed to the next router. Normally, however, an
accept return marks the end of routing.
Any child addresses generated by the router are processed independently,
starting with the first router by default. It is possible to change this by
setting the redirect_router option to specify which router to start at for
child addresses. Unlike pass_router (see below) the router specified by
redirect_router may be anywhere in the router configuration.
* pass: The router recognizes the address, but cannot handle it itself. It
requests that the address be passed to another router. By default the
address is passed to the next router, but this can be changed by setting
the pass_router option. However, (unlike redirect_router) the named router
must be below the current router (to avoid loops).
* decline: The router declines to accept the address because it does not
recognize it at all. By default, the address is passed to the next router,
but this can be prevented by setting the no_more option. When no_more is
set, all the remaining routers are skipped. In effect, no_more converts
decline into fail.
* fail: The router determines that the address should fail, and queues it for
the generation of a bounce message. There is no further processing of the
original address unless unseen is set on the router.
* defer: The router cannot handle the address at the present time. (A
database may be offline, or a DNS lookup may have timed out.) No further
processing of the address happens in this delivery attempt. It is tried
again next time the message is considered for delivery.
* error: There is some error in the router (for example, a syntax error in
its configuration). The action is as for defer.
If an address reaches the end of the routers without having been accepted by
any of them, it is bounced as unrouteable. The default error message in this
situation is "unrouteable address", but you can set your own message by making
use of the cannot_route_message option. This can be set for any router; the
value from the last router that "saw" the address is used.
Sometimes while routing you want to fail a delivery when some conditions are
met but others are not, instead of passing the address on for further routing.
You can do this by having a second router that explicitly fails the delivery
when the relevant conditions are met. The redirect router has a "fail" facility
for this purpose.
3.11 Duplicate addresses
------------------------
Once routing is complete, Exim scans the addresses that are assigned to local
and remote transports, and discards any duplicates that it finds. During this
check, local parts are treated as case-sensitive. This happens only when
actually delivering a message; when testing routers with -bt, all the routed
addresses are shown.
3.12 Router preconditions
-------------------------
The preconditions that are tested for each router are listed below, in the
order in which they are tested. The individual configuration options are
described in more detail in chapter 15.
* The local_part_prefix and local_part_suffix options can specify that the
local parts handled by the router may or must have certain prefixes and/or
suffixes. If a mandatory affix (prefix or suffix) is not present, the
router is skipped. These conditions are tested first. When an affix is
present, it is removed from the local part before further processing,
including the evaluation of any other conditions.
* Routers can be designated for use only when not verifying an address, that
is, only when routing it for delivery (or testing its delivery routing). If
the verify option is set false, the router is skipped when Exim is
verifying an address. Setting the verify option actually sets two options,
verify_sender and verify_recipient, which independently control the use of
the router for sender and recipient verification. You can set these options
directly if you want a router to be used for only one type of verification.
* If the address_test option is set false, the router is skipped when Exim is
run with the -bt option to test an address routing. This can be helpful
when the first router sends all new messages to a scanner of some sort; it
makes it possible to use -bt to test subsequent delivery routing without
having to simulate the effect of the scanner.
* Routers can be designated for use only when verifying an address, as
opposed to routing it for delivery. The verify_only option controls this.
* Individual routers can be explicitly skipped when running the routers to
check an address given in the SMTP EXPN command (see the expn option).
* If the domains option is set, the domain of the address must be in the set
of domains that it defines.
* If the local_parts option is set, the local part of the address must be in
the set of local parts that it defines. If local_part_prefix or
local_part_suffix is in use, the prefix or suffix is removed from the local
part before this check. If you want to do precondition tests on local parts
that include affixes, you can do so by using a condition option (see below)
that uses the variables $local_part, $local_part_prefix, and
$local_part_suffix as necessary.
* If the check_local_user option is set, the local part must be the name of
an account on the local host. If this check succeeds, the uid and gid of
the local user are placed in $local_user_uid and $local_user_gid and the
user's home directory is placed in $home; these values can be used in the
remaining preconditions.
* If the router_home_directory option is set, it is expanded at this point,
because it overrides the value of $home. If this expansion were left till
later, the value of $home as set by check_local_user would be used in
subsequent tests. Having two different values of $home in the same router
could lead to confusion.
* If the senders option is set, the envelope sender address must be in the
set of addresses that it defines.
* If the require_files option is set, the existence or non-existence of
specified files is tested.
* If the condition option is set, it is evaluated and tested. This option
uses an expanded string to allow you to set up your own custom
preconditions. Expanded strings are described in chapter 11.
Note that require_files comes near the end of the list, so you cannot use it to
check for the existence of a file in which to lookup up a domain, local part,
or sender. However, as these options are all expanded, you can use the exists
expansion condition to make such tests within each condition. The require_files
option is intended for checking files that the router may be going to use
internally, or which are needed by a specific transport (for example,
.procmailrc).
3.13 Delivery in detail
-----------------------
When a message is to be delivered, the sequence of events is as follows:
* If a system-wide filter file is specified, the message is passed to it. The
filter may add recipients to the message, replace the recipients, discard
the message, cause a new message to be generated, or cause the message
delivery to fail. The format of the system filter file is the same as for
Exim user filter files, described in the separate document entitled Exim's
interfaces to mail filtering. (Note: Sieve cannot be used for system filter
files.)
Some additional features are available in system filters - see chapter 43
for details. Note that a message is passed to the system filter only once
per delivery attempt, however many recipients it has. However, if there are
several delivery attempts because one or more addresses could not be
immediately delivered, the system filter is run each time. The filter
condition first_delivery can be used to detect the first run of the system
filter.
* Each recipient address is offered to each configured router in turn,
subject to its preconditions, until one is able to handle it. If no router
can handle the address, that is, if they all decline, the address is
failed. Because routers can be targeted at particular domains, several
locally handled domains can be processed entirely independently of each
other.
* A router that accepts an address may assign it to a local or a remote
transport. However, the transport is not run at this time. Instead, the
address is placed on a list for the particular transport, which will be run
later. Alternatively, the router may generate one or more new addresses
(typically from alias, forward, or filter files). New addresses are fed
back into this process from the top, but in order to avoid loops, a router
ignores any address which has an identically-named ancestor that was
processed by itself.
* When all the routing has been done, addresses that have been successfully
handled are passed to their assigned transports. When local transports are
doing real local deliveries, they handle only one address at a time, but if
a local transport is being used as a pseudo-remote transport (for example,
to collect batched SMTP messages for transmission by some other means)
multiple addresses can be handled. Remote transports can always handle more
than one address at a time, but can be configured not to do so, or to
restrict multiple addresses to the same domain.
* Each local delivery to a file or a pipe runs in a separate process under a
non-privileged uid, and these deliveries are run one at a time. Remote
deliveries also run in separate processes, normally under a uid that is
private to Exim ("the Exim user"), but in this case, several remote
deliveries can be run in parallel. The maximum number of simultaneous
remote deliveries for any one message is set by the remote_max_parallel
option. The order in which deliveries are done is not defined, except that
all local deliveries happen before any remote deliveries.
* When it encounters a local delivery during a queue run, Exim checks its
retry database to see if there has been a previous temporary delivery
failure for the address before running the local transport. If there was a
previous failure, Exim does not attempt a new delivery until the retry time
for the address is reached. However, this happens only for delivery
attempts that are part of a queue run. Local deliveries are always
attempted when delivery immediately follows message reception, even if
retry times are set for them. This makes for better behaviour if one
particular message is causing problems (for example, causing quota
overflow, or provoking an error in a filter file).
* Remote transports do their own retry handling, since an address may be
deliverable to one of a number of hosts, each of which may have a different
retry time. If there have been previous temporary failures and no host has
reached its retry time, no delivery is attempted, whether in a queue run or
not. See chapter 32 for details of retry strategies.
* If there were any permanent errors, a bounce message is returned to an
appropriate address (the sender in the common case), with details of the
error for each failing address. Exim can be configured to send copies of
bounce messages to other addresses.
* If one or more addresses suffered a temporary failure, the message is left
on the queue, to be tried again later. Delivery of these addresses is said
to be deferred.
* When all the recipient addresses have either been delivered or bounced,
handling of the message is complete. The spool files and message log are
deleted, though the message log can optionally be preserved if required.
3.14 Retry mechanism
--------------------
Exim's mechanism for retrying messages that fail to get delivered at the first
attempt is the queue runner process. You must either run an Exim daemon that
uses the -q option with a time interval to start queue runners at regular
intervals, or use some other means (such as cron) to start them. If you do not
arrange for queue runners to be run, messages that fail temporarily at the
first attempt will remain on your queue for ever. A queue runner process works
its way through the queue, one message at a time, trying each delivery that has
passed its retry time. You can run several queue runners at once.
Exim uses a set of configured rules to determine when next to retry the failing
address (see chapter 32). These rules also specify when Exim should give up
trying to deliver to the address, at which point it generates a bounce message.
If no retry rules are set for a particular host, address, and error
combination, no retries are attempted, and temporary errors are treated as
permanent.
3.15 Temporary delivery failure
-------------------------------
There are many reasons why a message may not be immediately deliverable to a
particular address. Failure to connect to a remote machine (because it, or the
connection to it, is down) is one of the most common. Temporary failures may be
detected during routing as well as during the transport stage of delivery.
Local deliveries may be delayed if NFS files are unavailable, or if a mailbox
is on a file system where the user is over quota. Exim can be configured to
impose its own quotas on local mailboxes; where system quotas are set they will
also apply.
If a host is unreachable for a period of time, a number of messages may be
waiting for it by the time it recovers, and sending them in a single SMTP
connection is clearly beneficial. Whenever a delivery to a remote host is
deferred,
Exim makes a note in its hints database, and whenever a successful SMTP
delivery has happened, it looks to see if any other messages are waiting for
the same host. If any are found, they are sent over the same SMTP connection,
subject to a configuration limit as to the maximum number in any one
connection.
3.16 Permanent delivery failure
-------------------------------
When a message cannot be delivered to some or all of its intended recipients, a
bounce message is generated. Temporary delivery failures turn into permanent
errors when their timeout expires. All the addresses that fail in a given
delivery attempt are listed in a single message. If the original message has
many recipients, it is possible for some addresses to fail in one delivery
attempt and others to fail subsequently, giving rise to more than one bounce
message. The wording of bounce messages can be customized by the administrator.
See chapter 46 for details.
Bounce messages contain an X-Failed-Recipients: header line that lists the
failed addresses, for the benefit of programs that try to analyse such messages
automatically.
A bounce message is normally sent to the sender of the original message, as
obtained from the message's envelope. For incoming SMTP messages, this is the
address given in the MAIL command. However, when an address is expanded via a
forward or alias file, an alternative address can be specified for delivery
failures of the generated addresses. For a mailing list expansion (see section
47.2) it is common to direct bounce messages to the manager of the list.
3.17 Failures to deliver bounce messages
----------------------------------------
If a bounce message (either locally generated or received from a remote host)
itself suffers a permanent delivery failure, the message is left on the queue,
but it is frozen, awaiting the attention of an administrator. There are options
that can be used to make Exim discard such failed messages, or to keep them for
only a short time (see timeout_frozen_after and ignore_bounce_errors_after).
===============================================================================
4. BUILDING AND INSTALLING EXIM
4.1 Unpacking
-------------
Exim is distributed as a gzipped or bzipped tar file which, when unpacked,
creates a directory with the name of the current release (for example,
exim-4.69) into which the following files are placed:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS contains some acknowledgments
CHANGES contains a reference to where changes are documented
LICENCE the GNU General Public Licence
Makefile top-level make file
NOTICE conditions for the use of Exim
README list of files, directories and simple build instructions
Other files whose names begin with README may also be present. The following
subdirectories are created:
Local an empty directory for local configuration files
OS OS-specific files
doc documentation files
exim_monitor source files for the Exim monitor
scripts scripts used in the build process
src remaining source files
util independent utilities
The main utility programs are contained in the src directory, and are built
with the Exim binary. The util directory contains a few optional scripts that
may be useful to some sites.
4.2 Multiple machine architectures and operating systems
--------------------------------------------------------
The building process for Exim is arranged to make it easy to build binaries for
a number of different architectures and operating systems from the same set of
source files. Compilation does not take place in the src directory. Instead, a
build directory is created for each architecture and operating system. Symbolic
links to the sources are installed in this directory, which is where the actual
building takes place. In most cases, Exim can discover the machine architecture
and operating system for itself, but the defaults can be overridden if
necessary.
4.3 DBM libraries
-----------------
Even if you do not use any DBM files in your configuration, Exim still needs a
DBM library in order to operate, because it uses indexed files for its hints
databases. Unfortunately, there are a number of DBM libraries in existence, and
different operating systems often have different ones installed.
If you are using Solaris, IRIX, one of the modern BSD systems, or a modern
Linux distribution, the DBM configuration should happen automatically, and you
may be able to ignore this section. Otherwise, you may have to learn more than
you would like about DBM libraries from what follows.
Licensed versions of Unix normally contain a library of DBM functions operating
via the ndbm interface, and this is what Exim expects by default. Free versions
of Unix seem to vary in what they contain as standard. In particular, some
early versions of Linux have no default DBM library, and different distributors
have chosen to bundle different libraries with their packaged versions.
However, the more recent releases seem to have standardized on the Berkeley DB
library.
Different DBM libraries have different conventions for naming the files they
use. When a program opens a file called dbmfile, there are several
possibilities:
1. A traditional ndbm implementation, such as that supplied as part of
Solaris, operates on two files called dbmfile.dir and dbmfile.pag.
2. The GNU library, gdbm, operates on a single file. If used via its ndbm
compatibility interface it makes two different hard links to it with names
dbmfile.dir and dbmfile.pag, but if used via its native interface, the file
name is used unmodified.
3. The Berkeley DB package, if called via its ndbm compatibility interface,
operates on a single file called dbmfile.db, but otherwise looks to the
programmer exactly the same as the traditional ndbm implementation.
4. If the Berkeley package is used in its native mode, it operates on a single
file called dbmfile; the programmer's interface is somewhat different to
the traditional ndbm interface.
5. To complicate things further, there are several very different versions of
the Berkeley DB package. Version 1.85 was stable for a very long time,
releases 2.x and 3.x were current for a while, but the latest versions are
now numbered 4.x. Maintenance of some of the earlier releases has ceased.
All versions of Berkeley DB can be obtained from http://www.sleepycat.com/.
6. Yet another DBM library, called tdb, is available from http://
download.sourceforge.net/tdb. It has its own interface, and also operates
on a single file.
Exim and its utilities can be compiled to use any of these interfaces. In order
to use any version of the Berkeley DB package in native mode, you must set
USE_DB in an appropriate configuration file (typically Local/Makefile). For
example:
USE_DB=yes
Similarly, for gdbm you set USE_GDBM, and for tdb you set USE_TDB. An error is
diagnosed if you set more than one of these.
At the lowest level, the build-time configuration sets none of these options,
thereby assuming an interface of type (1). However, some operating system
configuration files (for example, those for the BSD operating systems and
Linux) assume type (4) by setting USE_DB as their default, and the
configuration files for Cygwin set USE_GDBM. Anything you set in Local/Makefile
, however, overrides these system defaults.
As well as setting USE_DB, USE_GDBM, or USE_TDB, it may also be necessary to
set DBMLIB, to cause inclusion of the appropriate library, as in one of these
lines:
DBMLIB = -ldb
DBMLIB = -ltdb
Settings like that will work if the DBM library is installed in the standard
place. Sometimes it is not, and the library's header file may also not be in
the default path. You may need to set INCLUDE to specify where the header file
is, and to specify the path to the library more fully in DBMLIB, as in this
example:
INCLUDE=-I/usr/local/include/db-4.1
DBMLIB=/usr/local/lib/db-4.1/libdb.a
There is further detailed discussion about the various DBM libraries in the
file doc/dbm.discuss.txt in the Exim distribution.
4.4 Pre-building configuration
------------------------------
Before building Exim, a local configuration file that specifies options
independent of any operating system has to be created with the name Local/
Makefile. A template for this file is supplied as the file src/EDITME, and it
contains full descriptions of all the option settings therein. These
descriptions are therefore not repeated here. If you are building Exim for the
first time, the simplest thing to do is to copy src/EDITME to Local/Makefile,
then read it and edit it appropriately.
There are three settings that you must supply, because Exim will not build
without them. They are the location of the run time configuration file
(CONFIGURE_FILE), the directory in which Exim binaries will be installed
(BIN_DIRECTORY), and the identity of the Exim user (EXIM_USER and maybe
EXIM_GROUP as well). The value of CONFIGURE_FILE can in fact be a
colon-separated list of file names; Exim uses the first of them that exists.
There are a few other parameters that can be specified either at build time or
at run time, to enable the same binary to be used on a number of different
machines. However, if the locations of Exim's spool directory and log file
directory (if not within the spool directory) are fixed, it is recommended that
you specify them in Local/Makefile instead of at run time, so that errors
detected early in Exim's execution (such as a malformed configuration file) can
be logged.
Exim's interfaces for calling virus and spam scanning software directly from
access control lists are not compiled by default. If you want to include these
facilities, you need to set
WITH_CONTENT_SCAN=yes
in your Local/Makefile. For details of the facilities themselves, see chapter
41.
If you are going to build the Exim monitor, a similar configuration process is
required. The file exim_monitor/EDITME must be edited appropriately for your
installation and saved under the name Local/eximon.conf. If you are happy with
the default settings described in exim_monitor/EDITME, Local/eximon.conf can be
empty, but it must exist.
This is all the configuration that is needed in straightforward cases for known
operating systems. However, the building process is set up so that it is easy
to override options that are set by default or by operating-system-specific
configuration files, for example to change the name of the C compiler, which
defaults to gcc. See section 4.11 below for details of how to do this.
4.5 Support for iconv()
-----------------------
The contents of header lines in messages may be encoded according to the rules
described RFC 2047. This makes it possible to transmit characters that are not
in the ASCII character set, and to label them as being in a particular
character set. When Exim is inspecting header lines by means of the $h_
mechanism, it decodes them, and translates them into a specified character set
(default ISO-8859-1). The translation is possible only if the operating system
supports the iconv() function.
However, some of the operating systems that supply iconv() do not support very
many conversions. The GNU libiconv library (available from http://www.gnu.org/
software/libiconv/) can be installed on such systems to remedy this deficiency,
as well as on systems that do not supply iconv() at all. After installing
libiconv, you should add
HAVE_ICONV=yes
to your Local/Makefile and rebuild Exim.
4.6 Including TLS/SSL encryption support
----------------------------------------
Exim can be built to support encrypted SMTP connections, using the STARTTLS
command as per RFC 2487. It can also support legacy clients that expect to
start a TLS session immediately on connection to a non-standard port (see the
tls_on_connect_ports runtime option and the -tls-on-connect command line
option).
If you want to build Exim with TLS support, you must first install either the
OpenSSL or GnuTLS library. There is no cryptographic code in Exim itself for
implementing SSL.
If OpenSSL is installed, you should set
SUPPORT_TLS=yes
TLS_LIBS=-lssl -lcrypto
in Local/Makefile. You may also need to specify the locations of the OpenSSL
library and include files. For example:
SUPPORT_TLS=yes
TLS_LIBS=-L/usr/local/openssl/lib -lssl -lcrypto
TLS_INCLUDE=-I/usr/local/openssl/include/
If GnuTLS is installed, you should set
SUPPORT_TLS=yes
USE_GNUTLS=yes
TLS_LIBS=-lgnutls -ltasn1 -lgcrypt
in Local/Makefile, and again you may need to specify the locations of the
library and include files. For example:
SUPPORT_TLS=yes
USE_GNUTLS=yes
TLS_LIBS=-L/usr/gnu/lib -lgnutls -ltasn1 -lgcrypt
TLS_INCLUDE=-I/usr/gnu/include
You do not need to set TLS_INCLUDE if the relevant directory is already
specified in INCLUDE. Details of how to configure Exim to make use of TLS are
given in chapter 39.
4.7 Use of tcpwrappers
----------------------
Exim can be linked with the tcpwrappers library in order to check incoming SMTP
calls using the tcpwrappers control files. This may be a convenient alternative
to Exim's own checking facilities for installations that are already making use
of tcpwrappers for other purposes. To do this, you should set USE_TCP_WRAPPERS
in Local/Makefile, arrange for the file tcpd.h to be available at compile time,
and also ensure that the library libwrap.a is available at link time, typically
by including -lwrap in EXTRALIBS_EXIM. For example, if tcpwrappers is installed
in /usr/local, you might have
USE_TCP_WRAPPERS=yes
CFLAGS=-O -I/usr/local/include
EXTRALIBS_EXIM=-L/usr/local/lib -lwrap
in Local/Makefile. The name to use in the tcpwrappers control files is "exim".
For example, the line
exim : LOCAL 192.168.1. .friendly.domain.example
in your /etc/hosts.allow file allows connections from the local host, from the
subnet 192.168.1.0/24, and from all hosts in friendly.domain.example. All other
connections are denied. Consult the tcpwrappers documentation for further
details.
4.8 Including support for IPv6
------------------------------
Exim contains code for use on systems that have IPv6 support. Setting
"HAVE_IPV6=YES" in Local/Makefile causes the IPv6 code to be included; it may
also be necessary to set IPV6_INCLUDE and IPV6_LIBS on systems where the IPv6
support is not fully integrated into the normal include and library files.
Two different types of DNS record for handling IPv6 addresses have been
defined. AAAA records (analogous to A records for IPv4) are in use, and are
currently seen as the mainstream. Another record type called A6 was proposed as
better than AAAA because it had more flexibility. However, it was felt to be
over-complex, and its status was reduced to "experimental". It is not known if
anyone is actually using A6 records. Exim has support for A6 records, but this
is included only if you set "SUPPORT_A6=YES" in Local/Makefile. The support has
not been tested for some time.
4.9 The building process
------------------------
Once Local/Makefile (and Local/eximon.conf, if required) have been created, run
make at the top level. It determines the architecture and operating system
types, and creates a build directory if one does not exist. For example, on a
Sun system running Solaris 8, the directory build-SunOS5-5.8-sparc is created.
Symbolic links to relevant source files are installed in the build directory.
Warning: The -j (parallel) flag must not be used with make; the building
process fails if it is set.
If this is the first time make has been run, it calls a script that builds a
make file inside the build directory, using the configuration files from the
Local directory. The new make file is then passed to another instance of make.
This does the real work, building a number of utility scripts, and then
compiling and linking the binaries for the Exim monitor (if configured), a
number of utility programs, and finally Exim itself. The command "make
makefile" can be used to force a rebuild of the make file in the build
directory, should this ever be necessary.
If you have problems building Exim, check for any comments there may be in the
README file concerning your operating system, and also take a look at the FAQ,
where some common problems are covered.
4.10 Output from "make"
-----------------------
The output produced by the make process for compile lines is often very
unreadable, because these lines can be very long. For this reason, the normal
output is suppressed by default, and instead output similar to that which
appears when compiling the 2.6 Linux kernel is generated: just a short line for
each module that is being compiled or linked. However, it is still possible to
get the full output, by calling make like this:
FULLECHO='' make -e
The value of FULLECHO defaults to "@", the flag character that suppresses
command reflection in make. When you ask for the full output, it is given in
addition to the short output.
4.11 Overriding build-time options for Exim
-------------------------------------------
The main make file that is created at the beginning of the building process
consists of the concatenation of a number of files which set configuration
values, followed by a fixed set of make instructions. If a value is set more
than once, the last setting overrides any previous ones. This provides a
convenient way of overriding defaults. The files that are concatenated are, in
order:
OS/Makefile-Default
OS/Makefile-<ostype>
Local/Makefile
Local/Makefile-<ostype>
Local/Makefile-<archtype>
Local/Makefile-<ostype>-<archtype>
OS/Makefile-Base
where <ostype> is the operating system type and <archtype> is the architecture
type. Local/Makefile is required to exist, and the building process fails if it
is absent. The other three Local files are optional, and are often not needed.
The values used for <ostype> and <archtype> are obtained from scripts called
scripts/os-type and scripts/arch-type respectively. If either of the
environment variables EXIM_OSTYPE or EXIM_ARCHTYPE is set, their values are
used, thereby providing a means of forcing particular settings. Otherwise, the
scripts try to get values from the uname command. If this fails, the shell
variables OSTYPE and ARCHTYPE are inspected. A number of ad hoc transformations
are then applied, to produce the standard names that Exim expects. You can run
these scripts directly from the shell in order to find out what values are
being used on your system.
OS/Makefile-Default contains comments about the variables that are set therein.
Some (but not all) are mentioned below. If there is something that needs
changing, review the contents of this file and the contents of the make file
for your operating system (OS/Makefile-<ostype>) to see what the default values
are.
If you need to change any of the values that are set in OS/Makefile-Default or
in OS/Makefile-<ostype>, or to add any new definitions, you do not need to
change the original files. Instead, you should make the changes by putting the
new values in an appropriate Local file. For example, when building Exim in
many releases of the Tru64-Unix (formerly Digital UNIX, formerly DEC-OSF1)
operating system, it is necessary to specify that the C compiler is called cc
rather than gcc. Also, the compiler must be called with the option -std1, to
make it recognize some of the features of Standard C that Exim uses. (Most
other compilers recognize Standard C by default.) To do this, you should create
a file called Local/Makefile-OSF1 containing the lines
CC=cc
CFLAGS=-std1
If you are compiling for just one operating system, it may be easier to put
these lines directly into Local/Makefile.
Keeping all your local configuration settings separate from the distributed
files makes it easy to transfer them to new versions of Exim simply by copying
the contents of the Local directory.
Exim contains support for doing LDAP, NIS, NIS+, and other kinds of file
lookup, but not all systems have these components installed, so the default is
not to include the relevant code in the binary. All the different kinds of file
and database lookup that Exim supports are implemented as separate code modules
which are included only if the relevant compile-time options are set. In the
case of LDAP, NIS, and NIS+, the settings for Local/Makefile are:
LOOKUP_LDAP=yes
LOOKUP_NIS=yes
LOOKUP_NISPLUS=yes
and similar settings apply to the other lookup types. They are all listed in
src/EDITME. In many cases the relevant include files and interface libraries
need to be installed before compiling Exim. However, there are some optional
lookup types (such as cdb) for which the code is entirely contained within
Exim, and no external include files or libraries are required. When a lookup
type is not included in the binary, attempts to configure Exim to use it cause
run time configuration errors.
Exim can be linked with an embedded Perl interpreter, allowing Perl subroutines
to be called during string expansion. To enable this facility,
EXIM_PERL=perl.o
must be defined in Local/Makefile. Details of this facility are given in
chapter 12.
The location of the X11 libraries is something that varies a lot between
operating systems, and there may be different versions of X11 to cope with.
Exim itself makes no use of X11, but if you are compiling the Exim monitor, the
X11 libraries must be available. The following three variables are set in OS/
Makefile-Default:
X11=/usr/X11R6
XINCLUDE=-I$(X11)/include
XLFLAGS=-L$(X11)/lib
These are overridden in some of the operating-system configuration files. For
example, in OS/Makefile-SunOS5 there is
X11=/usr/openwin
XINCLUDE=-I$(X11)/include
XLFLAGS=-L$(X11)/lib -R$(X11)/lib
If you need to override the default setting for your operating system, place a
definition of all three of these variables into your Local/Makefile-<ostype>
file.
If you need to add any extra libraries to the link steps, these can be put in a
variable called EXTRALIBS, which appears in all the link commands, but by
default is not defined. In contrast, EXTRALIBS_EXIM is used only on the command
for linking the main Exim binary, and not for any associated utilities.
There is also DBMLIB, which appears in the link commands for binaries that use
DBM functions (see also section 4.3). Finally, there is EXTRALIBS_EXIMON, which
appears only in the link step for the Exim monitor binary, and which can be
used, for example, to include additional X11 libraries.
The make file copes with rebuilding Exim correctly if any of the configuration
files are edited. However, if an optional configuration file is deleted, it is
necessary to touch the associated non-optional file (that is, Local/Makefile or
Local/eximon.conf) before rebuilding.
4.12 OS-specific header files
-----------------------------
The OS directory contains a number of files with names of the form os.h-
<ostype>. These are system-specific C header files that should not normally
need to be changed. There is a list of macro settings that are recognized in
the file OS/os.configuring, which should be consulted if you are porting Exim
to a new operating system.
4.13 Overriding build-time options for the monitor
--------------------------------------------------
A similar process is used for overriding things when building the Exim monitor,
where the files that are involved are
OS/eximon.conf-Default
OS/eximon.conf-<ostype>
Local/eximon.conf
Local/eximon.conf-<ostype>
Local/eximon.conf-<archtype>
Local/eximon.conf-<ostype>-<archtype>
As with Exim itself, the final three files need not exist, and in this case the
OS/eximon.conf-<ostype> file is also optional. The default values in OS/
eximon.conf-Default can be overridden dynamically by setting environment
variables of the same name, preceded by EXIMON_. For example, setting
EXIMON_LOG_DEPTH in the environment overrides the value of LOG_DEPTH at run
time.
4.14 Installing Exim binaries and scripts
-----------------------------------------
The command "make install" runs the exim_install script with no arguments. The
script copies binaries and utility scripts into the directory whose name is
specified by the BIN_DIRECTORY setting in Local/Makefile. The install script
copies files only if they are newer than the files they are going to replace.
The Exim binary is required to be owned by root and have the setuid bit set,
for normal configurations. Therefore, you must run "make install" as root so
that it can set up the Exim binary in this way. However, in some special
situations (for example, if a host is doing no local deliveries) it may be
possible to run Exim without making the binary setuid root (see chapter 52 for
details).
Exim's run time configuration file is named by the CONFIGURE_FILE setting in
Local/Makefile. If this names a single file, and the file does not exist, the
default configuration file src/configure.default is copied there by the
installation script. If a run time configuration file already exists, it is
left alone. If CONFIGURE_FILE is a colon-separated list, naming several
alternative files, no default is installed.
One change is made to the default configuration file when it is installed: the
default configuration contains a router that references a system aliases file.
The path to this file is set to the value specified by SYSTEM_ALIASES_FILE in
Local/Makefile (/etc/aliases by default). If the system aliases file does not
exist, the installation script creates it, and outputs a comment to the user.
The created file contains no aliases, but it does contain comments about the
aliases a site should normally have. Mail aliases have traditionally been kept
in /etc/aliases. However, some operating systems are now using /etc/mail/
aliases. You should check if yours is one of these, and change Exim's
configuration if necessary.
The default configuration uses the local host's name as the only local domain,
and is set up to do local deliveries into the shared directory /var/mail,
running as the local user. System aliases and .forward files in users' home
directories are supported, but no NIS or NIS+ support is configured. Domains
other than the name of the local host are routed using the DNS, with delivery
over SMTP.
It is possible to install Exim for special purposes (such as building a binary
distribution) in a private part of the file system. You can do this by a
command such as
make DESTDIR=/some/directory/ install
This has the effect of pre-pending the specified directory to all the file
paths, except the name of the system aliases file that appears in the default
configuration. (If a default alias file is created, its name is modified.) For
backwards compatibility, ROOT is used if DESTDIR is not set, but this usage is
deprecated.
Running make install does not copy the Exim 4 conversion script convert4r4, or
the pcretest test program. You will probably run the first of these only once
(if you are upgrading from Exim 3), and the second isn't really part of Exim.
None of the documentation files in the doc directory are copied, except for the
info files when you have set INFO_DIRECTORY, as described in section 4.15
below.
For the utility programs, old versions are renamed by adding the suffix .O to
their names. The Exim binary itself, however, is handled differently. It is
installed under a name that includes the version number and the compile number,
for example exim-4.69-1. The script then arranges for a symbolic link called
exim to point to the binary. If you are updating a previous version of Exim,
the script takes care to ensure that the name exim is never absent from the
directory (as seen by other processes).
If you want to see what the make install will do before running it for real,
you can pass the -n option to the installation script by this command:
make INSTALL_ARG=-n install
The contents of the variable INSTALL_ARG are passed to the installation script.
You do not need to be root to run this test. Alternatively, you can run the
installation script directly, but this must be from within the build directory.
For example, from the top-level Exim directory you could use this command:
(cd build-SunOS5-5.5.1-sparc; ../scripts/exim_install -n)
There are two other options that can be supplied to the installation script.
* -no_chown bypasses the call to change the owner of the installed binary to
root, and the call to make it a setuid binary.
* -no_symlink bypasses the setting up of the symbolic link exim to the
installed binary.
INSTALL_ARG can be used to pass these options to the script. For example:
make INSTALL_ARG=-no_symlink install
The installation script can also be given arguments specifying which files are
to be copied. For example, to install just the Exim binary, and nothing else,
without creating the symbolic link, you could use:
make INSTALL_ARG='-no_symlink exim' install
4.15 Installing info documentation
----------------------------------
Not all systems use the GNU info system for documentation, and for this reason,
the Texinfo source of Exim's documentation is not included in the main
distribution. Instead it is available separately from the ftp site (see section
1.6).
If you have defined INFO_DIRECTORY in Local/Makefile and the Texinfo source of
the documentation is found in the source tree, running "make install"
automatically builds the info files and installs them.
4.16 Setting up the spool directory
-----------------------------------
When it starts up, Exim tries to create its spool directory if it does not
exist. The Exim uid and gid are used for the owner and group of the spool
directory. Sub-directories are automatically created in the spool directory as
necessary.
4.17 Testing
------------
Having installed Exim, you can check that the run time configuration file is
syntactically valid by running the following command, which assumes that the
Exim binary directory is within your PATH environment variable:
exim -bV
If there are any errors in the configuration file, Exim outputs error messages.
Otherwise it outputs the version number and build date, the DBM library that is
being used, and information about which drivers and other optional code modules
are included in the binary. Some simple routing tests can be done by using the
address testing option. For example,
exim -bt <local username>
should verify that it recognizes a local mailbox, and
exim -bt <remote address>
a remote one. Then try getting it to deliver mail, both locally and remotely.
This can be done by passing messages directly to Exim, without going through a
user agent. For example:
exim -v postmaster@your.domain.example
From: user@your.domain.example
To: postmaster@your.domain.example
Subject: Testing Exim
This is a test message.
^D
The -v option causes Exim to output some verification of what it is doing. In
this case you should see copies of three log lines, one for the message's
arrival, one for its delivery, and one containing "Completed".
If you encounter problems, look at Exim's log files (mainlog and paniclog) to
see if there is any relevant information there. Another source of information
is running Exim with debugging turned on, by specifying the -d option. If a
message is stuck on Exim's spool, you can force a delivery with debugging
turned on by a command of the form
exim -d -M <exim-message-id>
You must be root or an "admin user" in order to do this. The -d option produces
rather a lot of output, but you can cut this down to specific areas. For
example, if you use -d-all+route only the debugging information relevant to
routing is included. (See the -d option in chapter 5 for more details.)
One specific problem that has shown up on some sites is the inability to do
local deliveries into a shared mailbox directory, because it does not have the
"sticky bit" set on it. By default, Exim tries to create a lock file before
writing to a mailbox file, and if it cannot create the lock file, the delivery
is deferred. You can get round this either by setting the "sticky bit" on the
directory, or by setting a specific group for local deliveries and allowing
that group to create files in the directory (see the comments above the
local_delivery transport in the default configuration file). Another approach
is to configure Exim not to use lock files, but just to rely on fcntl() locking
instead. However, you should do this only if all user agents also use fcntl()
locking. For further discussion of locking issues, see chapter 26.
One thing that cannot be tested on a system that is already running an MTA is
the receipt of incoming SMTP mail on the standard SMTP port. However, the -oX
option can be used to run an Exim daemon that listens on some other port, or
inetd can be used to do this. The -bh option and the exim_checkaccess utility
can be used to check out policy controls on incoming SMTP mail.
Testing a new version on a system that is already running Exim can most easily
be done by building a binary with a different CONFIGURE_FILE setting. From
within the run time configuration, all other file and directory names that Exim
uses can be altered, in order to keep it entirely clear of the production
version.
4.18 Replacing another MTA with Exim
------------------------------------
Building and installing Exim for the first time does not of itself put it in
general use. The name by which the system's MTA is called by mail user agents
is either /usr/sbin/sendmail, or /usr/lib/sendmail (depending on the operating
system), and it is necessary to make this name point to the exim binary in
order to get the user agents to pass messages to Exim. This is normally done by
renaming any existing file and making /usr/sbin/sendmail or /usr/lib/sendmail a
symbolic link to the exim binary. It is a good idea to remove any setuid
privilege and executable status from the old MTA. It is then necessary to stop
and restart the mailer daemon, if one is running.
Some operating systems have introduced alternative ways of switching MTAs. For
example, if you are running FreeBSD, you need to edit the file /etc/mail/
mailer.conf instead of setting up a symbolic link as just described. A typical
example of the contents of this file for running Exim is as follows:
sendmail /usr/exim/bin/exim
send-mail /usr/exim/bin/exim
mailq /usr/exim/bin/exim -bp
newaliases /usr/bin/true
Once you have set up the symbolic link, or edited /etc/mail/mailer.conf, your
Exim installation is "live". Check it by sending a message from your favourite
user agent.
You should consider what to tell your users about the change of MTA. Exim may
have different capabilities to what was previously running, and there are
various operational differences such as the text of messages produced by
command line options and in bounce messages. If you allow your users to make
use of Exim's filtering capabilities, you should make the document entitled
Exim's interface to mail filtering available to them.
4.19 Upgrading Exim
-------------------
If you are already running Exim on your host, building and installing a new
version automatically makes it available to MUAs, or any other programs that
call the MTA directly. However, if you are running an Exim daemon, you do need
to send it a HUP signal, to make it re-execute itself, and thereby pick up the
new binary. You do not need to stop processing mail in order to install a new
version of Exim. The install script does not modify an existing runtime
configuration file.
4.20 Stopping the Exim daemon on Solaris
----------------------------------------
The standard command for stopping the mailer daemon on Solaris is
/etc/init.d/sendmail stop
If /usr/lib/sendmail has been turned into a symbolic link, this script fails to
stop Exim because it uses the command ps -e and greps the output for the text
"sendmail"; this is not present because the actual program name (that is,
"exim") is given by the ps command with these options. A solution is to replace
the line that finds the process id with something like
pid=`cat /var/spool/exim/exim-daemon.pid`
to obtain the daemon's pid directly from the file that Exim saves it in.
Note, however, that stopping the daemon does not "stop Exim". Messages can
still be received from local processes, and if automatic delivery is configured
(the normal case), deliveries will still occur.
===============================================================================
5. THE EXIM COMMAND LINE
Exim's command line takes the standard Unix form of a sequence of options, each
starting with a hyphen character, followed by a number of arguments. The
options are compatible with the main options of Sendmail, and there are also
some additional options, some of which are compatible with Smail 3. Certain
combinations of options do not make sense, and provoke an error if used. The
form of the arguments depends on which options are set.
5.1 Setting options by program name
-----------------------------------
If Exim is called under the name mailq, it behaves as if the option -bp were
present before any other options. The -bp option requests a listing of the
contents of the mail queue on the standard output. This feature is for
compatibility with some systems that contain a command of that name in one of
the standard libraries, symbolically linked to /usr/sbin/sendmail or /usr/lib/
sendmail.
If Exim is called under the name rsmtp it behaves as if the option -bS were
present before any other options, for compatibility with Smail. The -bS option
is used for reading in a number of messages in batched SMTP format.
If Exim is called under the name rmail it behaves as if the -i and -oee options
were present before any other options, for compatibility with Smail. The name
rmail is used as an interface by some UUCP systems.
If Exim is called under the name runq it behaves as if the option -q were
present before any other options, for compatibility with Smail. The -q option
causes a single queue runner process to be started.
If Exim is called under the name newaliases it behaves as if the option -bi
were present before any other options, for compatibility with Sendmail. This
option is used for rebuilding Sendmail's alias file. Exim does not have the
concept of a single alias file, but can be configured to run a given command if
called with the -bi option.
5.2 Trusted and admin users
---------------------------
Some Exim options are available only to trusted users and others are available
only to admin users. In the description below, the phrases "Exim user" and
"Exim group" mean the user and group defined by EXIM_USER and EXIM_GROUP in
Local/Makefile or set by the exim_user and exim_group options. These do not
necessarily have to use the name "exim".
* The trusted users are root, the Exim user, any user listed in the
trusted_users configuration option, and any user whose current group or any
supplementary group is one of those listed in the trusted_groups
configuration option. Note that the Exim group is not automatically
trusted.
Trusted users are always permitted to use the -f option or a leading
"From " line to specify the envelope sender of a message that is passed to
Exim through the local interface (see the -bm and -f options below). See
the untrusted_set_sender option for a way of permitting non-trusted users
to set envelope senders.
For a trusted user, there is never any check on the contents of the From:
header line, and a Sender: line is never added. Furthermore, any existing
Sender: line in incoming local (non-TCP/IP) messages is not removed.
Trusted users may also specify a host name, host address, interface
address, protocol name, ident value, and authentication data when
submitting a message locally. Thus, they are able to insert messages into
Exim's queue locally that have the characteristics of messages received
from a remote host. Untrusted users may in some circumstances use -f, but
can never set the other values that are available to trusted users.
* The admin users are root, the Exim user, and any user that is a member of
the Exim group or of any group listed in the admin_groups configuration
option. The current group does not have to be one of these groups.
Admin users are permitted to list the queue, and to carry out certain
operations on messages, for example, to force delivery failures. It is also
necessary to be an admin user in order to see the full information provided
by the Exim monitor, and full debugging output.
By default, the use of the -M, -q, -R, and -S options to cause Exim to
attempt delivery of messages on its queue is restricted to admin users.
However, this restriction can be relaxed by setting the prod_requires_admin
option false (that is, specifying no_prod_requires_admin).
Similarly, the use of the -bp option to list all the messages in the queue
is restricted to admin users unless queue_list_requires_admin is set false.
Warning: If you configure your system so that admin users are able to edit
Exim's configuration file, you are giving those users an easy way of getting
root. There is further discussion of this issue at the start of chapter 6.
5.3 Command line options
------------------------
Exim's command line options are described in alphabetical order below. If none
of the options that specifies a specific action (such as starting the daemon or
a queue runner, or testing an address, or receiving a message in a specific
format, or listing the queue) are present, and there is at least one argument
on the command line, -bm (accept a local message on the standard input, with
the arguments specifying the recipients) is assumed. Otherwise, Exim outputs a
brief message about itself and exits.
--
This is a pseudo-option whose only purpose is to terminate the options and
therefore to cause subsequent command line items to be treated as arguments
rather than options, even if they begin with hyphens.
--help
This option causes Exim to output a few sentences stating what it is. The
same output is generated if the Exim binary is called with no options and
no arguments.
-B<type>
This is a Sendmail option for selecting 7 or 8 bit processing. Exim is
8-bit clean; it ignores this option.
-bd
This option runs Exim as a daemon, awaiting incoming SMTP connections.
Usually the -bd option is combined with the -q<time> option, to specify
that the daemon should also initiate periodic queue runs.
The -bd option can be used only by an admin user. If either of the -d
(debugging) or -v (verifying) options are set, the daemon does not
disconnect from the controlling terminal. When running this way, it can be
stopped by pressing ctrl-C.
By default, Exim listens for incoming connections to the standard SMTP port
on all the host's running interfaces. However, it is possible to listen on
other ports, on multiple ports, and only on specific interfaces. Chapter 13
contains a description of the options that control this.
When a listening daemon is started without the use of -oX (that is, without
overriding the normal configuration), it writes its process id to a file
called exim-daemon.pid in Exim's spool directory. This location can be
overridden by setting PID_FILE_PATH in Local/Makefile. The file is written
while Exim is still running as root.
When -oX is used on the command line to start a listening daemon, the
process id is not written to the normal pid file path. However, -oP can be
used to specify a path on the command line if a pid file is required.
The SIGHUP signal can be used to cause the daemon to re-execute itself.
This should be done whenever Exim's configuration file, or any file that is
incorporated into it by means of the .include facility, is changed, and
also whenever a new version of Exim is installed. It is not necessary to do
this when other files that are referenced from the configuration (for
example, alias files) are changed, because these are reread each time they
are used.
-bdf
This option has the same effect as -bd except that it never disconnects
from the controlling terminal, even when no debugging is specified.
-be
Run Exim in expansion testing mode. Exim discards its root privilege, to
prevent ordinary users from using this mode to read otherwise inaccessible
files. If no arguments are given, Exim runs interactively, prompting for
lines of data. Otherwise, it processes each argument in turn.
If Exim was built with USE_READLINE=yes in Local/Makefile, it tries to load
the libreadline library dynamically whenever the -be option is used without
command line arguments. If successful, it uses the readline() function,
which provides extensive line-editing facilities, for reading the test
data. A line history is supported.
Long expansion expressions can be split over several lines by using
backslash continuations. As in Exim's run time configuration, white space
at the start of continuation lines is ignored. Each argument or data line
is passed through the string expansion mechanism, and the result is output.
Variable values from the configuration file (for example, $qualify_domain)
are available, but no message-specific values (such as $sender_domain) are
set, because no message is being processed (but see -bem and -Mset).
Note: If you use this mechanism to test lookups, and you change the data
files or databases you are using, you must exit and restart Exim before
trying the same lookup again. Otherwise, because each Exim process caches
the results of lookups, you will just get the same result as before.
-bem <filename>
This option operates like -be except that it must be followed by the name
of a file. For example:
exim -bem /tmp/testmessage
The file is read as a message (as if receiving a locally-submitted non-SMTP
message) before any of the test expansions are done. Thus, message-specific
variables such as $message_size and $header_from: are available. However,
no Received: header is added to the message. If the -t option is set,
recipients are read from the headers in the normal way, and are shown in
the $recipients variable. Note that recipients cannot be given on the
command line, because further arguments are taken as strings to expand
(just like -be).
-bF <filename>
This option is the same as -bf except that it assumes that the filter being
tested is a system filter. The additional commands that are available only
in system filters are recognized.
-bf <filename>
This option runs Exim in user filter testing mode; the file is the filter
file to be tested, and a test message must be supplied on the standard
input. If there are no message-dependent tests in the filter, an empty file
can be supplied.
If you want to test a system filter file, use -bF instead of -bf. You can
use both -bF and -bf on the same command, in order to test a system filter
and a user filter in the same run. For example:
exim -bF /system/filter -bf /user/filter </test/message
This is helpful when the system filter adds header lines or sets filter
variables that are used by the user filter.
If the test filter file does not begin with one of the special lines
# Exim filter
# Sieve filter
it is taken to be a normal .forward file, and is tested for validity under
that interpretation. See sections 22.4 to 22.6 for a description of the
possible contents of non-filter redirection lists.
The result of an Exim command that uses -bf, provided no errors are
detected, is a list of the actions that Exim would try to take if presented
with the message for real. More details of filter testing are given in the
separate document entitled Exim's interfaces to mail filtering.
When testing a filter file, the envelope sender can be set by the -f
option, or by a "From " line at the start of the test message. Various
parameters that would normally be taken from the envelope recipient address
of the message can be set by means of additional command line options (see
the next four options).
-bfd <domain>
This sets the domain of the recipient address when a filter file is being
tested by means of the -bf option. The default is the value of
$qualify_domain.
-bfl <local part>
This sets the local part of the recipient address when a filter file is
being tested by means of the -bf option. The default is the username of the
process that calls Exim. A local part should be specified with any prefix
or suffix stripped, because that is how it appears to the filter when a
message is actually being delivered.
-bfp <prefix>
This sets the prefix of the local part of the recipient address when a
filter file is being tested by means of the -bf option. The default is an
empty prefix.
-bfs <suffix>
This sets the suffix of the local part of the recipient address when a
filter file is being tested by means of the -bf option. The default is an
empty suffix.
-bh <IP address>
This option runs a fake SMTP session as if from the given IP address, using
the standard input and output. The IP address may include a port number at
the end, after a full stop. For example:
exim -bh 10.9.8.7.1234
exim -bh fe80::a00:20ff:fe86:a061.5678
When an IPv6 address is given, it is converted into canonical form. In the
case of the second example above, the value of $sender_host_address after
conversion to the canonical form is
"fe80:0000:0000:0a00:20ff:fe86:a061.5678".
Comments as to what is going on are written to the standard error file.
These include lines beginning with "LOG" for anything that would have been
logged. This facility is provided for testing configuration options for
incoming messages, to make sure they implement the required policy. For
example, you can test your relay controls using -bh.
Warning 1: You can test features of the configuration that rely on ident
(RFC 1413) information by using the -oMt option. However, Exim cannot
actually perform an ident callout when testing using -bh because there is
no incoming SMTP connection.
Warning 2: Address verification callouts (see section 40.41) are also
skipped when testing using -bh. If you want these callouts to occur, use
-bhc instead.
Messages supplied during the testing session are discarded, and nothing is
written to any of the real log files. There may be pauses when DNS (and
other) lookups are taking place, and of course these may time out. The -oMi
option can be used to specify a specific IP interface and port if this is
important, and -oMaa and -oMai can be used to set parameters as if the SMTP
session were authenticated.
The exim_checkaccess utility is a "packaged" version of -bh whose output
just states whether a given recipient address from a given host is
acceptable or not. See section 50.8.
Features such as authentication and encryption, where the client input is
not plain text, cannot easily be tested with -bh. Instead, you should use a
specialized SMTP test program such as swaks.
-bhc <IP address>
This option operates in the same way as -bh, except that address
verification callouts are performed if required. This includes consulting
and updating the callout cache database.
-bi
Sendmail interprets the -bi option as a request to rebuild its alias file.
Exim does not have the concept of a single alias file, and so it cannot
mimic this behaviour. However, calls to /usr/lib/sendmail with the -bi
option tend to appear in various scripts such as NIS make files, so the
option must be recognized.
If -bi is encountered, the command specified by the bi_command
configuration option is run, under the uid and gid of the caller of Exim.
If the -oA option is used, its value is passed to the command as an
argument. The command set by bi_command may not contain arguments. The
command can use the exim_dbmbuild utility, or some other means, to rebuild
alias files if this is required. If the bi_command option is not set,
calling Exim with -bi is a no-op.
-bm
This option runs an Exim receiving process that accepts an incoming,
locally-generated message on the current input. The recipients are given as
the command arguments (except when -t is also present - see below). Each
argument can be a comma-separated list of RFC 2822 addresses. This is the
default option for selecting the overall action of an Exim call; it is
assumed if no other conflicting option is present.
If any addresses in the message are unqualified (have no domain), they are
qualified by the values of the qualify_domain or qualify_recipient options,
as appropriate. The -bnq option (see below) provides a way of suppressing
this for special cases.
Policy checks on the contents of local messages can be enforced by means of
the non-SMTP ACL. See chapter 40 for details.
The return code is zero if the message is successfully accepted. Otherwise,
the action is controlled by the -oex option setting - see below.
The format of the message must be as defined in RFC 2822, except that, for
compatibility with Sendmail and Smail, a line in one of the forms
From sender Fri Jan 5 12:55 GMT 1997
From sender Fri, 5 Jan 97 12:55:01
(with the weekday optional, and possibly with additional text after the
date) is permitted to appear at the start of the message. There appears to
be no authoritative specification of the format of this line. Exim
recognizes it by matching against the regular expression defined by the
uucp_from_pattern option, which can be changed if necessary.
The specified sender is treated as if it were given as the argument to the
-f option, but if a -f option is also present, its argument is used in
preference to the address taken from the message. The caller of Exim must
be a trusted user for the sender of a message to be set in this way.
-bnq
By default, Exim automatically qualifies unqualified addresses (those
without domains) that appear in messages that are submitted locally (that
is, not over TCP/IP). This qualification applies both to addresses in
envelopes, and addresses in header lines. Sender addresses are qualified
using qualify_domain, and recipient addresses using qualify_recipient
(which defaults to the value of qualify_domain).
Sometimes, qualification is not wanted. For example, if -bS (batch SMTP) is
being used to re-submit messages that originally came from remote hosts
after content scanning, you probably do not want to qualify unqualified
addresses in header lines. (Such lines will be present only if you have not
enabled a header syntax check in the appropriate ACL.)
The -bnq option suppresses all qualification of unqualified addresses in
messages that originate on the local host. When this is used, unqualified
addresses in the envelope provoke errors (causing message rejection) and
unqualified addresses in header lines are left alone.
-bP
If this option is given with no arguments, it causes the values of all
Exim's main configuration options to be written to the standard output. The
values of one or more specific options can be requested by giving their
names as arguments, for example:
exim -bP qualify_domain hold_domains
However, any option setting that is preceded by the word "hide" in the
configuration file is not shown in full, except to an admin user. For other
users, the output is as in this example:
mysql_servers = <value not displayable>
If configure_file is given as an argument, the name of the run time
configuration file is output. If a list of configuration files was
supplied, the value that is output here is the name of the file that was
actually used.
If log_file_path or pid_file_path are given, the names of the directories
where log files and daemon pid files are written are output, respectively.
If these values are unset, log files are written in a sub-directory of the
spool directory called log, and the pid file is written directly into the
spool directory.
If -bP is followed by a name preceded by "+", for example,
exim -bP +local_domains
it searches for a matching named list of any type (domain, host, address,
or local part) and outputs what it finds.
If one of the words router, transport, or authenticator is given, followed
by the name of an appropriate driver instance, the option settings for that
driver are output. For example:
exim -bP transport local_delivery
The generic driver options are output first, followed by the driver's
private options. A list of the names of drivers of a particular type can be
obtained by using one of the words router_list, transport_list, or
authenticator_list, and a complete list of all drivers with their option
settings can be obtained by using routers, transports, or authenticators.
-bp
This option requests a listing of the contents of the mail queue on the
standard output. If the -bp option is followed by a list of message ids,
just those messages are listed. By default, this option can be used only by
an admin user. However, the queue_list_requires_admin option can be set
false to allow any user to see the queue.
Each message on the queue is displayed as in the following example:
25m 2.9K 0t5C6f-0000c8-00 <alice@wonderland.fict.example>
red.king@looking-glass.fict.example
<other addresses>
The first line contains the length of time the message has been on the
queue (in this case 25 minutes), the size of the message (2.9K), the unique
local identifier for the message, and the message sender, as contained in
the envelope. For bounce messages, the sender address is empty, and appears
as "<>". If the message was submitted locally by an untrusted user who
overrode the default sender address, the user's login name is shown in
parentheses before the sender address.
If the message is frozen (attempts to deliver it are suspended) then the
text "*** frozen ***" is displayed at the end of this line.
The recipients of the message (taken from the envelope, not the headers)
are displayed on subsequent lines. Those addresses to which the message has
already been delivered are marked with the letter D. If an original address
gets expanded into several addresses via an alias or forward file, the
original is displayed with a D only when deliveries for all of its child
addresses are complete.
-bpa
This option operates like -bp, but in addition it shows delivered addresses
that were generated from the original top level address(es) in each message
by alias or forwarding operations. These addresses are flagged with "+D"
instead of just "D".
-bpc
This option counts the number of messages on the queue, and writes the
total to the standard output. It is restricted to admin users, unless
queue_list_requires_admin is set false.
-bpr
This option operates like -bp, but the output is not sorted into
chronological order of message arrival. This can speed it up when there are
lots of messages on the queue, and is particularly useful if the output is
going to be post-processed in a way that doesn't need the sorting.
-bpra
This option is a combination of -bpr and -bpa.
-bpru
This option is a combination of -bpr and -bpu.
-bpu
This option operates like -bp but shows only undelivered top-level
addresses for each message displayed. Addresses generated by aliasing or
forwarding are not shown, unless the message was deferred after processing
by a router with the one_time option set.
-brt
This option is for testing retry rules, and it must be followed by up to
three arguments. It causes Exim to look for a retry rule that matches the
values and to write it to the standard output. For example:
exim -brt bach.comp.mus.example
Retry rule: *.comp.mus.example F,2h,15m; F,4d,30m;
See chapter 32 for a description of Exim's retry rules. The first argument,
which is required, can be a complete address in the form local_part@domain,
or it can be just a domain name. If the second argument contains a dot, it
is interpreted as an optional second domain name; if no retry rule is found
for the first argument, the second is tried. This ties in with Exim's
behaviour when looking for retry rules for remote hosts - if no rule is
found that matches the host, one that matches the mail domain is sought.
Finally, an argument that is the name of a specific delivery error, as used
in setting up retry rules, can be given. For example:
exim -brt haydn.comp.mus.example quota_3d
Retry rule: *@haydn.comp.mus.example quota_3d F,1h,15m
-brw
This option is for testing address rewriting rules, and it must be followed
by a single argument, consisting of either a local part without a domain,
or a complete address with a fully qualified domain. Exim outputs how this
address would be rewritten for each possible place it might appear. See
chapter 31 for further details.
-bS
This option is used for batched SMTP input, which is an alternative
interface for non-interactive local message submission. A number of
messages can be submitted in a single run. However, despite its name, this
is not really SMTP input. Exim reads each message's envelope from SMTP
commands on the standard input, but generates no responses. If the caller
is trusted, or untrusted_set_sender is set, the senders in the SMTP MAIL
commands are believed; otherwise the sender is always the caller of Exim.
The message itself is read from the standard input, in SMTP format (leading
dots doubled), terminated by a line containing just a single dot. An error
is provoked if the terminating dot is missing. A further message may then
follow.
As for other local message submissions, the contents of incoming batch SMTP
messages can be checked using the non-SMTP ACL (see chapter 40).
Unqualified addresses are automatically qualified using qualify_domain and
qualify_recipient, as appropriate, unless the -bnq option is used.
Some other SMTP commands are recognized in the input. HELO and EHLO act as
RSET; VRFY, EXPN, ETRN, and HELP act as NOOP; QUIT quits, ignoring the rest
of the standard input.
If any error is encountered, reports are written to the standard output and
error streams, and Exim gives up immediately. The return code is 0 if no
error was detected; it is 1 if one or more messages were accepted before
the error was detected; otherwise it is 2.
More details of input using batched SMTP are given in section 45.11.
-bs
This option causes Exim to accept one or more messages by reading SMTP
commands on the standard input, and producing SMTP replies on the standard
output. SMTP policy controls, as defined in ACLs (see chapter 40) are
applied. Some user agents use this interface as a way of passing
locally-generated messages to the MTA.
In this usage, if the caller of Exim is trusted, or untrusted_set_sender is
set, the senders of messages are taken from the SMTP MAIL commands.
Otherwise the content of these commands is ignored and the sender is set up
as the calling user. Unqualified addresses are automatically qualified
using qualify_domain and qualify_recipient, as appropriate, unless the -bnq
option is used.
The -bs option is also used to run Exim from inetd, as an alternative to
using a listening daemon. Exim can distinguish the two cases by checking
whether the standard input is a TCP/IP socket. When Exim is called from
inetd, the source of the mail is assumed to be remote, and the comments
above concerning senders and qualification do not apply. In this situation,
Exim behaves in exactly the same way as it does when receiving a message
via the listening daemon.
-bt
This option runs Exim in address testing mode, in which each argument is
taken as a recipient address to be tested for deliverability. The results
are written to the standard output. If a test fails, and the caller is not
an admin user, no details of the failure are output, because these might
contain sensitive information such as usernames and passwords for database
lookups.
If no arguments are given, Exim runs in an interactive manner, prompting
with a right angle bracket for addresses to be tested.
Unlike the -be test option, you cannot arrange for Exim to use the readline
() function, because it is running as root and there are security issues.
Each address is handled as if it were the recipient address of a message
(compare the -bv option). It is passed to the routers and the result is
written to the standard output. However, any router that has
no_address_test set is bypassed. This can make -bt easier to use for
genuine routing tests if your first router passes everything to a scanner
program.
The return code is 2 if any address failed outright; it is 1 if no address
failed outright but at least one could not be resolved for some reason.
Return code 0 is given only when all addresses succeed.
Note: When actually delivering a message, Exim removes duplicate recipient
addresses after routing is complete, so that only one delivery takes place.
This does not happen when testing with -bt; the full results of routing are
always shown.
Warning: -bt can only do relatively simple testing. If any of the routers
in the configuration makes any tests on the sender address of a message,
you can use the -f option to set an appropriate sender when running -bt
tests. Without it, the sender is assumed to be the calling user at the
default qualifying domain. However, if you have set up (for example)
routers whose behaviour depends on the contents of an incoming message, you
cannot test those conditions using -bt. The -N option provides a possible
way of doing such tests.
-bV
This option causes Exim to write the current version number, compilation
number, and compilation date of the exim binary to the standard output. It
also lists the DBM library this is being used, the optional modules (such
as specific lookup types), the drivers that are included in the binary, and
the name of the run time configuration file that is in use.
As part of its operation, -bV causes Exim to read and syntax check its
configuration file. However, this is a static check only. It cannot check
values that are to be expanded. For example, although a misspelt ACL verb
is detected, an error in the verb's arguments is not. You cannot rely on
-bV alone to discover (for example) all the typos in the configuration;
some realistic testing is needed. The -bh and -N options provide more
dynamic testing facilities.
-bv
This option runs Exim in address verification mode, in which each argument
is taken as a recipient address to be verified by the routers. (This does
not involve any verification callouts). During normal operation,
verification happens mostly as a consequence processing a verify condition
in an ACL (see chapter 40). If you want to test an entire ACL, possibly
including callouts, see the -bh and -bhc options.
If verification fails, and the caller is not an admin user, no details of
the failure are output, because these might contain sensitive information
such as usernames and passwords for database lookups.
If no arguments are given, Exim runs in an interactive manner, prompting
with a right angle bracket for addresses to be verified.
Unlike the -be test option, you cannot arrange for Exim to use the readline
() function, because it is running as exim and there are security issues.
Verification differs from address testing (the -bt option) in that routers
that have no_verify set are skipped, and if the address is accepted by a
router that has fail_verify set, verification fails. The address is
verified as a recipient if -bv is used; to test verification for a sender
address, -bvs should be used.
If the -v option is not set, the output consists of a single line for each
address, stating whether it was verified or not, and giving a reason in the
latter case. Without -v, generating more than one address by redirection
causes verification to end successfully, without considering the generated
addresses. However, if just one address is generated, processing continues,
and the generated address must verify successfully for the overall
verification to succeed.
When -v is set, more details are given of how the address has been handled,
and in the case of address redirection, all the generated addresses are
also considered. Verification may succeed for some and fail for others.
The return code is 2 if any address failed outright; it is 1 if no address
failed outright but at least one could not be resolved for some reason.
Return code 0 is given only when all addresses succeed.
If any of the routers in the configuration makes any tests on the sender
address of a message, you should use the -f option to set an appropriate
sender when running -bv tests. Without it, the sender is assumed to be the
calling user at the default qualifying domain.
-bvs
This option acts like -bv, but verifies the address as a sender rather than
a recipient address. This affects any rewriting and qualification that
might happen.
-C <filelist>
This option causes Exim to find the run time configuration file from the
given list instead of from the list specified by the CONFIGURE_FILE
compile-time setting. Usually, the list will consist of just a single file
name, but it can be a colon-separated list of names. In this case, the
first file that exists is used. Failure to open an existing file stops Exim
from proceeding any further along the list, and an error is generated.
When this option is used by a caller other than root or the Exim user, and
the list is different from the compiled-in list, Exim gives up its root
privilege immediately, and runs with the real and effective uid and gid set
to those of the caller. However, if ALT_CONFIG_ROOT_ONLY is defined in
Local/Makefile, root privilege is retained for -C only if the caller of
Exim is root.
That is, the Exim user is no longer privileged in this regard. This
build-time option is not set by default in the Exim source distribution
tarbundle. However, if you are using a "packaged" version of Exim (source
or binary), the packagers might have enabled it.
Setting ALT_CONFIG_ROOT_ONLY locks out the possibility of testing a
configuration using -C right through message reception and delivery, even
if the caller is root. The reception works, but by that time, Exim is
running as the Exim user, so when it re-executes to regain privilege for
the delivery, the use of -C causes privilege to be lost. However, root can
test reception and delivery using two separate commands (one to put a
message on the queue, using -odq, and another to do the delivery, using -M
).
If ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX is defined in Local/Makefile, it specifies a prefix
string with which any file named in a -C command line option must start. In
addition, the file name must not contain the sequence "/../". However, if
the value of the -C option is identical to the value of CONFIGURE_FILE in
Local/Makefile, Exim ignores -C and proceeds as usual. There is no default
setting for ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX; when it is unset, any file name can be used
with -C.
ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX can be used to confine alternative configuration files to
a directory to which only root has access. This prevents someone who has
broken into the Exim account from running a privileged Exim with an
arbitrary configuration file.
The -C facility is useful for ensuring that configuration files are
syntactically correct, but cannot be used for test deliveries, unless the
caller is privileged, or unless it is an exotic configuration that does not
require privilege. No check is made on the owner or group of the files
specified by this option.
-D<macro>=<value>
This option can be used to override macro definitions in the configuration
file (see section 6.4). However, like -C, if it is used by an unprivileged
caller, it causes Exim to give up its root privilege. If DISABLE_D_OPTION
is defined in Local/Makefile, the use of -D is completely disabled, and its
use causes an immediate error exit.
The entire option (including equals sign if present) must all be within one
command line item. -D can be used to set the value of a macro to the empty
string, in which case the equals sign is optional. These two commands are
synonymous:
exim -DABC ...
exim -DABC= ...
To include spaces in a macro definition item, quotes must be used. If you
use quotes, spaces are permitted around the macro name and the equals sign.
For example:
exim '-D ABC = something' ...
-D may be repeated up to 10 times on a command line.
-d<debug options>
This option causes debugging information to be written to the standard
error stream. It is restricted to admin users because debugging output may
show database queries that contain password information. Also, the details
of users' filter files should be protected. If a non-admin user uses -d,
Exim writes an error message to the standard error stream and exits with a
non-zero return code.
When -d is used, -v is assumed. If -d is given on its own, a lot of
standard debugging data is output. This can be reduced, or increased to
include some more rarely needed information, by directly following -d with
a string made up of names preceded by plus or minus characters. These add
or remove sets of debugging data, respectively. For example, -d+filter adds
filter debugging, whereas -d-all+filter selects only filter debugging. Note
that no spaces are allowed in the debug setting. The available debugging
categories are:
acl ACL interpretation
auth authenticators
deliver general delivery logic
dns DNS lookups (see also resolver)
dnsbl DNS black list (aka RBL) code
exec arguments for execv() calls
expand detailed debugging for string expansions
filter filter handling
hints_lookup hints data lookups
host_lookup all types of name-to-IP address handling
ident ident lookup
interface lists of local interfaces
lists matching things in lists
load system load checks
local_scan can be used by local_scan() (see chapter 42)
lookup general lookup code and all lookups
memory memory handling
pid add pid to debug output lines
process_info setting info for the process log
queue_run queue runs
receive general message reception logic
resolver turn on the DNS resolver's debugging output
retry retry handling
rewrite address rewriting
route address routing
timestamp add timestamp to debug output lines
tls TLS logic
transport transports
uid changes of uid/gid and looking up uid/gid
verify address verification logic
all almost all of the above (see below), and also -v
The "all" option excludes "memory" when used as "+all", but includes it for
"-all". The reason for this is that "+all" is something that people tend to
use when generating debug output for Exim maintainers. If "+memory" is
included, an awful lot of output that is very rarely of interest is
generated, so it now has to be explicitly requested. However, "-all" does
turn everything off.
The "resolver" option produces output only if the DNS resolver was compiled
with DEBUG enabled. This is not the case in some operating systems. Also,
unfortunately, debugging output from the DNS resolver is written to stdout
rather than stderr.
The default (-d with no argument) omits "expand", "filter", "interface",
"load", "memory", "pid", "resolver", and "timestamp". However, the "pid"
selector is forced when debugging is turned on for a daemon, which then
passes it on to any re-executed Exims. Exim also automatically adds the pid
to debug lines when several remote deliveries are run in parallel.
The "timestamp" selector causes the current time to be inserted at the
start of all debug output lines. This can be useful when trying to track
down delays in processing.
If the debug_print option is set in any driver, it produces output whenever
any debugging is selected, or if -v is used.
-dd<debug options>
This option behaves exactly like -d except when used on a command that
starts a daemon process. In that case, debugging is turned off for the
subprocesses that the daemon creates. Thus, it is useful for monitoring the
behaviour of the daemon without creating as much output as full debugging
does.
-dropcr
This is an obsolete option that is now a no-op. It used to affect the way
Exim handled CR and LF characters in incoming messages. What happens now is
described in section 44.2.
-E
This option specifies that an incoming message is a locally-generated
delivery failure report. It is used internally by Exim when handling
delivery failures and is not intended for external use. Its only effect is
to stop Exim generating certain messages to the postmaster, as otherwise
message cascades could occur in some situations. As part of the same
option, a message id may follow the characters -E. If it does, the log
entry for the receipt of the new message contains the id, following "R=",
as a cross-reference.
-ex
There are a number of Sendmail options starting with -oe which seem to be
called by various programs without the leading o in the option. For
example, the vacation program uses -eq. Exim treats all options of the form
-ex as synonymous with the corresponding -oex options.
-F <string>
This option sets the sender's full name for use when a locally-generated
message is being accepted. In the absence of this option, the user's gecos
entry from the password data is used. As users are generally permitted to
alter their gecos entries, no security considerations are involved. White
space between -F and the <string> is optional.
-f <address>
This option sets the address of the envelope sender of a locally-generated
message (also known as the return path). The option can normally be used
only by a trusted user, but untrusted_set_sender can be set to allow
untrusted users to use it.
Processes running as root or the Exim user are always trusted. Other
trusted users are defined by the trusted_users or trusted_groups options.
In the absence of -f, or if the caller is not trusted, the sender of a
local message is set to the caller's login name at the default qualify
domain.
There is one exception to the restriction on the use of -f: an empty sender
can be specified by any user, trusted or not, to create a message that can
never provoke a bounce. An empty sender can be specified either as an empty
string, or as a pair of angle brackets with nothing between them, as in
these examples of shell commands:
exim -f '<>' user@domain
exim -f "" user@domain
In addition, the use of -f is not restricted when testing a filter file
with -bf or when testing or verifying addresses using the -bt or -bv
options.
Allowing untrusted users to change the sender address does not of itself
make it possible to send anonymous mail. Exim still checks that the From:
header refers to the local user, and if it does not, it adds a Sender:
header, though this can be overridden by setting no_local_from_check.
White space between -f and the <address> is optional (that is, they can be
given as two arguments or one combined argument). The sender of a
locally-generated message can also be set (when permitted) by an initial
"From " line in the message - see the description of -bm above - but if -f
is also present, it overrides "From ".
-G
This is a Sendmail option which is ignored by Exim.
-h <number>
This option is accepted for compatibility with Sendmail, but has no effect.
(In Sendmail it overrides the "hop count" obtained by counting Received:
headers.)
-i
This option, which has the same effect as -oi, specifies that a dot on a
line by itself should not terminate an incoming, non-SMTP message. I can
find no documentation for this option in Solaris 2.4 Sendmail, but the
mailx command in Solaris 2.4 uses it. See also -ti.
-M <message id> <message id> ...
This option requests Exim to run a delivery attempt on each message in
turn. If any of the messages are frozen, they are automatically thawed
before the delivery attempt. The settings of queue_domains,
queue_smtp_domains, and hold_domains are ignored.
Retry hints for any of the addresses are overridden - Exim tries to deliver
even if the normal retry time has not yet been reached. This option
requires the caller to be an admin user. However, there is an option called
prod_requires_admin which can be set false to relax this restriction (and
also the same requirement for the -q, -R, and -S options).
The deliveries happen synchronously, that is, the original Exim process
does not terminate until all the delivery attempts have finished. No output
is produced unless there is a serious error. If you want to see what is
happening, use the -v option as well, or inspect Exim's main log.
-Mar <message id> <address> <address> ...
This option requests Exim to add the addresses to the list of recipients of
the message ("ar" for "add recipients"). The first argument must be a
message id, and the remaining ones must be email addresses. However, if the
message is active (in the middle of a delivery attempt), it is not altered.
This option can be used only by an admin user.
-MC <transport> <hostname> <sequence number> <message id>
This option is not intended for use by external callers. It is used
internally by Exim to invoke another instance of itself to deliver a
waiting message using an existing SMTP connection, which is passed as the
standard input. Details are given in chapter 45. This must be the final
option, and the caller must be root or the Exim user in order to use it.
-MCA
This option is not intended for use by external callers. It is used
internally by Exim in conjunction with the -MC option. It signifies that
the connection to the remote host has been authenticated.
-MCP
This option is not intended for use by external callers. It is used
internally by Exim in conjunction with the -MC option. It signifies that
the server to which Exim is connected supports pipelining.
-MCQ <process id> <pipe fd>
This option is not intended for use by external callers. It is used
internally by Exim in conjunction with the -MC option when the original
delivery was started by a queue runner. It passes on the process id of the
queue runner, together with the file descriptor number of an open pipe.
Closure of the pipe signals the final completion of the sequence of
processes that are passing messages through the same SMTP connection.
-MCS
This option is not intended for use by external callers. It is used
internally by Exim in conjunction with the -MC option, and passes on the
fact that the SMTP SIZE option should be used on messages delivered down
the existing connection.
-MCT
This option is not intended for use by external callers. It is used
internally by Exim in conjunction with the -MC option, and passes on the
fact that the host to which Exim is connected supports TLS encryption.
-Mc <message id> <message id> ...
This option requests Exim to run a delivery attempt on each message in
turn, but unlike the -M option, it does check for retry hints, and respects
any that are found. This option is not very useful to external callers. It
is provided mainly for internal use by Exim when it needs to re-invoke
itself in order to regain root privilege for a delivery (see chapter 52).
However, -Mc can be useful when testing, in order to run a delivery that
respects retry times and other options such as hold_domains that are
overridden when -M is used. Such a delivery does not count as a queue run.
If you want to run a specific delivery as if in a queue run, you should use
-q with a message id argument. A distinction between queue run deliveries
and other deliveries is made in one or two places.
-Mes <message id> <address>
This option requests Exim to change the sender address in the message to
the given address, which must be a fully qualified address or "<>" ("es"
for "edit sender"). There must be exactly two arguments. The first argument
must be a message id, and the second one an email address. However, if the
message is active (in the middle of a delivery attempt), its status is not
altered. This option can be used only by an admin user.
-Mf <message id> <message id> ...
This option requests Exim to mark each listed message as "frozen". This
prevents any delivery attempts taking place until the message is "thawed",
either manually or as a result of the auto_thaw configuration option.
However, if any of the messages are active (in the middle of a delivery
attempt), their status is not altered. This option can be used only by an
admin user.
-Mg <message id> <message id> ...
This option requests Exim to give up trying to deliver the listed messages,
including any that are frozen. However, if any of the messages are active,
their status is not altered. For non-bounce messages, a delivery error
message is sent to the sender, containing the text "cancelled by
administrator". Bounce messages are just discarded. This option can be used
only by an admin user.
-Mmad <message id> <message id> ...
This option requests Exim to mark all the recipient addresses in the
messages as already delivered ("mad" for "mark all delivered"). However, if
any message is active (in the middle of a delivery attempt), its status is
not altered. This option can be used only by an admin user.
-Mmd <message id> <address> <address> ...
This option requests Exim to mark the given addresses as already delivered
("md" for "mark delivered"). The first argument must be a message id, and
the remaining ones must be email addresses. These are matched to recipient
addresses in the message in a case-sensitive manner. If the message is
active (in the middle of a delivery attempt), its status is not altered.
This option can be used only by an admin user.
-Mrm <message id> <message id> ...
This option requests Exim to remove the given messages from the queue. No
bounce messages are sent; each message is simply forgotten. However, if any
of the messages are active, their status is not altered. This option can be
used only by an admin user or by the user who originally caused the message
to be placed on the queue.
-Mset <message id>
This option is useful only in conjunction with -be (that is, when testing
string expansions). Exim loads the given message from its spool before
doing the test expansions, thus setting message-specific variables such as
$message_size and the header variables. The $recipients variable is made
available. This feature is provided to make it easier to test expansions
that make use of these variables. However, this option can be used only by
an admin user. See also -bem.
-Mt <message id> <message id> ...
This option requests Exim to "thaw" any of the listed messages that are
"frozen", so that delivery attempts can resume. However, if any of the
messages are active, their status is not altered. This option can be used
only by an admin user.
-Mvb <message id>
This option causes the contents of the message body (-D) spool file to be
written to the standard output. This option can be used only by an admin
user.
-Mvc <message id>
This option causes a copy of the complete message (header lines plus body)
to be written to the standard output in RFC 2822 format. This option can be
used only by an admin user.
-Mvh <message id>
This option causes the contents of the message headers (-H) spool file to
be written to the standard output. This option can be used only by an admin
user.
-Mvl <message id>
This option causes the contents of the message log spool file to be written
to the standard output. This option can be used only by an admin user.
-m
This is apparently a synonym for -om that is accepted by Sendmail, so Exim
treats it that way too.
-N
This is a debugging option that inhibits delivery of a message at the
transport level. It implies -v. Exim goes through many of the motions of
delivery - it just doesn't actually transport the message, but instead
behaves as if it had successfully done so. However, it does not make any
updates to the retry database, and the log entries for deliveries are
flagged with "*>" rather than "=>".
Because -N discards any message to which it applies, only root or the Exim
user are allowed to use it with -bd, -q, -R or -M. In other words, an
ordinary user can use it only when supplying an incoming message to which
it will apply. Although transportation never fails when -N is set, an
address may be deferred because of a configuration problem on a transport,
or a routing problem. Once -N has been used for a delivery attempt, it
sticks to the message, and applies to any subsequent delivery attempts that
may happen for that message.
-n
This option is interpreted by Sendmail to mean "no aliasing". It is ignored
by Exim.
-O <data>
This option is interpreted by Sendmail to mean "set option". It is ignored
by Exim.
-oA <file name>
This option is used by Sendmail in conjunction with -bi to specify an
alternative alias file name. Exim handles -bi differently; see the
description above.
-oB <n>
This is a debugging option which limits the maximum number of messages that
can be delivered down one SMTP connection, overriding the value set in any
smtp transport. If <n> is omitted, the limit is set to 1.
-odb
This option applies to all modes in which Exim accepts incoming messages,
including the listening daemon. It requests "background" delivery of such
messages, which means that the accepting process automatically starts a
delivery process for each message received, but does not wait for the
delivery processes to finish.
When all the messages have been received, the reception process exits,
leaving the delivery processes to finish in their own time. The standard
output and error streams are closed at the start of each delivery process.
This is the default action if none of the -od options are present.
If one of the queueing options in the configuration file (queue_only or
queue_only_file, for example) is in effect, -odb overrides it if
queue_only_override is set true, which is the default setting. If
queue_only_override is set false, -odb has no effect.
-odf
This option requests "foreground" (synchronous) delivery when Exim has
accepted a locally-generated message. (For the daemon it is exactly the
same as -odb.) A delivery process is automatically started to deliver the
message, and Exim waits for it to complete before proceeding.
The original Exim reception process does not finish until the delivery
process for the final message has ended. The standard error stream is left
open during deliveries.
However, like -odb, this option has no effect if queue_only_override is
false and one of the queueing options in the configuration file is in
effect.
If there is a temporary delivery error during foreground delivery, the
message is left on the queue for later delivery, and the original reception
process exits. See chapter 48 for a way of setting up a restricted
configuration that never queues messages.
-odi
This option is synonymous with -odf. It is provided for compatibility with
Sendmail.
-odq
This option applies to all modes in which Exim accepts incoming messages,
including the listening daemon. It specifies that the accepting process
should not automatically start a delivery process for each message
received. Messages are placed on the queue, and remain there until a
subsequent queue runner process encounters them. There are several
configuration options (such as queue_only) that can be used to queue
incoming messages under certain conditions. This option overrides all of
them and also -odqs. It always forces queueing.
-odqs
This option is a hybrid between -odb/-odi and -odq. However, like -odb and
-odi, this option has no effect if queue_only_override is false and one of
the queueing options in the configuration file is in effect.
When -odqs does operate, a delivery process is started for each incoming
message, in the background by default, but in the foreground if -odi is
also present. The recipient addresses are routed, and local deliveries are
done in the normal way. However, if any SMTP deliveries are required, they
are not done at this time, so the message remains on the queue until a
subsequent queue runner process encounters it. Because routing was done,
Exim knows which messages are waiting for which hosts, and so a number of
messages for the same host can be sent in a single SMTP connection. The
queue_smtp_domains configuration option has the same effect for specific
domains. See also the -qq option.
-oee
If an error is detected while a non-SMTP message is being received (for
example, a malformed address), the error is reported to the sender in a
mail message.
Provided this error message is successfully sent, the Exim receiving
process exits with a return code of zero. If not, the return code is 2 if
the problem is that the original message has no recipients, or 1 any other
error. This is the default -oex option if Exim is called as rmail.
-oem
This is the same as -oee, except that Exim always exits with a non-zero
return code, whether or not the error message was successfully sent. This
is the default -oex option, unless Exim is called as rmail.
-oep
If an error is detected while a non-SMTP message is being received, the
error is reported by writing a message to the standard error file (stderr).
The return code is 1 for all errors.
-oeq
This option is supported for compatibility with Sendmail, but has the same
effect as -oep.
-oew
This option is supported for compatibility with Sendmail, but has the same
effect as -oem.
-oi
This option, which has the same effect as -i, specifies that a dot on a
line by itself should not terminate an incoming, non-SMTP message.
Otherwise, a single dot does terminate, though Exim does no special
processing for other lines that start with a dot. This option is set by
default if Exim is called as rmail. See also -ti.
-oitrue
This option is treated as synonymous with -oi.
-oMa <host address>
A number of options starting with -oM can be used to set values associated
with remote hosts on locally-submitted messages (that is, messages not
received over TCP/IP). These options can be used by any caller in
conjunction with the -bh, -be, -bf, -bF, -bt, or -bv testing options. In
other circumstances, they are ignored unless the caller is trusted.
The -oMa option sets the sender host address. This may include a port
number at the end, after a full stop (period). For example:
exim -bs -oMa 10.9.8.7.1234
An alternative syntax is to enclose the IP address in square brackets,
followed by a colon and the port number:
exim -bs -oMa [10.9.8.7]:1234
The IP address is placed in the $sender_host_address variable, and the
port, if present, in $sender_host_port. If both -oMa and -bh are present on
the command line, the sender host IP address is taken from whichever one is
last.
-oMaa <name>
See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The -oMaa option
sets the value of $sender_host_authenticated (the authenticator name). See
chapter 33 for a discussion of SMTP authentication. This option can be used
with -bh and -bs to set up an authenticated SMTP session without actually
using the SMTP AUTH command.
-oMai <string>
See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The -oMai option
sets the value of $authenticated_id (the id that was authenticated). This
overrides the default value (the caller's login id, except with -bh, where
there is no default) for messages from local sources. See chapter 33 for a
discussion of authenticated ids.
-oMas <address>
See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The -oMas option
sets the authenticated sender value in $authenticated_sender. It overrides
the sender address that is created from the caller's login id for messages
from local sources, except when -bh is used, when there is no default. For
both -bh and -bs, an authenticated sender that is specified on a MAIL
command overrides this value. See chapter 33 for a discussion of
authenticated senders.
-oMi <interface address>
See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The -oMi option
sets the IP interface address value. A port number may be included, using
the same syntax as for -oMa. The interface address is placed in
$received_ip_address and the port number, if present, in $received_port.
-oMr <protocol name>
See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The -oMr option
sets the received protocol value that is stored in $received_protocol.
However, it does not apply (and is ignored) when -bh or -bs is used. For
-bh, the protocol is forced to one of the standard SMTP protocol names (see
the description of $received_protocol in section 11.9). For -bs, the
protocol is always "local-" followed by one of those same names. For -bS
(batched SMTP) however, the protocol can be set by -oMr.
-oMs <host name>
See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The -oMs option
sets the sender host name in $sender_host_name. When this option is
present, Exim does not attempt to look up a host name from an IP address;
it uses the name it is given.
-oMt <ident string>
See -oMa above for general remarks about the -oM options. The -oMt option
sets the sender ident value in $sender_ident. The default setting for local
callers is the login id of the calling process, except when -bh is used,
when there is no default.
-om
In Sendmail, this option means "me too", indicating that the sender of a
message should receive a copy of the message if the sender appears in an
alias expansion. Exim always does this, so the option does nothing.
-oo
This option is ignored. In Sendmail it specifies "old style headers",
whatever that means.
-oP <path>
This option is useful only in conjunction with -bd or -q with a time value.
The option specifies the file to which the process id of the daemon is
written. When -oX is used with -bd, or when -q with a time is used without
-bd, this is the only way of causing Exim to write a pid file, because in
those cases, the normal pid file is not used.
-or <time>
This option sets a timeout value for incoming non-SMTP messages. If it is
not set, Exim will wait forever for the standard input. The value can also
be set by the receive_timeout option. The format used for specifying times
is described in section 6.15.
-os <time>
This option sets a timeout value for incoming SMTP messages. The timeout
applies to each SMTP command and block of data. The value can also be set
by the smtp_receive_timeout option; it defaults to 5 minutes. The format
used for specifying times is described in section 6.15.
-ov
This option has exactly the same effect as -v.
-oX <number or string>
This option is relevant only when the -bd (start listening daemon) option
is also given. It controls which ports and interfaces the daemon uses.
Details of the syntax, and how it interacts with configuration file
options, are given in chapter 13. When -oX is used to start a daemon, no
pid file is written unless -oP is also present to specify a pid file name.
-pd
This option applies when an embedded Perl interpreter is linked with Exim
(see chapter 12). It overrides the setting of the perl_at_start option,
forcing the starting of the interpreter to be delayed until it is needed.
-ps
This option applies when an embedded Perl interpreter is linked with Exim
(see chapter 12). It overrides the setting of the perl_at_start option,
forcing the starting of the interpreter to occur as soon as Exim is
started.
-p<rval>:<sval>
For compatibility with Sendmail, this option is equivalent to
-oMr <rval> -oMs <sval>
It sets the incoming protocol and host name (for trusted callers). The host
name and its colon can be omitted when only the protocol is to be set. Note
the Exim already has two private options, -pd and -ps, that refer to
embedded Perl. It is therefore impossible to set a protocol value of "p" or
"s" using this option (but that does not seem a real limitation).
-q
This option is normally restricted to admin users. However, there is a
configuration option called prod_requires_admin which can be set false to
relax this restriction (and also the same requirement for the -M, -R, and
-S options).
The -q option starts one queue runner process. This scans the queue of
waiting messages, and runs a delivery process for each one in turn. It
waits for each delivery process to finish before starting the next one. A
delivery process may not actually do any deliveries if the retry times for
the addresses have not been reached. Use -qf (see below) if you want to
override this.
If the delivery process spawns other processes to deliver other messages
down passed SMTP connections, the queue runner waits for these to finish
before proceeding.
When all the queued messages have been considered, the original queue
runner process terminates. In other words, a single pass is made over the
waiting mail, one message at a time. Use -q with a time (see below) if you
want this to be repeated periodically.
Exim processes the waiting messages in an unpredictable order. It isn't
very random, but it is likely to be different each time, which is all that
matters. If one particular message screws up a remote MTA, other messages
to the same MTA have a chance of getting through if they get tried first.
It is possible to cause the messages to be processed in lexical message id
order, which is essentially the order in which they arrived, by setting the
queue_run_in_order option, but this is not recommended for normal use.
-q<qflags>
The -q option may be followed by one or more flag letters that change its
behaviour. They are all optional, but if more than one is present, they
must appear in the correct order. Each flag is described in a separate item
below.
-qq...
An option starting with -qq requests a two-stage queue run. In the first
stage, the queue is scanned as if the queue_smtp_domains option matched
every domain. Addresses are routed, local deliveries happen, but no remote
transports are run.
The hints database that remembers which messages are waiting for specific
hosts is updated, as if delivery to those hosts had been deferred. After
this is complete, a second, normal queue scan happens, with routing and
delivery taking place as normal. Messages that are routed to the same host
should mostly be delivered down a single SMTP connection because of the
hints that were set up during the first queue scan. This option may be
useful for hosts that are connected to the Internet intermittently.
-q[q]i...
If the i flag is present, the queue runner runs delivery processes only for
those messages that haven't previously been tried. (i stands for "initial
delivery".) This can be helpful if you are putting messages on the queue
using -odq and want a queue runner just to process the new messages.
-q[q][i]f...
If one f flag is present, a delivery attempt is forced for each non-frozen
message, whereas without f only those non-frozen addresses that have passed
their retry times are tried.
-q[q][i]ff...
If ff is present, a delivery attempt is forced for every message, whether
frozen or not.
-q[q][i][f[f]]l
The l (the letter "ell") flag specifies that only local deliveries are to
be done. If a message requires any remote deliveries, it remains on the
queue for later delivery.
-q<qflags> <start id> <end id>
When scanning the queue, Exim can be made to skip over messages whose ids
are lexically less than a given value by following the -q option with a
starting message id. For example:
exim -q 0t5C6f-0000c8-00
Messages that arrived earlier than "0t5C6f-0000c8-00" are not inspected. If
a second message id is given, messages whose ids are lexically greater than
it are also skipped. If the same id is given twice, for example,
exim -q 0t5C6f-0000c8-00 0t5C6f-0000c8-00
just one delivery process is started, for that message. This differs from
-M in that retry data is respected, and it also differs from -Mc in that it
counts as a delivery from a queue run. Note that the selection mechanism
does not affect the order in which the messages are scanned. There are also
other ways of selecting specific sets of messages for delivery in a queue
run - see -R and -S.
-q<qflags><time>
When a time value is present, the -q option causes Exim to run as a daemon,
starting a queue runner process at intervals specified by the given time
value (whose format is described in section 6.15). This form of the -q
option is commonly combined with the -bd option, in which case a single
daemon process handles both functions. A common way of starting up a
combined daemon at system boot time is to use a command such as
/usr/exim/bin/exim -bd -q30m
Such a daemon listens for incoming SMTP calls, and also starts a queue
runner process every 30 minutes.
When a daemon is started by -q with a time value, but without -bd, no pid
file is written unless one is explicitly requested by the -oP option.
-qR<rsflags> <string>
This option is synonymous with -R. It is provided for Sendmail
compatibility.
-qS<rsflags> <string>
This option is synonymous with -S.
-R<rsflags> <string>
The <rsflags> may be empty, in which case the white space before the string
is optional, unless the string is f, ff, r, rf, or rff, which are the
possible values for <rsflags>. White space is required if <rsflags> is not
empty.
This option is similar to -q with no time value, that is, it causes Exim to
perform a single queue run, except that, when scanning the messages on the
queue, Exim processes only those that have at least one undelivered
recipient address containing the given string, which is checked in a
case-independent way. If the <rsflags> start with r, <string> is
interpreted as a regular expression; otherwise it is a literal string.
If you want to do periodic queue runs for messages with specific
recipients, you can combine -R with -q and a time value. For example:
exim -q25m -R @special.domain.example
This example does a queue run for messages with recipients in the given
domain every 25 minutes. Any additional flags that are specified with -q
are applied to each queue run.
Once a message is selected for delivery by this mechanism, all its
addresses are processed. For the first selected message, Exim overrides any
retry information and forces a delivery attempt for each undelivered
address. This means that if delivery of any address in the first message is
successful, any existing retry information is deleted, and so delivery
attempts for that address in subsequently selected messages (which are
processed without forcing) will run. However, if delivery of any address
does not succeed, the retry information is updated, and in subsequently
selected messages, the failing address will be skipped.
If the <rsflags> contain f or ff, the delivery forcing applies to all
selected messages, not just the first; frozen messages are included when ff
is present.
The -R option makes it straightforward to initiate delivery of all messages
to a given domain after a host has been down for some time. When the SMTP
command ETRN is accepted by its ACL (see chapter 40), its default effect is
to run Exim with the -R option, but it can be configured to run an
arbitrary command instead.
-r
This is a documented (for Sendmail) obsolete alternative name for -f.
-S<rsflags> <string>
This option acts like -R except that it checks the string against each
message's sender instead of against the recipients. If -R is also set, both
conditions must be met for a message to be selected. If either of the
options has f or ff in its flags, the associated action is taken.
-Tqt <times>
This an option that is exclusively for use by the Exim testing suite. It is
not recognized when Exim is run normally. It allows for the setting up of
explicit "queue times" so that various warning/retry features can be
tested.
-t
When Exim is receiving a locally-generated, non-SMTP message on its
standard input, the -t option causes the recipients of the message to be
obtained from the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: header lines in the message instead of
from the command arguments. The addresses are extracted before any
rewriting takes place and the Bcc: header line, if present, is then
removed.
If the command has any arguments, they specify addresses to which the
message is not to be delivered. That is, the argument addresses are removed
from the recipients list obtained from the headers. This is compatible with
Smail 3 and in accordance with the documented behaviour of several versions
of Sendmail, as described in man pages on a number of operating systems
(e.g. Solaris 8, IRIX 6.5, HP-UX 11). However, some versions of Sendmail
add argument addresses to those obtained from the headers, and the O'Reilly
Sendmail book documents it that way. Exim can be made to add argument
addresses instead of subtracting them by setting the option
extract_addresses_remove_arguments false.
If there are any Resent- header lines in the message, Exim extracts
recipients from all Resent-To:, Resent-Cc:, and Resent-Bcc: header lines
instead of from To:, Cc:, and Bcc:. This is for compatibility with Sendmail
and other MTAs. (Prior to release 4.20, Exim gave an error if -t was used
in conjunction with Resent- header lines.)
RFC 2822 talks about different sets of Resent- header lines (for when a
message is resent several times). The RFC also specifies that they should
be added at the front of the message, and separated by Received: lines. It
is not at all clear how -t should operate in the present of multiple sets,
nor indeed exactly what constitutes a "set". In practice, it seems that
MUAs do not follow the RFC. The Resent- lines are often added at the end of
the header, and if a message is resent more than once, it is common for the
original set of Resent- headers to be renamed as X-Resent- when a new set
is added. This removes any possible ambiguity.
-ti
This option is exactly equivalent to -t -i. It is provided for
compatibility with Sendmail.
-tls-on-connect
This option is available when Exim is compiled with TLS support. It forces
all incoming SMTP connections to behave as if the incoming port is listed
in the tls_on_connect_ports option. See section 13.4 and chapter 39 for
further details.
-U
Sendmail uses this option for "initial message submission", and its
documentation states that in future releases, it may complain about
syntactically invalid messages rather than fixing them when this flag is
not set. Exim ignores this option.
-v
This option causes Exim to write information to the standard error stream,
describing what it is doing. In particular, it shows the log lines for
receiving and delivering a message, and if an SMTP connection is made, the
SMTP dialogue is shown. Some of the log lines shown may not actually be
written to the log if the setting of log_selector discards them. Any
relevant selectors are shown with each log line. If none are shown, the
logging is unconditional.
-x
AIX uses -x for a private purpose ("mail from a local mail program has
National Language Support extended characters in the body of the mail
item"). It sets -x when calling the MTA from its mail command. Exim ignores
this option.
===============================================================================
6. THE EXIM RUN TIME CONFIGURATION FILE
Exim uses a single run time configuration file that is read whenever an Exim
binary is executed. Note that in normal operation, this happens frequently,
because Exim is designed to operate in a distributed manner, without central
control.
If a syntax error is detected while reading the configuration file, Exim writes
a message on the standard error, and exits with a non-zero return code. The
message is also written to the panic log. Note: Only simple syntax errors can
be detected at this time. The values of any expanded options are not checked
until the expansion happens, even when the expansion does not actually alter
the string.
The name of the configuration file is compiled into the binary for security
reasons, and is specified by the CONFIGURE_FILE compilation option. In most
configurations, this specifies a single file. However, it is permitted to give
a colon-separated list of file names, in which case Exim uses the first
existing file in the list.
The run time configuration file must be owned by root or by the user that is
specified at compile time by the EXIM_USER option, or by the user that is
specified at compile time by the CONFIGURE_OWNER option (if set). The
configuration file must not be world-writeable or group-writeable, unless its
group is the one specified at compile time by the EXIM_GROUP option or by the
CONFIGURE_GROUP option.
Warning: In a conventional configuration, where the Exim binary is setuid to
root, anybody who is able to edit the run time configuration file has an easy
way to run commands as root. If you make your mail administrators members of
the Exim group, but do not trust them with root, make sure that the run time
configuration is not group writeable.
A default configuration file, which will work correctly in simple situations,
is provided in the file src/configure.default. If CONFIGURE_FILE defines just
one file name, the installation process copies the default configuration to a
new file of that name if it did not previously exist. If CONFIGURE_FILE is a
list, no default is automatically installed. Chapter 7 is a "walk-through"
discussion of the default configuration.
6.1 Using a different configuration file
----------------------------------------
A one-off alternate configuration can be specified by the -C command line
option, which may specify a single file or a list of files. However, when -C is
used, Exim gives up its root privilege, unless called by root or the Exim user
(or unless the argument for -C is identical to the built-in value from
CONFIGURE_FILE). -C is useful mainly for checking the syntax of configuration
files before installing them. No owner or group checks are done on a
configuration file specified by -C.
The privileged use of -C by the Exim user can be locked out by setting
ALT_CONFIG_ROOT_ONLY in Local/Makefile when building Exim. However, if you do
this, you also lock out the possibility of testing a configuration using -C
right through message reception and delivery, even if the caller is root. The
reception works, but by that time, Exim is running as the Exim user, so when it
re-execs to regain privilege for the delivery, the use of -C causes privilege
to be lost. However, root can test reception and delivery using two separate
commands (one to put a message on the queue, using -odq, and another to do the
delivery, using -M).
If ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX is defined in Local/Makefile, it specifies a prefix string
with which any file named in a -C command line option must start. In addition,
the file name must not contain the sequence "/../". There is no default setting
for ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX; when it is unset, any file name can be used with -C.
One-off changes to a configuration can be specified by the -D command line
option, which defines and overrides values for macros used inside the
configuration file. However, like -C, the use of this option by a
non-privileged user causes Exim to discard its root privilege. If
DISABLE_D_OPTION is defined in Local/Makefile, the use of -D is completely
disabled, and its use causes an immediate error exit.
Some sites may wish to use the same Exim binary on different machines that
share a file system, but to use different configuration files on each machine.
If CONFIGURE_FILE_USE_NODE is defined in Local/Makefile, Exim first looks for a
file whose name is the configuration file name followed by a dot and the
machine's node name, as obtained from the uname() function. If this file does
not exist, the standard name is tried. This processing occurs for each file
name in the list given by CONFIGURE_FILE or -C.
In some esoteric situations different versions of Exim may be run under
different effective uids and the CONFIGURE_FILE_USE_EUID is defined to help
with this. See the comments in src/EDITME for details.
6.2 Configuration file format
-----------------------------
Exim's configuration file is divided into a number of different parts. General
option settings must always appear at the start of the file. The other parts
are all optional, and may appear in any order. Each part other than the first
is introduced by the word "begin" followed by the name of the part. The
optional parts are:
* ACL: Access control lists for controlling incoming SMTP mail (see chapter
40).
* authenticators: Configuration settings for the authenticator drivers. These
are concerned with the SMTP AUTH command (see chapter 33).
* routers: Configuration settings for the router drivers. Routers process
addresses and determine how the message is to be delivered (see chapters 15
-22).
* transports: Configuration settings for the transport drivers. Transports
define mechanisms for copying messages to destinations (see chapters 24-30
).
* retry: Retry rules, for use when a message cannot be delivered immediately.
If there is no retry section, or if it is empty (that is, no retry rules
are defined), Exim will not retry deliveries. In this situation, temporary
errors are treated the same as permanent errors. Retry rules are discussed
in chapter 32.
* rewrite: Global address rewriting rules, for use when a message arrives and
when new addresses are generated during delivery. Rewriting is discussed in
chapter 31.
* local_scan: Private options for the local_scan() function. If you want to
use this feature, you must set
LOCAL_SCAN_HAS_OPTIONS=yes
in Local/Makefile before building Exim. Details of the local_scan()
facility are given in chapter 42.
Leading and trailing white space in configuration lines is always ignored.
Blank lines in the file, and lines starting with a # character (ignoring
leading white space) are treated as comments and are ignored. Note: A #
character other than at the beginning of a line is not treated specially, and
does not introduce a comment.
Any non-comment line can be continued by ending it with a backslash. Note that
the general rule for white space means that trailing white space after the
backslash and leading white space at the start of continuation lines is
ignored. Comment lines beginning with # (but not empty lines) may appear in the
middle of a sequence of continuation lines.
A convenient way to create a configuration file is to start from the default,
which is supplied in src/configure.default, and add, delete, or change settings
as required.
The ACLs, retry rules, and rewriting rules have their own syntax which is
described in chapters 40, 32, and 31, respectively. The other parts of the
configuration file have some syntactic items in common, and these are described
below, from section 6.10 onwards. Before that, the inclusion, macro, and
conditional facilities are described.
6.3 File inclusions in the configuration file
---------------------------------------------
You can include other files inside Exim's run time configuration file by using
this syntax:
.include <file name>
.include_if_exists <file name>
on a line by itself. Double quotes round the file name are optional. If you use
the first form, a configuration error occurs if the file does not exist; the
second form does nothing for non-existent files. In all cases, an absolute file
name is required.
Includes may be nested to any depth, but remember that Exim reads its
configuration file often, so it is a good idea to keep them to a minimum. If
you change the contents of an included file, you must HUP the daemon, because
an included file is read only when the configuration itself is read.
The processing of inclusions happens early, at a physical line level, so, like
comment lines, an inclusion can be used in the middle of an option setting, for
example:
hosts_lookup = a.b.c \
.include /some/file
Include processing happens after macro processing (see below). Its effect is to
process the lines of the included file as if they occurred inline where the
inclusion appears.
6.4 Macros in the configuration file
------------------------------------
If a line in the main part of the configuration (that is, before the first
"begin" line) begins with an upper case letter, it is taken as a macro
definition, and must be of the form
<name> = <rest of line>
The name must consist of letters, digits, and underscores, and need not all be
in upper case, though that is recommended. The rest of the line, including any
continuations, is the replacement text, and has leading and trailing white
space removed. Quotes are not removed. The replacement text can never end with
a backslash character, but this doesn't seem to be a serious limitation.
Macros may also be defined between router, transport, authenticator, or ACL
definitions. They may not, however, be defined within an individual driver or
ACL, or in the local_scan, retry, or rewrite sections of the configuration.
6.5 Macro substitution
----------------------
Once a macro is defined, all subsequent lines in the file (and any included
files) are scanned for the macro name; if there are several macros, the line is
scanned for each in turn, in the order in which the macros are defined. The
replacement text is not re-scanned for the current macro, though it is scanned
for subsequently defined macros. For this reason, a macro name may not contain
the name of a previously defined macro as a substring. You could, for example,
define
ABCD_XYZ = <something>
ABCD = <something else>
but putting the definitions in the opposite order would provoke a configuration
error. Macro expansion is applied to individual physical lines from the file,
before checking for line continuation or file inclusion (see above). If a line
consists solely of a macro name, and the expansion of the macro is empty, the
line is ignored. A macro at the start of a line may turn the line into a
comment line or a ".include" line.
6.6 Redefining macros
---------------------
Once defined, the value of a macro can be redefined later in the configuration
(or in an included file). Redefinition is specified by using == instead of =.
For example:
MAC = initial value
...
MAC == updated value
Redefinition does not alter the order in which the macros are applied to the
subsequent lines of the configuration file. It is still the same order in which
the macros were originally defined. All that changes is the macro's value.
Redefinition makes it possible to accumulate values. For example:
MAC = initial value
...
MAC == MAC and something added
This can be helpful in situations where the configuration file is built from a
number of other files.
6.7 Overriding macro values
---------------------------
The values set for macros in the configuration file can be overridden by the -D
command line option, but Exim gives up its root privilege when -D is used,
unless called by root or the Exim user. A definition on the command line using
the -D option causes all definitions and redefinitions within the file to be
ignored.
6.8 Example of macro usage
--------------------------
As an example of macro usage, consider a configuration where aliases are looked
up in a MySQL database. It helps to keep the file less cluttered if long
strings such as SQL statements are defined separately as macros, for example:
ALIAS_QUERY = select mailbox from user where \
login=${quote_mysql:$local_part};
This can then be used in a redirect router setting like this:
data = ${lookup mysql{ALIAS_QUERY}}
In earlier versions of Exim macros were sometimes used for domain, host, or
address lists. In Exim 4 these are handled better by named lists - see section
10.5.
6.9 Conditional skips in the configuration file
-----------------------------------------------
You can use the directives ".ifdef", ".ifndef", ".elifdef", ".elifndef",
".else", and ".endif" to dynamically include or exclude portions of the
configuration file. The processing happens whenever the file is read (that is,
when an Exim binary starts to run).
The implementation is very simple. Instances of the first four directives must
be followed by text that includes the names of one or macros. The condition
that is tested is whether or not any macro substitution has taken place in the
line. Thus:
.ifdef AAA
message_size_limit = 50M
.else
message_size_limit = 100M
.endif
sets a message size limit of 50M if the macro "AAA" is defined, and 100M
otherwise. If there is more than one macro named on the line, the condition is
true if any of them are defined. That is, it is an "or" condition. To obtain an
"and" condition, you need to use nested ".ifdef"s.
Although you can use a macro expansion to generate one of these directives, it
is not very useful, because the condition "there was a macro substitution in
this line" will always be true.
Text following ".else" and ".endif" is ignored, and can be used as comment to
clarify complicated nestings.
6.10 Common option syntax
-------------------------
For the main set of options, driver options, and local_scan() options, each
setting is on a line by itself, and starts with a name consisting of lower-case
letters and underscores. Many options require a data value, and in these cases
the name must be followed by an equals sign (with optional white space) and
then the value. For example:
qualify_domain = mydomain.example.com
Some option settings may contain sensitive data, for example, passwords for
accessing databases. To stop non-admin users from using the -bP command line
option to read these values, you can precede the option settings with the word
"hide". For example:
hide mysql_servers = localhost/users/admin/secret-password
For non-admin users, such options are displayed like this:
mysql_servers = <value not displayable>
If "hide" is used on a driver option, it hides the value of that option on all
instances of the same driver.
The following sections describe the syntax used for the different data types
that are found in option settings.
6.11 Boolean options
--------------------
Options whose type is given as boolean are on/off switches. There are two
different ways of specifying such options: with and without a data value. If
the option name is specified on its own without data, the switch is turned on;
if it is preceded by "no_" or "not_" the switch is turned off. However, boolean
options may be followed by an equals sign and one of the words "true", "false",
"yes", or "no", as an alternative syntax. For example, the following two
settings have exactly the same effect:
queue_only
queue_only = true
The following two lines also have the same (opposite) effect:
no_queue_only
queue_only = false
You can use whichever syntax you prefer.
6.12 Integer values
-------------------
If an option's type is given as "integer", the value can be given in decimal,
hexadecimal, or octal. If it starts with a digit greater than zero, a decimal
number is assumed. Otherwise, it is treated as an octal number unless it starts
with the characters "0x", in which case the remainder is interpreted as a
hexadecimal number.
If an integer value is followed by the letter K, it is multiplied by 1024; if
it is followed by the letter M, it is multiplied by 1024x1024. When the values
of integer option settings are output, values which are an exact multiple of
1024 or 1024x1024 are sometimes, but not always, printed using the letters K
and M. The printing style is independent of the actual input format that was
used.
6.13 Octal integer values
-------------------------
If an option's type is given as "octal integer", its value is always
interpreted as an octal number, whether or not it starts with the digit zero.
Such options are always output in octal.
6.14 Fixed point numbers
------------------------
If an option's type is given as "fixed-point", its value must be a decimal
integer, optionally followed by a decimal point and up to three further digits.
6.15 Time intervals
-------------------
A time interval is specified as a sequence of numbers, each followed by one of
the following letters, with no intervening white space:
s seconds
m minutes
h hours
d days
w weeks
For example, "3h50m" specifies 3 hours and 50 minutes. The values of time
intervals are output in the same format. Exim does not restrict the values; it
is perfectly acceptable, for example, to specify "90m" instead of "1h30m".
6.16 String values
------------------
If an option's type is specified as "string", the value can be specified with
or without double-quotes. If it does not start with a double-quote, the value
consists of the remainder of the line plus any continuation lines, starting at
the first character after any leading white space, with trailing white space
removed, and with no interpretation of the characters in the string. Because
Exim removes comment lines (those beginning with #) at an early stage, they can
appear in the middle of a multi-line string. The following two settings are
therefore equivalent:
trusted_users = uucp:mail
trusted_users = uucp:\
# This comment line is ignored
mail
If a string does start with a double-quote, it must end with a closing
double-quote, and any backslash characters other than those used for line
continuation are interpreted as escape characters, as follows:
"\\" single backslash
"\n" newline
"\r" carriage return
"\t" tab
"\"<octal digits> up to 3 octal digits specify one character
"\x"<hex digits> up to 2 hexadecimal digits specify one character
If a backslash is followed by some other character, including a double-quote
character, that character replaces the pair.
Quoting is necessary only if you want to make use of the backslash escapes to
insert special characters, or if you need to specify a value with leading or
trailing spaces. These cases are rare, so quoting is almost never needed in
current versions of Exim. In versions of Exim before 3.14, quoting was required
in order to continue lines, so you may come across older configuration files
and examples that apparently quote unnecessarily.
6.17 Expanded strings
---------------------
Some strings in the configuration file are subjected to string expansion, by
which means various parts of the string may be changed according to the
circumstances (see chapter 11). The input syntax for such strings is as just
described; in particular, the handling of backslashes in quoted strings is done
as part of the input process, before expansion takes place. However, backslash
is also an escape character for the expander, so any backslashes that are
required for that reason must be doubled if they are within a quoted
configuration string.
6.18 User and group names
-------------------------
User and group names are specified as strings, using the syntax described
above, but the strings are interpreted specially. A user or group name must
either consist entirely of digits, or be a name that can be looked up using the
getpwnam() or getgrnam() function, as appropriate.
6.19 List construction
----------------------
The data for some configuration options is a list of items, with colon as the
default separator. Many of these options are shown with type "string list" in
the descriptions later in this document. Others are listed as "domain list",
"host list", "address list", or "local part list". Syntactically, they are all
the same; however, those other than "string list" are subject to particular
kinds of interpretation, as described in chapter 10.
In all these cases, the entire list is treated as a single string as far as the
input syntax is concerned. The trusted_users setting in section 6.16 above is
an example. If a colon is actually needed in an item in a list, it must be
entered as two colons. Leading and trailing white space on each item in a list
is ignored. This makes it possible to include items that start with a colon,
and in particular, certain forms of IPv6 address. For example, the list
local_interfaces = 127.0.0.1 : ::::1
contains two IP addresses, the IPv4 address 127.0.0.1 and the IPv6 address ::1.
Note: Although leading and trailing white space is ignored in individual list
items, it is not ignored when parsing the list. The space after the first colon
in the example above is necessary. If it were not there, the list would be
interpreted as the two items 127.0.0.1:: and 1.
6.20 Changing list separators
-----------------------------
Doubling colons in IPv6 addresses is an unwelcome chore, so a mechanism was
introduced to allow the separator character to be changed. If a list begins
with a left angle bracket, followed by any punctuation character, that
character is used instead of colon as the list separator. For example, the list
above can be rewritten to use a semicolon separator like this:
local_interfaces = <; 127.0.0.1 ; ::1
This facility applies to all lists, with the exception of the list in
log_file_path. It is recommended that the use of non-colon separators be
confined to circumstances where they really are needed.
It is also possible to use newline and other control characters (those with
code values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists. Such separators
must be provided literally at the time the list is processed. For options that
are string-expanded, you can write the separator using a normal escape
sequence. This will be processed by the expander before the string is
interpreted as a list. For example, if a newline-separated list of domains is
generated by a lookup, you can process it directly by a line such as this:
domains = <\n ${lookup mysql{.....}}
This avoids having to change the list separator in such data. You are unlikely
to want to use a control character as a separator in an option that is not
expanded, because the value is literal text. However, it can be done by giving
the value in quotes. For example:
local_interfaces = "<\n 127.0.0.1 \n ::1"
Unlike printing character separators, which can be included in list items by
doubling, it is not possible to include a control character as data when it is
set as the separator. Two such characters in succession are interpreted as
enclosing an empty list item.
6.21 Empty items in lists
-------------------------
An empty item at the end of a list is always ignored. In other words, trailing
separator characters are ignored. Thus, the list in
senders = user@domain :
contains only a single item. If you want to include an empty string as one item
in a list, it must not be the last item. For example, this list contains three
items, the second of which is empty:
senders = user1@domain : : user2@domain
Note: There must be white space between the two colons, as otherwise they are
interpreted as representing a single colon data character (and the list would
then contain just one item). If you want to specify a list that contains just
one, empty item, you can do it as in this example:
senders = :
In this case, the first item is empty, and the second is discarded because it
is at the end of the list.
6.22 Format of driver configurations
------------------------------------
There are separate parts in the configuration for defining routers, transports,
and authenticators. In each part, you are defining a number of driver
instances, each with its own set of options. Each driver instance is defined by
a sequence of lines like this:
<instance name>:
<option>
...
<option>
In the following example, the instance name is localuser, and it is followed by
three options settings:
localuser:
driver = accept
check_local_user
transport = local_delivery
For each driver instance, you specify which Exim code module it uses - by the
setting of the driver option - and (optionally) some configuration settings.
For example, in the case of transports, if you want a transport to deliver with
SMTP you would use the smtp driver; if you want to deliver to a local file you
would use the appendfile driver. Each of the drivers is described in detail in
its own separate chapter later in this manual.
You can have several routers, transports, or authenticators that are based on
the same underlying driver (each must have a different instance name).
The order in which routers are defined is important, because addresses are
passed to individual routers one by one, in order. The order in which
transports are defined does not matter at all. The order in which
authenticators are defined is used only when Exim, as a client, is searching
them to find one that matches an authentication mechanism offered by the
server.
Within a driver instance definition, there are two kinds of option: generic and
private. The generic options are those that apply to all drivers of the same
type (that is, all routers, all transports or all authenticators). The driver
option is a generic option that must appear in every definition. The private
options are special for each driver, and none need appear, because they all
have default values.
The options may appear in any order, except that the driver option must precede
any private options, since these depend on the particular driver. For this
reason, it is recommended that driver always be the first option.
Driver instance names, which are used for reference in log entries and
elsewhere, can be any sequence of letters, digits, and underscores (starting
with a letter) and must be unique among drivers of the same type. A router and
a transport (for example) can each have the same name, but no two router
instances can have the same name. The name of a driver instance should not be
confused with the name of the underlying driver module. For example, the
configuration lines:
remote_smtp:
driver = smtp
create an instance of the smtp transport driver whose name is remote_smtp. The
same driver code can be used more than once, with different instance names and
different option settings each time. A second instance of the smtp transport,
with different options, might be defined thus:
special_smtp:
driver = smtp
port = 1234
command_timeout = 10s
The names remote_smtp and special_smtp would be used to reference these
transport instances from routers, and these names would appear in log lines.
Comment lines may be present in the middle of driver specifications. The full
list of option settings for any particular driver instance, including all the
defaulted values, can be extracted by making use of the -bP command line
option.
===============================================================================
7. THE DEFAULT CONFIGURATION FILE
The default configuration file supplied with Exim as src/configure.default is
sufficient for a host with simple mail requirements. As an introduction to the
way Exim is configured, this chapter "walks through" the default configuration,
giving brief explanations of the settings. Detailed descriptions of the options
are given in subsequent chapters. The default configuration file itself
contains extensive comments about ways you might want to modify the initial
settings. However, note that there are many options that are not mentioned at
all in the default configuration.
7.1 Main configuration settings
-------------------------------
The main (global) configuration option settings must always come first in the
file. The first thing you'll see in the file, after some initial comments, is
the line
# primary_hostname =
This is a commented-out setting of the primary_hostname option. Exim needs to
know the official, fully qualified name of your host, and this is where you can
specify it. However, in most cases you do not need to set this option. When it
is unset, Exim uses the uname() system function to obtain the host name.
The first three non-comment configuration lines are as follows:
domainlist local_domains = @
domainlist relay_to_domains =
hostlist relay_from_hosts = 127.0.0.1
These are not, in fact, option settings. They are definitions of two named
domain lists and one named host list. Exim allows you to give names to lists of
domains, hosts, and email addresses, in order to make it easier to manage the
configuration file (see section 10.5).
The first line defines a domain list called local_domains; this is used later
in the configuration to identify domains that are to be delivered on the local
host.
There is just one item in this list, the string "@". This is a special form of
entry which means "the name of the local host". Thus, if the local host is
called a.host.example, mail to any.user@a.host.example is expected to be
delivered locally. Because the local host's name is referenced indirectly, the
same configuration file can be used on different hosts.
The second line defines a domain list called relay_to_domains, but the list
itself is empty. Later in the configuration we will come to the part that
controls mail relaying through the local host; it allows relaying to any
domains in this list. By default, therefore, no relaying on the basis of a mail
domain is permitted.
The third line defines a host list called relay_from_hosts. This list is used
later in the configuration to permit relaying from any host or IP address that
matches the list. The default contains just the IP address of the IPv4 loopback
interface, which means that processes on the local host are able to submit mail
for relaying by sending it over TCP/IP to that interface. No other hosts are
permitted to submit messages for relaying.
Just to be sure there's no misunderstanding: at this point in the configuration
we aren't actually setting up any controls. We are just defining some domains
and hosts that will be used in the controls that are specified later.
The next two configuration lines are genuine option settings:
acl_smtp_rcpt = acl_check_rcpt
acl_smtp_data = acl_check_data
These options specify Access Control Lists (ACLs) that are to be used during an
incoming SMTP session for every recipient of a message (every RCPT command),
and after the contents of the message have been received, respectively. The
names of the lists are acl_check_rcpt and acl_check_data, and we will come to
their definitions below, in the ACL section of the configuration. The RCPT ACL
controls which recipients are accepted for an incoming message - if a
configuration does not provide an ACL to check recipients, no SMTP mail can be
accepted. The DATA ACL allows the contents of a message to be checked.
Two commented-out option settings are next:
# av_scanner = clamd:/tmp/clamd
# spamd_address = 127.0.0.1 783
These are example settings that can be used when Exim is compiled with the
content-scanning extension. The first specifies the interface to the virus
scanner, and the second specifies the interface to SpamAssassin. Further
details are given in chapter 41.
Three more commented-out option settings follow:
# tls_advertise_hosts = *
# tls_certificate = /etc/ssl/exim.crt
# tls_privatekey = /etc/ssl/exim.pem
These are example settings that can be used when Exim is compiled with support
for TLS (aka SSL) as described in section 4.6. The first one specifies the list
of clients that are allowed to use TLS when connecting to this server; in this
case the wildcard means all clients. The other options specify where Exim
should find its TLS certificate and private key, which together prove the
server's identity to any clients that connect. More details are given in
chapter 39.
Another two commented-out option settings follow:
# daemon_smtp_ports = 25 : 465 : 587
# tls_on_connect_ports = 465
These options provide better support for roaming users who wish to use this
server for message submission. They are not much use unless you have turned on
TLS (as described in the previous paragraph) and authentication (about which
more in section 7.7). The usual SMTP port 25 is often blocked on end-user
networks, so RFC 4409 specifies that message submission should use port 587
instead. However some software (notably Microsoft Outlook) cannot be configured
to use port 587 correctly, so these settings also enable the non-standard
"smtps" (aka "ssmtp") port 465 (see section 13.4).
Two more commented-out options settings follow:
# qualify_domain =
# qualify_recipient =
The first of these specifies a domain that Exim uses when it constructs a
complete email address from a local login name. This is often needed when Exim
receives a message from a local process. If you do not set qualify_domain, the
value of primary_hostname is used. If you set both of these options, you can
have different qualification domains for sender and recipient addresses. If you
set only the first one, its value is used in both cases.
The following line must be uncommented if you want Exim to recognize addresses
of the form user@[10.11.12.13] that is, with a "domain literal" (an IP address
within square brackets) instead of a named domain.
# allow_domain_literals
The RFCs still require this form, but many people think that in the modern
Internet it makes little sense to permit mail to be sent to specific hosts by
quoting their IP addresses. This ancient format has been used by people who try
to abuse hosts by using them for unwanted relaying. However, some people
believe there are circumstances (for example, messages addressed to postmaster)
where domain literals are still useful.
The next configuration line is a kind of trigger guard:
never_users = root
It specifies that no delivery must ever be run as the root user. The normal
convention is to set up root as an alias for the system administrator. This
setting is a guard against slips in the configuration. The list of users
specified by never_users is not, however, the complete list; the build-time
configuration in Local/Makefile has an option called FIXED_NEVER_USERS
specifying a list that cannot be overridden. The contents of never_users are
added to this list. By default FIXED_NEVER_USERS also specifies root.
When a remote host connects to Exim in order to send mail, the only information
Exim has about the host's identity is its IP address. The next configuration
line,
host_lookup = *
specifies that Exim should do a reverse DNS lookup on all incoming connections,
in order to get a host name. This improves the quality of the logging
information, but if you feel it is too expensive, you can remove it entirely,
or restrict the lookup to hosts on "nearby" networks. Note that it is not
always possible to find a host name from an IP address, because not all DNS
reverse zones are maintained, and sometimes DNS servers are unreachable.
The next two lines are concerned with ident callbacks, as defined by RFC 1413
(hence their names):
rfc1413_hosts = *
rfc1413_query_timeout = 5s
These settings cause Exim to make ident callbacks for all incoming SMTP calls.
You can limit the hosts to which these calls are made, or change the timeout
that is used. If you set the timeout to zero, all ident calls are disabled.
Although they are cheap and can provide useful information for tracing problem
messages, some hosts and firewalls have problems with ident calls. This can
result in a timeout instead of an immediate refused connection, leading to
delays on starting up an incoming SMTP session.
When Exim receives messages over SMTP connections, it expects all addresses to
be fully qualified with a domain, as required by the SMTP definition. However,
if you are running a server to which simple clients submit messages, you may
find that they send unqualified addresses. The two commented-out options:
# sender_unqualified_hosts =
# recipient_unqualified_hosts =
show how you can specify hosts that are permitted to send unqualified sender
and recipient addresses, respectively.
The percent_hack_domains option is also commented out:
# percent_hack_domains =
It provides a list of domains for which the "percent hack" is to operate. This
is an almost obsolete form of explicit email routing. If you do not know
anything about it, you can safely ignore this topic.
The last two settings in the main part of the default configuration are
concerned with messages that have been "frozen" on Exim's queue. When a message
is frozen, Exim no longer continues to try to deliver it. Freezing occurs when
a bounce message encounters a permanent failure because the sender address of
the original message that caused the bounce is invalid, so the bounce cannot be
delivered. This is probably the most common case, but there are also other
conditions that cause freezing, and frozen messages are not always bounce
messages.
ignore_bounce_errors_after = 2d
timeout_frozen_after = 7d
The first of these options specifies that failing bounce messages are to be
discarded after 2 days on the queue. The second specifies that any frozen
message (whether a bounce message or not) is to be timed out (and discarded)
after a week. In this configuration, the first setting ensures that no failing
bounce message ever lasts a week.
7.2 ACL configuration
---------------------
In the default configuration, the ACL section follows the main configuration.
It starts with the line
begin acl
and it contains the definitions of two ACLs, called acl_check_rcpt and
acl_check_data, that were referenced in the settings of acl_smtp_rcpt and
acl_smtp_data above.
The first ACL is used for every RCPT command in an incoming SMTP message. Each
RCPT command specifies one of the message's recipients. The ACL statements are
considered in order, until the recipient address is either accepted or
rejected. The RCPT command is then accepted or rejected, according to the
result of the ACL processing.
acl_check_rcpt:
This line, consisting of a name terminated by a colon, marks the start of the
ACL, and names it.
accept hosts = :
This ACL statement accepts the recipient if the sending host matches the list.
But what does that strange list mean? It doesn't actually contain any host
names or IP addresses. The presence of the colon puts an empty item in the
list; Exim matches this only if the incoming message did not come from a remote
host, because in that case, the remote hostname is empty. The colon is
important. Without it, the list itself is empty, and can never match anything.
What this statement is doing is to accept unconditionally all recipients in
messages that are submitted by SMTP from local processes using the standard
input and output (that is, not using TCP/IP). A number of MUAs operate in this
manner.
deny message = Restricted characters in address
domains = +local_domains
local_parts = ^[.] : ^.*[@%!/|]
deny message = Restricted characters in address
domains = !+local_domains
local_parts = ^[./|] : ^.*[@%!] : ^.*/\\.\\./
These statements are concerned with local parts that contain any of the
characters "@", "%", "!", "/", "|", or dots in unusual places. Although these
characters are entirely legal in local parts (in the case of "@" and leading
dots, only if correctly quoted), they do not commonly occur in Internet mail
addresses.
The first three have in the past been associated with explicitly routed
addresses (percent is still sometimes used - see the percent_hack_domains
option). Addresses containing these characters are regularly tried by spammers
in an attempt to bypass relaying restrictions, and also by open relay testing
programs. Unless you really need them it is safest to reject these characters
at this early stage. This configuration is heavy-handed in rejecting these
characters for all messages it accepts from remote hosts. This is a deliberate
policy of being as safe as possible.
The first rule above is stricter, and is applied to messages that are addressed
to one of the local domains handled by this host. This is implemented by the
first condition, which restricts it to domains that are listed in the
local_domains domain list. The "+" character is used to indicate a reference to
a named list. In this configuration, there is just one domain in local_domains,
but in general there may be many.
The second condition on the first statement uses two regular expressions to
block local parts that begin with a dot or contain "@", "%", "!", "/", or "|".
If you have local accounts that include these characters, you will have to
modify this rule.
Empty components (two dots in a row) are not valid in RFC 2822, but Exim allows
them because they have been encountered in practice. (Consider the common
convention of local parts constructed as "
first-initial.second-initial.family-name" when applied to someone like the
author of Exim, who has no second initial.) However, a local part starting with
a dot or containing "/../" can cause trouble if it is used as part of a file
name (for example, for a mailing list). This is also true for local parts that
contain slashes. A pipe symbol can also be troublesome if the local part is
incorporated unthinkingly into a shell command line.
The second rule above applies to all other domains, and is less strict. This
allows your own users to send outgoing messages to sites that use slashes and
vertical bars in their local parts. It blocks local parts that begin with a
dot, slash, or vertical bar, but allows these characters within the local part.
However, the sequence "/../" is barred. The use of "@", "%", and "!" is
blocked, as before. The motivation here is to prevent your users (or your
users' viruses) from mounting certain kinds of attack on remote sites.
accept local_parts = postmaster
domains = +local_domains
This statement, which has two conditions, accepts an incoming address if the
local part is postmaster and the domain is one of those listed in the
local_domains domain list. The "+" character is used to indicate a reference to
a named list. In this configuration, there is just one domain in local_domains,
but in general there may be many.
The presence of this statement means that mail to postmaster is never blocked
by any of the subsequent tests. This can be helpful while sorting out problems
in cases where the subsequent tests are incorrectly denying access.
require verify = sender
This statement requires the sender address to be verified before any subsequent
ACL statement can be used. If verification fails, the incoming recipient
address is refused. Verification consists of trying to route the address, to
see if a bounce message could be delivered to it. In the case of remote
addresses, basic verification checks only the domain, but callouts can be used
for more verification if required. Section 40.40 discusses the details of
address verification.
accept hosts = +relay_from_hosts
control = submission
This statement accepts the address if the message is coming from one of the
hosts that are defined as being allowed to relay through this host. Recipient
verification is omitted here, because in many cases the clients are dumb MUAs
that do not cope well with SMTP error responses. For the same reason, the
second line specifies "submission mode" for messages that are accepted. This is
described in detail in section 44.1; it causes Exim to fix messages that are
deficient in some way, for example, because they lack a Date: header line. If
you are actually relaying out from MTAs, you should probably add recipient
verification here, and disable submission mode.
accept authenticated = *
control = submission
This statement accepts the address if the client host has authenticated itself.
Submission mode is again specified, on the grounds that such messages are most
likely to come from MUAs. The default configuration does not define any
authenticators, though it does include some nearly complete commented-out
examples described in 7.7. This means that no client can in fact authenticate
until you complete the authenticator definitions.
require message = relay not permitted
domains = +local_domains : +relay_domains
This statement rejects the address if its domain is neither a local domain nor
one of the domains for which this host is a relay.
require verify = recipient
This statement requires the recipient address to be verified; if verification
fails, the address is rejected.
# deny message = rejected because $sender_host_address \
# is in a black list at $dnslist_domain\n\
# $dnslist_text
# dnslists = black.list.example
#
# warn dnslists = black.list.example
# add_header = X-Warning: $sender_host_address is in \
# a black list at $dnslist_domain
# log_message = found in $dnslist_domain
These commented-out lines are examples of how you could configure Exim to check
sending hosts against a DNS black list. The first statement rejects messages
from blacklisted hosts, whereas the second just inserts a warning header line.
# require verify = csa
This commented-out line is an example of how you could turn on client SMTP
authorization (CSA) checking. Such checks do DNS lookups for special SRV
records.
accept
The final statement in the first ACL unconditionally accepts any recipient
address that has successfully passed all the previous tests.
acl_check_data:
This line marks the start of the second ACL, and names it. Most of the contents
of this ACL are commented out:
# deny malware = *
# message = This message contains a virus \
# ($malware_name).
These lines are examples of how to arrange for messages to be scanned for
viruses when Exim has been compiled with the content-scanning extension, and a
suitable virus scanner is installed. If the message is found to contain a
virus, it is rejected with the given custom error message.
# warn spam = nobody
# message = X-Spam_score: $spam_score\n\
# X-Spam_score_int: $spam_score_int\n\
# X-Spam_bar: $spam_bar\n\
# X-Spam_report: $spam_report
These lines are an example of how to arrange for messages to be scanned by
SpamAssassin when Exim has been compiled with the content-scanning extension,
and SpamAssassin has been installed. The SpamAssassin check is run with
"nobody" as its user parameter, and the results are added to the message as a
series of extra header line. In this case, the message is not rejected,
whatever the spam score.
accept
This final line in the DATA ACL accepts the message unconditionally.
7.3 Router configuration
------------------------
The router configuration comes next in the default configuration, introduced by
the line
begin routers
Routers are the modules in Exim that make decisions about where to send
messages. An address is passed to each router in turn, until it is either
accepted, or failed. This means that the order in which you define the routers
matters. Each router is fully described in its own chapter later in this
manual. Here we give only brief overviews.
# domain_literal:
# driver = ipliteral
# domains = !+local_domains
# transport = remote_smtp
This router is commented out because the majority of sites do not want to
support domain literal addresses (those of the form user@[10.9.8.7]). If you
uncomment this router, you also need to uncomment the setting of
allow_domain_literals in the main part of the configuration.
dnslookup:
driver = dnslookup
domains = ! +local_domains
transport = remote_smtp
ignore_target_hosts = 0.0.0.0 : 127.0.0.0/8
no_more
The first uncommented router handles addresses that do not involve any local
domains. This is specified by the line
domains = ! +local_domains
The domains option lists the domains to which this router applies, but the
exclamation mark is a negation sign, so the router is used only for domains
that are not in the domain list called local_domains (which was defined at the
start of the configuration). The plus sign before local_domains indicates that
it is referring to a named list. Addresses in other domains are passed on to
the following routers.
The name of the router driver is dnslookup, and is specified by the driver
option. Do not be confused by the fact that the name of this router instance is
the same as the name of the driver. The instance name is arbitrary, but the
name set in the driver option must be one of the driver modules that is in the
Exim binary.
The dnslookup router routes addresses by looking up their domains in the DNS in
order to obtain a list of hosts to which the address is routed. If the router
succeeds, the address is queued for the remote_smtp transport, as specified by
the transport option. If the router does not find the domain in the DNS, no
further routers are tried because of the no_more setting, so the address fails
and is bounced.
The ignore_target_hosts option specifies a list of IP addresses that are to be
entirely ignored. This option is present because a number of cases have been
encountered where MX records in the DNS point to host names whose IP addresses
are 0.0.0.0 or are in the 127 subnet (typically 127.0.0.1). Completely ignoring
these IP addresses causes Exim to fail to route the email address, so it
bounces. Otherwise, Exim would log a routing problem, and continue to try to
deliver the message periodically until the address timed out.
system_aliases:
driver = redirect
allow_fail
allow_defer
data = ${lookup{$local_part}lsearch{/etc/aliases}}
# user = exim
file_transport = address_file
pipe_transport = address_pipe
Control reaches this and subsequent routers only for addresses in the local
domains. This router checks to see whether the local part is defined as an
alias in the /etc/aliases file, and if so, redirects it according to the data
that it looks up from that file. If no data is found for the local part, the
value of the data option is empty, causing the address to be passed to the next
router.
/etc/aliases is a conventional name for the system aliases file that is often
used. That is why it is referenced by from the default configuration file.
However, you can change this by setting SYSTEM_ALIASES_FILE in Local/Makefile
before building Exim.
userforward:
driver = redirect
check_local_user
# local_part_suffix = +* : -*
# local_part_suffix_optional
file = $home/.forward
# allow_filter
no_verify
no_expn
check_ancestor
file_transport = address_file
pipe_transport = address_pipe
reply_transport = address_reply
This is the most complicated router in the default configuration. It is another
redirection router, but this time it is looking for forwarding data set up by
individual users. The check_local_user setting specifies a check that the local
part of the address is the login name of a local user. If it is not, the router
is skipped. The two commented options that follow check_local_user, namely:
# local_part_suffix = +* : -*
# local_part_suffix_optional
show how you can specify the recognition of local part suffixes. If the first
is uncommented, a suffix beginning with either a plus or a minus sign, followed
by any sequence of characters, is removed from the local part and placed in the
variable $local_part_suffix. The second suffix option specifies that the
presence of a suffix in the local part is optional. When a suffix is present,
the check for a local login uses the local part with the suffix removed.
When a local user account is found, the file called .forward in the user's home
directory is consulted. If it does not exist, or is empty, the router declines.
Otherwise, the contents of .forward are interpreted as redirection data (see
chapter 22 for more details).
Traditional .forward files contain just a list of addresses, pipes, or files.
Exim supports this by default. However, if allow_filter is set (it is commented
out by default), the contents of the file are interpreted as a set of Exim or
Sieve filtering instructions, provided the file begins with "#Exim filter" or "
#Sieve filter", respectively. User filtering is discussed in the separate
document entitled Exim's interfaces to mail filtering.
The no_verify and no_expn options mean that this router is skipped when
verifying addresses, or when running as a consequence of an SMTP EXPN command.
There are two reasons for doing this:
1. Whether or not a local user has a .forward file is not really relevant when
checking an address for validity; it makes sense not to waste resources
doing unnecessary work.
2. More importantly, when Exim is verifying addresses or handling an EXPN
command during an SMTP session, it is running as the Exim user, not as
root. The group is the Exim group, and no additional groups are set up. It
may therefore not be possible for Exim to read users' .forward files at
this time.
The setting of check_ancestor prevents the router from generating a new address
that is the same as any previous address that was redirected. (This works round
a problem concerning a bad interaction between aliasing and forwarding - see
section 22.5).
The final three option settings specify the transports that are to be used when
forwarding generates a direct delivery to a file, or to a pipe, or sets up an
auto-reply, respectively. For example, if a .forward file contains
a.nother@elsewhere.example, /home/spqr/archive
the delivery to /home/spqr/archive is done by running the address_file
transport.
localuser:
driver = accept
check_local_user
# local_part_suffix = +* : -*
# local_part_suffix_optional
transport = local_delivery
The final router sets up delivery into local mailboxes, provided that the local
part is the name of a local login, by accepting the address and assigning it to
the local_delivery transport. Otherwise, we have reached the end of the
routers, so the address is bounced. The commented suffix settings fulfil the
same purpose as they do for the userforward router.
7.4 Transport configuration
---------------------------
Transports define mechanisms for actually delivering messages. They operate
only when referenced from routers, so the order in which they are defined does
not matter. The transports section of the configuration starts with
begin transports
One remote transport and four local transports are defined.
remote_smtp:
driver = smtp
This transport is used for delivering messages over SMTP connections. All its
options are defaulted. The list of remote hosts comes from the router.
local_delivery:
driver = appendfile
file = /var/mail/$local_part
delivery_date_add
envelope_to_add
return_path_add
# group = mail
# mode = 0660
This appendfile transport is used for local delivery to user mailboxes in
traditional BSD mailbox format. By default it runs under the uid and gid of the
local user, which requires the sticky bit to be set on the /var/mail directory.
Some systems use the alternative approach of running mail deliveries under a
particular group instead of using the sticky bit. The commented options show
how this can be done.
Exim adds three headers to the message as it delivers it: Delivery-date:,
Envelope-to: and Return-path:. This action is requested by the three
similarly-named options above.
address_pipe:
driver = pipe
return_output
This transport is used for handling deliveries to pipes that are generated by
redirection (aliasing or users' .forward files). The return_output option
specifies that any output generated by the pipe is to be returned to the
sender.
address_file:
driver = appendfile
delivery_date_add
envelope_to_add
return_path_add
This transport is used for handling deliveries to files that are generated by
redirection. The name of the file is not specified in this instance of
appendfile, because it comes from the redirect router.
address_reply:
driver = autoreply
This transport is used for handling automatic replies generated by users'
filter files.
7.5 Default retry rule
----------------------
The retry section of the configuration file contains rules which affect the way
Exim retries deliveries that cannot be completed at the first attempt. It is
introduced by the line
begin retry
In the default configuration, there is just one rule, which applies to all
errors:
* * F,2h,15m; G,16h,1h,1.5; F,4d,6h
This causes any temporarily failing address to be retried every 15 minutes for
2 hours, then at intervals starting at one hour and increasing by a factor of
1.5 until 16 hours have passed, then every 6 hours up to 4 days. If an address
is not delivered after 4 days of temporary failure, it is bounced.
If the retry section is removed from the configuration, or is empty (that is,
if no retry rules are defined), Exim will not retry deliveries. This turns
temporary errors into permanent errors.
7.6 Rewriting configuration
---------------------------
The rewriting section of the configuration, introduced by
begin rewrite
contains rules for rewriting addresses in messages as they arrive. There are no
rewriting rules in the default configuration file.
7.7 Authenticators configuration
--------------------------------
The authenticators section of the configuration, introduced by
begin authenticators
defines mechanisms for the use of the SMTP AUTH command. The default
configuration file contains two commented-out example authenticators which
support plaintext username/password authentication using the standard PLAIN
mechanism and the traditional but non-standard LOGIN mechanism, with Exim
acting as the server. PLAIN and LOGIN are enough to support most MUA software.
The example PLAIN authenticator looks like this:
#PLAIN:
# driver = plaintext
# server_set_id = $auth2
# server_prompts = :
# server_condition = Authentication is not yet configured
# server_advertise_condition = ${if def:tls_cipher }
And the example LOGIN authenticator looks like this:
#LOGIN:
# driver = plaintext
# server_set_id = $auth1
# server_prompts = <| Username: | Password:
# server_condition = Authentication is not yet configured
# server_advertise_condition = ${if def:tls_cipher }
The server_set_id option makes Exim remember the authenticated username in
$authenticated_id, which can be used later in ACLs or routers. The
server_prompts option configures the plaintext authenticator so that it
implements the details of the specific authentication mechanism, i.e. PLAIN or
LOGIN. The server_advertise_condition setting controls when Exim offers
authentication to clients; in the examples, this is only when TLS or SSL has
been started, so to enable the authenticators you also need to add support for
TLS as described in 7.1.
The server_condition setting defines how to verify that the username and
password are correct. In the examples it just produces an error message. To
make the authenticators work, you can use a string expansion expression like
one of the examples in 34.
===============================================================================
8. REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
Exim supports the use of regular expressions in many of its options. It uses
the PCRE regular expression library; this provides regular expression matching
that is compatible with Perl 5. The syntax and semantics of regular expressions
is discussed in many Perl reference books, and also in Jeffrey Friedl's
Mastering Regular Expressions, which is published by O'Reilly (see http://
www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex2/).
The documentation for the syntax and semantics of the regular expressions that
are supported by PCRE is included in plain text in the file doc/pcrepattern.txt
in the Exim distribution, and also in the HTML tarbundle of Exim documentation.
It describes in detail the features of the regular expressions that PCRE
supports, so no further description is included here. The PCRE functions are
called from Exim using the default option settings (that is, with no PCRE
options set), except that the PCRE_CASELESS option is set when the matching is
required to be case-insensitive.
In most cases, when a regular expression is required in an Exim configuration,
it has to start with a circumflex, in order to distinguish it from plain text
or an "ends with" wildcard. In this example of a configuration setting, the
second item in the colon-separated list is a regular expression.
domains = a.b.c : ^\\d{3} : *.y.z : ...
The doubling of the backslash is required because of string expansion that
precedes interpretation - see section 11.1 for more discussion of this issue,
and a way of avoiding the need for doubling backslashes. The regular expression
that is eventually used in this example contains just one backslash. The
circumflex is included in the regular expression, and has the normal effect of
"anchoring" it to the start of the string that is being matched.
There are, however, two cases where a circumflex is not required for the
recognition of a regular expression: these are the match condition in a string
expansion, and the matches condition in an Exim filter file. In these cases,
the relevant string is always treated as a regular expression; if it does not
start with a circumflex, the expression is not anchored, and can match anywhere
in the subject string.
In all cases, if you want a regular expression to match at the end of a string,
you must code the $ metacharacter to indicate this. For example:
domains = ^\\d{3}\\.example
matches the domain 123.example, but it also matches 123.example.com. You need
to use:
domains = ^\\d{3}\\.example\$
if you want example to be the top-level domain. The backslash before the $ is
needed because string expansion also interprets dollar characters.
8.1 Testing regular expressions
-------------------------------
A program called pcretest forms part of the PCRE distribution and is built with
PCRE during the process of building Exim. It is primarily intended for testing
PCRE itself, but it can also be used for experimenting with regular
expressions. After building Exim, the binary can be found in the build
directory (it is not installed anywhere automatically). There is documentation
of various options in doc/pcretest.txt, but for simple testing, none are
needed. This is the output of a sample run of pcretest:
re> /^([@]+)@.+\.(ac|edu)\.(?!kr)[a-z]{2}$/
data> x@y.ac.uk
0: x@y.ac.uk
1: x
2: ac
data> x@y.ac.kr
No match
data> x@y.edu.com
No match
data> x@y.edu.co
0: x@y.edu.co
1: x
2: edu
Input typed by the user is shown in bold face. After the "re>" prompt, a
regular expression enclosed in delimiters is expected. If this compiles without
error, "data>" prompts are given for strings against which the expression is
matched. An empty data line causes a new regular expression to be read. If the
match is successful, the captured substring values (that is, what would be in
the variables $0, $1, $2, etc.) are shown. The above example tests for an email
address whose domain ends with either "ac" or "edu" followed by a two-character
top-level domain that is not "kr". The local part is captured in $1 and the
"ac" or "edu" in $2.
===============================================================================
9. FILE AND DATABASE LOOKUPS
Exim can be configured to look up data in files or databases as it processes
messages. Two different kinds of syntax are used:
1. A string that is to be expanded may contain explicit lookup requests. These
cause parts of the string to be replaced by data that is obtained from the
lookup. Lookups of this type are conditional expansion items. Different
results can be defined for the cases of lookup success and failure. See
chapter 11, where string expansions are described in detail.
2. Lists of domains, hosts, and email addresses can contain lookup requests as
a way of avoiding excessively long linear lists. In this case, the data
that is returned by the lookup is often (but not always) discarded; whether
the lookup succeeds or fails is what really counts. These kinds of list are
described in chapter 10.
String expansions, lists, and lookups interact with each other in such a way
that there is no order in which to describe any one of them that does not
involve references to the others. Each of these three chapters makes more sense
if you have read the other two first. If you are reading this for the first
time, be aware that some of it will make a lot more sense after you have read
chapters 10 and 11.
9.1 Examples of different lookup syntax
---------------------------------------
It is easy to confuse the two different kinds of lookup, especially as the
lists that may contain the second kind are always expanded before being
processed as lists. Therefore, they may also contain lookups of the first kind.
Be careful to distinguish between the following two examples:
domains = ${lookup{$sender_host_address}lsearch{/some/file}}
domains = lsearch;/some/file
The first uses a string expansion, the result of which must be a domain list.
No strings have been specified for a successful or a failing lookup; the
defaults in this case are the looked-up data and an empty string, respectively.
The expansion takes place before the string is processed as a list, and the
file that is searched could contain lines like this:
192.168.3.4: domain1:domain2:...
192.168.1.9: domain3:domain4:...
When the lookup succeeds, the result of the expansion is a list of domains (and
possibly other types of item that are allowed in domain lists).
In the second example, the lookup is a single item in a domain list. It causes
Exim to use a lookup to see if the domain that is being processed can be found
in the file. The file could contains lines like this:
domain1:
domain2:
Any data that follows the keys is not relevant when checking that the domain
matches the list item.
It is possible, though no doubt confusing, to use both kinds of lookup at once.
Consider a file containing lines like this:
192.168.5.6: lsearch;/another/file
If the value of $sender_host_address is 192.168.5.6, expansion of the first
domains setting above generates the second setting, which therefore causes a
second lookup to occur.
The rest of this chapter describes the different lookup types that are
available. Any of them can be used in any part of the configuration where a
lookup is permitted.
9.2 Lookup types
----------------
Two different types of data lookup are implemented:
* The single-key type requires the specification of a file in which to look,
and a single key to search for. The key must be a non-empty string for the
lookup to succeed. The lookup type determines how the file is searched.
* The query-style type accepts a generalized database query. No particular
key value is assumed by Exim for query-style lookups. You can use whichever
Exim variables you need to construct the database query.
The code for each lookup type is in a separate source file that is included in
the binary of Exim only if the corresponding compile-time option is set. The
default settings in src/EDITME are:
LOOKUP_DBM=yes
LOOKUP_LSEARCH=yes
which means that only linear searching and DBM lookups are included by default.
For some types of lookup (e.g. SQL databases), you need to install appropriate
libraries and header files before building Exim.
9.3 Single-key lookup types
---------------------------
The following single-key lookup types are implemented:
* cdb: The given file is searched as a Constant DataBase file, using the key
string without a terminating binary zero. The cdb format is designed for
indexed files that are read frequently and never updated, except by total
re-creation. As such, it is particularly suitable for large files
containing aliases or other indexed data referenced by an MTA. Information
about cdb can be found in several places:
http://www.pobox.com/~djb/cdb.html
ftp://ftp.corpit.ru/pub/tinycdb/
http://packages.debian.org/stable/utils/freecdb.html
A cdb distribution is not needed in order to build Exim with cdb support,
because the code for reading cdb files is included directly in Exim itself.
However, no means of building or testing cdb files is provided with Exim,
so you need to obtain a cdb distribution in order to do this.
* dbm: Calls to DBM library functions are used to extract data from the given
DBM file by looking up the record with the given key. A terminating binary
zero is included in the key that is passed to the DBM library. See section
4.3 for a discussion of DBM libraries.
For all versions of Berkeley DB, Exim uses the DB_HASH style of database
when building DBM files using the exim_dbmbuild utility. However, when
using Berkeley DB versions 3 or 4, it opens existing databases for reading
with the DB_UNKNOWN option. This enables it to handle any of the types of
database that the library supports, and can be useful for accessing DBM
files created by other applications. (For earlier DB versions, DB_HASH is
always used.)
* dbmnz: This is the same as dbm, except that a terminating binary zero is
not included in the key that is passed to the DBM library. You may need
this if you want to look up data in files that are created by or shared
with some other application that does not use terminating zeros. For
example, you need to use dbmnz rather than dbm if you want to authenticate
incoming SMTP calls using the passwords from Courier's /etc/
userdbshadow.dat file. Exim's utility program for creating DBM files (
exim_dbmbuild) includes the zeros by default, but has an option to omit
them (see section 50.9).
* dsearch: The given file must be a directory; this is searched for an entry
whose name is the key by calling the lstat() function. The key may not
contain any forward slash characters. If lstat() succeeds, the result of
the lookup is the name of the entry, which may be a file, directory,
symbolic link, or any other kind of directory entry. An example of how this
lookup can be used to support virtual domains is given in section 47.7.
* iplsearch: The given file is a text file containing keys and data. A key is
terminated by a colon or white space or the end of the line. The keys in
the file must be IP addresses, or IP addresses with CIDR masks. Keys that
involve IPv6 addresses must be enclosed in quotes to prevent the first
internal colon being interpreted as a key terminator. For example:
1.2.3.4: data for 1.2.3.4
192.168.0.0/16 data for 192.168.0.0/16
"abcd::cdab": data for abcd::cdab
"abcd:abcd::/32" data for abcd:abcd::/32
The key for an iplsearch lookup must be an IP address (without a mask). The
file is searched linearly, using the CIDR masks where present, until a
matching key is found. The first key that matches is used; there is no
attempt to find a "best" match. Apart from the way the keys are matched,
the processing for iplsearch is the same as for lsearch.
Warning 1: Unlike most other single-key lookup types, a file of data for
iplsearch can not be turned into a DBM or cdb file, because those lookup
types support only literal keys.
Warning 2: In a host list, you must always use net-iplsearch so that the
implicit key is the host's IP address rather than its name (see section
10.12).
* lsearch: The given file is a text file that is searched linearly for a line
beginning with the search key, terminated by a colon or white space or the
end of the line. The search is case-insensitive; that is, upper and lower
case letters are treated as the same. The first occurrence of the key that
is found in the file is used.
White space between the key and the colon is permitted. The remainder of
the line, with leading and trailing white space removed, is the data. This
can be continued onto subsequent lines by starting them with any amount of
white space, but only a single space character is included in the data at
such a junction. If the data begins with a colon, the key must be
terminated by a colon, for example:
baduser: :fail:
Empty lines and lines beginning with # are ignored, even if they occur in
the middle of an item. This is the traditional textual format of alias
files. Note that the keys in an lsearch file are literal strings. There is
no wildcarding of any kind.
In most lsearch files, keys are not required to contain colons or #
characters, or white space. However, if you need this feature, it is
available. If a key begins with a doublequote character, it is terminated
only by a matching quote (or end of line), and the normal escaping rules
apply to its contents (see section 6.16). An optional colon is permitted
after quoted keys (exactly as for unquoted keys). There is no special
handling of quotes for the data part of an lsearch line.
* nis: The given file is the name of a NIS map, and a NIS lookup is done with
the given key, without a terminating binary zero. There is a variant called
nis0 which does include the terminating binary zero in the key. This is
reportedly needed for Sun-style alias files. Exim does not recognize NIS
aliases; the full map names must be used.
* wildlsearch or nwildlsearch: These search a file linearly, like lsearch,
but instead of being interpreted as a literal string, each key in the file
may be wildcarded. The difference between these two lookup types is that
for wildlsearch, each key in the file is string-expanded before being used,
whereas for nwildlsearch, no expansion takes place.
Like lsearch, the testing is done case-insensitively. However, keys in the
file that are regular expressions can be made case-sensitive by the use of
"(-i)" within the pattern. The following forms of wildcard are recognized:
1. The string may begin with an asterisk to mean "ends with". For example:
*.a.b.c data for anything.a.b.c
*fish data for anythingfish
2. The string may begin with a circumflex to indicate a regular
expression. For example, for wildlsearch:
^\N\d+\.a\.b\N data for <digits>.a.b
Note the use of "\N" to disable expansion of the contents of the
regular expression. If you are using nwildlsearch, where the keys are
not string-expanded, the equivalent entry is:
^\d+\.a\.b data for <digits>.a.b
The case-insensitive flag is set at the start of compiling the regular
expression, but it can be turned off by using "(-i)" at an appropriate
point. For example, to make the entire pattern case-sensitive:
^(?-i)\d+\.a\.b data for <digits>.a.b
If the regular expression contains white space or colon characters, you
must either quote it (see lsearch above), or represent these characters
in other ways. For example, "\s" can be used for white space and "\x3A"
for a colon. This may be easier than quoting, because if you quote, you
have to escape all the backslashes inside the quotes.
Note: It is not possible to capture substrings in a regular expression
match for later use, because the results of all lookups are cached. If
a lookup is repeated, the result is taken from the cache, and no actual
pattern matching takes place. The values of all the numeric variables
are unset after a (n)wildlsearch match.
3. Although I cannot see it being of much use, the general matching
function that is used to implement (n)wildlsearch means that the string
may begin with a lookup name terminated by a semicolon, and followed by
lookup data. For example:
cdb;/some/file data for keys that match the file
The data that is obtained from the nested lookup is discarded.
Keys that do not match any of these patterns are interpreted literally. The
continuation rules for the data are the same as for lsearch, and keys may
be followed by optional colons.
Warning: Unlike most other single-key lookup types, a file of data for (n)
wildlsearch can not be turned into a DBM or cdb file, because those lookup
types support only literal keys.
9.4 Query-style lookup types
----------------------------
The supported query-style lookup types are listed below. Further details about
many of them are given in later sections.
* dnsdb: This does a DNS search for one or more records whose domain names
are given in the supplied query. The resulting data is the contents of the
records. See section 9.10.
* ibase: This does a lookup in an InterBase database.
* ldap: This does an LDAP lookup using a query in the form of a URL, and
returns attributes from a single entry. There is a variant called ldapm
that permits values from multiple entries to be returned. A third variant
called ldapdn returns the Distinguished Name of a single entry instead of
any attribute values. See section 9.13.
* mysql: The format of the query is an SQL statement that is passed to a
MySQL database. See section 9.20.
* nisplus: This does a NIS+ lookup using a query that can specify the name of
the field to be returned. See section 9.19.
* oracle: The format of the query is an SQL statement that is passed to an
Oracle database. See section 9.20.
* passwd is a query-style lookup with queries that are just user names. The
lookup calls getpwnam() to interrogate the system password data, and on
success, the result string is the same as you would get from an lsearch
lookup on a traditional /etc/passwd file, though with "*" for the password
value. For example:
*:42:42:King Rat:/home/kr:/bin/bash
* pgsql: The format of the query is an SQL statement that is passed to a
PostgreSQL database. See section 9.20.
* sqlite: The format of the query is a file name followed by an SQL statement
that is passed to an SQLite database. See section 9.25.
* testdb: This is a lookup type that is used for testing Exim. It is not
likely to be useful in normal operation.
* whoson: Whoson (http://whoson.sourceforge.net) is a protocol that allows a
server to check whether a particular (dynamically allocated) IP address is
currently allocated to a known (trusted) user and, optionally, to obtain
the identity of the said user. For SMTP servers, Whoson was popular at one
time for "POP before SMTP" authentication, but that approach has been
superseded by SMTP authentication. In Exim, Whoson can be used to implement
"POP before SMTP" checking using ACL statements such as
require condition = \
${lookup whoson {$sender_host_address}{yes}{no}}
The query consists of a single IP address. The value returned is the name
of the authenticated user, which is stored in the variable $value. However,
in this example, the data in $value is not used; the result of the lookup
is one of the fixed strings "yes" or "no".
9.5 Temporary errors in lookups
-------------------------------
Lookup functions can return temporary error codes if the lookup cannot be
completed. For example, an SQL or LDAP database might be unavailable. For this
reason, it is not advisable to use a lookup that might do this for critical
options such as a list of local domains.
When a lookup cannot be completed in a router or transport, delivery of the
message (to the relevant address) is deferred, as for any other temporary
error. In other circumstances Exim may assume the lookup has failed, or may
give up altogether.
9.6 Default values in single-key lookups
----------------------------------------
In this context, a "default value" is a value specified by the administrator
that is to be used if a lookup fails.
Note: This section applies only to single-key lookups. For query-style lookups,
the facilities of the query language must be used. An attempt to specify a
default for a query-style lookup provokes an error.
If "*" is added to a single-key lookup type (for example, lsearch*) and the
initial lookup fails, the key "*" is looked up in the file to provide a default
value. See also the section on partial matching below.
Alternatively, if "*@" is added to a single-key lookup type (for example dbm*@)
then, if the initial lookup fails and the key contains an @ character, a second
lookup is done with everything before the last @ replaced by *. This makes it
possible to provide per-domain defaults in alias files that include the domains
in the keys. If the second lookup fails (or doesn't take place because there is
no @ in the key), "*" is looked up. For example, a redirect router might
contain:
data = ${lookup{$local_part@$domain}lsearch*@{/etc/mix-aliases}}
Suppose the address that is being processed is jane@eyre.example. Exim looks up
these keys, in this order:
jane@eyre.example
*@eyre.example
*
The data is taken from whichever key it finds first. Note: In an lsearch file,
this does not mean the first of these keys in the file. A complete scan is done
for each key, and only if it is not found at all does Exim move on to try the
next key.
9.7 Partial matching in single-key lookups
------------------------------------------
The normal operation of a single-key lookup is to search the file for an exact
match with the given key. However, in a number of situations where domains are
being looked up, it is useful to be able to do partial matching. In this case,
information in the file that has a key starting with "*." is matched by any
domain that ends with the components that follow the full stop. For example, if
a key in a DBM file is
*.dates.fict.example
then when partial matching is enabled this is matched by (amongst others)
2001.dates.fict.example and 1984.dates.fict.example. It is also matched by
dates.fict.example, if that does not appear as a separate key in the file.
Note: Partial matching is not available for query-style lookups. It is also not
available for any lookup items in address lists (see section 10.19).
Partial matching is implemented by doing a series of separate lookups using
keys constructed by modifying the original subject key. This means that it can
be used with any of the single-key lookup types, provided that partial matching
keys beginning with a special prefix (default "*.") are included in the data
file. Keys in the file that do not begin with the prefix are matched only by
unmodified subject keys when partial matching is in use.
Partial matching is requested by adding the string "partial-" to the front of
the name of a single-key lookup type, for example, partial-dbm. When this is
done, the subject key is first looked up unmodified; if that fails, "*." is
added at the start of the subject key, and it is looked up again. If that
fails, further lookups are tried with dot-separated components removed from the
start of the subject key, one-by-one, and "*." added on the front of what
remains.
A minimum number of two non-* components are required. This can be adjusted by
including a number before the hyphen in the search type. For example,
partial3-lsearch specifies a minimum of three non-* components in the modified
keys. Omitting the number is equivalent to "partial2-". If the subject key is
2250.dates.fict.example then the following keys are looked up when the minimum
number of non-* components is two:
2250.dates.fict.example
*.2250.dates.fict.example
*.dates.fict.example
*.fict.example
As soon as one key in the sequence is successfully looked up, the lookup
finishes.
The use of "*." as the partial matching prefix is a default that can be
changed. The motivation for this feature is to allow Exim to operate with file
formats that are used by other MTAs. A different prefix can be supplied in
parentheses instead of the hyphen after "partial". For example:
domains = partial(.)lsearch;/some/file
In this example, if the domain is a.b.c, the sequence of lookups is "a.b.c",
".a.b.c", and ".b.c" (the default minimum of 2 non-wild components is
unchanged). The prefix may consist of any punctuation characters other than a
closing parenthesis. It may be empty, for example:
domains = partial1()cdb;/some/file
For this example, if the domain is a.b.c, the sequence of lookups is "a.b.c",
"b.c", and "c".
If "partial0" is specified, what happens at the end (when the lookup with just
one non-wild component has failed, and the original key is shortened right down
to the null string) depends on the prefix:
* If the prefix has zero length, the whole lookup fails.
* If the prefix has length 1, a lookup for just the prefix is done. For
example, the final lookup for "partial0(.)" is for "." alone.
* Otherwise, if the prefix ends in a dot, the dot is removed, and the
remainder is looked up. With the default prefix, therefore, the final
lookup is for "*" on its own.
* Otherwise, the whole prefix is looked up.
If the search type ends in "*" or "*@" (see section 9.6 above), the search for
an ultimate default that this implies happens after all partial lookups have
failed. If "partial0" is specified, adding "*" to the search type has no effect
with the default prefix, because the "*" key is already included in the
sequence of partial lookups. However, there might be a use for lookup types
such as "partial0(.)lsearch*".
The use of "*" in lookup partial matching differs from its use as a wildcard in
domain lists and the like. Partial matching works only in terms of
dot-separated components; a key such as "*fict.example" in a database file is
useless, because the asterisk in a partial matching subject key is always
followed by a dot.
9.8 Lookup caching
------------------
Exim caches all lookup results in order to avoid needless repetition of
lookups. However, because (apart from the daemon) Exim operates as a collection
of independent, short-lived processes, this caching applies only within a
single Exim process. There is no inter-process lookup caching facility.
For single-key lookups, Exim keeps the relevant files open in case there is
another lookup that needs them. In some types of configuration this can lead to
many files being kept open for messages with many recipients. To avoid hitting
the operating system limit on the number of simultaneously open files, Exim
closes the least recently used file when it needs to open more files than its
own internal limit, which can be changed via the lookup_open_max option.
The single-key lookup files are closed and the lookup caches are flushed at
strategic points during delivery - for example, after all routing is complete.
9.9 Quoting lookup data
-----------------------
When data from an incoming message is included in a query-style lookup, there
is the possibility of special characters in the data messing up the syntax of
the query. For example, a NIS+ query that contains
[name=$local_part]
will be broken if the local part happens to contain a closing square bracket.
For NIS+, data can be enclosed in double quotes like this:
[name="$local_part"]
but this still leaves the problem of a double quote in the data. The rule for
NIS+ is that double quotes must be doubled. Other lookup types have different
rules, and to cope with the differing requirements, an expansion operator of
the following form is provided:
${quote_<lookup-type>:<string>}
For example, the safest way to write the NIS+ query is
[name="${quote_nisplus:$local_part}"]
See chapter 11 for full coverage of string expansions. The quote operator can
be used for all lookup types, but has no effect for single-key lookups, since
no quoting is ever needed in their key strings.
9.10 More about dnsdb
---------------------
The dnsdb lookup type uses the DNS as its database. A simple query consists of
a record type and a domain name, separated by an equals sign. For example, an
expansion string could contain:
${lookup dnsdb{mx=a.b.example}{$value}fail}
If the lookup succeeds, the result is placed in $value, which in this case is
used on its own as the result. If the lookup does not succeed, the "fail"
keyword causes a forced expansion failure - see section 11.4 for an explanation
of what this means.
The supported DNS record types are A, CNAME, MX, NS, PTR, SRV, and TXT, and,
when Exim is compiled with IPv6 support, AAAA (and A6 if that is also
configured). If no type is given, TXT is assumed. When the type is PTR, the
data can be an IP address, written as normal; inversion and the addition of
in-addr.arpa or ip6.arpa happens automatically. For example:
${lookup dnsdb{ptr=192.168.4.5}{$value}fail}
If the data for a PTR record is not a syntactically valid IP address, it is not
altered and nothing is added.
For an MX lookup, both the preference value and the host name are returned for
each record, separated by a space. For an SRV lookup, the priority, weight,
port, and host name are returned for each record, separated by spaces.
For any record type, if multiple records are found (or, for A6 lookups, if a
single record leads to multiple addresses), the data is returned as a
concatenation, with newline as the default separator. The order, of course,
depends on the DNS resolver. You can specify a different separator character
between multiple records by putting a right angle-bracket followed immediately
by the new separator at the start of the query. For example:
${lookup dnsdb{>: a=host1.example}}
It is permitted to specify a space as the separator character. Further white
space is ignored.
9.11 Pseudo dnsdb record types
------------------------------
By default, both the preference value and the host name are returned for each
MX record, separated by a space. If you want only host names, you can use the
pseudo-type MXH:
${lookup dnsdb{mxh=a.b.example}}
In this case, the preference values are omitted, and just the host names are
returned.
Another pseudo-type is ZNS (for "zone NS"). It performs a lookup for NS records
on the given domain, but if none are found, it removes the first component of
the domain name, and tries again. This process continues until NS records are
found or there are no more components left (or there is a DNS error). In other
words, it may return the name servers for a top-level domain, but it never
returns the root name servers. If there are no NS records for the top-level
domain, the lookup fails. Consider these examples:
${lookup dnsdb{zns=xxx.quercite.com}}
${lookup dnsdb{zns=xxx.edu}}
Assuming that in each case there are no NS records for the full domain name,
the first returns the name servers for quercite.com, and the second returns the
name servers for edu.
You should be careful about how you use this lookup because, unless the
top-level domain does not exist, the lookup always returns some host names. The
sort of use to which this might be put is for seeing if the name servers for a
given domain are on a blacklist. You can probably assume that the name servers
for the high-level domains such as com or co.uk are not going to be on such a
list.
A third pseudo-type is CSA (Client SMTP Authorization). This looks up SRV
records according to the CSA rules, which are described in section 40.46.
Although dnsdb supports SRV lookups directly, this is not sufficient because of
the extra parent domain search behaviour of CSA. The result of a successful
lookup such as:
${lookup dnsdb {csa=$sender_helo_name}}
has two space-separated fields: an authorization code and a target host name.
The authorization code can be "Y" for yes, "N" for no, "X" for explicit
authorization required but absent, or "?" for unknown.
9.12 Multiple dnsdb lookups
---------------------------
In the previous sections, dnsdb lookups for a single domain are described.
However, you can specify a list of domains or IP addresses in a single dnsdb
lookup. The list is specified in the normal Exim way, with colon as the default
separator, but with the ability to change this. For example:
${lookup dnsdb{one.domain.com:two.domain.com}}
${lookup dnsdb{a=one.host.com:two.host.com}}
${lookup dnsdb{ptr = <; 1.2.3.4 ; 4.5.6.8}}
In order to retain backwards compatibility, there is one special case: if the
lookup type is PTR and no change of separator is specified, Exim looks to see
if the rest of the string is precisely one IPv6 address. In this case, it does
not treat it as a list.
The data from each lookup is concatenated, with newline separators by default,
in the same way that multiple DNS records for a single item are handled. A
different separator can be specified, as described above.
The dnsdb lookup fails only if all the DNS lookups fail. If there is a
temporary DNS error for any of them, the behaviour is controlled by an optional
keyword followed by a comma that may appear before the record type. The
possible keywords are "defer_strict", "defer_never", and "defer_lax". With
"strict" behaviour, any temporary DNS error causes the whole lookup to defer.
With "never" behaviour, a temporary DNS error is ignored, and the behaviour is
as if the DNS lookup failed to find anything. With "lax" behaviour, all the
queries are attempted, but a temporary DNS error causes the whole lookup to
defer only if none of the other lookups succeed. The default is "lax", so the
following lookups are equivalent:
${lookup dnsdb{defer_lax,a=one.host.com:two.host.com}}
${lookup dnsdb{a=one.host.com:two.host.com}}
Thus, in the default case, as long as at least one of the DNS lookups yields
some data, the lookup succeeds.
9.13 More about LDAP
--------------------
The original LDAP implementation came from the University of Michigan; this has
become "Open LDAP", and there are now two different releases. Another
implementation comes from Netscape, and Solaris 7 and subsequent releases
contain inbuilt LDAP support. Unfortunately, though these are all compatible at
the lookup function level, their error handling is different. For this reason
it is necessary to set a compile-time variable when building Exim with LDAP, to
indicate which LDAP library is in use. One of the following should appear in
your Local/Makefile:
LDAP_LIB_TYPE=UMICHIGAN
LDAP_LIB_TYPE=OPENLDAP1
LDAP_LIB_TYPE=OPENLDAP2
LDAP_LIB_TYPE=NETSCAPE
LDAP_LIB_TYPE=SOLARIS
If LDAP_LIB_TYPE is not set, Exim assumes "OPENLDAP1", which has the same
interface as the University of Michigan version.
There are three LDAP lookup types in Exim. These behave slightly differently in
the way they handle the results of a query:
* ldap requires the result to contain just one entry; if there are more, it
gives an error.
* ldapdn also requires the result to contain just one entry, but it is the
Distinguished Name that is returned rather than any attribute values.
* ldapm permits the result to contain more than one entry; the attributes
from all of them are returned.
For ldap and ldapm, if a query finds only entries with no attributes, Exim
behaves as if the entry did not exist, and the lookup fails. The format of the
data returned by a successful lookup is described in the next section. First we
explain how LDAP queries are coded.
9.14 Format of LDAP queries
---------------------------
An LDAP query takes the form of a URL as defined in RFC 2255. For example, in
the configuration of a redirect router one might have this setting:
data = ${lookup ldap \
{ldap:///cn=$local_part,o=University%20of%20Cambridge,\
c=UK?mailbox?base?}}
The URL may begin with "ldap" or "ldaps" if your LDAP library supports secure
(encrypted) LDAP connections. The second of these ensures that an encrypted TLS
connection is used.
9.15 LDAP quoting
-----------------
Two levels of quoting are required in LDAP queries, the first for LDAP itself
and the second because the LDAP query is represented as a URL. Furthermore,
within an LDAP query, two different kinds of quoting are required. For this
reason, there are two different LDAP-specific quoting operators.
The quote_ldap operator is designed for use on strings that are part of filter
specifications. Conceptually, it first does the following conversions on the
string:
* => \2A
( => \28
) => \29
\ => \5C
in accordance with RFC 2254. The resulting string is then quoted according to
the rules for URLs, that is, all non-alphanumeric characters except
! $ ' - . _ ( ) * +
are converted to their hex values, preceded by a percent sign. For example:
${quote_ldap: a(bc)*, a<yz>; }
yields
%20a%5C28bc%5C29%5C2A%2C%20a%3Cyz%3E%3B%20
Removing the URL quoting, this is (with a leading and a trailing space):
a\28bc\29\2A, a<yz>;
The quote_ldap_dn operator is designed for use on strings that are part of base
DN specifications in queries. Conceptually, it first converts the string by
inserting a backslash in front of any of the following characters:
, + " \ < > ;
It also inserts a backslash before any leading spaces or # characters, and
before any trailing spaces. (These rules are in RFC 2253.) The resulting string
is then quoted according to the rules for URLs. For example:
${quote_ldap_dn: a(bc)*, a<yz>; }
yields
%5C%20a(bc)*%5C%2C%20a%5C%3Cyz%5C%3E%5C%3B%5C%20
Removing the URL quoting, this is (with a trailing space):
\ a(bc)*\, a\<yz\>\;\
There are some further comments about quoting in the section on LDAP
authentication below.
9.16 LDAP connections
---------------------
The connection to an LDAP server may either be over TCP/IP, or, when OpenLDAP
is in use, via a Unix domain socket. The example given above does not specify
an LDAP server. A server that is reached by TCP/IP can be specified in a query
by starting it with
ldap://<hostname>:<port>/...
If the port (and preceding colon) are omitted, the standard LDAP port (389) is
used. When no server is specified in a query, a list of default servers is
taken from the ldap_default_servers configuration option. This supplies a
colon-separated list of servers which are tried in turn until one successfully
handles a query, or there is a serious error. Successful handling either
returns the requested data, or indicates that it does not exist. Serious errors
are syntactical, or multiple values when only a single value is expected.
Errors which cause the next server to be tried are connection failures, bind
failures, and timeouts.
For each server name in the list, a port number can be given. The standard way
of specifying a host and port is to use a colon separator (RFC 1738). Because
ldap_default_servers is a colon-separated list, such colons have to be doubled.
For example
ldap_default_servers = ldap1.example.com::145:ldap2.example.com
If ldap_default_servers is unset, a URL with no server name is passed to the
LDAP library with no server name, and the library's default (normally the local
host) is used.
If you are using the OpenLDAP library, you can connect to an LDAP server using
a Unix domain socket instead of a TCP/IP connection. This is specified by using
"ldapi" instead of "ldap" in LDAP queries. What follows here applies only to
OpenLDAP. If Exim is compiled with a different LDAP library, this feature is
not available.
For this type of connection, instead of a host name for the server, a pathname
for the socket is required, and the port number is not relevant. The pathname
can be specified either as an item in ldap_default_servers, or inline in the
query. In the former case, you can have settings such as
ldap_default_servers = /tmp/ldap.sock : backup.ldap.your.domain
When the pathname is given in the query, you have to escape the slashes as
"%2F" to fit in with the LDAP URL syntax. For example:
${lookup ldap {ldapi://%2Ftmp%2Fldap.sock/o=...
When Exim processes an LDAP lookup and finds that the "hostname" is really a
pathname, it uses the Unix domain socket code, even if the query actually
specifies "ldap" or "ldaps". In particular, no encryption is used for a socket
connection. This behaviour means that you can use a setting of
ldap_default_servers such as in the example above with traditional "ldap" or
"ldaps" queries, and it will work. First, Exim tries a connection via the Unix
domain socket; if that fails, it tries a TCP/IP connection to the backup host.
If an explicit "ldapi" type is given in a query when a host name is specified,
an error is diagnosed. However, if there are more items in ldap_default_servers
, they are tried. In other words:
* Using a pathname with "ldap" or "ldaps" forces the use of the Unix domain
interface.
* Using "ldapi" with a host name causes an error.
Using "ldapi" with no host or path in the query, and no setting of
ldap_default_servers, does whatever the library does by default.
9.17 LDAP authentication and control information
------------------------------------------------
The LDAP URL syntax provides no way of passing authentication and other control
information to the server. To make this possible, the URL in an LDAP query may
be preceded by any number of <name>=<value> settings, separated by spaces. If a
value contains spaces it must be enclosed in double quotes, and when double
quotes are used, backslash is interpreted in the usual way inside them. The
following names are recognized:
DEREFERENCE set the dereferencing parameter
NETTIME set a timeout for a network operation
USER set the DN, for authenticating the LDAP bind
PASS set the password, likewise
REFERRALS set the referrals parameter
SIZE set the limit for the number of entries returned
TIME set the maximum waiting time for a query
The value of the DEREFERENCE parameter must be one of the words "never",
"searching", "finding", or "always". The value of the REFERRALS parameter must
be "follow" (the default) or "nofollow". The latter stops the LDAP library from
trying to follow referrals issued by the LDAP server.
The name CONNECT is an obsolete name for NETTIME, retained for backwards
compatibility. This timeout (specified as a number of seconds) is enforced from
the client end for operations that can be carried out over a network.
Specifically, it applies to network connections and calls to the ldap_result()
function. If the value is greater than zero, it is used if
LDAP_OPT_NETWORK_TIMEOUT is defined in the LDAP headers (OpenLDAP), or if
LDAP_X_OPT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT is defined in the LDAP headers (Netscape SDK 4.1). A
value of zero forces an explicit setting of "no timeout" for Netscape SDK; for
OpenLDAP no action is taken.
The TIME parameter (also a number of seconds) is passed to the server to set a
server-side limit on the time taken to complete a search.
Here is an example of an LDAP query in an Exim lookup that uses some of these
values. This is a single line, folded to fit on the page:
${lookup ldap
{user="cn=manager,o=University of Cambridge,c=UK" pass=secret
ldap:///o=University%20of%20Cambridge,c=UK?sn?sub?(cn=foo)}
{$value}fail}
The encoding of spaces as "%20" is a URL thing which should not be done for any
of the auxiliary data. Exim configuration settings that include lookups which
contain password information should be preceded by "hide" to prevent non-admin
users from using the -bP option to see their values.
The auxiliary data items may be given in any order. The default is no
connection timeout (the system timeout is used), no user or password, no limit
on the number of entries returned, and no time limit on queries.
When a DN is quoted in the USER= setting for LDAP authentication, Exim removes
any URL quoting that it may contain before passing it LDAP. Apparently some
libraries do this for themselves, but some do not. Removing the URL quoting has
two advantages:
* It makes it possible to use the same quote_ldap_dn expansion for USER= DNs
as with DNs inside actual queries.
* It permits spaces inside USER= DNs.
For example, a setting such as
USER=cn=${quote_ldap_dn:$1}
should work even if $1 contains spaces.
Expanded data for the PASS= value should be quoted using the quote expansion
operator, rather than the LDAP quote operators. The only reason this field
needs quoting is to ensure that it conforms to the Exim syntax, which does not
allow unquoted spaces. For example:
PASS=${quote:$3}
The LDAP authentication mechanism can be used to check passwords as part of
SMTP authentication. See the ldapauth expansion string condition in chapter 11.
9.18 Format of data returned by LDAP
------------------------------------
The ldapdn lookup type returns the Distinguished Name from a single entry as a
sequence of values, for example
cn=manager, o=University of Cambridge, c=UK
The ldap lookup type generates an error if more than one entry matches the
search filter, whereas ldapm permits this case, and inserts a newline in the
result between the data from different entries. It is possible for multiple
values to be returned for both ldap and ldapm, but in the former case you know
that whatever values are returned all came from a single entry in the
directory.
In the common case where you specify a single attribute in your LDAP query, the
result is not quoted, and does not contain the attribute name. If the attribute
has multiple values, they are separated by commas.
If you specify multiple attributes, the result contains space-separated, quoted
strings, each preceded by the attribute name and an equals sign. Within the
quotes, the quote character, backslash, and newline are escaped with
backslashes, and commas are used to separate multiple values for the attribute.
Apart from the escaping, the string within quotes takes the same form as the
output when a single attribute is requested. Specifying no attributes is the
same as specifying all of an entry's attributes.
Here are some examples of the output format. The first line of each pair is an
LDAP query, and the second is the data that is returned. The attribute called
attr1 has two values, whereas attr2 has only one value:
ldap:///o=base?attr1?sub?(uid=fred)
value1.1, value1.2
ldap:///o=base?attr2?sub?(uid=fred)
value two
ldap:///o=base?attr1,attr2?sub?(uid=fred)
attr1="value1.1, value1.2" attr2="value two"
ldap:///o=base??sub?(uid=fred)
objectClass="top" attr1="value1.1, value1.2" attr2="value two"
The extract operator in string expansions can be used to pick out individual
fields from data that consists of key=value pairs. You can make use of Exim's
-be option to run expansion tests and thereby check the results of LDAP
lookups.
9.19 More about NIS+
--------------------
NIS+ queries consist of a NIS+ indexed name followed by an optional colon and
field name. If this is given, the result of a successful query is the contents
of the named field; otherwise the result consists of a concatenation of
field-name=field-value pairs, separated by spaces. Empty values and values
containing spaces are quoted. For example, the query
[name=mg1456],passwd.org_dir
might return the string
name=mg1456 passwd="" uid=999 gid=999 gcos="Martin Guerre"
home=/home/mg1456 shell=/bin/bash shadow=""
(split over two lines here to fit on the page), whereas
[name=mg1456],passwd.org_dir:gcos
would just return
Martin Guerre
with no quotes. A NIS+ lookup fails if NIS+ returns more than one table entry
for the given indexed key. The effect of the quote_nisplus expansion operator
is to double any quote characters within the text.
9.20 SQL lookups
----------------
Exim can support lookups in InterBase, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and SQLite
databases. Queries for these databases contain SQL statements, so an example
might be
${lookup mysql{select mailbox from users where id='userx'}\
{$value}fail}
If the result of the query contains more than one field, the data for each
field in the row is returned, preceded by its name, so the result of
${lookup pgsql{select home,name from users where id='userx'}\
{$value}}
might be
home=/home/userx name="Mister X"
Empty values and values containing spaces are double quoted, with embedded
quotes escaped by a backslash. If the result of the query contains just one
field, the value is passed back verbatim, without a field name, for example:
Mister X
If the result of the query yields more than one row, it is all concatenated,
with a newline between the data for each row.
9.21 More about MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and InterBase
--------------------------------------------------------
If any MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, or InterBase lookups are used, the
mysql_servers, pgsql_servers, oracle_servers, or ibase_servers option (as
appropriate) must be set to a colon-separated list of server information. (For
MySQL and PostgreSQL only, the global option need not be set if all queries
contain their own server information - see section 9.22.) Each item in the list
is a slash-separated list of four items: host name, database name, user name,
and password. In the case of Oracle, the host name field is used for the
"service name", and the database name field is not used and should be empty.
For example:
hide oracle_servers = oracle.plc.example//userx/abcdwxyz
Because password data is sensitive, you should always precede the setting with
"hide", to prevent non-admin users from obtaining the setting via the -bP
option. Here is an example where two MySQL servers are listed:
hide mysql_servers = localhost/users/root/secret:\
otherhost/users/root/othersecret
For MySQL and PostgreSQL, a host may be specified as <name>:<port> but because
this is a colon-separated list, the colon has to be doubled. For each query,
these parameter groups are tried in order until a connection is made and a
query is successfully processed. The result of a query may be that no data is
found, but that is still a successful query. In other words, the list of
servers provides a backup facility, not a list of different places to look.
The quote_mysql, quote_pgsql, and quote_oracle expansion operators convert
newline, tab, carriage return, and backspace to \n, \t, \r, and \b
respectively, and the characters single-quote, double-quote, and backslash
itself are escaped with backslashes. The quote_pgsql expansion operator, in
addition, escapes the percent and underscore characters. This cannot be done
for MySQL because these escapes are not recognized in contexts where these
characters are not special.
9.22 Specifying the server in the query
---------------------------------------
For MySQL and PostgreSQL lookups (but not currently for Oracle and InterBase),
it is possible to specify a list of servers with an individual query. This is
done by starting the query with
servers=server1:server2:server3:...;
Each item in the list may take one of two forms:
1. If it contains no slashes it is assumed to be just a host name. The
appropriate global option (mysql_servers or pgsql_servers) is searched for
a host of the same name, and the remaining parameters (database, user,
password) are taken from there.
2. If it contains any slashes, it is taken as a complete parameter set.
The list of servers is used in exactly the same way as the global list. Once a
connection to a server has happened and a query has been successfully executed,
processing of the lookup ceases.
This feature is intended for use in master/slave situations where updates are
occurring and you want to update the master rather than a slave. If the master
is in the list as a backup for reading, you might have a global setting like
this:
mysql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:\
slave2/db/name/pw:\
master/db/name/pw
In an updating lookup, you could then write:
${lookup mysql{servers=master; UPDATE ...}
That query would then be sent only to the master server. If, on the other hand,
the master is not to be used for reading, and so is not present in the global
option, you can still update it by a query of this form:
${lookup pgsql{servers=master/db/name/pw; UPDATE ...}
9.23 Special MySQL features
---------------------------
For MySQL, an empty host name or the use of "localhost" in mysql_servers causes
a connection to the server on the local host by means of a Unix domain socket.
An alternate socket can be specified in parentheses. The full syntax of each
item in mysql_servers is:
<hostname>::<port>(<socket name>)/<database>/<user>/<password>
Any of the three sub-parts of the first field can be omitted. For normal use on
the local host it can be left blank or set to just "localhost".
No database need be supplied - but if it is absent here, it must be given in
the queries.
If a MySQL query is issued that does not request any data (an insert, update,
or delete command), the result of the lookup is the number of rows affected.
Warning: This can be misleading. If an update does not actually change anything
(for example, setting a field to the value it already has), the result is zero
because no rows are affected.
9.24 Special PostgreSQL features
--------------------------------
PostgreSQL lookups can also use Unix domain socket connections to the database.
This is usually faster and costs less CPU time than a TCP/IP connection.
However it can be used only if the mail server runs on the same machine as the
database server. A configuration line for PostgreSQL via Unix domain sockets
looks like this:
hide pgsql_servers = (/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432)/db/user/password : ...
In other words, instead of supplying a host name, a path to the socket is
given. The path name is enclosed in parentheses so that its slashes aren't
visually confused with the delimiters for the other server parameters.
If a PostgreSQL query is issued that does not request any data (an insert,
update, or delete command), the result of the lookup is the number of rows
affected.
9.25 More about SQLite
----------------------
SQLite is different to the other SQL lookups because a file name is required in
addition to the SQL query. An SQLite database is a single file, and there is no
daemon as in the other SQL databases. The interface to Exim requires the name
of the file, as an absolute path, to be given at the start of the query. It is
separated from the query by white space. This means that the path name cannot
contain white space. Here is a lookup expansion example:
${lookup sqlite {/some/thing/sqlitedb \
select name from aliases where id='userx';}}
In a list, the syntax is similar. For example:
domainlist relay_domains = sqlite;/some/thing/sqlitedb \
select * from relays where ip='$sender_host_address';
The only character affected by the quote_sqlite operator is a single quote,
which it doubles.
The SQLite library handles multiple simultaneous accesses to the database
internally. Multiple readers are permitted, but only one process can update at
once. Attempts to access the database while it is being updated are rejected
after a timeout period, during which the SQLite library waits for the lock to
be released. In Exim, the default timeout is set to 5 seconds, but it can be
changed by means of the sqlite_lock_timeout option.
===============================================================================
10. DOMAIN, HOST, ADDRESS, AND LOCAL PART LISTS
A number of Exim configuration options contain lists of domains, hosts, email
addresses, or local parts. For example, the hold_domains option contains a list
of domains whose delivery is currently suspended. These lists are also used as
data in ACL statements (see chapter 40), and as arguments to expansion
conditions such as match_domain.
Each item in one of these lists is a pattern to be matched against a domain,
host, email address, or local part, respectively. In the sections below, the
different types of pattern for each case are described, but first we cover some
general facilities that apply to all four kinds of list.
10.1 Expansion of lists
-----------------------
Each list is expanded as a single string before it is used. The result of
expansion must be a list, possibly containing empty items, which is split up
into separate items for matching. By default, colon is the separator character,
but this can be varied if necessary. See sections 6.19 and 6.21 for details of
the list syntax; the second of these discusses the way to specify empty list
items.
If the string expansion is forced to fail, Exim behaves as if the item it is
testing (domain, host, address, or local part) is not in the list. Other
expansion failures cause temporary errors.
If an item in a list is a regular expression, backslashes, dollars and possibly
other special characters in the expression must be protected against
misinterpretation by the string expander. The easiest way to do this is to use
the "\N" expansion feature to indicate that the contents of the regular
expression should not be expanded. For example, in an ACL you might have:
deny senders = \N^\d{8}\w@.*\.baddomain\.example$\N : \
${lookup{$domain}lsearch{/badsenders/bydomain}}
The first item is a regular expression that is protected from expansion by "\
N", whereas the second uses the expansion to obtain a list of unwanted senders
based on the receiving domain.
10.2 Negated items in lists
---------------------------
Items in a list may be positive or negative. Negative items are indicated by a
leading exclamation mark, which may be followed by optional white space. A list
defines a set of items (domains, etc). When Exim processes one of these lists,
it is trying to find out whether a domain, host, address, or local part
(respectively) is in the set that is defined by the list. It works like this:
The list is scanned from left to right. If a positive item is matched, the
subject that is being checked is in the set; if a negative item is matched, the
subject is not in the set. If the end of the list is reached without the
subject having matched any of the patterns, it is in the set if the last item
was a negative one, but not if it was a positive one. For example, the list in
domainlist relay_domains = !a.b.c : *.b.c
matches any domain ending in .b.c except for a.b.c. Domains that match neither
a.b.c nor *.b.c do not match, because the last item in the list is positive.
However, if the setting were
domainlist relay_domains = !a.b.c
then all domains other than a.b.c would match because the last item in the list
is negative. In other words, a list that ends with a negative item behaves as
if it had an extra item ":*" on the end.
Another way of thinking about positive and negative items in lists is to read
the connector as "or" after a positive item and as "and" after a negative item.
10.3 File names in lists
------------------------
If an item in a domain, host, address, or local part list is an absolute file
name (beginning with a slash character), each line of the file is read and
processed as if it were an independent item in the list, except that further
file names are not allowed, and no expansion of the data from the file takes
place. Empty lines in the file are ignored, and the file may also contain
comment lines:
* For domain and host lists, if a # character appears anywhere in a line of
the file, it and all following characters are ignored.
* Because local parts may legitimately contain # characters, a comment in an
address list or local part list file is recognized only if # is preceded by
white space or the start of the line. For example:
not#comment@x.y.z # but this is a comment
Putting a file name in a list has the same effect as inserting each line of the
file as an item in the list (blank lines and comments excepted). However, there
is one important difference: the file is read each time the list is processed,
so if its contents vary over time, Exim's behaviour changes.
If a file name is preceded by an exclamation mark, the sense of any match
within the file is inverted. For example, if
hold_domains = !/etc/nohold-domains
and the file contains the lines
!a.b.c
*.b.c
then a.b.c is in the set of domains defined by hold_domains, whereas any domain
matching "*.b.c" is not.
10.4 An lsearch file is not an out-of-line list
-----------------------------------------------
As will be described in the sections that follow, lookups can be used in lists
to provide indexed methods of checking list membership. There has been some
confusion about the way lsearch lookups work in lists. Because an lsearch file
contains plain text and is scanned sequentially, it is sometimes thought that
it is allowed to contain wild cards and other kinds of non-constant pattern.
This is not the case. The keys in an lsearch file are always fixed strings,
just as for any other single-key lookup type.
If you want to use a file to contain wild-card patterns that form part of a
list, just give the file name on its own, without a search type, as described
in the previous section. You could also use the wildlsearch or nwildlsearch,
but there is no advantage in doing this.
10.5 Named lists
----------------
A list of domains, hosts, email addresses, or local parts can be given a name
which is then used to refer to the list elsewhere in the configuration. This is
particularly convenient if the same list is required in several different
places. It also allows lists to be given meaningful names, which can improve
the readability of the configuration. For example, it is conventional to define
a domain list called local_domains for all the domains that are handled locally
on a host, using a configuration line such as
domainlist local_domains = localhost:my.dom.example
Named lists are referenced by giving their name preceded by a plus sign, so,
for example, a router that is intended to handle local domains would be
configured with the line
domains = +local_domains
The first router in a configuration is often one that handles all domains
except the local ones, using a configuration with a negated item like this:
dnslookup:
driver = dnslookup
domains = ! +local_domains
transport = remote_smtp
no_more
The four kinds of named list are created by configuration lines starting with
the words domainlist, hostlist, addresslist, or localpartlist, respectively.
Then there follows the name that you are defining, followed by an equals sign
and the list itself. For example:
hostlist relay_hosts = 192.168.23.0/24 : my.friend.example
addresslist bad_senders = cdb;/etc/badsenders
A named list may refer to other named lists:
domainlist dom1 = first.example : second.example
domainlist dom2 = +dom1 : third.example
domainlist dom3 = fourth.example : +dom2 : fifth.example
Warning: If the last item in a referenced list is a negative one, the effect
may not be what you intended, because the negation does not propagate out to
the higher level. For example, consider:
domainlist dom1 = !a.b
domainlist dom2 = +dom1 : *.b
The second list specifies "either in the dom1 list or *.b". The first list
specifies just "not a.b", so the domain x.y matches it. That means it matches
the second list as well. The effect is not the same as
domainlist dom2 = !a.b : *.b
where x.y does not match. It's best to avoid negation altogether in referenced
lists if you can.
Named lists may have a performance advantage. When Exim is routing an address
or checking an incoming message, it caches the result of tests on named lists.
So, if you have a setting such as
domains = +local_domains
on several of your routers or in several ACL statements, the actual test is
done only for the first one. However, the caching works only if there are no
expansions within the list itself or any sublists that it references. In other
words, caching happens only for lists that are known to be the same each time
they are referenced.
By default, there may be up to 16 named lists of each type. This limit can be
extended by changing a compile-time variable. The use of domain and host lists
is recommended for concepts such as local domains, relay domains, and relay
hosts. The default configuration is set up like this.
10.6 Named lists compared with macros
-------------------------------------
At first sight, named lists might seem to be no different from macros in the
configuration file. However, macros are just textual substitutions. If you
write
ALIST = host1 : host2
auth_advertise_hosts = !ALIST
it probably won't do what you want, because that is exactly the same as
auth_advertise_hosts = !host1 : host2
Notice that the second host name is not negated. However, if you use a host
list, and write
hostlist alist = host1 : host2
auth_advertise_hosts = ! +alist
the negation applies to the whole list, and so that is equivalent to
auth_advertise_hosts = !host1 : !host2
10.7 Named list caching
-----------------------
While processing a message, Exim caches the result of checking a named list if
it is sure that the list is the same each time. In practice, this means that
the cache operates only if the list contains no $ characters, which guarantees
that it will not change when it is expanded. Sometimes, however, you may have
an expanded list that you know will be the same each time within a given
message. For example:
domainlist special_domains = \
${lookup{$sender_host_address}cdb{/some/file}}
This provides a list of domains that depends only on the sending host's IP
address. If this domain list is referenced a number of times (for example, in
several ACL lines, or in several routers) the result of the check is not cached
by default, because Exim does not know that it is going to be the same list
each time.
By appending "_cache" to "domainlist" you can tell Exim to go ahead and cache
the result anyway. For example:
domainlist_cache special_domains = ${lookup{...
If you do this, you should be absolutely sure that caching is going to do the
right thing in all cases. When in doubt, leave it out.
10.8 Domain lists
-----------------
Domain lists contain patterns that are to be matched against a mail domain. The
following types of item may appear in domain lists:
* If a pattern consists of a single @ character, it matches the local host
name, as set by the primary_hostname option (or defaulted). This makes it
possible to use the same configuration file on several different hosts that
differ only in their names.
* If a pattern consists of the string "@[]" it matches an IP address enclosed
in square brackets (as in an email address that contains a domain literal),
but only if that IP address is recognized as local for email routing
purposes. The local_interfaces and extra_local_interfaces options can be
used to control which of a host's several IP addresses are treated as
local. In today's Internet, the use of domain literals is controversial.
* If a pattern consists of the string "@mx_any" it matches any domain that
has an MX record pointing to the local host or to any host that is listed
in hosts_treat_as_local. The items "@mx_primary" and "@mx_secondary" are
similar, except that the first matches only when a primary MX target is the
local host, and the second only when no primary MX target is the local
host, but a secondary MX target is. "Primary" means an MX record with the
lowest preference value - there may of course be more than one of them.
The MX lookup that takes place when matching a pattern of this type is
performed with the resolver options for widening names turned off. Thus,
for example, a single-component domain will not be expanded by adding the
resolver's default domain. See the qualify_single and search_parents
options of the dnslookup router for a discussion of domain widening.
Sometimes you may want to ignore certain IP addresses when using one of
these patterns. You can specify this by following the pattern with "/ignore
="<ip list>, where <ip list> is a list of IP addresses. These addresses are
ignored when processing the pattern (compare the ignore_target_hosts option
on a router). For example:
domains = @mx_any/ignore=127.0.0.1
This example matches any domain that has an MX record pointing to one of
the local host's IP addresses other than 127.0.0.1.
The list of IP addresses is in fact processed by the same code that
processes host lists, so it may contain CIDR-coded network specifications
and it may also contain negative items.
Because the list of IP addresses is a sublist within a domain list, you
have to be careful about delimiters if there is more than one address. Like
any other list, the default delimiter can be changed. Thus, you might have:
domains = @mx_any/ignore=<;127.0.0.1;0.0.0.0 : \
an.other.domain : ...
so that the sublist uses semicolons for delimiters. When IPv6 addresses are
involved, it is easiest to change the delimiter for the main list as well:
domains = <? @mx_any/ignore=<;127.0.0.1;::1 ? \
an.other.domain ? ...
* If a pattern starts with an asterisk, the remaining characters of the
pattern are compared with the terminating characters of the domain. The use
of "*" in domain lists differs from its use in partial matching lookups. In
a domain list, the character following the asterisk need not be a dot,
whereas partial matching works only in terms of dot-separated components.
For example, a domain list item such as "*key.ex" matches donkey.ex as well
as cipher.key.ex.
* If a pattern starts with a circumflex character, it is treated as a regular
expression, and matched against the domain using a regular expression
matching function. The circumflex is treated as part of the regular
expression. Email domains are case-independent, so this regular expression
match is by default case-independent, but you can make it case-dependent by
starting it with "(?-i)". References to descriptions of the syntax of
regular expressions are given in chapter 8.
Warning: Because domain lists are expanded before being processed, you must
escape any backslash and dollar characters in the regular expression, or
use the special "\N" sequence (see chapter 11) to specify that it is not to
be expanded (unless you really do want to build a regular expression by
expansion, of course).
* If a pattern starts with the name of a single-key lookup type followed by a
semicolon (for example, "dbm;" or "lsearch;"), the remainder of the pattern
must be a file name in a suitable format for the lookup type. For example,
for "cdb;" it must be an absolute path:
domains = cdb;/etc/mail/local_domains.cdb
The appropriate type of lookup is done on the file using the domain name as
the key. In most cases, the data that is looked up is not used; Exim is
interested only in whether or not the key is present in the file. However,
when a lookup is used for the domains option on a router or a domains
condition in an ACL statement, the data is preserved in the $domain_data
variable and can be referred to in other router options or other statements
in the same ACL.
* Any of the single-key lookup type names may be preceded by "partial"<n>"-",
where the <n> is optional, for example,
domains = partial-dbm;/partial/domains
This causes partial matching logic to be invoked; a description of how this
works is given in section 9.7.
* Any of the single-key lookup types may be followed by an asterisk. This
causes a default lookup for a key consisting of a single asterisk to be
done if the original lookup fails. This is not a useful feature when using
a domain list to select particular domains (because any domain would
match), but it might have value if the result of the lookup is being used
via the $domain_data expansion variable.
* If the pattern starts with the name of a query-style lookup type followed
by a semicolon (for example, "nisplus;" or "ldap;"), the remainder of the
pattern must be an appropriate query for the lookup type, as described in
chapter 9. For example:
hold_domains = mysql;select domain from holdlist \
where domain = '$domain';
In most cases, the data that is looked up is not used (so for an SQL query,
for example, it doesn't matter what field you select). Exim is interested
only in whether or not the query succeeds. However, when a lookup is used
for the domains option on a router, the data is preserved in the
$domain_data variable and can be referred to in other options.
* If none of the above cases apply, a caseless textual comparison is made
between the pattern and the domain.
Here is an example that uses several different kinds of pattern:
domainlist funny_domains = \
@ : \
lib.unseen.edu : \
*.foundation.fict.example : \
\N^[1-2]\d{3}\.fict\.example$\N : \
partial-dbm;/opt/data/penguin/book : \
nis;domains.byname : \
nisplus;[name=$domain,status=local],domains.org_dir
There are obvious processing trade-offs among the various matching modes. Using
an asterisk is faster than a regular expression, and listing a few names
explicitly probably is too. The use of a file or database lookup is expensive,
but may be the only option if hundreds of names are required. Because the
patterns are tested in order, it makes sense to put the most commonly matched
patterns earlier.
10.9 Host lists
---------------
Host lists are used to control what remote hosts are allowed to do. For
example, some hosts may be allowed to use the local host as a relay, and some
may be permitted to use the SMTP ETRN command. Hosts can be identified in two
different ways, by name or by IP address. In a host list, some types of pattern
are matched to a host name, and some are matched to an IP address. You need to
be particularly careful with this when single-key lookups are involved, to
ensure that the right value is being used as the key.
10.10 Special host list patterns
--------------------------------
If a host list item is the empty string, it matches only when no remote host is
involved. This is the case when a message is being received from a local
process using SMTP on the standard input, that is, when a TCP/IP connection is
not used.
The special pattern "*" in a host list matches any host or no host. Neither the
IP address nor the name is actually inspected.
10.11 Host list patterns that match by IP address
-------------------------------------------------
If an IPv4 host calls an IPv6 host and the call is accepted on an IPv6 socket,
the incoming address actually appears in the IPv6 host as "::ffff:"<v4address>.
When such an address is tested against a host list, it is converted into a
traditional IPv4 address first. (Not all operating systems accept IPv4 calls on
IPv6 sockets, as there have been some security concerns.)
The following types of pattern in a host list check the remote host by
inspecting its IP address:
* If the pattern is a plain domain name (not a regular expression, not
starting with *, not a lookup of any kind), Exim calls the operating system
function to find the associated IP address(es). Exim uses the newer
getipnodebyname() function when available, otherwise gethostbyname(). This
typically causes a forward DNS lookup of the name. The result is compared
with the IP address of the subject host.
If there is a temporary problem (such as a DNS timeout) with the host name
lookup, a temporary error occurs. For example, if the list is being used in
an ACL condition, the ACL gives a "defer" response, usually leading to a
temporary SMTP error code. If no IP address can be found for the host name,
what happens is described in section 10.14 below.
* If the pattern is "@", the primary host name is substituted and used as a
domain name, as just described.
* If the pattern is an IP address, it is matched against the IP address of
the subject host. IPv4 addresses are given in the normal "dotted-quad"
notation. IPv6 addresses can be given in colon-separated format, but the
colons have to be doubled so as not to be taken as item separators when the
default list separator is used. IPv6 addresses are recognized even when
Exim is compiled without IPv6 support. This means that if they appear in a
host list on an IPv4-only host, Exim will not treat them as host names.
They are just addresses that can never match a client host.
* If the pattern is "@[]", it matches the IP address of any IP interface on
the local host. For example, if the local host is an IPv4 host with one
interface address 10.45.23.56, these two ACL statements have the same
effect:
accept hosts = 127.0.0.1 : 10.45.23.56
accept hosts = @[]
* If the pattern is an IP address followed by a slash and a mask length (for
example 10.11.42.0/24), it is matched against the IP address of the subject
host under the given mask. This allows, an entire network of hosts to be
included (or excluded) by a single item. The mask uses CIDR notation; it
specifies the number of address bits that must match, starting from the
most significant end of the address.
Note: The mask is not a count of addresses, nor is it the high number of a
range of addresses. It is the number of bits in the network portion of the
address. The above example specifies a 24-bit netmask, so it matches all
256 addresses in the 10.11.42.0 network. An item such as
192.168.23.236/31
matches just two addresses, 192.168.23.236 and 192.168.23.237. A mask value
of 32 for an IPv4 address is the same as no mask at all; just a single
address matches.
Here is another example which shows an IPv4 and an IPv6 network:
recipient_unqualified_hosts = 192.168.0.0/16: \
3ffe::ffff::836f::::/48
The doubling of list separator characters applies only when these items
appear inline in a host list. It is not required when indirecting via a
file. For example:
recipient_unqualified_hosts = /opt/exim/unqualnets
could make use of a file containing
172.16.0.0/12
3ffe:ffff:836f::/48
to have exactly the same effect as the previous example. When listing IPv6
addresses inline, it is usually more convenient to use the facility for
changing separator characters. This list contains the same two networks:
recipient_unqualified_hosts = <; 172.16.0.0/12; \
3ffe:ffff:836f::/48
The separator is changed to semicolon by the leading "<;" at the start of
the list.
10.12 Host list patterns for single-key lookups by host address
---------------------------------------------------------------
When a host is to be identified by a single-key lookup of its complete IP
address, the pattern takes this form:
net-<single-key-search-type>;<search-data>
For example:
hosts_lookup = net-cdb;/hosts-by-ip.db
The text form of the IP address of the subject host is used as the lookup key.
IPv6 addresses are converted to an unabbreviated form, using lower case
letters, with dots as separators because colon is the key terminator in lsearch
files. [Colons can in fact be used in keys in lsearch files by quoting the
keys, but this is a facility that was added later.] The data returned by the
lookup is not used.
Single-key lookups can also be performed using masked IP addresses, using
patterns of this form:
net<number>-<single-key-search-type>;<search-data>
For example:
net24-dbm;/networks.db
The IP address of the subject host is masked using <number> as the mask length.
A textual string is constructed from the masked value, followed by the mask,
and this is used as the lookup key. For example, if the host's IP address is
192.168.34.6, the key that is looked up for the above example is "192.168.34.0/
24".
When an IPv6 address is converted to a string, dots are normally used instead
of colons, so that keys in lsearch files need not contain colons (which
terminate lsearch keys). This was implemented some time before the ability to
quote keys was made available in lsearch files. However, the more recently
implemented iplsearch files do require colons in IPv6 keys (notated using the
quoting facility) so as to distinguish them from IPv4 keys. For this reason,
when the lookup type is iplsearch, IPv6 addresses are converted using colons
and not dots. In all cases, full, unabbreviated IPv6 addresses are always used.
Ideally, it would be nice to tidy up this anomalous situation by changing to
colons in all cases, given that quoting is now available for lsearch. However,
this would be an incompatible change that might break some existing
configurations.
Warning: Specifying net32- (for an IPv4 address) or net128- (for an IPv6
address) is not the same as specifying just net- without a number. In the
former case the key strings include the mask value, whereas in the latter case
the IP address is used on its own.
10.13 Host list patterns that match by host name
------------------------------------------------
There are several types of pattern that require Exim to know the name of the
remote host. These are either wildcard patterns or lookups by name. (If a
complete hostname is given without any wildcarding, it is used to find an IP
address to match against, as described in the section 10.11 above.)
If the remote host name is not already known when Exim encounters one of these
patterns, it has to be found from the IP address. Although many sites on the
Internet are conscientious about maintaining reverse DNS data for their hosts,
there are also many that do not do this. Consequently, a name cannot always be
found, and this may lead to unwanted effects. Take care when configuring host
lists with wildcarded name patterns. Consider what will happen if a name cannot
be found.
Because of the problems of determining host names from IP addresses, matching
against host names is not as common as matching against IP addresses.
By default, in order to find a host name, Exim first does a reverse DNS lookup;
if no name is found in the DNS, the system function (gethostbyaddr() or
getipnodebyaddr() if available) is tried. The order in which these lookups are
done can be changed by setting the host_lookup_order option. For security, once
Exim has found one or more names, it looks up the IP addresses for these names
and compares them with the IP address that it started with. Only those names
whose IP addresses match are accepted. Any other names are discarded. If no
names are left, Exim behaves as if the host name cannot be found. In the most
common case there is only one name and one IP address.
There are some options that control what happens if a host name cannot be
found. These are described in section 10.14 below.
As a result of aliasing, hosts may have more than one name. When processing any
of the following types of pattern, all the host's names are checked:
* If a pattern starts with "*" the remainder of the item must match the end
of the host name. For example, "*.b.c" matches all hosts whose names end in
.b.c. This special simple form is provided because this is a very common
requirement. Other kinds of wildcarding require the use of a regular
expression.
* If the item starts with "^" it is taken to be a regular expression which is
matched against the host name. Host names are case-independent, so this
regular expression match is by default case-independent, but you can make
it case-dependent by starting it with "(?-i)". References to descriptions
of the syntax of regular expressions are given in chapter 8. For example,
^(a|b)\.c\.d$
is a regular expression that matches either of the two hosts a.c.d or b.c.d
. When a regular expression is used in a host list, you must take care that
backslash and dollar characters are not misinterpreted as part of the
string expansion. The simplest way to do this is to use "\N" to mark that
part of the string as non-expandable. For example:
sender_unqualified_hosts = \N^(a|b)\.c\.d$\N : ....
Warning: If you want to match a complete host name, you must include the
"$" terminating metacharacter in the regular expression, as in the above
example. Without it, a match at the start of the host name is all that is
required.
10.14 Behaviour when an IP address or name cannot be found
----------------------------------------------------------
While processing a host list, Exim may need to look up an IP address from a
name (see section 10.11), or it may need to look up a host name from an IP
address (see section 10.13). In either case, the behaviour when it fails to
find the information it is seeking is the same.
Note: This section applies to permanent lookup failures. It does not apply to
temporary DNS errors, whose handling is described in the next section.
By default, Exim behaves as if the host does not match the list. This may not
always be what you want to happen. To change Exim's behaviour, the special
items "+include_unknown" or "+ignore_unknown" may appear in the list (at top
level - they are not recognized in an indirected file).
* If any item that follows "+include_unknown" requires information that
cannot found, Exim behaves as if the host does match the list. For example,
host_reject_connection = +include_unknown:*.enemy.ex
rejects connections from any host whose name matches "*.enemy.ex", and also
any hosts whose name it cannot find.
* If any item that follows "+ignore_unknown" requires information that cannot
be found, Exim ignores that item and proceeds to the rest of the list. For
example:
accept hosts = +ignore_unknown : friend.example : \
192.168.4.5
accepts from any host whose name is friend.example and from 192.168.4.5,
whether or not its host name can be found. Without "+ignore_unknown", if no
name can be found for 192.168.4.5, it is rejected.
Both "+include_unknown" and "+ignore_unknown" may appear in the same list. The
effect of each one lasts until the next, or until the end of the list.
10.15 Temporary DNS errors when looking up host information
-----------------------------------------------------------
A temporary DNS lookup failure normally causes a defer action (except when
dns_again_means_nonexist converts it into a permanent error). However, host
lists can include "+ignore_defer" and "+include_defer", analagous to
"+ignore_unknown" and "+include_unknown", as described in the previous section.
These options should be used with care, probably only in non-critical host
lists such as whitelists.
10.16 Host list patterns for single-key lookups by host name
------------------------------------------------------------
If a pattern is of the form
<single-key-search-type>;<search-data>
for example
dbm;/host/accept/list
a single-key lookup is performed, using the host name as its key. If the lookup
succeeds, the host matches the item. The actual data that is looked up is not
used.
Reminder: With this kind of pattern, you must have host names as keys in the
file, not IP addresses. If you want to do lookups based on IP addresses, you
must precede the search type with "net-" (see section 10.12). There is,
however, no reason why you could not use two items in the same list, one doing
an address lookup and one doing a name lookup, both using the same file.
10.17 Host list patterns for query-style lookups
------------------------------------------------
If a pattern is of the form
<query-style-search-type>;<query>
the query is obeyed, and if it succeeds, the host matches the item. The actual
data that is looked up is not used. The variables $sender_host_address and
$sender_host_name can be used in the query. For example:
hosts_lookup = pgsql;\
select ip from hostlist where ip='$sender_host_address'
The value of $sender_host_address for an IPv6 address contains colons. You can
use the sg expansion item to change this if you need to. If you want to use
masked IP addresses in database queries, you can use the mask expansion
operator.
If the query contains a reference to $sender_host_name, Exim automatically
looks up the host name if has not already done so. (See section 10.13 for
comments on finding host names.)
Historical note: prior to release 4.30, Exim would always attempt to find a
host name before running the query, unless the search type was preceded by
"net-". This is no longer the case. For backwards compatibility, "net-" is
still recognized for query-style lookups, but its presence or absence has no
effect. (Of course, for single-key lookups, "net-" is important. See section
10.12.)
10.18 Mixing wildcarded host names and addresses in host lists
--------------------------------------------------------------
If you have name lookups or wildcarded host names and IP addresses in the same
host list, you should normally put the IP addresses first. For example, in an
ACL you could have:
accept hosts = 10.9.8.7 : *.friend.example
The reason for this lies in the left-to-right way that Exim processes lists. It
can test IP addresses without doing any DNS lookups, but when it reaches an
item that requires a host name, it fails if it cannot find a host name to
compare with the pattern. If the above list is given in the opposite order, the
accept statement fails for a host whose name cannot be found, even if its IP
address is 10.9.8.7.
If you really do want to do the name check first, and still recognize the IP
address, you can rewrite the ACL like this:
accept hosts = *.friend.example
accept hosts = 10.9.8.7
If the first accept fails, Exim goes on to try the second one. See chapter 40
for details of ACLs.
10.19 Address lists
-------------------
Address lists contain patterns that are matched against mail addresses. There
is one special case to be considered: the sender address of a bounce message is
always empty. You can test for this by providing an empty item in an address
list. For example, you can set up a router to process bounce messages by using
this option setting:
senders = :
The presence of the colon creates an empty item. If you do not provide any
data, the list is empty and matches nothing. The empty sender can also be
detected by a regular expression that matches an empty string, and by a
query-style lookup that succeeds when $sender_address is empty.
Non-empty items in an address list can be straightforward email addresses. For
example:
senders = jbc@askone.example : hs@anacreon.example
A certain amount of wildcarding is permitted. If a pattern contains an @
character, but is not a regular expression and does not begin with a
semicolon-terminated lookup type (described below), the local part of the
subject address is compared with the local part of the pattern, which may start
with an asterisk. If the local parts match, the domain is checked in exactly
the same way as for a pattern in a domain list. For example, the domain can be
wildcarded, refer to a named list, or be a lookup:
deny senders = *@*.spamming.site:\
*@+hostile_domains:\
bozo@partial-lsearch;/list/of/dodgy/sites:\
*@dbm;/bad/domains.db
If a local part that begins with an exclamation mark is required, it has to be
specified using a regular expression, because otherwise the exclamation mark is
treated as a sign of negation, as is standard in lists.
If a non-empty pattern that is not a regular expression or a lookup does not
contain an @ character, it is matched against the domain part of the subject
address. The only two formats that are recognized this way are a literal
domain, or a domain pattern that starts with *. In both these cases, the effect
is the same as if "*@" preceded the pattern. For example:
deny senders = enemy.domain : *.enemy.domain
The following kinds of more complicated address list pattern can match any
address, including the empty address that is characteristic of bounce message
senders:
* If (after expansion) a pattern starts with "^", a regular expression match
is done against the complete address, with the pattern as the regular
expression. You must take care that backslash and dollar characters are not
misinterpreted as part of the string expansion. The simplest way to do this
is to use "\N" to mark that part of the string as non-expandable. For
example:
deny senders = \N^.*this.*@example\.com$\N : \
\N^\d{8}.+@spamhaus.example$\N : ...
The "\N" sequences are removed by the expansion, so these items do indeed
start with "^" by the time they are being interpreted as address patterns.
* Complete addresses can be looked up by using a pattern that starts with a
lookup type terminated by a semicolon, followed by the data for the lookup.
For example:
deny senders = cdb;/etc/blocked.senders : \
mysql;select address from blocked where \
address='${quote_mysql:$sender_address}'
Both query-style and single-key lookup types can be used. For a single-key
lookup type, Exim uses the complete address as the key. However, empty keys
are not supported for single-key lookups, so a match against the empty
address always fails. This restriction does not apply to query-style
lookups.
Partial matching for single-key lookups (section 9.7) cannot be used, and
is ignored if specified, with an entry being written to the panic log.
However, you can configure lookup defaults, as described in section 9.6,
but this is useful only for the "*@" type of default. For example, with
this lookup:
accept senders = lsearch*@;/some/file
the file could contains lines like this:
user1@domain1.example
*@domain2.example
and for the sender address nimrod@jaeger.example, the sequence of keys that
are tried is:
nimrod@jaeger.example
*@jaeger.example
*
Warning 1: Do not include a line keyed by "*" in the file, because that
would mean that every address matches, thus rendering the test useless.
Warning 2: Do not confuse these two kinds of item:
deny recipients = dbm*@;/some/file
deny recipients = *@dbm;/some/file
The first does a whole address lookup, with defaulting, as just described,
because it starts with a lookup type. The second matches the local part and
domain independently, as described in a bullet point below.
The following kinds of address list pattern can match only non-empty addresses.
If the subject address is empty, a match against any of these pattern types
always fails.
* If a pattern starts with "@@" followed by a single-key lookup item (for
example, "@@lsearch;/some/file"), the address that is being checked is
split into a local part and a domain. The domain is looked up in the file.
If it is not found, there is no match. If it is found, the data that is
looked up from the file is treated as a colon-separated list of local part
patterns, each of which is matched against the subject local part in turn.
The lookup may be a partial one, and/or one involving a search for a
default keyed by "*" (see section 9.6). The local part patterns that are
looked up can be regular expressions or begin with "*", or even be further
lookups. They may also be independently negated. For example, with
deny senders = @@dbm;/etc/reject-by-domain
the data from which the DBM file is built could contain lines like
baddomain.com: !postmaster : *
to reject all senders except postmaster from that domain.
If a local part that actually begins with an exclamation mark is required,
it has to be specified using a regular expression. In lsearch files, an
entry may be split over several lines by indenting the second and
subsequent lines, but the separating colon must still be included at line
breaks. White space surrounding the colons is ignored. For example:
aol.com: spammer1 : spammer2 : ^[0-9]+$ :
spammer3 : spammer4
As in all colon-separated lists in Exim, a colon can be included in an item
by doubling.
If the last item in the list starts with a right angle-bracket, the
remainder of the item is taken as a new key to look up in order to obtain a
continuation list of local parts. The new key can be any sequence of
characters. Thus one might have entries like
aol.com: spammer1 : spammer 2 : >*
xyz.com: spammer3 : >*
*: ^\d{8}$
in a file that was searched with @@dbm*, to specify a match for 8-digit
local parts for all domains, in addition to the specific local parts listed
for each domain. Of course, using this feature costs another lookup each
time a chain is followed, but the effort needed to maintain the data is
reduced.
It is possible to construct loops using this facility, and in order to
catch them, the chains may be no more than fifty items long.
* The @@<lookup> style of item can also be used with a query-style lookup,
but in this case, the chaining facility is not available. The lookup can
only return a single list of local parts.
Warning: There is an important difference between the address list items in
these two examples:
senders = +my_list
senders = *@+my_list
In the first one, "my_list" is a named address list, whereas in the second
example it is a named domain list.
10.20 Case of letters in address lists
--------------------------------------
Domains in email addresses are always handled caselessly, but for local parts
case may be significant on some systems (see caseful_local_part for how Exim
deals with this when routing addresses). However, RFC 2505 (Anti-Spam
Recommendations for SMTP MTAs) suggests that matching of addresses to blocking
lists should be done in a case-independent manner. Since most address lists in
Exim are used for this kind of control, Exim attempts to do this by default.
The domain portion of an address is always lowercased before matching it to an
address list. The local part is lowercased by default, and any string
comparisons that take place are done caselessly. This means that the data in
the address list itself, in files included as plain file names, and in any file
that is looked up using the "@@" mechanism, can be in any case. However, the
keys in files that are looked up by a search type other than lsearch (which
works caselessly) must be in lower case, because these lookups are not
case-independent.
To allow for the possibility of caseful address list matching, if an item in an
address list is the string "+caseful", the original case of the local part is
restored for any comparisons that follow, and string comparisons are no longer
case-independent. This does not affect the domain, which remains in lower case.
However, although independent matches on the domain alone are still performed
caselessly, regular expressions that match against an entire address become
case-sensitive after "+caseful" has been seen.
10.21 Local part lists
----------------------
Case-sensitivity in local part lists is handled in the same way as for address
lists, as just described. The "+caseful" item can be used if required. In a
setting of the local_parts option in a router with caseful_local_part set
false, the subject is lowercased and the matching is initially
case-insensitive. In this case, "+caseful" will restore case-sensitive matching
in the local part list, but not elsewhere in the router. If caseful_local_part
is set true in a router, matching in the local_parts option is case-sensitive
from the start.
If a local part list is indirected to a file (see section 10.3), comments are
handled in the same way as address lists - they are recognized only if the # is
preceded by white space or the start of the line. Otherwise, local part lists
are matched in the same way as domain lists, except that the special items that
refer to the local host ("@", "@[]", "@mx_any", "@mx_primary", and
"@mx_secondary") are not recognized. Refer to section 10.8 for details of the
other available item types.
===============================================================================
11. STRING EXPANSIONS
Many strings in Exim's run time configuration are expanded before use. Some of
them are expanded every time they are used; others are expanded only once.
When a string is being expanded it is copied verbatim from left to right except
when a dollar or backslash character is encountered. A dollar specifies the
start of a portion of the string that is interpreted and replaced as described
below in section 11.5 onwards. Backslash is used as an escape character, as
described in the following section.
11.1 Literal text in expanded strings
-------------------------------------
An uninterpreted dollar can be included in an expanded string by putting a
backslash in front of it. A backslash can be used to prevent any special
character being treated specially in an expansion, including backslash itself.
If the string appears in quotes in the configuration file, two backslashes are
required because the quotes themselves cause interpretation of backslashes when
the string is read in (see section 6.16).
A portion of the string can specified as non-expandable by placing it between
two occurrences of "\N". This is particularly useful for protecting regular
expressions, which often contain backslashes and dollar signs. For example:
deny senders = \N^\d{8}[a-z]@some\.site\.example$\N
On encountering the first "\N", the expander copies subsequent characters
without interpretation until it reaches the next "\N" or the end of the string.
11.2 Character escape sequences in expanded strings
---------------------------------------------------
A backslash followed by one of the letters "n", "r", or "t" in an expanded
string is recognized as an escape sequence for the character newline, carriage
return, or tab, respectively. A backslash followed by up to three octal digits
is recognized as an octal encoding for a single character, and a backslash
followed by "x" and up to two hexadecimal digits is a hexadecimal encoding.
These escape sequences are also recognized in quoted strings when they are read
in. Their interpretation in expansions as well is useful for unquoted strings,
and for other cases such as looked-up strings that are then expanded.
11.3 Testing string expansions
------------------------------
Many expansions can be tested by calling Exim with the -be option. This takes
the command arguments, or lines from the standard input if there are no
arguments, runs them through the string expansion code, and writes the results
to the standard output. Variables based on configuration values are set up, but
since no message is being processed, variables such as $local_part have no
value. Nevertheless the -be option can be useful for checking out file and
database lookups, and the use of expansion operators such as sg, substr and
nhash.
Exim gives up its root privilege when it is called with the -be option, and
instead runs under the uid and gid it was called with, to prevent users from
using -be for reading files to which they do not have access.
If you want to test expansions that include variables whose values are taken
from a message, there are two other options that can be used. The -bem option
is like -be except that it is followed by a file name. The file is read as a
message before doing the test expansions. For example:
exim -bem /tmp/test.message '$h_subject:'
The -Mset option is used in conjunction with -be and is followed by an Exim
message identifier. For example:
exim -be -Mset 1GrA8W-0004WS-LQ '$recipients'
This loads the message from Exim's spool before doing the test expansions, and
is therefore restricted to admin users.
11.4 Forced expansion failure
-----------------------------
A number of expansions that are described in the following section have
alternative "true" and "false" substrings, enclosed in brace characters (which
are sometimes called "curly brackets"). Which of the two strings is used
depends on some condition that is evaluated as part of the expansion. If,
instead of a "false" substring, the word "fail" is used (not in braces), the
entire string expansion fails in a way that can be detected by the code that
requested the expansion. This is called "forced expansion failure", and its
consequences depend on the circumstances. In some cases it is no different from
any other expansion failure, but in others a different action may be taken.
Such variations are mentioned in the documentation of the option that is being
expanded.
11.5 Expansion items
--------------------
The following items are recognized in expanded strings. White space may be used
between sub-items that are keywords or substrings enclosed in braces inside an
outer set of braces, to improve readability. Warning: Within braces, white
space is significant.
$<variable name> or ${<variable name>}
Substitute the contents of the named variable, for example:
$local_part
${domain}
The second form can be used to separate the name from subsequent
alphanumeric characters. This form (using braces) is available only for
variables; it does not apply to message headers. The names of the variables
are given in section 11.9 below. If the name of a non-existent variable is
given, the expansion fails.
${<op>:<string>}
The string is first itself expanded, and then the operation specified by <
op> is applied to it. For example:
${lc:$local_part}
The string starts with the first character after the colon, which may be
leading white space. A list of operators is given in section 11.6 below.
The operator notation is used for simple expansion items that have just one
argument, because it reduces the number of braces and therefore makes the
string easier to understand.
$bheader_<header name>: or $bh_<header name>:
This item inserts "basic" header lines. It is described with the header
expansion item below.
${dlfunc{<file>}{<function>}{<arg>}{<arg>}...}
This expansion dynamically loads and then calls a locally-written C
function. This functionality is available only if Exim is compiled with
EXPAND_DLFUNC=yes
set in Local/Makefile. Once loaded, Exim remembers the dynamically loaded
object so that it doesn't reload the same object file in the same Exim
process (but of course Exim does start new processes frequently).
There may be from zero to eight arguments to the function. When compiling a
local function that is to be called in this way, local_scan.h should be
included. The Exim variables and functions that are defined by that API are
also available for dynamically loaded functions. The function itself must
have the following type:
int dlfunction(uschar **yield, int argc, uschar *argv[])
Where "uschar" is a typedef for "unsigned char" in local_scan.h. The
function should return one of the following values:
"OK": Success. The string that is placed in the variable yield is put into
the expanded string that is being built.
"FAIL": A non-forced expansion failure occurs, with the error message taken
from yield, if it is set.
"FAIL_FORCED": A forced expansion failure occurs, with the error message
taken from yield if it is set.
"ERROR": Same as "FAIL", except that a panic log entry is written.
When compiling a function that is to be used in this way with gcc, you need
to add -shared to the gcc command. Also, in the Exim build-time
configuration, you must add -export-dynamic to EXTRALIBS.
${extract{<key>}{<string1>}{<string2>}{<string3>}}
The key and <string1> are first expanded separately. Leading and trailing
white space is removed from the key (but not from any of the strings). The
key must not consist entirely of digits. The expanded <string1> must be of
the form:
<key1> = <value1> <key2> = <value2> ...
where the equals signs and spaces (but not both) are optional. If any of
the values contain white space, they must be enclosed in double quotes, and
any values that are enclosed in double quotes are subject to escape
processing as described in section 6.16. The expanded <string1> is searched
for the value that corresponds to the key. The search is case-insensitive.
If the key is found, <string2> is expanded, and replaces the whole item;
otherwise <string3> is used. During the expansion of <string2> the variable
$value contains the value that has been extracted. Afterwards, it is
restored to any previous value it might have had.
If {<string3>} is omitted, the item is replaced by an empty string if the
key is not found. If {<string2>} is also omitted, the value that was
extracted is used. Thus, for example, these two expansions are identical,
and yield "2001":
${extract{gid}{uid=1984 gid=2001}}
${extract{gid}{uid=1984 gid=2001}{$value}}
Instead of {<string3>} the word "fail" (not in curly brackets) can appear,
for example:
${extract{Z}{A=... B=...}{$value} fail }
This forces an expansion failure (see section 11.4); {<string2>} must be
present for "fail" to be recognized.
${extract{<number>}{<separators>}{<string1>}{<string2>}{<string3>}}
The <number> argument must consist entirely of decimal digits, apart from
leading and trailing white space, which is ignored. This is what
distinguishes this form of extract from the previous kind. It behaves in
the same way, except that, instead of extracting a named field, it extracts
from <string1> the field whose number is given as the first argument. You
can use $value in <string2> or "fail" instead of <string3> as before.
The fields in the string are separated by any one of the characters in the
separator string. These may include space or tab characters. The first
field is numbered one. If the number is negative, the fields are counted
from the end of the string, with the rightmost one numbered -1. If the
number given is zero, the entire string is returned. If the modulus of the
number is greater than the number of fields in the string, the result is
the expansion of <string3>, or the empty string if <string3> is not
provided. For example:
${extract{2}{:}{x:42:99:& Mailer::/bin/bash}}
yields "42", and
${extract{-4}{:}{x:42:99:& Mailer::/bin/bash}}
yields "99". Two successive separators mean that the field between them is
empty (for example, the fifth field above).
${filter{<string>}{<condition>}}
After expansion, <string> is interpreted as a list, colon-separated by
default, but the separator can be changed in the usual way. For each item
in this list, its value is place in $item, and then the condition is
evaluated. If the condition is true, $item is added to the output as an
item in a new list; if the condition is false, the item is discarded. The
separator used for the output list is the same as the one used for the
input, but a separator setting is not included in the output. For example:
${filter{a:b:c}{!eq{$item}{b}}
yields "a:c". At the end of the expansion, the value of $item is restored
to what it was before. See also the map and reduce expansion items.
${hash{<string1>}{<string2>}{<string3>}}
This is a textual hashing function, and was the first to be implemented in
early versions of Exim. In current releases, there are other hashing
functions (numeric, MD5, and SHA-1), which are described below.
The first two strings, after expansion, must be numbers. Call them <m> and
<n>. If you are using fixed values for these numbers, that is, if <string1>
and <string2> do not change when they are expanded, you can use the simpler
operator notation that avoids some of the braces:
${hash_<n>_<m>:<string>}
The second number is optional (in both notations). If <n> is greater than
or equal to the length of the string, the expansion item returns the
string. Otherwise it computes a new string of length <n> by applying a
hashing function to the string. The new string consists of characters taken
from the first <m> characters of the string
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQWRSTUVWXYZ0123456789
If <m> is not present the value 26 is used, so that only lower case letters
appear. For example:
$hash{3}{monty}} yields jmg
$hash{5}{monty}} yields monty
$hash{4}{62}{monty python}} yields fbWx
$header_<header name>: or $h_<header name>:, $bheader_<header name>: or $bh_<
header name>:, $rheader_<header name>: or $rh_<header name>:
Substitute the contents of the named message header line, for example
$header_reply-to:
The newline that terminates a header line is not included in the expansion,
but internal newlines (caused by splitting the header line over several
physical lines) may be present.
The difference between rheader, bheader, and header is in the way the data
in the header line is interpreted.
* rheader gives the original "raw" content of the header line, with no
processing at all, and without the removal of leading and trailing
white space.
* bheader removes leading and trailing white space, and then decodes
base64 or quoted-printable MIME "words" within the header text, but
does no character set translation. If decoding of what looks
superficially like a MIME "word" fails, the raw string is returned. If
decoding produces a binary zero character, it is replaced by a question
mark - this is what Exim does for binary zeros that are actually
received in header lines.
* header tries to translate the string as decoded by bheader to a
standard character set. This is an attempt to produce the same string
as would be displayed on a user's MUA. If translation fails, the
bheader string is returned. Translation is attempted only on operating
systems that support the iconv() function. This is indicated by the
compile-time macro HAVE_ICONV in a system Makefile or in Local/Makefile
.
In a filter file, the target character set for header can be specified by a
command of the following form:
headers charset "UTF-8"
This command affects all references to $h_ (or $header_) expansions in
subsequently obeyed filter commands. In the absence of this command, the
target character set in a filter is taken from the setting of the
headers_charset option in the runtime configuration. The value of this
option defaults to the value of HEADERS_CHARSET in Local/Makefile. The
ultimate default is ISO-8859-1.
Header names follow the syntax of RFC 2822, which states that they may
contain any printing characters except space and colon. Consequently, curly
brackets do not terminate header names, and should not be used to enclose
them as if they were variables. Attempting to do so causes a syntax error.
Only header lines that are common to all copies of a message are visible to
this mechanism. These are the original header lines that are received with
the message, and any that are added by an ACL statement or by a system
filter. Header lines that are added to a particular copy of a message by a
router or transport are not accessible.
For incoming SMTP messages, no header lines are visible in ACLs that are
obeyed before the DATA ACL, because the header structure is not set up
until the message is received. Header lines that are added in a RCPT ACL
(for example) are saved until the message's incoming header lines are
available, at which point they are added. When a DATA ACL is running,
however, header lines added by earlier ACLs are visible.
Upper case and lower case letters are synonymous in header names. If the
following character is white space, the terminating colon may be omitted,
but this is not recommended, because you may then forget it when it is
needed. When white space terminates the header name, it is included in the
expanded string. If the message does not contain the given header, the
expansion item is replaced by an empty string. (See the def condition in
section 11.7 for a means of testing for the existence of a header.)
If there is more than one header with the same name, they are all
concatenated to form the substitution string, up to a maximum length of
64K. Unless rheader is being used, leading and trailing white space is
removed from each header before concatenation, and a completely empty
header is ignored. A newline character is then inserted between non-empty
headers, but there is no newline at the very end. For the header and
bheader expansion, for those headers that contain lists of addresses, a
comma is also inserted at the junctions between headers. This does not
happen for the rheader expansion.
${hmac{<hashname>}{<secret>}{<string>}}
This function uses cryptographic hashing (either MD5 or SHA-1) to convert a
shared secret and some text into a message authentication code, as
specified in RFC 2104. This differs from "${md5:secret_text...}" or "$
{sha1:secret_text...}" in that the hmac step adds a signature to the
cryptographic hash, allowing for authentication that is not possible with
MD5 or SHA-1 alone. The hash name must expand to either "md5" or "sha1" at
present. For example:
${hmac{md5}{somesecret}{$primary_hostname $tod_log}}
For the hostname mail.example.com and time 2002-10-17 11:30:59, this
produces:
dd97e3ba5d1a61b5006108f8c8252953
As an example of how this might be used, you might put in the main part of
an Exim configuration:
SPAMSCAN_SECRET=cohgheeLei2thahw
In a router or a transport you could then have:
headers_add = \
X-Spam-Scanned: ${primary_hostname} ${message_exim_id} \
${hmac{md5}{SPAMSCAN_SECRET}\
{${primary_hostname},${message_exim_id},$h_message-id:}}
Then given a message, you can check where it was scanned by looking at the
X-Spam-Scanned: header line. If you know the secret, you can check that
this header line is authentic by recomputing the authentication code from
the host name, message ID and the Message-id: header line. This can be done
using Exim's -be option, or by other means, for example by using the
hmac_md5_hex() function in Perl.
${if <condition> {<string1>}{<string2>}}
If <condition> is true, <string1> is expanded and replaces the whole item;
otherwise <string2> is used. The available conditions are described in
section 11.7 below. For example:
${if eq {$local_part}{postmaster} {yes}{no} }
The second string need not be present; if it is not and the condition is
not true, the item is replaced with nothing. Alternatively, the word "fail"
may be present instead of the second string (without any curly brackets).
In this case, the expansion is forced to fail if the condition is not true
(see section 11.4).
If both strings are omitted, the result is the string "true" if the
condition is true, and the empty string if the condition is false. This
makes it less cumbersome to write custom ACL and router conditions. For
example, instead of
condition = ${if >{$acl_m4}{3}{true}{false}}
you can use
condition = ${if >{$acl_m4}{3}}
${length{<string1>}{<string2>}}
The length item is used to extract the initial portion of a string. Both
strings are expanded, and the first one must yield a number, <n>, say. If
you are using a fixed value for the number, that is, if <string1> does not
change when expanded, you can use the simpler operator notation that avoids
some of the braces:
${length_<n>:<string>}
The result of this item is either the first <n> characters or the whole of
<string2>, whichever is the shorter. Do not confuse length with strlen,
which gives the length of a string.
${lookup{<key>} <search type> {<file>} {<string1>} {<string2>}}
This is the first of one of two different types of lookup item, which are
both described in the next item.
${lookup <search type> {<query>} {<string1>} {<string2>}}
The two forms of lookup item specify data lookups in files and databases,
as discussed in chapter 9. The first form is used for single-key lookups,
and the second is used for query-style lookups. The <key>, <file>, and <
query> strings are expanded before use.
If there is any white space in a lookup item which is part of a filter
command, a retry or rewrite rule, a routing rule for the manualroute
router, or any other place where white space is significant, the lookup
item must be enclosed in double quotes. The use of data lookups in users'
filter files may be locked out by the system administrator.
If the lookup succeeds, <string1> is expanded and replaces the entire item.
During its expansion, the variable $value contains the data returned by the
lookup. Afterwards it reverts to the value it had previously (at the outer
level it is empty). If the lookup fails, <string2> is expanded and replaces
the entire item. If {<string2>} is omitted, the replacement is the empty
string on failure. If <string2> is provided, it can itself be a nested
lookup, thus providing a mechanism for looking up a default value when the
original lookup fails.
If a nested lookup is used as part of <string1>, $value contains the data
for the outer lookup while the parameters of the second lookup are
expanded, and also while <string2> of the second lookup is expanded, should
the second lookup fail. Instead of {<string2>} the word "fail" can appear,
and in this case, if the lookup fails, the entire expansion is forced to
fail (see section 11.4). If both {<string1>} and {<string2>} are omitted,
the result is the looked up value in the case of a successful lookup, and
nothing in the case of failure.
For single-key lookups, the string "partial" is permitted to precede the
search type in order to do partial matching, and * or *@ may follow a
search type to request default lookups if the key does not match (see
sections 9.6 and 9.7 for details).
If a partial search is used, the variables $1 and $2 contain the wild and
non-wild parts of the key during the expansion of the replacement text.
They return to their previous values at the end of the lookup item.
This example looks up the postmaster alias in the conventional alias file:
${lookup {postmaster} lsearch {/etc/aliases} {$value}}
This example uses NIS+ to look up the full name of the user corresponding
to the local part of an address, forcing the expansion to fail if it is not
found:
${lookup nisplus {[name=$local_part],passwd.org_dir:gcos} \
{$value}fail}
${map{<string1>}{<string2>}}
After expansion, <string1> is interpreted as a list, colon-separated by
default, but the separator can be changed in the usual way. For each item
in this list, its value is place in $item, and then <string2> is expanded
and added to the output as an item in a new list. The separator used for
the output list is the same as the one used for the input, but a separator
setting is not included in the output. For example:
${map{a:b:c}{[$item]}} ${map{<- x-y-z}{($item)}}
expands to "[a]:[b]:[c] (x)-(y)-(z)". At the end of the expansion, the
value of $item is restored to what it was before. See also the filter and
reduce expansion items.
${nhash{<string1>}{<string2>}{<string3>}}
The three strings are expanded; the first two must yield numbers. Call them
<n> and <m>. If you are using fixed values for these numbers, that is, if <
string1> and <string2> do not change when they are expanded, you can use
the simpler operator notation that avoids some of the braces:
${nhash_<n>_<m>:<string>}
The second number is optional (in both notations). If there is only one
number, the result is a number in the range 0-<n>-1. Otherwise, the string
is processed by a div/mod hash function that returns two numbers, separated
by a slash, in the ranges 0 to <n>-1 and 0 to <m>-1, respectively. For
example,
${nhash{8}{64}{supercalifragilisticexpialidocious}}
returns the string "6/33".
${perl{<subroutine>}{<arg>}{<arg>}...}
This item is available only if Exim has been built to include an embedded
Perl interpreter. The subroutine name and the arguments are first
separately expanded, and then the Perl subroutine is called with those
arguments. No additional arguments need be given; the maximum number
permitted, including the name of the subroutine, is nine.
The return value of the subroutine is inserted into the expanded string,
unless the return value is undef. In that case, the expansion fails in the
same way as an explicit "fail" on a lookup item. The return value is a
scalar. Whatever you return is evaluated in a scalar context. For example,
if you return the name of a Perl vector, the return value is the size of
the vector, not its contents.
If the subroutine exits by calling Perl's die function, the expansion fails
with the error message that was passed to die. More details of the embedded
Perl facility are given in chapter 12.
The redirect router has an option called forbid_filter_perl which locks out
the use of this expansion item in filter files.
${prvs{<address>}{<secret>}{<keynumber>}}
The first argument is a complete email address and the second is secret
keystring. The third argument, specifying a key number, is optional. If
absent, it defaults to 0. The result of the expansion is a prvs-signed
email address, to be typically used with the return_path option on an smtp
transport as part of a bounce address tag validation (BATV) scheme. For
more discussion and an example, see section 40.47.
${prvscheck{<address>}{<secret>}{<string>}}
This expansion item is the complement of the prvs item. It is used for
checking prvs-signed addresses. If the expansion of the first argument does
not yield a syntactically valid prvs-signed address, the whole item expands
to the empty string. When the first argument does expand to a syntactically
valid prvs-signed address, the second argument is expanded, with the
prvs-decoded version of the address and the key number extracted from the
address in the variables $prvscheck_address and $prvscheck_keynum,
respectively.
These two variables can be used in the expansion of the second argument to
retrieve the secret. The validity of the prvs-signed address is then
checked against the secret. The result is stored in the variable
$prvscheck_result, which is empty for failure or "1" for success.
The third argument is optional; if it is missing, it defaults to an empty
string. This argument is now expanded. If the result is an empty string,
the result of the expansion is the decoded version of the address. This is
the case whether or not the signature was valid. Otherwise, the result of
the expansion is the expansion of the third argument.
All three variables can be used in the expansion of the third argument.
However, once the expansion is complete, only $prvscheck_result remains
set. For more discussion and an example, see section 40.47.
${readfile{<file name>}{<eol string>}}
The file name and end-of-line string are first expanded separately. The
file is then read, and its contents replace the entire item. All newline
characters in the file are replaced by the end-of-line string if it is
present. Otherwise, newlines are left in the string. String expansion is
not applied to the contents of the file. If you want this, you must wrap
the item in an expand operator. If the file cannot be read, the string
expansion fails.
The redirect router has an option called forbid_filter_readfile which locks
out the use of this expansion item in filter files.
${readsocket{<name>}{<request>}{<timeout>}{<eol string>}{<fail string>}}
This item inserts data from a Unix domain or Internet socket into the
expanded string. The minimal way of using it uses just two arguments, as in
these examples:
${readsocket{/socket/name}{request string}}
${readsocket{inet:some.host:1234}{request string}}
For a Unix domain socket, the first substring must be the path to the
socket. For an Internet socket, the first substring must contain "inet:"
followed by a host name or IP address, followed by a colon and a port,
which can be a number or the name of a TCP port in /etc/services. An IP
address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets. This is best for
IPv6 addresses. For example:
${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{request string}}
Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yields more than
one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. For
both kinds of socket, Exim makes a connection, writes the request string
(unless it is an empty string) and reads from the socket until an
end-of-file is read. A timeout of 5 seconds is applied. Additional,
optional arguments extend what can be done. Firstly, you can vary the
timeout. For example:
${readsocket{/socket/name}{request string}{3s}}
A fourth argument allows you to change any newlines that are in the data
that is read, in the same way as for readfile (see above). This example
turns them into spaces:
${readsocket{inet:127.0.0.1:3294}{request string}{3s}{ }}
As with all expansions, the substrings are expanded before the processing
happens. Errors in these sub-expansions cause the expansion to fail. In
addition, the following errors can occur:
* Failure to create a socket file descriptor;
* Failure to connect the socket;
* Failure to write the request string;
* Timeout on reading from the socket.
By default, any of these errors causes the expansion to fail. However, if
you supply a fifth substring, it is expanded and used when any of the above
errors occurs. For example:
${readsocket{/socket/name}{request string}{3s}{\n}\
{socket failure}}
You can test for the existence of a Unix domain socket by wrapping this
expansion in "${if exists", but there is a race condition between that test
and the actual opening of the socket, so it is safer to use the fifth
argument if you want to be absolutely sure of avoiding an expansion error
for a non-existent Unix domain socket, or a failure to connect to an
Internet socket.
The redirect router has an option called forbid_filter_readsocket which
locks out the use of this expansion item in filter files.
${reduce{<string1>}{<string2>}{<string3>}}
This operation reduces a list to a single, scalar string. After expansion,
<string1> is interpreted as a list, colon-separated by default, but the
separator can be changed in the usual way. Then <string2> is expanded and
assigned to the $value variable. After this, each item in the <string1>
list is assigned to $item in turn, and <string3> is expanded for each of
them. The result of that expansion is assigned to $value before the next
iteration. When the end of the list is reached, the final value of $value
is added to the expansion output. The reduce expansion item can be used in
a number of ways. For example, to add up a list of numbers:
${reduce {<, 1,2,3}{0}{${eval:$value+$item}}}
The result of that expansion would be "6". The maximum of a list of numbers
can be found:
${reduce {3:0:9:4:6}{0}{${if >{$item}{$value}{$item}{$value}}}}
At the end of a reduce expansion, the values of $item and $value are
restored to what they were before. See also the filter and map expansion
items.
$rheader_<header name>: or $rh_<header name>:
This item inserts "raw" header lines. It is described with the header
expansion item above.
${run{<command> <args>}{<string1>}{<string2>}}
The command and its arguments are first expanded separately, and then the
command is run in a separate process, but under the same uid and gid. As in
other command executions from Exim, a shell is not used by default. If you
want a shell, you must explicitly code it.
The standard input for the command exists, but is empty. The standard
output and standard error are set to the same file descriptor. If the
command succeeds (gives a zero return code) <string1> is expanded and
replaces the entire item; during this expansion, the standard output/error
from the command is in the variable $value. If the command fails, <string2
>, if present, is expanded and used. Once again, during the expansion, the
standard output/error from the command is in the variable $value.
If <string2> is absent, the result is empty. Alternatively, <string2> can
be the word "fail" (not in braces) to force expansion failure if the
command does not succeed. If both strings are omitted, the result is
contents of the standard output/error on success, and nothing on failure.
The return code from the command is put in the variable $runrc, and this
remains set afterwards, so in a filter file you can do things like this:
if "${run{x y z}{}}$runrc" is 1 then ...
elif $runrc is 2 then ...
...
endif
If execution of the command fails (for example, the command does not
exist), the return code is 127 - the same code that shells use for
non-existent commands.
Warning: In a router or transport, you cannot assume the order in which
option values are expanded, except for those preconditions whose order of
testing is documented. Therefore, you cannot reliably expect to set $runrc
by the expansion of one option, and use it in another.
The redirect router has an option called forbid_filter_run which locks out
the use of this expansion item in filter files.
${sg{<subject>}{<regex>}{<replacement>}}
This item works like Perl's substitution operator (s) with the global (/g)
option; hence its name. However, unlike the Perl equivalent, Exim does not
modify the subject string; instead it returns the modified string for
insertion into the overall expansion. The item takes three arguments: the
subject string, a regular expression, and a substitution string. For
example:
${sg{abcdefabcdef}{abc}{xyz}}
yields "xyzdefxyzdef". Because all three arguments are expanded before use,
if any $ or \ characters are required in the regular expression or in the
substitution string, they have to be escaped. For example:
${sg{abcdef}{^(...)(...)\$}{\$2\$1}}
yields "defabc", and
${sg{1=A 4=D 3=C}{\N(\d+)=\N}{K\$1=}}
yields "K1=A K4=D K3=C". Note the use of "\N" to protect the contents of
the regular expression from string expansion.
${substr{<string1>}{<string2>}{<string3>}}
The three strings are expanded; the first two must yield numbers. Call them
<n> and <m>. If you are using fixed values for these numbers, that is, if <
string1> and <string2> do not change when they are expanded, you can use
the simpler operator notation that avoids some of the braces:
${substr_<n>_<m>:<string>}
The second number is optional (in both notations). If it is absent in the
simpler format, the preceding underscore must also be omitted.
The substr item can be used to extract more general substrings than length.
The first number, <n>, is a starting offset, and <m> is the length
required. For example
${substr{3}{2}{$local_part}}
If the starting offset is greater than the string length the result is the
null string; if the length plus starting offset is greater than the string
length, the result is the right-hand part of the string, starting from the
given offset. The first character in the string has offset zero.
The substr expansion item can take negative offset values to count from the
right-hand end of its operand. The last character is offset -1, the
second-last is offset -2, and so on. Thus, for example,
${substr{-5}{2}{1234567}}
yields "34". If the absolute value of a negative offset is greater than the
length of the string, the substring starts at the beginning of the string,
and the length is reduced by the amount of overshoot. Thus, for example,
${substr{-5}{2}{12}}
yields an empty string, but
${substr{-3}{2}{12}}
yields "1".
When the second number is omitted from substr, the remainder of the string
is taken if the offset is positive. If it is negative, all characters in
the string preceding the offset point are taken. For example, an offset of
-1 and no length, as in these semantically identical examples:
${substr_-1:abcde}
${substr{-1}{abcde}}
yields all but the last character of the string, that is, "abcd".
${tr{<subject>}{<characters>}{<replacements>}}
This item does single-character translation on its subject string. The
second argument is a list of characters to be translated in the subject
string. Each matching character is replaced by the corresponding character
from the replacement list. For example
${tr{abcdea}{ac}{13}}
yields "1b3de1". If there are duplicates in the second character string,
the last occurrence is used. If the third string is shorter than the
second, its last character is replicated. However, if it is empty, no
translation takes place.
11.6 Expansion operators
------------------------
For expansion items that perform transformations on a single argument string,
the "operator" notation is used because it is simpler and uses fewer braces.
The substring is first expanded before the operation is applied to it. The
following operations can be performed:
${address:<string>}
The string is interpreted as an RFC 2822 address, as it might appear in a
header line, and the effective address is extracted from it. If the string
does not parse successfully, the result is empty.
${addresses:<string>}
The string (after expansion) is interpreted as a list of addresses in RFC
2822 format, such as can be found in a To: or Cc: header line. The
operative address (local-part@domain) is extracted from each item, and the
result of the expansion is a colon-separated list, with appropriate
doubling of colons should any happen to be present in the email addresses.
Syntactically invalid RFC2822 address items are omitted from the output.
It is possible to specify a character other than colon for the output
separator by starting the string with > followed by the new separator
character. For example:
${addresses:>& Chief <ceo@up.stairs>, sec@base.ment (dogsbody)}
expands to "ceo@up.stairs&sec@base.ment". Compare the address (singular)
expansion item, which extracts the working address from a single RFC2822
address. See the filter, map, and reduce items for ways of processing
lists.
${base62:<digits>}
The string must consist entirely of decimal digits. The number is converted
to base 62 and output as a string of six characters, including leading
zeros. In the few operating environments where Exim uses base 36 instead of
base 62 for its message identifiers (because those systems do not have
case-sensitive file names), base 36 is used by this operator, despite its
name. Note: Just to be absolutely clear: this is not base64 encoding.
${base62d:<base-62 digits>}
The string must consist entirely of base-62 digits, or, in operating
environments where Exim uses base 36 instead of base 62 for its message
identifiers, base-36 digits. The number is converted to decimal and output
as a string.
${domain:<string>}
The string is interpreted as an RFC 2822 address and the domain is
extracted from it. If the string does not parse successfully, the result is
empty.
${escape:<string>}
If the string contains any non-printing characters, they are converted to
escape sequences starting with a backslash. Whether characters with the
most significant bit set (so-called "8-bit characters") count as printing
or not is controlled by the print_topbitchars option.
${eval:<string>} and ${eval10:<string>}
These items supports simple arithmetic and bitwise logical operations in
expansion strings. The string (after expansion) must be a conventional
arithmetic expression, but it is limited to basic arithmetic operators,
bitwise logical operators, and parentheses. All operations are carried out
using integer arithmetic. The operator priorities are as follows (the same
as in the C programming language):
highest: not (~), negate (-)
multiply (*), divide (/), remainder (%)
plus (+), minus (-)
shift-left (<<), shift-right (>>)
and (&)
xor (^)
lowest: or (|)
Binary operators with the same priority are evaluated from left to right.
White space is permitted before or after operators.
For eval, numbers may be decimal, octal (starting with "0") or hexadecimal
(starting with "0x"). For eval10, all numbers are taken as decimal, even if
they start with a leading zero; hexadecimal numbers are not permitted. This
can be useful when processing numbers extracted from dates or times, which
often do have leading zeros.
A number may be followed by "K" or "M" to multiply it by 1024 or 1024*1024,
respectively. Negative numbers are supported. The result of the computation
is a decimal representation of the answer (without "K" or "M"). For
example:
${eval:1+1} yields 2
${eval:1+2*3} yields 7
${eval:(1+2)*3} yields 9
${eval:2+42%5} yields 4
${eval:0xc&5} yields 4
${eval:0xc|5} yields 13
${eval:0xc^5} yields 9
${eval:0xc>>1} yields 6
${eval:0xc<<1} yields 24
${eval:~255&0x1234} yields 4608
${eval:-(~255&0x1234)} yields -4608
As a more realistic example, in an ACL you might have
deny message = Too many bad recipients
condition = \
${if and { \
{>{$rcpt_count}{10}} \
{ \
< \
{$recipients_count} \
{${eval:$rcpt_count/2}} \
} \
}{yes}{no}}
The condition is true if there have been more than 10 RCPT commands and
fewer than half of them have resulted in a valid recipient.
${expand:<string>}
The expand operator causes a string to be expanded for a second time. For
example,
${expand:${lookup{$domain}dbm{/some/file}{$value}}}
first looks up a string in a file while expanding the operand for expand,
and then re-expands what it has found.
${from_utf8:<string>}
The world is slowly moving towards Unicode, although there are no standards
for email yet. However, other applications (including some databases) are
starting to store data in Unicode, using UTF-8 encoding. This operator
converts from a UTF-8 string to an ISO-8859-1 string. UTF-8 code values
greater than 255 are converted to underscores. The input must be a valid
UTF-8 string. If it is not, the result is an undefined sequence of bytes.
Unicode code points with values less than 256 are compatible with ASCII and
ISO-8859-1 (also known as Latin-1). For example, character 169 is the
copyright symbol in both cases, though the way it is encoded is different.
In UTF-8, more than one byte is needed for characters with code values
greater than 127, whereas ISO-8859-1 is a single-byte encoding (but thereby
limited to 256 characters). This makes translation from UTF-8 to ISO-8859-1
straightforward.
${hash_<n>_<m>:<string>}
The hash operator is a simpler interface to the hashing function that can
be used when the two parameters are fixed numbers (as opposed to strings
that change when expanded). The effect is the same as
${hash{<n>}{<m>}{<string>}}
See the description of the general hash item above for details. The
abbreviation h can be used when hash is used as an operator.
${hex2b64:<hexstring>}
This operator converts a hex string into one that is base64 encoded. This
can be useful for processing the output of the MD5 and SHA-1 hashing
functions.
${lc:<string>}
This forces the letters in the string into lower-case, for example:
${lc:$local_part}
${length_<number>:<string>}
The length operator is a simpler interface to the length function that can
be used when the parameter is a fixed number (as opposed to a string that
changes when expanded). The effect is the same as
${length{<number>}{<string>}}
See the description of the general length item above for details. Note that
length is not the same as strlen. The abbreviation l can be used when
length is used as an operator.
${local_part:<string>}
The string is interpreted as an RFC 2822 address and the local part is
extracted from it. If the string does not parse successfully, the result is
empty.
${mask:<IP address>/<bit count>}
If the form of the string to be operated on is not an IP address followed
by a slash and an integer (that is, a network address in CIDR notation),
the expansion fails. Otherwise, this operator converts the IP address to
binary, masks off the least significant bits according to the bit count,
and converts the result back to text, with mask appended. For example,
${mask:10.111.131.206/28}
returns the string "10.111.131.192/28". Since this operation is expected to
be mostly used for looking up masked addresses in files, the result for an
IPv6 address uses dots to separate components instead of colons, because
colon terminates a key string in lsearch files. So, for example,
${mask:3ffe:ffff:836f:0a00:000a:0800:200a:c031/99}
returns the string
3ffe.ffff.836f.0a00.000a.0800.2000.0000/99
Letters in IPv6 addresses are always output in lower case.
${md5:<string>}
The md5 operator computes the MD5 hash value of the string, and returns it
as a 32-digit hexadecimal number, in which any letters are in lower case.
${nhash_<n>_<m>:<string>}
The nhash operator is a simpler interface to the numeric hashing function
that can be used when the two parameters are fixed numbers (as opposed to
strings that change when expanded). The effect is the same as
${nhash{<n>}{<m>}{<string>}}
See the description of the general nhash item above for details.
${quote:<string>}
The quote operator puts its argument into double quotes if it is an empty
string or contains anything other than letters, digits, underscores, dots,
and hyphens. Any occurrences of double quotes and backslashes are escaped
with a backslash. Newlines and carriage returns are converted to "\n" and "
\r", respectively For example,
${quote:ab"*"cd}
becomes
"ab\"*\"cd"
The place where this is useful is when the argument is a substitution from
a variable or a message header.
${quote_local_part:<string>}
This operator is like quote, except that it quotes the string only if
required to do so by the rules of RFC 2822 for quoting local parts. For
example, a plus sign would not cause quoting (but it would for quote). If
you are creating a new email address from the contents of $local_part (or
any other unknown data), you should always use this operator.
${quote_<lookup-type>:<string>}
This operator applies lookup-specific quoting rules to the string. Each
query-style lookup type has its own quoting rules which are described with
the lookups in chapter 9. For example,
${quote_ldap:two * two}
returns
two%20%5C2A%20two
For single-key lookup types, no quoting is ever necessary and this operator
yields an unchanged string.
${rfc2047:<string>}
This operator encodes text according to the rules of RFC 2047. This is an
encoding that is used in header lines to encode non-ASCII characters. It is
assumed that the input string is in the encoding specified by the
headers_charset option, which defaults to ISO-8859-1. If the string
contains only characters in the range 33-126, and no instances of the
characters
? = ( ) < > @ , ; : \ " . [ ] _
it is not modified. Otherwise, the result is the RFC 2047 encoding of the
string, using as many "encoded words" as necessary to encode all the
characters.
${rfc2047d:<string>}
This operator decodes strings that are encoded as per RFC 2047. Binary zero
bytes are replaced by question marks. Characters are converted into the
character set defined by headers_charset. Overlong RFC 2047 "words" are not
recognized unless check_rfc2047_length is set false.
Note: If you use $header_xxx: (or $h_xxx:) to access a header line, RFC
2047 decoding is done automatically. You do not need to use this operator
as well.
${rxquote:<string>}
The rxquote operator inserts a backslash before any non-alphanumeric
characters in its argument. This is useful when substituting the values of
variables or headers inside regular expressions.
${sha1:<string>}
The sha1 operator computes the SHA-1 hash value of the string, and returns
it as a 40-digit hexadecimal number, in which any letters are in upper
case.
${stat:<string>}
The string, after expansion, must be a file path. A call to the stat()
function is made for this path. If stat() fails, an error occurs and the
expansion fails. If it succeeds, the data from the stat replaces the item,
as a series of <name>=<value> pairs, where the values are all numerical,
except for the value of "smode". The names are: "mode" (giving the mode as
a 4-digit octal number), "smode" (giving the mode in symbolic format as a
10-character string, as for the ls command), "inode", "device", "links",
"uid", "gid", "size", "atime", "mtime", and "ctime". You can extract
individual fields using the extract expansion item.
The use of the stat expansion in users' filter files can be locked out by
the system administrator. Warning: The file size may be incorrect on 32-bit
systems for files larger than 2GB.
${str2b64:<string>}
This operator converts a string into one that is base64 encoded.
${strlen:<string>}
The item is replace by the length of the expanded string, expressed as a
decimal number. Note: Do not confuse strlen with length.
${substr_<start>_<length>:<string>}
The substr operator is a simpler interface to the substr function that can
be used when the two parameters are fixed numbers (as opposed to strings
that change when expanded). The effect is the same as
${substr{<start>}{<length>}{<string>}}
See the description of the general substr item above for details. The
abbreviation s can be used when substr is used as an operator.
${time_eval:<string>}
This item converts an Exim time interval such as "2d4h5m" into a number of
seconds.
${time_interval:<string>}
The argument (after sub-expansion) must be a sequence of decimal digits
that represents an interval of time as a number of seconds. It is converted
into a number of larger units and output in Exim's normal time format, for
example, "1w3d4h2m6s".
${uc:<string>}
This forces the letters in the string into upper-case.
11.7 Expansion conditions
-------------------------
The following conditions are available for testing by the ${if construct while
expanding strings:
!<condition>
Preceding any condition with an exclamation mark negates the result of the
condition.
<symbolic operator> {<string1>}{<string2>}
There are a number of symbolic operators for doing numeric comparisons.
They are:
= equal
== equal
> greater
>= greater or equal
< less
<= less or equal
For example:
${if >{$message_size}{10M} ...
Note that the general negation operator provides for inequality testing.
The two strings must take the form of optionally signed decimal integers,
optionally followed by one of the letters "K" or "M" (in either upper or
lower case), signifying multiplication by 1024 or 1024*1024, respectively.
As a special case, the numerical value of an empty string is taken as zero.
crypteq {<string1>}{<string2>}
This condition is included in the Exim binary if it is built to support any
authentication mechanisms (see chapter 33). Otherwise, it is necessary to
define SUPPORT_CRYPTEQ in Local/Makefile to get crypteq included in the
binary.
The crypteq condition has two arguments. The first is encrypted and
compared against the second, which is already encrypted. The second string
may be in the LDAP form for storing encrypted strings, which starts with
the encryption type in curly brackets, followed by the data. If the second
string does not begin with "{" it is assumed to be encrypted with crypt()
or crypt16() (see below), since such strings cannot begin with "{".
Typically this will be a field from a password file. An example of an
encrypted string in LDAP form is:
{md5}CY9rzUYh03PK3k6DJie09g==
If such a string appears directly in an expansion, the curly brackets have
to be quoted, because they are part of the expansion syntax. For example:
${if crypteq {test}{\{md5\}CY9rzUYh03PK3k6DJie09g==}{yes}{no}}
The following encryption types (whose names are matched case-independently)
are supported:
* {md5} computes the MD5 digest of the first string, and expresses this
as printable characters to compare with the remainder of the second
string. If the length of the comparison string is 24, Exim assumes that
it is base64 encoded (as in the above example). If the length is 32,
Exim assumes that it is a hexadecimal encoding of the MD5 digest. If
the length not 24 or 32, the comparison fails.
* {sha1} computes the SHA-1 digest of the first string, and expresses
this as printable characters to compare with the remainder of the
second string. If the length of the comparison string is 28, Exim
assumes that it is base64 encoded. If the length is 40, Exim assumes
that it is a hexadecimal encoding of the SHA-1 digest. If the length is
not 28 or 40, the comparison fails.
* {crypt} calls the crypt() function, which traditionally used to use
only the first eight characters of the password. However, in modern
operating systems this is no longer true, and in many cases the entire
password is used, whatever its length.
* {crypt16} calls the crypt16() function, which was originally created to
use up to 16 characters of the password in some operating systems.
Again, in modern operating systems, more characters may be used.
Exim has its own version of crypt16(), which is just a double call to crypt
(). For operating systems that have their own version, setting HAVE_CRYPT16
in Local/Makefile when building Exim causes it to use the operating system
version instead of its own. This option is set by default in the
OS-dependent Makefile for those operating systems that are known to support
crypt16().
Some years after Exim's crypt16() was implemented, a user discovered that
it was not using the same algorithm as some operating systems' versions. It
turns out that as well as crypt16() there is a function called bigcrypt()
in some operating systems. This may or may not use the same algorithm, and
both of them may be different to Exim's built-in crypt16().
However, since there is now a move away from the traditional crypt()
functions towards using SHA1 and other algorithms, tidying up this area of
Exim is seen as very low priority.
If you do not put a encryption type (in curly brackets) in a crypteq
comparison, the default is usually either "{crypt}" or "{crypt16}", as
determined by the setting of DEFAULT_CRYPT in Local/Makefile. The default
default is "{crypt}". Whatever the default, you can always use either
function by specifying it explicitly in curly brackets.
def:<variable name>
The def condition must be followed by the name of one of the expansion
variables defined in section 11.9. The condition is true if the variable
does not contain the empty string. For example:
${if def:sender_ident {from $sender_ident}}
Note that the variable name is given without a leading $ character. If the
variable does not exist, the expansion fails.
def:header_<header name>: or def:h_<header name>:
This condition is true if a message is being processed and the named header
exists in the message. For example,
${if def:header_reply-to:{$h_reply-to:}{$h_from:}}
Note: No $ appears before header_ or h_ in the condition, and the header
name must be terminated by a colon if white space does not follow.
eq {<string1>}{<string2>}, eqi {<string1>}{<string2>}
The two substrings are first expanded. The condition is true if the two
resulting strings are identical. For eq the comparison includes the case of
letters, whereas for eqi the comparison is case-independent.
exists {<file name>}
The substring is first expanded and then interpreted as an absolute path.
The condition is true if the named file (or directory) exists. The
existence test is done by calling the stat() function. The use of the
exists test in users' filter files may be locked out by the system
administrator.
first_delivery
This condition, which has no data, is true during a message's first
delivery attempt. It is false during any subsequent delivery attempts.
forall{<a list>}{<a condition>}, forany{<a list>}{<a condition>}
These conditions iterate over a list. The first argument is expanded to
form the list. By default, the list separator is a colon, but it can be
changed by the normal method. The second argument is interpreted as a
condition that is to be applied to each item in the list in turn. During
the interpretation of the condition, the current list item is placed in a
variable called $item.
* For forany, interpretation stops if the condition is true for any item,
and the result of the whole condition is true. If the condition is
false for all items in the list, the overall condition is false.
* For forall, interpretation stops if the condition is false for any
item, and the result of the whole condition is false. If the condition
is true for all items in the list, the overall condition is true.
Note that negation of forany means that the condition must be false for all
items for the overall condition to succeed, and negation of forall means
that the condition must be false for at least one item. In this example,
the list separator is changed to a comma:
${if forany{<, $recipients}{match{$item}{^user3@}}{yes}{no}}
The value of $item is saved and restored while forany or forall is being
processed, to enable these expansion items to be nested.
ge {<string1>}{<string2>}, gei {<string1>}{<string2>}
The two substrings are first expanded. The condition is true if the first
string is lexically greater than or equal to the second string. For ge the
comparison includes the case of letters, whereas for gei the comparison is
case-independent.
gt {<string1>}{<string2>}, gti {<string1>}{<string2>}
The two substrings are first expanded. The condition is true if the first
string is lexically greater than the second string. For gt the comparison
includes the case of letters, whereas for gti the comparison is
case-independent.
isip {<string>}, isip4 {<string>}, isip6 {<string>}
The substring is first expanded, and then tested to see if it has the form
of an IP address. Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are valid for isip, whereas
isip4 and isip6 test specifically for IPv4 or IPv6 addresses.
For an IPv4 address, the test is for four dot-separated components, each of
which consists of from one to three digits. For an IPv6 address, up to
eight colon-separated components are permitted, each containing from one to
four hexadecimal digits. There may be fewer than eight components if an
empty component (adjacent colons) is present. Only one empty component is
permitted.
Note: The checks are just on the form of the address; actual numerical
values are not considered. Thus, for example, 999.999.999.999 passes the
IPv4 check. The main use of these tests is to distinguish between IP
addresses and host names, or between IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. For example,
you could use
${if isip4{$sender_host_address}...
to test which IP version an incoming SMTP connection is using.
ldapauth {<ldap query>}
This condition supports user authentication using LDAP. See section 9.13
for details of how to use LDAP in lookups and the syntax of queries. For
this use, the query must contain a user name and password. The query itself
is not used, and can be empty. The condition is true if the password is not
empty, and the user name and password are accepted by the LDAP server. An
empty password is rejected without calling LDAP because LDAP binds with an
empty password are considered anonymous regardless of the username, and
will succeed in most configurations. See chapter 33 for details of SMTP
authentication, and chapter 34 for an example of how this can be used.
le {<string1>}{<string2>}, lei {<string1>}{<string2>}
The two substrings are first expanded. The condition is true if the first
string is lexically less than or equal to the second string. For le the
comparison includes the case of letters, whereas for lei the comparison is
case-independent.
lt {<string1>}{<string2>}, lti {<string1>}{<string2>}
The two substrings are first expanded. The condition is true if the first
string is lexically less than the second string. For lt the comparison
includes the case of letters, whereas for lti the comparison is
case-independent.
match {<string1>}{<string2>}
The two substrings are first expanded. The second is then treated as a
regular expression and applied to the first. Because of the pre-expansion,
if the regular expression contains dollar, or backslash characters, they
must be escaped. Care must also be taken if the regular expression contains
braces (curly brackets). A closing brace must be escaped so that it is not
taken as a premature termination of <string2>. The easiest approach is to
use the "\N" feature to disable expansion of the regular expression. For
example,
${if match {$local_part}{\N^\d{3}\N} ...
If the whole expansion string is in double quotes, further escaping of
backslashes is also required.
The condition is true if the regular expression match succeeds. The regular
expression is not required to begin with a circumflex metacharacter, but if
there is no circumflex, the expression is not anchored, and it may match
anywhere in the subject, not just at the start. If you want the pattern to
match at the end of the subject, you must include the "$" metacharacter at
an appropriate point.
At the start of an if expansion the values of the numeric variable
substitutions $1 etc. are remembered. Obeying a match condition that
succeeds causes them to be reset to the substrings of that condition and
they will have these values during the expansion of the success string. At
the end of the if expansion, the previous values are restored. After
testing a combination of conditions using or, the subsequent values of the
numeric variables are those of the condition that succeeded.
match_address {<string1>}{<string2>}
See match_local_part.
match_domain {<string1>}{<string2>}
See match_local_part.
match_ip {<string1>}{<string2>}
This condition matches an IP address to a list of IP address patterns. It
must be followed by two argument strings. The first (after expansion) must
be an IP address or an empty string. The second (after expansion) is a
restricted host list that can match only an IP address, not a host name.
For example:
${if match_ip{$sender_host_address}{1.2.3.4:5.6.7.8}{...}{...}}
The specific types of host list item that are permitted in the list are:
* An IP address, optionally with a CIDR mask.
* A single asterisk, which matches any IP address.
* An empty item, which matches only if the IP address is empty. This
could be useful for testing for a locally submitted message or one from
specific hosts in a single test such as
${if match_ip{$sender_host_address}{:4.3.2.1:...}{...}{...}}
where the first item in the list is the empty string.
* The item @[] matches any of the local host's interface addresses.
* Single-key lookups are assumed to be like "net-" style lookups in host
lists, even if "net-" is not specified. There is never any attempt to
turn the IP address into a host name. The most common type of linear
search for match_ip is likely to be iplsearch, in which the file can
contain CIDR masks. For example:
${if match_ip{$sender_host_address}{iplsearch;/some/file}...
It is of course possible to use other kinds of lookup, and in such a
case, you do need to specify the "net-" prefix if you want to specify a
specific address mask, for example:
${if match_ip{$sender_host_address}{net24-dbm;/some/file}...
However, unless you are combining a match_ip condition with others, it
is just as easy to use the fact that a lookup is itself a condition,
and write:
${lookup{${mask:$sender_host_address/24}}dbm{/a/file}...
Consult section 10.11 for further details of these patterns.
match_local_part {<string1>}{<string2>}
This condition, together with match_address and match_domain, make it
possible to test domain, address, and local part lists within expansions.
Each condition requires two arguments: an item and a list to match. A
trivial example is:
${if match_domain{a.b.c}{x.y.z:a.b.c:p.q.r}{yes}{no}}
In each case, the second argument may contain any of the allowable items
for a list of the appropriate type. Also, because the second argument
(after expansion) is a standard form of list, it is possible to refer to a
named list. Thus, you can use conditions like this:
${if match_domain{$domain}{+local_domains}{...
For address lists, the matching starts off caselessly, but the "+caseful"
item can be used, as in all address lists, to cause subsequent items to
have their local parts matched casefully. Domains are always matched
caselessly.
Note: Host lists are not supported in this way. This is because hosts have
two identities: a name and an IP address, and it is not clear how to
specify cleanly how such a test would work. However, IP addresses can be
matched using match_ip.
pam {<string1>:<string2>:...}
Pluggable Authentication Modules (http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/pam/
) are a facility that is available in the latest releases of Solaris and in
some GNU/Linux distributions. The Exim support, which is intended for use
in conjunction with the SMTP AUTH command, is available only if Exim is
compiled with
SUPPORT_PAM=yes
in Local/Makefile. You probably need to add -lpam to EXTRALIBS, and in some
releases of GNU/Linux -ldl is also needed.
The argument string is first expanded, and the result must be a
colon-separated list of strings. Leading and trailing white space is
ignored. The PAM module is initialized with the service name "exim" and the
user name taken from the first item in the colon-separated data string (<
string1>). The remaining items in the data string are passed over in
response to requests from the authentication function. In the simple case
there will only be one request, for a password, so the data consists of
just two strings.
There can be problems if any of the strings are permitted to contain colon
characters. In the usual way, these have to be doubled to avoid being taken
as separators. If the data is being inserted from a variable, the sg
expansion item can be used to double any existing colons. For example, the
configuration of a LOGIN authenticator might contain this setting:
server_condition = ${if pam{$auth1:${sg{$auth2}{:}{::}}}}
For a PLAIN authenticator you could use:
server_condition = ${if pam{$auth2:${sg{$auth3}{:}{::}}}}
In some operating systems, PAM authentication can be done only from a
process running as root. Since Exim is running as the Exim user when
receiving messages, this means that PAM cannot be used directly in those
systems. A patched version of the pam_unix module that comes with the Linux
PAM package is available from http://www.e-admin.de/pam_exim/. The patched
module allows one special uid/gid combination, in addition to root, to
authenticate. If you build the patched module to allow the Exim user and
group, PAM can then be used from an Exim authenticator.
pwcheck {<string1>:<string2>}
This condition supports user authentication using the Cyrus pwcheck daemon.
This is one way of making it possible for passwords to be checked by a
process that is not running as root. Note: The use of pwcheck is now
deprecated. Its replacement is saslauthd (see below).
The pwcheck support is not included in Exim by default. You need to specify
the location of the pwcheck daemon's socket in Local/Makefile before
building Exim. For example:
CYRUS_PWCHECK_SOCKET=/var/pwcheck/pwcheck
You do not need to install the full Cyrus software suite in order to use
the pwcheck daemon. You can compile and install just the daemon alone from
the Cyrus SASL library. Ensure that exim is the only user that has access
to the /var/pwcheck directory.
The pwcheck condition takes one argument, which must be the user name and
password, separated by a colon. For example, in a LOGIN authenticator
configuration, you might have this:
server_condition = ${if pwcheck{$auth1:$auth2}}
queue_running
This condition, which has no data, is true during delivery attempts that
are initiated by queue runner processes, and false otherwise.
radius {<authentication string>}
Radius authentication (RFC 2865) is supported in a similar way to PAM. You
must set RADIUS_CONFIG_FILE in Local/Makefile to specify the location of
the Radius client configuration file in order to build Exim with Radius
support.
With just that one setting, Exim expects to be linked with the radiusclient
library, using the original API. If you are using release 0.4.0 or later of
this library, you need to set
RADIUS_LIB_TYPE=RADIUSCLIENTNEW
in Local/Makefile when building Exim. You can also link Exim with the
libradius library that comes with FreeBSD. To do this, set
RADIUS_LIB_TYPE=RADLIB
in Local/Makefile, in addition to setting RADIUS_CONFIGURE_FILE. You may
also have to supply a suitable setting in EXTRALIBS so that the Radius
library can be found when Exim is linked.
The string specified by RADIUS_CONFIG_FILE is expanded and passed to the
Radius client library, which calls the Radius server. The condition is true
if the authentication is successful. For example:
server_condition = ${if radius{<arguments>}}
saslauthd {{<user>}{<password>}{<service>}{<realm>}}
This condition supports user authentication using the Cyrus saslauthd
daemon. This replaces the older pwcheck daemon, which is now deprecated.
Using this daemon is one way of making it possible for passwords to be
checked by a process that is not running as root.
The saslauthd support is not included in Exim by default. You need to
specify the location of the saslauthd daemon's socket in Local/Makefile
before building Exim. For example:
CYRUS_SASLAUTHD_SOCKET=/var/state/saslauthd/mux
You do not need to install the full Cyrus software suite in order to use
the saslauthd daemon. You can compile and install just the daemon alone
from the Cyrus SASL library.
Up to four arguments can be supplied to the saslauthd condition, but only
two are mandatory. For example:
server_condition = ${if saslauthd{{$auth1}{$auth2}}}
The service and the realm are optional (which is why the arguments are
enclosed in their own set of braces). For details of the meaning of the
service and realm, and how to run the daemon, consult the Cyrus
documentation.
11.8 Combining expansion conditions
-----------------------------------
Several conditions can be tested at once by combining them using the and and or
combination conditions. Note that and and or are complete conditions on their
own, and precede their lists of sub-conditions. Each sub-condition must be
enclosed in braces within the overall braces that contain the list. No
repetition of if is used.
or {{<cond1>}{<cond2>}...}
The sub-conditions are evaluated from left to right. The condition is true
if any one of the sub-conditions is true. For example,
${if or {{eq{$local_part}{spqr}}{eq{$domain}{testing.com}}}...
When a true sub-condition is found, the following ones are parsed but not
evaluated. If there are several "match" sub-conditions the values of the
numeric variables afterwards are taken from the first one that succeeds.
and {{<cond1>}{<cond2>}...}
The sub-conditions are evaluated from left to right. The condition is true
if all of the sub-conditions are true. If there are several "match"
sub-conditions, the values of the numeric variables afterwards are taken
from the last one. When a false sub-condition is found, the following ones
are parsed but not evaluated.
11.9 Expansion variables
------------------------
This section contains an alphabetical list of all the expansion variables. Some
of them are available only when Exim is compiled with specific options such as
support for TLS or the content scanning extension.
$0, $1, etc
When a match expansion condition succeeds, these variables contain the
captured substrings identified by the regular expression during subsequent
processing of the success string of the containing if expansion item.
However, they do not retain their values afterwards; in fact, their
previous values are restored at the end of processing an if item. The
numerical variables may also be set externally by some other matching
process which precedes the expansion of the string. For example, the
commands available in Exim filter files include an if command with its own
regular expression matching condition.
$acl_c...
Values can be placed in these variables by the set modifier in an ACL. They
can be given any name that starts with $acl_c and is at least six
characters long, but the sixth character must be either a digit or an
underscore. For example: $acl_c5, $acl_c_mycount. The values of the
$acl_c... variables persist throughout the lifetime of an SMTP connection.
They can be used to pass information between ACLs and between different
invocations of the same ACL. When a message is received, the values of
these variables are saved with the message, and can be accessed by filters,
routers, and transports during subsequent delivery.
$acl_m...
These variables are like the $acl_c... variables, except that their values
are reset after a message has been received. Thus, if several messages are
received in one SMTP connection, $acl_m... values are not passed on from
one message to the next, as $acl_c... values are. The $acl_m... variables
are also reset by MAIL, RSET, EHLO, HELO, and after starting a TLS session.
When a message is received, the values of these variables are saved with
the message, and can be accessed by filters, routers, and transports during
subsequent delivery.
$acl_verify_message
After an address verification has failed, this variable contains the
failure message. It retains its value for use in subsequent modifiers. The
message can be preserved by coding like this:
warn !verify = sender
set acl_m0 = $acl_verify_message
You can use $acl_verify_message during the expansion of the message or
log_message modifiers, to include information about the verification
failure.
$address_data
This variable is set by means of the address_data option in routers. The
value then remains with the address while it is processed by subsequent
routers and eventually a transport. If the transport is handling multiple
addresses, the value from the first address is used. See chapter 15 for
more details. Note: The contents of $address_data are visible in user
filter files.
If $address_data is set when the routers are called from an ACL to verify a
recipient address, the final value is still in the variable for subsequent
conditions and modifiers of the ACL statement. If routing the address
caused it to be redirected to just one address, the child address is also
routed as part of the verification, and in this case the final value of
$address_data is from the child's routing.
If $address_data is set when the routers are called from an ACL to verify a
sender address, the final value is also preserved, but this time in
$sender_address_data, to distinguish it from data from a recipient address.
In both cases (recipient and sender verification), the value does not
persist after the end of the current ACL statement. If you want to preserve
these values for longer, you can save them in ACL variables.
$address_file
When, as a result of aliasing, forwarding, or filtering, a message is
directed to a specific file, this variable holds the name of the file when
the transport is running. At other times, the variable is empty. For
example, using the default configuration, if user r2d2 has a .forward file
containing
/home/r2d2/savemail
then when the address_file transport is running, $address_file contains the
text string "/home/r2d2/savemail". For Sieve filters, the value may be
"inbox" or a relative folder name. It is then up to the transport
configuration to generate an appropriate absolute path to the relevant
file.
$address_pipe
When, as a result of aliasing or forwarding, a message is directed to a
pipe, this variable holds the pipe command when the transport is running.
$auth1 - $auth3
These variables are used in SMTP authenticators (see chapters 34-38).
Elsewhere, they are empty.
$authenticated_id
When a server successfully authenticates a client it may be configured to
preserve some of the authentication information in the variable
$authenticated_id (see chapter 33). For example, a user/password
authenticator configuration might preserve the user name for use in the
routers. Note that this is not the same information that is saved in
$sender_host_authenticated. When a message is submitted locally (that is,
not over a TCP connection) the value of $authenticated_id is normally the
login name of the calling process. However, a trusted user can override
this by means of the -oMai command line option.
$authenticated_sender
When acting as a server, Exim takes note of the AUTH= parameter on an
incoming SMTP MAIL command if it believes the sender is sufficiently
trusted, as described in section 33.2. Unless the data is the string "<>",
it is set as the authenticated sender of the message, and the value is
available during delivery in the $authenticated_sender variable. If the
sender is not trusted, Exim accepts the syntax of AUTH=, but ignores the
data.
When a message is submitted locally (that is, not over a TCP connection),
the value of $authenticated_sender is an address constructed from the login
name of the calling process and $qualify_domain, except that a trusted user
can override this by means of the -oMas command line option.
$authentication_failed
This variable is set to "1" in an Exim server if a client issues an AUTH
command that does not succeed. Otherwise it is set to "0". This makes it
possible to distinguish between "did not try to authenticate" (
$sender_host_authenticated is empty and $authentication_failed is set to
"0") and "tried to authenticate but failed" ($sender_host_authenticated is
empty and $authentication_failed is set to "1"). Failure includes any
negative response to an AUTH command, including (for example) an attempt to
use an undefined mechanism.
$body_linecount
When a message is being received or delivered, this variable contains the
number of lines in the message's body. See also $message_linecount.
$body_zerocount
When a message is being received or delivered, this variable contains the
number of binary zero bytes in the message's body.
$bounce_recipient
This is set to the recipient address of a bounce message while Exim is
creating it. It is useful if a customized bounce message text file is in
use (see chapter 46).
$bounce_return_size_limit
This contains the value set in the bounce_return_size_limit option, rounded
up to a multiple of 1000. It is useful when a customized error message text
file is in use (see chapter 46).
$caller_gid
The real group id under which the process that called Exim was running.
This is not the same as the group id of the originator of a message (see
$originator_gid). If Exim re-execs itself, this variable in the new
incarnation normally contains the Exim gid.
$caller_uid
The real user id under which the process that called Exim was running. This
is not the same as the user id of the originator of a message (see
$originator_uid). If Exim re-execs itself, this variable in the new
incarnation normally contains the Exim uid.
$compile_date
The date on which the Exim binary was compiled.
$compile_number
The building process for Exim keeps a count of the number of times it has
been compiled. This serves to distinguish different compilations of the
same version of the program.
$demime_errorlevel
This variable is available when Exim is compiled with the content-scanning
extension and the obsolete demime condition. For details, see section 41.6.
$demime_reason
This variable is available when Exim is compiled with the content-scanning
extension and the obsolete demime condition. For details, see section 41.6.
$dnslist_domain, $dnslist_matched, $dnslist_text, $dnslist_value
When a DNS (black) list lookup succeeds, these variables are set to contain
the following data from the lookup: the list's domain name, the key that
was looked up, the contents of any associated TXT record, and the value
from the main A record. See section 40.29 for more details.
$domain
When an address is being routed, or delivered on its own, this variable
contains the domain. Uppercase letters in the domain are converted into
lower case for $domain.
Global address rewriting happens when a message is received, so the value
of $domain during routing and delivery is the value after rewriting.
$domain is set during user filtering, but not during system filtering,
because a message may have many recipients and the system filter is called
just once.
When more than one address is being delivered at once (for example, several
RCPT commands in one SMTP delivery), $domain is set only if they all have
the same domain. Transports can be restricted to handling only one domain
at a time if the value of $domain is required at transport time - this is
the default for local transports. For further details of the environment in
which local transports are run, see chapter 23.
At the end of a delivery, if all deferred addresses have the same domain,
it is set in $domain during the expansion of delay_warning_condition.
The $domain variable is also used in some other circumstances:
* When an ACL is running for a RCPT command, $domain contains the domain
of the recipient address. The domain of the sender address is in
$sender_address_domain at both MAIL time and at RCPT time. $domain is
not normally set during the running of the MAIL ACL. However, if the
sender address is verified with a callout during the MAIL ACL, the
sender domain is placed in $domain during the expansions of hosts,
interface, and port in the smtp transport.
* When a rewrite item is being processed (see chapter 31), $domain
contains the domain portion of the address that is being rewritten; it
can be used in the expansion of the replacement address, for example,
to rewrite domains by file lookup.
* With one important exception, whenever a domain list is being scanned,
$domain contains the subject domain. Exception: When a domain list in a
sender_domains condition in an ACL is being processed, the subject
domain is in $sender_address_domain and not in $domain. It works this
way so that, in a RCPT ACL, the sender domain list can be dependent on
the recipient domain (which is what is in $domain at this time).
* When the smtp_etrn_command option is being expanded, $domain contains
the complete argument of the ETRN command (see section 45.8).
$domain_data
When the domains option on a router matches a domain by means of a lookup,
the data read by the lookup is available during the running of the router
as $domain_data. In addition, if the driver routes the address to a
transport, the value is available in that transport. If the transport is
handling multiple addresses, the value from the first address is used.
$domain_data is also set when the domains condition in an ACL matches a
domain by means of a lookup. The data read by the lookup is available
during the rest of the ACL statement. In all other situations, this
variable expands to nothing.
$exim_gid
This variable contains the numerical value of the Exim group id.
$exim_path
This variable contains the path to the Exim binary.
$exim_uid
This variable contains the numerical value of the Exim user id.
$found_extension
This variable is available when Exim is compiled with the content-scanning
extension and the obsolete demime condition. For details, see section 41.6.
$header_<name>
This is not strictly an expansion variable. It is expansion syntax for
inserting the message header line with the given name. Note that the name
must be terminated by colon or white space, because it may contain a wide
variety of characters. Note also that braces must not be used.
$home
When the check_local_user option is set for a router, the user's home
directory is placed in $home when the check succeeds. In particular, this
means it is set during the running of users' filter files. A router may
also explicitly set a home directory for use by a transport; this can be
overridden by a setting on the transport itself.
When running a filter test via the -bf option, $home is set to the value of
the environment variable HOME.
$host
If a router assigns an address to a transport (any transport), and passes a
list of hosts with the address, the value of $host when the transport
starts to run is the name of the first host on the list. Note that this
applies both to local and remote transports.
For the smtp transport, if there is more than one host, the value of $host
changes as the transport works its way through the list. In particular,
when the smtp transport is expanding its options for encryption using TLS,
or for specifying a transport filter (see chapter 24), $host contains the
name of the host to which it is connected.
When used in the client part of an authenticator configuration (see chapter
33), $host contains the name of the server to which the client is
connected.
$host_address
This variable is set to the remote host's IP address whenever $host is set
for a remote connection. It is also set to the IP address that is being
checked when the ignore_target_hosts option is being processed.
$host_data
If a hosts condition in an ACL is satisfied by means of a lookup, the
result of the lookup is made available in the $host_data variable. This
allows you, for example, to do things like this:
deny hosts = net-lsearch;/some/file
message = $host_data
$host_lookup_deferred
This variable normally contains "0", as does $host_lookup_failed. When a
message comes from a remote host and there is an attempt to look up the
host's name from its IP address, and the attempt is not successful, one of
these variables is set to "1".
* If the lookup receives a definite negative response (for example, a DNS
lookup succeeded, but no records were found), $host_lookup_failed is
set to "1".
* If there is any kind of problem during the lookup, such that Exim
cannot tell whether or not the host name is defined (for example, a
timeout for a DNS lookup), $host_lookup_deferred is set to "1".
Looking up a host's name from its IP address consists of more than just a
single reverse lookup. Exim checks that a forward lookup of at least one of
the names it receives from a reverse lookup yields the original IP address.
If this is not the case, Exim does not accept the looked up name(s), and
$host_lookup_failed is set to "1". Thus, being able to find a name from an
IP address (for example, the existence of a PTR record in the DNS) is not
sufficient on its own for the success of a host name lookup. If the reverse
lookup succeeds, but there is a lookup problem such as a timeout when
checking the result, the name is not accepted, and $host_lookup_deferred is
set to "1". See also $sender_host_name.
$host_lookup_failed
See $host_lookup_deferred.
$inode
The only time this variable is set is while expanding the directory_file
option in the appendfile transport. The variable contains the inode number
of the temporary file which is about to be renamed. It can be used to
construct a unique name for the file.
$interface_address
This is an obsolete name for $received_ip_address.
$interface_port
This is an obsolete name for $received_port.
$item
This variable is used during the expansion of forall and forany conditions
(see section 11.7), and filter, man, and reduce items (see section 11.7).
In other circumstances, it is empty.
$ldap_dn
This variable, which is available only when Exim is compiled with LDAP
support, contains the DN from the last entry in the most recently
successful LDAP lookup.
$load_average
This variable contains the system load average, multiplied by 1000 so that
it is an integer. For example, if the load average is 0.21, the value of
the variable is 210. The value is recomputed every time the variable is
referenced.
$local_part
When an address is being routed, or delivered on its own, this variable
contains the local part. When a number of addresses are being delivered
together (for example, multiple RCPT commands in an SMTP session),
$local_part is not set.
Global address rewriting happens when a message is received, so the value
of $local_part during routing and delivery is the value after rewriting.
$local_part is set during user filtering, but not during system filtering,
because a message may have many recipients and the system filter is called
just once.
If a local part prefix or suffix has been recognized, it is not included in
the value of $local_part during routing and subsequent delivery. The values
of any prefix or suffix are in $local_part_prefix and $local_part_suffix,
respectively.
When a message is being delivered to a file, pipe, or autoreply transport
as a result of aliasing or forwarding, $local_part is set to the local part
of the parent address, not to the file name or command (see $address_file
and $address_pipe).
When an ACL is running for a RCPT command, $local_part contains the local
part of the recipient address.
When a rewrite item is being processed (see chapter 31), $local_part
contains the local part of the address that is being rewritten; it can be
used in the expansion of the replacement address, for example.
In all cases, all quoting is removed from the local part. For example, for
both the addresses
"abc:xyz"@test.example
abc\:xyz@test.example
the value of $local_part is
abc:xyz
If you use $local_part to create another address, you should always wrap it
inside a quoting operator. For example, in a redirect router you could
have:
data = ${quote_local_part:$local_part}@new.domain.example
Note: The value of $local_part is normally lower cased. If you want to
process local parts in a case-dependent manner in a router, you can set the
caseful_local_part option (see chapter 15).
$local_part_data
When the local_parts option on a router matches a local part by means of a
lookup, the data read by the lookup is available during the running of the
router as $local_part_data. In addition, if the driver routes the address
to a transport, the value is available in that transport. If the transport
is handling multiple addresses, the value from the first address is used.
$local_part_data is also set when the local_parts condition in an ACL
matches a local part by means of a lookup. The data read by the lookup is
available during the rest of the ACL statement. In all other situations,
this variable expands to nothing.
$local_part_prefix
When an address is being routed or delivered, and a specific prefix for the
local part was recognized, it is available in this variable, having been
removed from $local_part.
$local_part_suffix
When an address is being routed or delivered, and a specific suffix for the
local part was recognized, it is available in this variable, having been
removed from $local_part.
$local_scan_data
This variable contains the text returned by the local_scan() function when
a message is received. See chapter 42 for more details.
$local_user_gid
See $local_user_uid.
$local_user_uid
This variable and $local_user_gid are set to the uid and gid after the
check_local_user router precondition succeeds. This means that their values
are available for the remaining preconditions (senders, require_files, and
condition), for the address_data expansion, and for any router-specific
expansions. At all other times, the values in these variables are "(uid_t)
(-1)" and "(gid_t)(-1)", respectively.
$localhost_number
This contains the expanded value of the localhost_number option. The
expansion happens after the main options have been read.
$log_inodes
The number of free inodes in the disk partition where Exim's log files are
being written. The value is recalculated whenever the variable is
referenced. If the relevant file system does not have the concept of
inodes, the value of is -1. See also the check_log_inodes option.
$log_space
The amount of free space (as a number of kilobytes) in the disk partition
where Exim's log files are being written. The value is recalculated
whenever the variable is referenced. If the operating system does not have
the ability to find the amount of free space (only true for experimental
systems), the space value is -1. See also the check_log_space option.
$mailstore_basename
This variable is set only when doing deliveries in "mailstore" format in
the appendfile transport. During the expansion of the mailstore_prefix,
mailstore_suffix, message_prefix, and message_suffix options, it contains
the basename of the files that are being written, that is, the name without
the ".tmp", ".env", or ".msg" suffix. At all other times, this variable is
empty.
$malware_name
This variable is available when Exim is compiled with the content-scanning
extension. It is set to the name of the virus that was found when the ACL
malware condition is true (see section 41.1).
$max_received_linelength
This variable contains the number of bytes in the longest line that was
received as part of the message, not counting the line termination
character(s).
$message_age
This variable is set at the start of a delivery attempt to contain the
number of seconds since the message was received. It does not change during
a single delivery attempt.
$message_body
This variable contains the initial portion of a message's body while it is
being delivered, and is intended mainly for use in filter files. The
maximum number of characters of the body that are put into the variable is
set by the message_body_visible configuration option; the default is 500.
By default, newlines are converted into spaces in $message_body, to make it
easier to search for phrases that might be split over a line break.
However, this can be disabled by setting message_body_newlines to be true.
Binary zeros are always converted into spaces.
$message_body_end
This variable contains the final portion of a message's body while it is
being delivered. The format and maximum size are as for $message_body.
$message_body_size
When a message is being delivered, this variable contains the size of the
body in bytes. The count starts from the character after the blank line
that separates the body from the header. Newlines are included in the
count. See also $message_size, $body_linecount, and $body_zerocount.
$message_exim_id
When a message is being received or delivered, this variable contains the
unique message id that is generated and used by Exim to identify the
message. An id is not created for a message until after its header has been
successfully received. Note: This is not the contents of the Message-ID:
header line; it is the local id that Exim assigns to the message, for
example: "1BXTIK-0001yO-VA".
$message_headers
This variable contains a concatenation of all the header lines when a
message is being processed, except for lines added by routers or
transports. The header lines are separated by newline characters. Their
contents are decoded in the same way as a header line that is inserted by
bheader.
$message_headers_raw
This variable is like $message_headers except that no processing of the
contents of header lines is done.
$message_id
This is an old name for $message_exim_id, which is now deprecated.
$message_linecount
This variable contains the total number of lines in the header and body of
the message. Compare $body_linecount, which is the count for the body only.
During the DATA and content-scanning ACLs, $message_linecount contains the
number of lines received. Before delivery happens (that is, before filters,
routers, and transports run) the count is increased to include the
Received: header line that Exim standardly adds, and also any other header
lines that are added by ACLs. The blank line that separates the message
header from the body is not counted. Here is an example of the use of this
variable in a DATA ACL:
deny message = Too many lines in message header
condition = \
${if <{250}{${eval:$message_linecount - $body_linecount}}}
In the MAIL and RCPT ACLs, the value is zero because at that stage the
message has not yet been received.
$message_size
When a message is being processed, this variable contains its size in
bytes. In most cases, the size includes those headers that were received
with the message, but not those (such as Envelope-to:) that are added to
individual deliveries as they are written. However, there is one special
case: during the expansion of the maildir_tag option in the appendfile
transport while doing a delivery in maildir format, the value of
$message_size is the precise size of the file that has been written. See
also $message_body_size, $body_linecount, and $body_zerocount.
While running an ACL at the time of an SMTP RCPT command, $message_size
contains the size supplied on the MAIL command, or -1 if no size was given.
The value may not, of course, be truthful.
$mime_xxx
A number of variables whose names start with $mime are available when Exim
is compiled with the content-scanning extension. For details, see section
41.4.
$n0 - $n9
These variables are counters that can be incremented by means of the add
command in filter files.
$original_domain
When a top-level address is being processed for delivery, this contains the
same value as $domain. However, if a "child" address (for example,
generated by an alias, forward, or filter file) is being processed, this
variable contains the domain of the original address (lower cased). This
differs from $parent_domain only when there is more than one level of
aliasing or forwarding. When more than one address is being delivered in a
single transport run, $original_domain is not set.
If a new address is created by means of a deliver command in a system
filter, it is set up with an artificial "parent" address. This has the
local part system-filter and the default qualify domain.
$original_local_part
When a top-level address is being processed for delivery, this contains the
same value as $local_part, unless a prefix or suffix was removed from the
local part, because $original_local_part always contains the full local
part. When a "child" address (for example, generated by an alias, forward,
or filter file) is being processed, this variable contains the full local
part of the original address.
If the router that did the redirection processed the local part
case-insensitively, the value in $original_local_part is in lower case.
This variable differs from $parent_local_part only when there is more than
one level of aliasing or forwarding. When more than one address is being
delivered in a single transport run, $original_local_part is not set.
If a new address is created by means of a deliver command in a system
filter, it is set up with an artificial "parent" address. This has the
local part system-filter and the default qualify domain.
$originator_gid
This variable contains the value of $caller_gid that was set when the
message was received. For messages received via the command line, this is
the gid of the sending user. For messages received by SMTP over TCP/IP,
this is normally the gid of the Exim user.
$originator_uid
The value of $caller_uid that was set when the message was received. For
messages received via the command line, this is the uid of the sending
user. For messages received by SMTP over TCP/IP, this is normally the uid
of the Exim user.
$parent_domain
This variable is similar to $original_domain (see above), except that it
refers to the immediately preceding parent address.
$parent_local_part
This variable is similar to $original_local_part (see above), except that
it refers to the immediately preceding parent address.
$pid
This variable contains the current process id.
$pipe_addresses
This is not an expansion variable, but is mentioned here because the string
"$pipe_addresses" is handled specially in the command specification for the
pipe transport (chapter 29) and in transport filters (described under
transport_filter in chapter 24). It cannot be used in general expansion
strings, and provokes an "unknown variable" error if encountered.
$primary_hostname
This variable contains the value set by primary_hostname in the
configuration file, or read by the uname() function. If uname() returns a
single-component name, Exim calls gethostbyname() (or getipnodebyname()
where available) in an attempt to acquire a fully qualified host name. See
also $smtp_active_hostname.
$prvscheck_address
This variable is used in conjunction with the prvscheck expansion item,
which is described in sections 11.5 and 40.47.
$prvscheck_keynum
This variable is used in conjunction with the prvscheck expansion item,
which is described in sections 11.5 and 40.47.
$prvscheck_result
This variable is used in conjunction with the prvscheck expansion item,
which is described in sections 11.5 and 40.47.
$qualify_domain
The value set for the qualify_domain option in the configuration file.
$qualify_recipient
The value set for the qualify_recipient option in the configuration file,
or if not set, the value of $qualify_domain.
$rcpt_count
When a message is being received by SMTP, this variable contains the number
of RCPT commands received for the current message. If this variable is used
in a RCPT ACL, its value includes the current command.
$rcpt_defer_count
When a message is being received by SMTP, this variable contains the number
of RCPT commands in the current message that have previously been rejected
with a temporary (4xx) response.
$rcpt_fail_count
When a message is being received by SMTP, this variable contains the number
of RCPT commands in the current message that have previously been rejected
with a permanent (5xx) response.
$received_count
This variable contains the number of Received: header lines in the message,
including the one added by Exim (so its value is always greater than zero).
It is available in the DATA ACL, the non-SMTP ACL, and while routing and
delivering.
$received_for
If there is only a single recipient address in an incoming message, this
variable contains that address when the Received: header line is being
built. The value is copied after recipient rewriting has happened, but
before the local_scan() function is run.
$received_ip_address
As soon as an Exim server starts processing an incoming TCP/IP connection,
this variable is set to the address of the local IP interface, and
$received_port is set to the local port number. (The remote IP address and
port are in $sender_host_address and $sender_host_port.) When testing with
-bh, the port value is -1 unless it has been set using the -oMi command
line option.
As well as being useful in ACLs (including the "connect" ACL), these
variable could be used, for example, to make the file name for a TLS
certificate depend on which interface and/or port is being used for the
incoming connection. The values of $received_ip_address and $received_port
are saved with any messages that are received, thus making these variables
available at delivery time.
Note: There are no equivalent variables for outgoing connections, because
the values are unknown (unless they are explicitly set by options of the
smtp transport).
$received_port
See $received_ip_address.
$received_protocol
When a message is being processed, this variable contains the name of the
protocol by which it was received. Most of the names used by Exim are
defined by RFCs 821, 2821, and 3848. They start with "smtp" (the client
used HELO) or "esmtp" (the client used EHLO). This can be followed by "s"
for secure (encrypted) and/or "a" for authenticated. Thus, for example, if
the protocol is set to "esmtpsa", the message was received over an
encrypted SMTP connection and the client was successfully authenticated.
Exim uses the protocol name "smtps" for the case when encryption is
automatically set up on connection without the use of STARTTLS (see
tls_on_connect_ports), and the client uses HELO to initiate the encrypted
SMTP session. The name "smtps" is also used for the rare situation where
the client initially uses EHLO, sets up an encrypted connection using
STARTTLS, and then uses HELO afterwards.
The -oMr option provides a way of specifying a custom protocol name for
messages that are injected locally by trusted callers. This is commonly
used to identify messages that are being re-injected after some kind of
scanning.
$received_time
This variable contains the date and time when the current message was
received, as a number of seconds since the start of the Unix epoch.
$recipient_data
This variable is set after an indexing lookup success in an ACL recipients
condition. It contains the data from the lookup, and the value remains set
until the next recipients test. Thus, you can do things like this:
require recipients = cdb*@;/some/file
deny some further test involving $recipient_data
Warning: This variable is set only when a lookup is used as an indexing
method in the address list, using the semicolon syntax as in the example
above. The variable is not set for a lookup that is used as part of the
string expansion that all such lists undergo before being interpreted.
$recipient_verify_failure
In an ACL, when a recipient verification fails, this variable contains
information about the failure. It is set to one of the following words:
* "qualify": The address was unqualified (no domain), and the message was
neither local nor came from an exempted host.
* "route": Routing failed.
* "mail": Routing succeeded, and a callout was attempted; rejection
occurred at or before the MAIL command (that is, on initial connection,
HELO, or MAIL).
* "recipient": The RCPT command in a callout was rejected.
* "postmaster": The postmaster check in a callout was rejected.
The main use of this variable is expected to be to distinguish between
rejections of MAIL and rejections of RCPT.
$recipients
This variable contains a list of envelope recipients for a message. A comma
and a space separate the addresses in the replacement text. However, the
variable is not generally available, to prevent exposure of Bcc recipients
in unprivileged users' filter files. You can use $recipients only in these
cases:
1. In a system filter file.
2. In the ACLs associated with the DATA command and with non-SMTP
messages, that is, the ACLs defined by acl_smtp_predata, acl_smtp_data,
acl_smtp_mime, acl_not_smtp_start, acl_not_smtp, and acl_not_smtp_mime.
3. From within a local_scan() function.
$recipients_count
When a message is being processed, this variable contains the number of
envelope recipients that came with the message. Duplicates are not excluded
from the count. While a message is being received over SMTP, the number
increases for each accepted recipient. It can be referenced in an ACL.
$regex_match_string
This variable is set to contain the matching regular expression after a
regex ACL condition has matched (see section 41.5).
$reply_address
When a message is being processed, this variable contains the contents of
the Reply-To: header line if one exists and it is not empty, or otherwise
the contents of the From: header line. Apart from the removal of leading
white space, the value is not processed in any way. In particular, no RFC
2047 decoding or character code translation takes place.
$return_path
When a message is being delivered, this variable contains the return path -
the sender field that will be sent as part of the envelope. It is not
enclosed in <> characters. At the start of routing an address, $return_path
has the same value as $sender_address, but if, for example, an incoming
message to a mailing list has been expanded by a router which specifies a
different address for bounce messages, $return_path subsequently contains
the new bounce address, whereas $sender_address always contains the
original sender address that was received with the message. In other words,
$sender_address contains the incoming envelope sender, and $return_path
contains the outgoing envelope sender.
$return_size_limit
This is an obsolete name for $bounce_return_size_limit.
$runrc
This variable contains the return code from a command that is run by the $
{run...} expansion item. Warning: In a router or transport, you cannot
assume the order in which option values are expanded, except for those
preconditions whose order of testing is documented. Therefore, you cannot
reliably expect to set $runrc by the expansion of one option, and use it in
another.
$self_hostname
When an address is routed to a supposedly remote host that turns out to be
the local host, what happens is controlled by the self generic router
option. One of its values causes the address to be passed to another
router. When this happens, $self_hostname is set to the name of the local
host that the original router encountered. In other circumstances its
contents are null.
$sender_address
When a message is being processed, this variable contains the sender's
address that was received in the message's envelope. The case of letters in
the address is retained, in both the local part and the domain. For bounce
messages, the value of this variable is the empty string. See also
$return_path.
$sender_address_data
If $address_data is set when the routers are called from an ACL to verify a
sender address, the final value is preserved in $sender_address_data, to
distinguish it from data from a recipient address. The value does not
persist after the end of the current ACL statement. If you want to preserve
it for longer, you can save it in an ACL variable.
$sender_address_domain
The domain portion of $sender_address.
$sender_address_local_part
The local part portion of $sender_address.
$sender_data
This variable is set after a lookup success in an ACL senders condition or
in a router senders option. It contains the data from the lookup, and the
value remains set until the next senders test. Thus, you can do things like
this:
require senders = cdb*@;/some/file
deny some further test involving $sender_data
Warning: This variable is set only when a lookup is used as an indexing
method in the address list, using the semicolon syntax as in the example
above. The variable is not set for a lookup that is used as part of the
string expansion that all such lists undergo before being interpreted.
$sender_fullhost
When a message is received from a remote host, this variable contains the
host name and IP address in a single string. It ends with the IP address in
square brackets, followed by a colon and a port number if the logging of
ports is enabled. The format of the rest of the string depends on whether
the host issued a HELO or EHLO SMTP command, and whether the host name was
verified by looking up its IP address. (Looking up the IP address can be
forced by the host_lookup option, independent of verification.) A plain
host name at the start of the string is a verified host name; if this is
not present, verification either failed or was not requested. A host name
in parentheses is the argument of a HELO or EHLO command. This is omitted
if it is identical to the verified host name or to the host's IP address in
square brackets.
$sender_helo_name
When a message is received from a remote host that has issued a HELO or
EHLO command, the argument of that command is placed in this variable. It
is also set if HELO or EHLO is used when a message is received using SMTP
locally via the -bs or -bS options.
$sender_host_address
When a message is received from a remote host, this variable contains that
host's IP address. For locally submitted messages, it is empty.
$sender_host_authenticated
This variable contains the name (not the public name) of the authenticator
driver that successfully authenticated the client from which the message
was received. It is empty if there was no successful authentication. See
also $authenticated_id.
$sender_host_name
When a message is received from a remote host, this variable contains the
host's name as obtained by looking up its IP address. For messages received
by other means, this variable is empty.
If the host name has not previously been looked up, a reference to
$sender_host_name triggers a lookup (for messages from remote hosts). A
looked up name is accepted only if it leads back to the original IP address
via a forward lookup. If either the reverse or the forward lookup fails to
find any data, or if the forward lookup does not yield the original IP
address, $sender_host_name remains empty, and $host_lookup_failed is set to
"1".
However, if either of the lookups cannot be completed (for example, there
is a DNS timeout), $host_lookup_deferred is set to "1", and
$host_lookup_failed remains set to "0".
Once $host_lookup_failed is set to "1", Exim does not try to look up the
host name again if there is a subsequent reference to $sender_host_name in
the same Exim process, but it does try again if $host_lookup_deferred is
set to "1".
Exim does not automatically look up every calling host's name. If you want
maximum efficiency, you should arrange your configuration so that it avoids
these lookups altogether. The lookup happens only if one or more of the
following are true:
* A string containing $sender_host_name is expanded.
* The calling host matches the list in host_lookup. In the default
configuration, this option is set to *, so it must be changed if
lookups are to be avoided. (In the code, the default for host_lookup is
unset.)
* Exim needs the host name in order to test an item in a host list. The
items that require this are described in sections 10.13 and 10.16.
* The calling host matches helo_try_verify_hosts or helo_verify_hosts. In
this case, the host name is required to compare with the name quoted in
any EHLO or HELO commands that the client issues.
* The remote host issues a EHLO or HELO command that quotes one of the
domains in helo_lookup_domains. The default value of this option is
helo_lookup_domains = @ : @[]
which causes a lookup if a remote host (incorrectly) gives the server's
name or IP address in an EHLO or HELO command.
$sender_host_port
When a message is received from a remote host, this variable contains the
port number that was used on the remote host.
$sender_ident
When a message is received from a remote host, this variable contains the
identification received in response to an RFC 1413 request. When a message
has been received locally, this variable contains the login name of the
user that called Exim.
$sender_rate_xxx
A number of variables whose names begin $sender_rate_ are set as part of
the ratelimit ACL condition. Details are given in section 40.35.
$sender_rcvhost
This is provided specifically for use in Received: headers. It starts with
either the verified host name (as obtained from a reverse DNS lookup) or,
if there is no verified host name, the IP address in square brackets. After
that there may be text in parentheses. When the first item is a verified
host name, the first thing in the parentheses is the IP address in square
brackets, followed by a colon and a port number if port logging is enabled.
When the first item is an IP address, the port is recorded as "port=xxxx"
inside the parentheses.
There may also be items of the form "helo=xxxx" if HELO or EHLO was used
and its argument was not identical to the real host name or IP address, and
"ident=xxxx" if an RFC 1413 ident string is available. If all three items
are present in the parentheses, a newline and tab are inserted into the
string, to improve the formatting of the Received: header.
$sender_verify_failure
In an ACL, when a sender verification fails, this variable contains
information about the failure. The details are the same as for
$recipient_verify_failure.
$sending_ip_address
This variable is set whenever an outgoing SMTP connection to another host
has been set up. It contains the IP address of the local interface that is
being used. This is useful if a host that has more than one IP address
wants to take on different personalities depending on which one is being
used. For incoming connections, see $received_ip_address.
$sending_port
This variable is set whenever an outgoing SMTP connection to another host
has been set up. It contains the local port that is being used. For
incoming connections, see $received_port.
$smtp_active_hostname
During an incoming SMTP session, this variable contains the value of the
active host name, as specified by the smtp_active_hostname option. The
value of $smtp_active_hostname is saved with any message that is received,
so its value can be consulted during routing and delivery.
$smtp_command
During the processing of an incoming SMTP command, this variable contains
the entire command. This makes it possible to distinguish between HELO and
EHLO in the HELO ACL, and also to distinguish between commands such as
these:
MAIL FROM:<>
MAIL FROM: <>
For a MAIL command, extra parameters such as SIZE can be inspected. For a
RCPT command, the address in $smtp_command is the original address before
any rewriting, whereas the values in $local_part and $domain are taken from
the address after SMTP-time rewriting.
$smtp_command_argument
While an ACL is running to check an SMTP command, this variable contains
the argument, that is, the text that follows the command name, with leading
white space removed. Following the introduction of $smtp_command, this
variable is somewhat redundant, but is retained for backwards
compatibility.
$smtp_count_at_connection_start
This variable is set greater than zero only in processes spawned by the
Exim daemon for handling incoming SMTP connections. The name is
deliberately long, in order to emphasize what the contents are. When the
daemon accepts a new connection, it increments this variable. A copy of the
variable is passed to the child process that handles the connection, but
its value is fixed, and never changes. It is only an approximation of how
many incoming connections there actually are, because many other
connections may come and go while a single connection is being processed.
When a child process terminates, the daemon decrements its copy of the
variable.
$sn0 - $sn9
These variables are copies of the values of the $n0 - $n9 accumulators that
were current at the end of the system filter file. This allows a system
filter file to set values that can be tested in users' filter files. For
example, a system filter could set a value indicating how likely it is that
a message is junk mail.
$spam_xxx
A number of variables whose names start with $spam are available when Exim
is compiled with the content-scanning extension. For details, see section
41.2.
$spool_directory
The name of Exim's spool directory.
$spool_inodes
The number of free inodes in the disk partition where Exim's spool files
are being written. The value is recalculated whenever the variable is
referenced. If the relevant file system does not have the concept of
inodes, the value of is -1. See also the check_spool_inodes option.
$spool_space
The amount of free space (as a number of kilobytes) in the disk partition
where Exim's spool files are being written. The value is recalculated
whenever the variable is referenced. If the operating system does not have
the ability to find the amount of free space (only true for experimental
systems), the space value is -1. For example, to check in an ACL that there
is at least 50 megabytes free on the spool, you could write:
condition = ${if > {$spool_space}{50000}}
See also the check_spool_space option.
$thisaddress
This variable is set only during the processing of the foranyaddress
command in a filter file. Its use is explained in the description of that
command, which can be found in the separate document entitled Exim's
interfaces to mail filtering.
$tls_certificate_verified
This variable is set to "1" if a TLS certificate was verified when the
message was received, and "0" otherwise.
$tls_cipher
When a message is received from a remote host over an encrypted SMTP
connection, this variable is set to the cipher suite that was negotiated,
for example DES-CBC3-SHA. In other circumstances, in particular, for
message received over unencrypted connections, the variable is empty.
Testing $tls_cipher for emptiness is one way of distinguishing between
encrypted and non-encrypted connections during ACL processing.
The $tls_cipher variable retains its value during message delivery, except
when an outward SMTP delivery takes place via the smtp transport. In this
case, $tls_cipher is cleared before any outgoing SMTP connection is made,
and then set to the outgoing cipher suite if one is negotiated. See chapter
39 for details of TLS support and chapter 30 for details of the smtp
transport.
$tls_peerdn
When a message is received from a remote host over an encrypted SMTP
connection, and Exim is configured to request a certificate from the
client, the value of the Distinguished Name of the certificate is made
available in the $tls_peerdn during subsequent processing. Like $tls_cipher
, the value is retained during message delivery, except during outbound
SMTP deliveries.
$tod_bsdinbox
The time of day and the date, in the format required for BSD-style mailbox
files, for example: Thu Oct 17 17:14:09 1995.
$tod_epoch
The time and date as a number of seconds since the start of the Unix epoch.
$tod_full
A full version of the time and date, for example: Wed, 16 Oct 1995 09:51:40
+0100. The timezone is always given as a numerical offset from UTC, with
positive values used for timezones that are ahead (east) of UTC, and
negative values for those that are behind (west).
$tod_log
The time and date in the format used for writing Exim's log files, for
example: 1995-10-12 15:32:29, but without a timezone.
$tod_logfile
This variable contains the date in the format yyyymmdd. This is the format
that is used for datestamping log files when log_file_path contains the
"%D" flag.
$tod_zone
This variable contains the numerical value of the local timezone, for
example: -0500.
$tod_zulu
This variable contains the UTC date and time in "Zulu" format, as specified
by ISO 8601, for example: 20030221154023Z.
$value
This variable contains the result of an expansion lookup, extraction
operation, or external command, as described above. It is also used during
a reduce expansion.
$version_number
The version number of Exim.
$warn_message_delay
This variable is set only during the creation of a message warning about a
delivery delay. Details of its use are explained in section 46.2.
$warn_message_recipients
This variable is set only during the creation of a message warning about a
delivery delay. Details of its use are explained in section 46.2.
===============================================================================
12. EMBEDDED PERL
Exim can be built to include an embedded Perl interpreter. When this is done,
Perl subroutines can be called as part of the string expansion process. To make
use of the Perl support, you need version 5.004 or later of Perl installed on
your system. To include the embedded interpreter in the Exim binary, include
the line
EXIM_PERL = perl.o
in your Local/Makefile and then build Exim in the normal way.
12.1 Setting up so Perl can be used
-----------------------------------
Access to Perl subroutines is via a global configuration option called
perl_startup and an expansion string operator ${perl ...}. If there is no
perl_startup option in the Exim configuration file then no Perl interpreter is
started and there is almost no overhead for Exim (since none of the Perl
library will be paged in unless used). If there is a perl_startup option then
the associated value is taken to be Perl code which is executed in a newly
created Perl interpreter.
The value of perl_startup is not expanded in the Exim sense, so you do not need
backslashes before any characters to escape special meanings. The option should
usually be something like
perl_startup = do '/etc/exim.pl'
where /etc/exim.pl is Perl code which defines any subroutines you want to use
from Exim. Exim can be configured either to start up a Perl interpreter as soon
as it is entered, or to wait until the first time it is needed. Starting the
interpreter at the beginning ensures that it is done while Exim still has its
setuid privilege, but can impose an unnecessary overhead if Perl is not in fact
used in a particular run. Also, note that this does not mean that Exim is
necessarily running as root when Perl is called at a later time. By default,
the interpreter is started only when it is needed, but this can be changed in
two ways:
* Setting perl_at_start (a boolean option) in the configuration requests a
startup when Exim is entered.
* The command line option -ps also requests a startup when Exim is entered,
overriding the setting of perl_at_start.
There is also a command line option -pd (for delay) which suppresses the
initial startup, even if perl_at_start is set.
12.2 Calling Perl subroutines
-----------------------------
When the configuration file includes a perl_startup option you can make use of
the string expansion item to call the Perl subroutines that are defined by the
perl_startup code. The operator is used in any of the following forms:
${perl{foo}}
${perl{foo}{argument}}
${perl{foo}{argument1}{argument2} ... }
which calls the subroutine foo with the given arguments. A maximum of eight
arguments may be passed. Passing more than this results in an expansion failure
with an error message of the form
Too many arguments passed to Perl subroutine "foo" (max is 8)
The return value of the Perl subroutine is evaluated in a scalar context before
it is passed back to Exim to be inserted into the expanded string. If the
return value is undef, the expansion is forced to fail in the same way as an
explicit "fail" on an if or lookup item. If the subroutine aborts by obeying
Perl's die function, the expansion fails with the error message that was passed
to die.
12.3 Calling Exim functions from Perl
-------------------------------------
Within any Perl code called from Exim, the function Exim::expand_string() is
available to call back into Exim's string expansion function. For example, the
Perl code
my $lp = Exim::expand_string('$local_part');
makes the current Exim $local_part available in the Perl variable $lp. Note
those are single quotes and not double quotes to protect against $local_part
being interpolated as a Perl variable.
If the string expansion is forced to fail by a "fail" item, the result of
Exim::expand_string() is undef. If there is a syntax error in the expansion
string, the Perl call from the original expansion string fails with an
appropriate error message, in the same way as if die were used.
Two other Exim functions are available for use from within Perl code.
Exim::debug_write() writes a string to the standard error stream if Exim's
debugging is enabled. If you want a newline at the end, you must supply it.
Exim::log_write() writes a string to Exim's main log, adding a leading
timestamp. In this case, you should not supply a terminating newline.
12.4 Use of standard output and error by Perl
---------------------------------------------
You should not write to the standard error or output streams from within your
Perl code, as it is not defined how these are set up. In versions of Exim
before 4.50, it is possible for the standard output or error to refer to the
SMTP connection during message reception via the daemon. Writing to this stream
is certain to cause chaos. From Exim 4.50 onwards, the standard output and
error streams are connected to /dev/null in the daemon. The chaos is avoided,
but the output is lost.
The Perl warn statement writes to the standard error stream by default. Calls
to warn may be embedded in Perl modules that you use, but over which you have
no control. When Exim starts up the Perl interpreter, it arranges for output
from the warn statement to be written to the Exim main log. You can change this
by including appropriate Perl magic somewhere in your Perl code. For example,
to discard warn output completely, you need this:
$SIG{__WARN__} = sub { };
Whenever a warn is obeyed, the anonymous subroutine is called. In this example,
the code for the subroutine is empty, so it does nothing, but you can include
any Perl code that you like. The text of the warn message is passed as the
first subroutine argument.
===============================================================================
13. STARTING THE DAEMON AND THE USE OF NETWORK INTERFACES
A host that is connected to a TCP/IP network may have one or more physical
hardware network interfaces. Each of these interfaces may be configured as one
or more "logical" interfaces, which are the entities that a program actually
works with. Each of these logical interfaces is associated with an IP address.
In addition, TCP/IP software supports "loopback" interfaces (127.0.0.1 in IPv4
and ::1 in IPv6), which do not use any physical hardware. Exim requires
knowledge about the host's interfaces for use in three different circumstances:
1. When a listening daemon is started, Exim needs to know which interfaces and
ports to listen on.
2. When Exim is routing an address, it needs to know which IP addresses are
associated with local interfaces. This is required for the correct
processing of MX lists by removing the local host and others with the same
or higher priority values. Also, Exim needs to detect cases when an address
is routed to an IP address that in fact belongs to the local host. Unless
the self router option or the allow_localhost option of the smtp transport
is set (as appropriate), this is treated as an error situation.
3. When Exim connects to a remote host, it may need to know which interface to
use for the outgoing connection.
Exim's default behaviour is likely to be appropriate in the vast majority of
cases. If your host has only one interface, and you want all its IP addresses
to be treated in the same way, and you are using only the standard SMTP port,
you should not need to take any special action. The rest of this chapter does
not apply to you.
In a more complicated situation you may want to listen only on certain
interfaces, or on different ports, and for this reason there are a number of
options that can be used to influence Exim's behaviour. The rest of this
chapter describes how they operate.
When a message is received over TCP/IP, the interface and port that were
actually used are set in $received_ip_address and $received_port.
13.1 Starting a listening daemon
--------------------------------
When a listening daemon is started (by means of the -bd command line option),
the interfaces and ports on which it listens are controlled by the following
options:
* daemon_smtp_ports contains a list of default ports. (For backward
compatibility, this option can also be specified in the singular.)
* local_interfaces contains list of interface IP addresses on which to
listen. Each item may optionally also specify a port.
The default list separator in both cases is a colon, but this can be changed as
described in section 6.19. When IPv6 addresses are involved, it is usually best
to change the separator to avoid having to double all the colons. For example:
local_interfaces = <; 127.0.0.1 ; \
192.168.23.65 ; \
::1 ; \
3ffe:ffff:836f::fe86:a061
There are two different formats for specifying a port along with an IP address
in local_interfaces:
1. The port is added onto the address with a dot separator. For example, to
listen on port 1234 on two different IP addresses:
local_interfaces = <; 192.168.23.65.1234 ; \
3ffe:ffff:836f::fe86:a061.1234
2. The IP address is enclosed in square brackets, and the port is added with a
colon separator, for example:
local_interfaces = <; [192.168.23.65]:1234 ; \
[3ffe:ffff:836f::fe86:a061]:1234
When a port is not specified, the value of daemon_smtp_ports is used. The
default setting contains just one port:
daemon_smtp_ports = smtp
If more than one port is listed, each interface that does not have its own port
specified listens on all of them. Ports that are listed in daemon_smtp_ports
can be identified either by name (defined in /etc/services) or by number.
However, when ports are given with individual IP addresses in local_interfaces,
only numbers (not names) can be used.
13.2 Special IP listening addresses
-----------------------------------
The addresses 0.0.0.0 and ::0 are treated specially. They are interpreted as
"all IPv4 interfaces" and "all IPv6 interfaces", respectively. In each case,
Exim tells the TCP/IP stack to "listen on all IPvx interfaces" instead of
setting up separate listening sockets for each interface. The default value of
local_interfaces is
local_interfaces = 0.0.0.0
when Exim is built without IPv6 support; otherwise it is:
local_interfaces = <; ::0 ; 0.0.0.0
Thus, by default, Exim listens on all available interfaces, on the SMTP port.
13.3 Overriding local_interfaces and daemon_smtp_ports
------------------------------------------------------
The -oX command line option can be used to override the values of
daemon_smtp_ports and/or local_interfaces for a particular daemon instance.
Another way of doing this would be to use macros and the -D option. However,
-oX can be used by any admin user, whereas modification of the runtime
configuration by -D is allowed only when the caller is root or exim.
The value of -oX is a list of items. The default colon separator can be changed
in the usual way if required. If there are any items that do not contain dots
or colons (that is, are not IP addresses), the value of daemon_smtp_ports is
replaced by the list of those items. If there are any items that do contain
dots or colons, the value of local_interfaces is replaced by those items. Thus,
for example,
-oX 1225
overrides daemon_smtp_ports, but leaves local_interfaces unchanged, whereas
-oX 192.168.34.5.1125
overrides local_interfaces, leaving daemon_smtp_ports unchanged. (However,
since local_interfaces now contains no items without ports, the value of
daemon_smtp_ports is no longer relevant in this example.)
13.4 Support for the obsolete SSMTP (or SMTPS) protocol
-------------------------------------------------------
Exim supports the obsolete SSMTP protocol (also known as SMTPS) that was used
before the STARTTLS command was standardized for SMTP. Some legacy clients
still use this protocol. If the tls_on_connect_ports option is set to a list of
port numbers, connections to those ports must use SSMTP. The most common use of
this option is expected to be
tls_on_connect_ports = 465
because 465 is the usual port number used by the legacy clients. There is also
a command line option -tls-on-connect, which forces all ports to behave in this
way when a daemon is started.
Warning: Setting tls_on_connect_ports does not of itself cause the daemon to
listen on those ports. You must still specify them in daemon_smtp_ports,
local_interfaces, or the -oX option. (This is because tls_on_connect_ports
applies to inetd connections as well as to connections via the daemon.)
13.5 IPv6 address scopes
------------------------
IPv6 addresses have "scopes", and a host with multiple hardware interfaces can,
in principle, have the same link-local IPv6 address on different interfaces.
Thus, additional information is needed, over and above the IP address, to
distinguish individual interfaces. A convention of using a percent sign
followed by something (often the interface name) has been adopted in some
cases, leading to addresses like this:
fe80::202:b3ff:fe03:45c1%eth0
To accommodate this usage, a percent sign followed by an arbitrary string is
allowed at the end of an IPv6 address. By default, Exim calls getaddrinfo() to
convert a textual IPv6 address for actual use. This function recognizes the
percent convention in operating systems that support it, and it processes the
address appropriately. Unfortunately, some older libraries have problems with
getaddrinfo(). If
IPV6_USE_INET_PTON=yes
is set in Local/Makefile (or an OS-dependent Makefile) when Exim is built, Exim
uses inet_pton() to convert a textual IPv6 address for actual use, instead of
getaddrinfo(). (Before version 4.14, it always used this function.) Of course,
this means that the additional functionality of getaddrinfo() - recognizing
scoped addresses - is lost.
13.6 Disabling IPv6
-------------------
Sometimes it happens that an Exim binary that was compiled with IPv6 support is
run on a host whose kernel does not support IPv6. The binary will fall back to
using IPv4, but it may waste resources looking up AAAA records, and trying to
connect to IPv6 addresses, causing delays to mail delivery. If you set the
disable_ipv6 option true, even if the Exim binary has IPv6 support, no IPv6
activities take place. AAAA records are never looked up, and any IPv6 addresses
that are listed in local_interfaces, data for the manualroute router, etc. are
ignored. If IP literals are enabled, the ipliteral router declines to handle
IPv6 literal addresses.
On the other hand, when IPv6 is in use, there may be times when you want to
disable it for certain hosts or domains. You can use the dns_ipv4_lookup option
to globally suppress the lookup of AAAA records for specified domains, and you
can use the ignore_target_hosts generic router option to ignore IPv6 addresses
in an individual router.
13.7 Examples of starting a listening daemon
--------------------------------------------
The default case in an IPv6 environment is
daemon_smtp_ports = smtp
local_interfaces = <; ::0 ; 0.0.0.0
This specifies listening on the smtp port on all IPv6 and IPv4 interfaces.
Either one or two sockets may be used, depending on the characteristics of the
TCP/IP stack. (This is complicated and messy; for more information, read the
comments in the daemon.c source file.)
To specify listening on ports 25 and 26 on all interfaces:
daemon_smtp_ports = 25 : 26
(leaving local_interfaces at the default setting) or, more explicitly:
local_interfaces = <; ::0.25 ; ::0.26 \
0.0.0.0.25 ; 0.0.0.0.26
To listen on the default port on all IPv4 interfaces, and on port 26 on the
IPv4 loopback address only:
local_interfaces = 0.0.0.0 : 127.0.0.1.26
To specify listening on the default port on specific interfaces only:
local_interfaces = 192.168.34.67 : 192.168.34.67
Warning: Such a setting excludes listening on the loopback interfaces.
13.8 Recognizing the local host
-------------------------------
The local_interfaces option is also used when Exim needs to determine whether
or not an IP address refers to the local host. That is, the IP addresses of all
the interfaces on which a daemon is listening are always treated as local.
For this usage, port numbers in local_interfaces are ignored. If either of the
items 0.0.0.0 or ::0 are encountered, Exim gets a complete list of available
interfaces from the operating system, and extracts the relevant (that is, IPv4
or IPv6) addresses to use for checking.
Some systems set up large numbers of virtual interfaces in order to provide
many virtual web servers. In this situation, you may want to listen for email
on only a few of the available interfaces, but nevertheless treat all
interfaces as local when routing. You can do this by setting
extra_local_interfaces to a list of IP addresses, possibly including the "all"
wildcard values. These addresses are recognized as local, but are not used for
listening. Consider this example:
local_interfaces = <; 127.0.0.1 ; ::1 ; \
192.168.53.235 ; \
3ffe:2101:12:1:a00:20ff:fe86:a061
extra_local_interfaces = <; ::0 ; 0.0.0.0
The daemon listens on the loopback interfaces and just one IPv4 and one IPv6
address, but all available interface addresses are treated as local when Exim
is routing.
In some environments the local host name may be in an MX list, but with an IP
address that is not assigned to any local interface. In other cases it may be
desirable to treat other host names as if they referred to the local host. Both
these cases can be handled by setting the hosts_treat_as_local option. This
contains host names rather than IP addresses. When a host is referenced during
routing, either via an MX record or directly, it is treated as the local host
if its name matches hosts_treat_as_local, or if any of its IP addresses match
local_interfaces or extra_local_interfaces.
13.9 Delivering to a remote host
--------------------------------
Delivery to a remote host is handled by the smtp transport. By default, it
allows the system's TCP/IP functions to choose which interface to use (if there
is more than one) when connecting to a remote host. However, the interface
option can be set to specify which interface is used. See the description of
the smtp transport in chapter 30 for more details.
===============================================================================
14. MAIN CONFIGURATION
The first part of the run time configuration file contains three types of item:
* Macro definitions: These lines start with an upper case letter. See section
6.4 for details of macro processing.
* Named list definitions: These lines start with one of the words
"domainlist", "hostlist", "addresslist", or "localpartlist". Their use is
described in section 10.5.
* Main configuration settings: Each setting occupies one line of the file
(with possible continuations). If any setting is preceded by the word
"hide", the -bP command line option displays its value to admin users only.
See section 6.10 for a description of the syntax of these option settings.
This chapter specifies all the main configuration options, along with their
types and default values. For ease of finding a particular option, they appear
in alphabetical order in section 14.23 below. However, because there are now so
many options, they are first listed briefly in functional groups, as an aid to
finding the name of the option you are looking for. Some options are listed in
more than one group.
14.1 Miscellaneous
------------------
bi_command to run for -bi command line option
disable_ipv6 do no IPv6 processing
keep_malformed for broken files - should not happen
localhost_number for unique message ids in clusters
message_body_newlines retain newlines in $message_body
message_body_visible how much to show in $message_body
mua_wrapper run in "MUA wrapper" mode
print_topbitchars top-bit characters are printing
timezone force time zone
14.2 Exim parameters
--------------------
exim_group override compiled-in value
exim_path override compiled-in value
exim_user override compiled-in value
primary_hostname default from uname()
split_spool_directory use multiple directories
spool_directory override compiled-in value
14.3 Privilege controls
-----------------------
admin_groups groups that are Exim admin users
deliver_drop_privilege drop root for delivery processes
local_from_check insert Sender: if necessary
local_from_prefix for testing From: for local sender
local_from_suffix for testing From: for local sender
local_sender_retain keep Sender: from untrusted user
never_users do not run deliveries as these
prod_requires_admin forced delivery requires admin user
queue_list_requires_admin queue listing requires admin user
trusted_groups groups that are trusted
trusted_users users that are trusted
14.4 Logging
------------
hosts_connection_nolog exemption from connect logging
log_file_path override compiled-in value
log_selector set/unset optional logging
log_timezone add timezone to log lines
message_logs create per-message logs
preserve_message_logs after message completion
process_log_path for SIGUSR1 and exiwhat
syslog_duplication controls duplicate log lines on syslog
syslog_facility set syslog "facility" field
syslog_processname set syslog "ident" field
syslog_timestamp timestamp syslog lines
write_rejectlog control use of message log
14.5 Frozen messages
--------------------
auto_thaw sets time for retrying frozen messages
freeze_tell send message when freezing
move_frozen_messages to another directory
timeout_frozen_after keep frozen messages only so long
14.6 Data lookups
-----------------
ibase_servers InterBase servers
ldap_default_servers used if no server in query
ldap_version set protocol version
lookup_open_max lookup files held open
mysql_servers default MySQL servers
oracle_servers Oracle servers
pgsql_servers default PostgreSQL servers
sqlite_lock_timeout as it says
14.7 Message ids
----------------
message_id_header_domain used to build Message-ID: header
message_id_header_text ditto
14.8 Embedded Perl Startup
--------------------------
perl_at_start always start the interpreter
perl_startup code to obey when starting Perl
14.9 Daemon
-----------
daemon_smtp_ports default ports
daemon_startup_retries number of times to retry
daemon_startup_sleep time to sleep between tries
extra_local_interfaces not necessarily listened on
local_interfaces on which to listen, with optional ports
pid_file_path override compiled-in value
queue_run_max maximum simultaneous queue runners
14.10 Resource control
----------------------
check_log_inodes before accepting a message
check_log_space before accepting a message
check_spool_inodes before accepting a message
check_spool_space before accepting a message
deliver_queue_load_max no queue deliveries if load high
queue_only_load queue incoming if load high
queue_only_load_latch don't re-evaluate load for each message
queue_run_max maximum simultaneous queue runners
remote_max_parallel parallel SMTP delivery per message
smtp_accept_max simultaneous incoming connections
smtp_accept_max_nonmail non-mail commands
smtp_accept_max_nonmail_hosts hosts to which the limit applies
smtp_accept_max_per_connection messages per connection
smtp_accept_max_per_host connections from one host
smtp_accept_queue queue mail if more connections
smtp_accept_queue_per_connection queue if more messages per connection
smtp_accept_reserve only reserve hosts if more connections
smtp_check_spool_space from SIZE on MAIL command
smtp_connect_backlog passed to TCP/IP stack
smtp_load_reserve SMTP from reserved hosts if load high
smtp_reserve_hosts these are the reserve hosts
14.11 Policy controls
---------------------
acl_not_smtp ACL for non-SMTP messages
acl_not_smtp_mime ACL for non-SMTP MIME parts
acl_not_smtp_start ACL for start of non-SMTP message
acl_smtp_auth ACL for AUTH
acl_smtp_connect ACL for connection
acl_smtp_data ACL for DATA
acl_smtp_etrn ACL for ETRN
acl_smtp_expn ACL for EXPN
acl_smtp_helo ACL for EHLO or HELO
acl_smtp_mail ACL for MAIL
acl_smtp_mailauth ACL for AUTH on MAIL command
acl_smtp_mime ACL for MIME parts
acl_smtp_predata ACL for start of data
acl_smtp_quit ACL for QUIT
acl_smtp_rcpt ACL for RCPT
acl_smtp_starttls ACL for STARTTLS
acl_smtp_vrfy ACL for VRFY
av_scanner specify virus scanner
check_rfc2047_length check length of RFC 2047 "encoded words"
dns_csa_search_limit control CSA parent search depth
dns_csa_use_reverse en/disable CSA IP reverse search
header_maxsize total size of message header
header_line_maxsize individual header line limit
helo_accept_junk_hosts allow syntactic junk from these hosts
helo_allow_chars allow illegal chars in HELO names
helo_lookup_domains lookup hostname for these HELO names
helo_try_verify_hosts HELO soft-checked for these hosts
helo_verify_hosts HELO hard-checked for these hosts
host_lookup host name looked up for these hosts
host_lookup_order order of DNS and local name lookups
host_reject_connection reject connection from these hosts
hosts_treat_as_local useful in some cluster configurations
local_scan_timeout timeout for local_scan()
message_size_limit for all messages
percent_hack_domains recognize %-hack for these domains
spamd_address set interface to SpamAssassin
strict_acl_vars object to unset ACL variables
14.12 Callout cache
-------------------
callout_domain_negative_expire timeout for negative domain cache item
callout_domain_positive_expire timeout for positive domain cache item
callout_negative_expire timeout for negative address cache item
callout_positive_expire timeout for positive address cache item
callout_random_local_part string to use for "random" testing
14.13 TLS
---------
gnutls_require_kx control GnuTLS key exchanges
gnutls_require_mac control GnuTLS MAC algorithms
gnutls_require_protocols control GnuTLS protocols
tls_advertise_hosts advertise TLS to these hosts
tls_certificate location of server certificate
tls_crl certificate revocation list
tls_dhparam DH parameters for server
tls_on_connect_ports specify SSMTP (SMTPS) ports
tls_privatekey location of server private key
tls_remember_esmtp don't reset after starting TLS
tls_require_ciphers specify acceptable ciphers
tls_try_verify_hosts try to verify client certificate
tls_verify_certificates expected client certificates
tls_verify_hosts insist on client certificate verify
14.14 Local user handling
-------------------------
finduser_retries useful in NIS environments
gecos_name used when creating Sender:
gecos_pattern ditto
max_username_length for systems that truncate
unknown_login used when no login name found
unknown_username ditto
uucp_from_pattern for recognizing "From " lines
uucp_from_sender ditto
14.15 All incoming messages (SMTP and non-SMTP)
-----------------------------------------------
header_maxsize total size of message header
header_line_maxsize individual header line limit
message_size_limit applies to all messages
percent_hack_domains recognize %-hack for these domains
received_header_text expanded to make Received:
received_headers_max for mail loop detection
recipients_max limit per message
recipients_max_reject permanently reject excess recipients
14.16 Non-SMTP incoming messages
--------------------------------
receive_timeout for non-SMTP messages
14.17 Incoming SMTP messages
----------------------------
See also the Policy controls section above.
host_lookup host name looked up for these hosts
host_lookup_order order of DNS and local name lookups
recipient_unqualified_hosts may send unqualified recipients
rfc1413_hosts make ident calls to these hosts
rfc1413_query_timeout zero disables ident calls
sender_unqualified_hosts may send unqualified senders
smtp_accept_keepalive some TCP/IP magic
smtp_accept_max simultaneous incoming connections
smtp_accept_max_nonmail non-mail commands
smtp_accept_max_nonmail_hosts hosts to which the limit applies
smtp_accept_max_per_connection messages per connection
smtp_accept_max_per_host connections from one host
smtp_accept_queue queue mail if more connections
smtp_accept_queue_per_connection queue if more messages per connection
smtp_accept_reserve only reserve hosts if more connections
smtp_active_hostname host name to use in messages
smtp_banner text for welcome banner
smtp_check_spool_space from SIZE on MAIL command
smtp_connect_backlog passed to TCP/IP stack
smtp_enforce_sync of SMTP command/responses
smtp_etrn_command what to run for ETRN
smtp_etrn_serialize only one at once
smtp_load_reserve only reserve hosts if this load
smtp_max_unknown_commands before dropping connection
smtp_ratelimit_hosts apply ratelimiting to these hosts
smtp_ratelimit_mail ratelimit for MAIL commands
smtp_ratelimit_rcpt ratelimit for RCPT commands
smtp_receive_timeout per command or data line
smtp_reserve_hosts these are the reserve hosts
smtp_return_error_details give detail on rejections
14.18 SMTP extensions
---------------------
accept_8bitmime advertise 8BITMIME
auth_advertise_hosts advertise AUTH to these hosts
ignore_fromline_hosts allow "From " from these hosts
ignore_fromline_local allow "From " from local SMTP
pipelining_advertise_hosts advertise pipelining to these hosts
tls_advertise_hosts advertise TLS to these hosts
14.19 Processing messages
-------------------------
allow_domain_literals recognize domain literal syntax
allow_mx_to_ip allow MX to point to IP address
allow_utf8_domains in addresses
check_rfc2047_length check length of RFC 2047 "encoded words"
delivery_date_remove from incoming messages
envelope_to_remove from incoming messages
extract_addresses_remove_arguments affects -t processing
headers_charset default for translations
qualify_domain default for senders
qualify_recipient default for recipients
return_path_remove from incoming messages
strip_excess_angle_brackets in addresses
strip_trailing_dot at end of addresses
untrusted_set_sender untrusted can set envelope sender
14.20 System filter
-------------------
system_filter locate system filter
system_filter_directory_transport transport for delivery to a directory
system_filter_file_transport transport for delivery to a file
system_filter_group group for filter running
system_filter_pipe_transport transport for delivery to a pipe
system_filter_reply_transport transport for autoreply delivery
system_filter_user user for filter running
14.21 Routing and delivery
--------------------------
disable_ipv6 do no IPv6 processing
dns_again_means_nonexist for broken domains
dns_check_names_pattern pre-DNS syntax check
dns_ipv4_lookup only v4 lookup for these domains
dns_retrans parameter for resolver
dns_retry parameter for resolver
hold_domains hold delivery for these domains
local_interfaces for routing checks
queue_domains no immediate delivery for these
queue_only no immediate delivery at all
queue_only_file no immediate delivery if file exists
queue_only_load no immediate delivery if load is high
queue_only_load_latch don't re-evaluate load for each message
queue_only_override allow command line to override
queue_run_in_order order of arrival
queue_run_max of simultaneous queue runners
queue_smtp_domains no immediate SMTP delivery for these
remote_max_parallel parallel SMTP delivery per message
remote_sort_domains order of remote deliveries
retry_data_expire timeout for retry data
retry_interval_max safety net for retry rules
14.22 Bounce and warning messages
---------------------------------
bounce_message_file content of bounce
bounce_message_text content of bounce
bounce_return_body include body if returning message
bounce_return_message include original message in bounce
bounce_return_size_limit limit on returned message
bounce_sender_authentication send authenticated sender with bounce
dsn_from set From: contents in bounces
errors_copy copy bounce messages
errors_reply_to Reply-to: in bounces
delay_warning time schedule
delay_warning_condition condition for warning messages
ignore_bounce_errors_after discard undeliverable bounces
smtp_return_error_details give detail on rejections
warn_message_file content of warning message
14.23 Alphabetical list of main options
---------------------------------------
Those options that undergo string expansion before use are marked with *.
--------------------------------------------------------
-accept_8bitmime-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------
This option causes Exim to send 8BITMIME in its response to an SMTP EHLO
command, and to accept the BODY= parameter on MAIL commands. However, though
Exim is 8-bit clean, it is not a protocol converter, and it takes no steps to
do anything special with messages received by this route. Consequently, this
option is turned off by default.
-----------------------------------------------------
-acl_not_smtp-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------
This option defines the ACL that is run when a non-SMTP message has been read
and is on the point of being accepted. See chapter 40 for further details.
----------------------------------------------------------
-acl_not_smtp_mime-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option defines the ACL that is run for individual MIME parts of non-SMTP
messages. It operates in exactly the same way as acl_smtp_mime operates for
SMTP messages.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-acl_not_smtp_start-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------
This option defines the ACL that is run before Exim starts reading a non-SMTP
message. See chapter 40 for further details.
------------------------------------------------------
-acl_smtp_auth-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------
This option defines the ACL that is run when an SMTP AUTH command is received.
See chapter 40 for further details.
---------------------------------------------------------
-acl_smtp_connect-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------
This option defines the ACL that is run when an SMTP connection is received.
See chapter 40 for further details.
------------------------------------------------------
-acl_smtp_data-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------
This option defines the ACL that is run after an SMTP DATA command has been
processed and the message itself has been received, but before the final
acknowledgment is sent. See chapter 40 for further details.
------------------------------------------------------
-acl_smtp_etrn-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------
This option defines the ACL that is run when an SMTP ETRN command is received.
See chapter 40 for further details.
------------------------------------------------------
-acl_smtp_expn-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------
This option defines the ACL that is run when an SMTP EXPN command is received.
See chapter 40 for further details.
------------------------------------------------------
-acl_smtp_helo-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------
This option defines the ACL that is run when an SMTP EHLO or HELO command is
received. See chapter 40 for further details.
------------------------------------------------------
-acl_smtp_mail-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------
This option defines the ACL that is run when an SMTP MAIL command is received.
See chapter 40 for further details.
----------------------------------------------------------
-acl_smtp_mailauth-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option defines the ACL that is run when there is an AUTH parameter on a
MAIL command. See chapter 40 for details of ACLs, and chapter 33 for details of
authentication.
------------------------------------------------------
-acl_smtp_mime-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------
This option is available when Exim is built with the content-scanning
extension. It defines the ACL that is run for each MIME part in a message. See
section 41.4 for details.
---------------------------------------------------------
-acl_smtp_predata-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------
This option defines the ACL that is run when an SMTP DATA command is received,
before the message itself is received. See chapter 40 for further details.
------------------------------------------------------
-acl_smtp_quit-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------
This option defines the ACL that is run when an SMTP QUIT command is received.
See chapter 40 for further details.
------------------------------------------------------
-acl_smtp_rcpt-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------
This option defines the ACL that is run when an SMTP RCPT command is received.
See chapter 40 for further details.
----------------------------------------------------------
-acl_smtp_starttls-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option defines the ACL that is run when an SMTP STARTTLS command is
received. See chapter 40 for further details.
------------------------------------------------------
-acl_smtp_vrfy-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------
This option defines the ACL that is run when an SMTP VRFY command is received.
See chapter 40 for further details.
----------------------------------------------------------
-admin_groups-Use: main-Type: string list*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option is expanded just once, at the start of Exim's processing. If the
current group or any of the supplementary groups of an Exim caller is in this
colon-separated list, the caller has admin privileges. If all your system
programmers are in a specific group, for example, you can give them all Exim
admin privileges by putting that group in admin_groups. However, this does not
permit them to read Exim's spool files (whose group owner is the Exim gid). To
permit this, you have to add individuals to the Exim group.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-allow_domain_literals-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, the RFC 2822 domain literal format is permitted in email
addresses. The option is not set by default, because the domain literal format
is not normally required these days, and few people know about it. It has,
however, been exploited by mail abusers.
Unfortunately, it seems that some DNS black list maintainers are using this
format to report black listing to postmasters. If you want to accept messages
addressed to your hosts by IP address, you need to set allow_domain_literals
true, and also to add "@[]" to the list of local domains (defined in the named
domain list local_domains in the default configuration). This "magic string"
matches the domain literal form of all the local host's IP addresses.
-------------------------------------------------------
-allow_mx_to_ip-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-------------------------------------------------------
It appears that more and more DNS zone administrators are breaking the rules
and putting domain names that look like IP addresses on the right hand side of
MX records. Exim follows the rules and rejects this, giving an error message
that explains the mis-configuration. However, some other MTAs support this
practice, so to avoid "Why can't Exim do this?" complaints, allow_mx_to_ip
exists, in order to enable this heinous activity. It is not recommended, except
when you have no other choice.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-allow_utf8_domains-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lots of discussion is going on about internationalized domain names. One camp
is strongly in favour of just using UTF-8 characters, and it seems that at
least two other MTAs permit this. This option allows Exim users to experiment
if they wish.
If it is set true, Exim's domain parsing function allows valid UTF-8
multicharacters to appear in domain name components, in addition to letters,
digits, and hyphens. However, just setting this option is not enough; if you
want to look up these domain names in the DNS, you must also adjust the value
of dns_check_names_pattern to match the extended form. A suitable setting is:
dns_check_names_pattern = (?i)^(?>(?(1)\.|())[a-z0-9\xc0-\xff]\
(?>[-a-z0-9\x80-\xff]*[a-z0-9\x80-\xbf])?)+$
Alternatively, you can just disable this feature by setting
dns_check_names_pattern =
That is, set the option to an empty string so that no check is done.
------------------------------------------------------------
-auth_advertise_hosts-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: *-
------------------------------------------------------------
If any server authentication mechanisms are configured, Exim advertises them in
response to an EHLO command only if the calling host matches this list.
Otherwise, Exim does not advertise AUTH. Exim does not accept AUTH commands
from clients to which it has not advertised the availability of AUTH. The
advertising of individual authentication mechanisms can be controlled by the
use of the server_advertise_condition generic authenticator option on the
individual authenticators. See chapter 33 for further details.
Certain mail clients (for example, Netscape) require the user to provide a name
and password for authentication if AUTH is advertised, even though it may not
be needed (the host may accept messages from hosts on its local LAN without
authentication, for example). The auth_advertise_hosts option can be used to
make these clients more friendly by excluding them from the set of hosts to
which Exim advertises AUTH.
If you want to advertise the availability of AUTH only when the connection is
encrypted using TLS, you can make use of the fact that the value of this option
is expanded, with a setting like this:
auth_advertise_hosts = ${if eq{$tls_cipher}{}{}{*}}
If $tls_cipher is empty, the session is not encrypted, and the result of the
expansion is empty, thus matching no hosts. Otherwise, the result of the
expansion is *, which matches all hosts.
--------------------------------------------
-auto_thaw-Use: main-Type: time-Default: 0s-
--------------------------------------------
If this option is set to a time greater than zero, a queue runner will try a
new delivery attempt on any frozen message, other than a bounce message, if
this much time has passed since it was frozen. This may result in the message
being re-frozen if nothing has changed since the last attempt. It is a way of
saying "keep on trying, even though there are big problems".
Note: This is an old option, which predates timeout_frozen_after and
ignore_bounce_errors_after. It is retained for compatibility, but it is not
thought to be very useful any more, and its use should probably be avoided.
------------------------------------------------------
-av_scanner-Use: main-Type: string-Default: see below-
------------------------------------------------------
This option is available if Exim is built with the content-scanning extension.
It specifies which anti-virus scanner to use. The default value is:
sophie:/var/run/sophie
If the value of av_scanner starts with dollar character, it is expanded before
use. See section 41.1 for further details.
--------------------------------------------------
-bi_command-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------
This option supplies the name of a command that is run when Exim is called with
the -bi option (see chapter 5). The string value is just the command name, it
is not a complete command line. If an argument is required, it must come from
the -oA command line option.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-bounce_message_file-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------
This option defines a template file containing paragraphs of text to be used
for constructing bounce messages. Details of the file's contents are given in
chapter 46. See also warn_message_file.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-bounce_message_text-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------
When this option is set, its contents are included in the default bounce
message immediately after "This message was created automatically by mail
delivery software." It is not used if bounce_message_file is set.
----------------------------------------------------------
-bounce_return_body-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option controls whether the body of an incoming message is included in a
bounce message when bounce_return_message is true. The default setting causes
the entire message, both header and body, to be returned (subject to the value
of bounce_return_size_limit). If this option is false, only the message header
is included. In the case of a non-SMTP message containing an error that is
detected during reception, only those header lines preceding the point at which
the error was detected are returned.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-bounce_return_message-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
-------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set false, none of the original message is included in bounce
messages generated by Exim. See also bounce_return_size_limit and
bounce_return_body.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-bounce_return_size_limit-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 100K-
----------------------------------------------------------------
This option sets a limit in bytes on the size of messages that are returned to
senders as part of bounce messages when bounce_return_message is true. The
limit should be less than the value of the global message_size_limit and of any
message_size_limit settings on transports, to allow for the bounce text that
Exim generates. If this option is set to zero there is no limit.
When the body of any message that is to be included in a bounce message is
greater than the limit, it is truncated, and a comment pointing this out is
added at the top. The actual cutoff may be greater than the value given, owing
to the use of buffering for transferring the message in chunks (typically 8K in
size). The idea is to save bandwidth on those undeliverable 15-megabyte
messages.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
-bounce_sender_authentication-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This option provides an authenticated sender address that is sent with any
bounce messages generated by Exim that are sent over an authenticated SMTP
connection. A typical setting might be:
bounce_sender_authentication = mailer-daemon@my.domain.example
which would cause bounce messages to be sent using the SMTP command:
MAIL FROM:<> AUTH=mailer-daemon@my.domain.example
The value of bounce_sender_authentication must always be a complete email
address.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-callout_domain_negative_expire-Use: main-Type: time-Default: 3h-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the expiry time for negative callout cache data for a
domain. See section 40.41 for details of callout verification, and section
40.43 for details of the caching.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-callout_domain_positive_expire-Use: main-Type: time-Default: 7d-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the expiry time for positive callout cache data for a
domain. See section 40.41 for details of callout verification, and section
40.43 for details of the caching.
----------------------------------------------------------
-callout_negative_expire-Use: main-Type: time-Default: 2h-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the expiry time for negative callout cache data for an
address. See section 40.41 for details of callout verification, and section
40.43 for details of the caching.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-callout_positive_expire-Use: main-Type: time-Default: 24h-
-----------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the expiry time for positive callout cache data for an
address. See section 40.41 for details of callout verification, and section
40.43 for details of the caching.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
-callout_random_local_part-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: see below-
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This option defines the "random" local part that can be used as part of callout
verification. The default value is
$primary_host_name-$tod_epoch-testing
See section 40.42 for details of how this value is used.
-----------------------------------------------------
-check_log_inodes-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 0-
-----------------------------------------------------
See check_spool_space below.
----------------------------------------------------
-check_log_space-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 0-
----------------------------------------------------
See check_spool_space below.
------------------------------------------------------------
-check_rfc2047_length-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
------------------------------------------------------------
RFC 2047 defines a way of encoding non-ASCII characters in headers using a
system of "encoded words". The RFC specifies a maximum length for an encoded
word; strings to be encoded that exceed this length are supposed to use
multiple encoded words. By default, Exim does not recognize encoded words that
exceed the maximum length. However, it seems that some software, in violation
of the RFC, generates overlong encoded words. If check_rfc2047_length is set
false, Exim recognizes encoded words of any length.
-------------------------------------------------------
-check_spool_inodes-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 0-
-------------------------------------------------------
See check_spool_space below.
------------------------------------------------------
-check_spool_space-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 0-
------------------------------------------------------
The four check_... options allow for checking of disk resources before a
message is accepted.
When any of these options are set, they apply to all incoming messages. If you
want to apply different checks to different kinds of message, you can do so by
testing the variables $log_inodes, $log_space, $spool_inodes, and $spool_space
in an ACL with appropriate additional conditions.
check_spool_space and check_spool_inodes check the spool partition if either
value is greater than zero, for example:
check_spool_space = 10M
check_spool_inodes = 100
The spool partition is the one that contains the directory defined by
SPOOL_DIRECTORY in Local/Makefile. It is used for holding messages in transit.
check_log_space and check_log_inodes check the partition in which log files are
written if either is greater than zero. These should be set only if
log_file_path and spool_directory refer to different partitions.
If there is less space or fewer inodes than requested, Exim refuses to accept
incoming mail. In the case of SMTP input this is done by giving a 452 temporary
error response to the MAIL command. If ESMTP is in use and there was a SIZE
parameter on the MAIL command, its value is added to the check_spool_space
value, and the check is performed even if check_spool_space is zero, unless
no_smtp_check_spool_space is set.
The values for check_spool_space and check_log_space are held as a number of
kilobytes. If a non-multiple of 1024 is specified, it is rounded up.
For non-SMTP input and for batched SMTP input, the test is done at start-up; on
failure a message is written to stderr and Exim exits with a non-zero code, as
it obviously cannot send an error message of any kind.
----------------------------------------------------------
-daemon_smtp_ports-Use: main-Type: string-Default: "smtp"-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies one or more default SMTP ports on which the Exim daemon
listens. See chapter 13 for details of how it is used. For backward
compatibility, daemon_smtp_port (singular) is a synonym.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-daemon_startup_retries-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 9-
-----------------------------------------------------------
This option, along with daemon_startup_sleep, controls the retrying done by the
daemon at startup when it cannot immediately bind a listening socket (typically
because the socket is already in use): daemon_startup_retries defines the
number of retries after the first failure, and daemon_startup_sleep defines the
length of time to wait between retries.
--------------------------------------------------------
-daemon_startup_sleep-Use: main-Type: time-Default: 30s-
--------------------------------------------------------
See daemon_startup_retries.
------------------------------------------------------
-delay_warning-Use: main-Type: time list-Default: 24h-
------------------------------------------------------
When a message is delayed, Exim sends a warning message to the sender at
intervals specified by this option. The data is a colon-separated list of times
after which to send warning messages. If the value of the option is an empty
string or a zero time, no warnings are sent. Up to 10 times may be given. If a
message has been on the queue for longer than the last time, the last interval
between the times is used to compute subsequent warning times. For example,
with
delay_warning = 4h:8h:24h
the first message is sent after 4 hours, the second after 8 hours, and the
third one after 24 hours. After that, messages are sent every 16 hours, because
that is the interval between the last two times on the list. If you set just
one time, it specifies the repeat interval. For example, with:
delay_warning = 6h
messages are repeated every six hours. To stop warnings after a given time, set
a very large time at the end of the list. For example:
delay_warning = 2h:12h:99d
--------------------------------------------------------------------
-delay_warning_condition-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: see below-
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The string is expanded at the time a warning message might be sent. If all the
deferred addresses have the same domain, it is set in $domain during the
expansion. Otherwise $domain is empty. If the result of the expansion is a
forced failure, an empty string, or a string matching any of "0", "no" or
"false" (the comparison being done caselessly) then the warning message is not
sent. The default is:
delay_warning_condition = ${if or {\
{ !eq{$h_list-id:$h_list-post:$h_list-subscribe:}{} }\
{ match{$h_precedence:}{(?i)bulk|list|junk} }\
{ match{$h_auto-submitted:}{(?i)auto-generated|auto-replied} }\
} {no}{yes}}
This suppresses the sending of warnings for messages that contain List-ID:,
List-Post:, or List-Subscribe: headers, or have "bulk", "list" or "junk" in a
Precedence: header, or have "auto-generated" or "auto-replied" in an
Auto-Submitted: header.
---------------------------------------------------------------
-deliver_drop_privilege-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set true, Exim drops its root privilege at the start of a
delivery process, and runs as the Exim user throughout. This severely restricts
the kinds of local delivery that are possible, but is viable in certain types
of configuration. There is a discussion about the use of root privilege in
chapter 52.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-deliver_queue_load_max-Use: main-Type: fixed-point-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
When this option is set, a queue run is abandoned if the system load average
becomes greater than the value of the option. The option has no effect on
ancient operating systems on which Exim cannot determine the load average. See
also queue_only_load and smtp_load_reserve.
------------------------------------------------------------
-delivery_date_remove-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
------------------------------------------------------------
Exim's transports have an option for adding a Delivery-date: header to a
message when it is delivered, in exactly the same way as Return-path: is
handled. Delivery-date: records the actual time of delivery. Such headers
should not be present in incoming messages, and this option causes them to be
removed at the time the message is received, to avoid any problems that might
occur when a delivered message is subsequently sent on to some other recipient.
------------------------------------------------------
-disable_fsync-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
------------------------------------------------------
This option is available only if Exim was built with the compile-time option
ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When this is not set, a reference to disable_fsync in a
runtime configuration generates an "unknown option" error. You should not build
Exim with ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC or set disable_fsync unless you really, really,
really understand what you are doing. No pre-compiled distributions of Exim
should ever make this option available.
When disable_fsync is set true, Exim no longer calls fsync() to force updated
files' data to be written to disc before continuing. Unexpected events such as
crashes and power outages may cause data to be lost or scrambled. Here be
Dragons. Beware.
-----------------------------------------------------
-disable_ipv6-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------
If this option is set true, even if the Exim binary has IPv6 support, no IPv6
activities take place. AAAA records are never looked up, and any IPv6 addresses
that are listed in local_interfaces, data for the manualroute router, etc. are
ignored. If IP literals are enabled, the ipliteral router declines to handle
IPv6 literal addresses.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
-dns_again_means_nonexist-Use: main-Type: domain list*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------------------
DNS lookups give a "try again" response for the DNS errors "non-authoritative
host not found" and "SERVERFAIL". This can cause Exim to keep trying to deliver
a message, or to give repeated temporary errors to incoming mail. Sometimes the
effect is caused by a badly set up name server and may persist for a long time.
If a domain which exhibits this problem matches anything in
dns_again_means_nonexist, it is treated as if it did not exist. This option
should be used with care. You can make it apply to reverse lookups by a setting
such as this:
dns_again_means_nonexist = *.in-addr.arpa
This option applies to all DNS lookups that Exim does. It also applies when the
gethostbyname() or getipnodebyname() functions give temporary errors, since
these are most likely to be caused by DNS lookup problems. The dnslookup router
has some options of its own for controlling what happens when lookups for MX or
SRV records give temporary errors. These more specific options are applied
after this global option.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-dns_check_names_pattern-Use: main-Type: string-Default: see below-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
When this option is set to a non-empty string, it causes Exim to check domain
names for characters that are not allowed in host names before handing them to
the DNS resolver, because some resolvers give temporary errors for names that
contain unusual characters. If a domain name contains any unwanted characters,
a "not found" result is forced, and the resolver is not called. The check is
done by matching the domain name against a regular expression, which is the
value of this option. The default pattern is
dns_check_names_pattern = \
(?i)^(?>(?(1)\.|())[^\W_](?>[a-z0-9/-]*[^\W_])?)+$
which permits only letters, digits, slashes, and hyphens in components, but
they must start and end with a letter or digit. Slashes are not, in fact,
permitted in host names, but they are found in certain NS records (which can be
accessed in Exim by using a dnsdb lookup). If you set allow_utf8_domains, you
must modify this pattern, or set the option to an empty string.
---------------------------------------------------------
-dns_csa_search_limit-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 5-
---------------------------------------------------------
This option controls the depth of parental searching for CSA SRV records in the
DNS, as described in more detail in section 40.46.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-dns_csa_use_reverse-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
-----------------------------------------------------------
This option controls whether or not an IP address, given as a CSA domain, is
reversed and looked up in the reverse DNS, as described in more detail in
section 40.46.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-dns_ipv4_lookup-Use: main-Type: domain list*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------
When Exim is compiled with IPv6 support and disable_ipv6 is not set, it looks
for IPv6 address records (AAAA records) as well as IPv4 address records (A
records) when trying to find IP addresses for hosts, unless the host's domain
matches this list.
This is a fudge to help with name servers that give big delays or otherwise do
not work for the AAAA record type. In due course, when the world's name servers
have all been upgraded, there should be no need for this option.
----------------------------------------------
-dns_retrans-Use: main-Type: time-Default: 0s-
----------------------------------------------
The options dns_retrans and dns_retry can be used to set the retransmission and
retry parameters for DNS lookups. Values of zero (the defaults) leave the
system default settings unchanged. The first value is the time between retries,
and the second is the number of retries. It isn't totally clear exactly how
these settings affect the total time a DNS lookup may take. I haven't found any
documentation about timeouts on DNS lookups; these parameter values are
available in the external resolver interface structure, but nowhere does it
seem to describe how they are used or what you might want to set in them.
----------------------------------------------
-dns_retry-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 0-
----------------------------------------------
See dns_retrans above.
------------------------------------------------
-drop_cr-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
------------------------------------------------
This is an obsolete option that is now a no-op. It used to affect the way Exim
handled CR and LF characters in incoming messages. What happens now is
described in section 44.2.
-----------------------------------------------------
-dsn_from-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: see below-
-----------------------------------------------------
This option can be used to vary the contents of From: header lines in bounces
and other automatically generated messages ("Delivery Status Notifications" -
hence the name of the option). The default setting is:
dsn_from = Mail Delivery System <Mailer-Daemon@$qualify_domain>
The value is expanded every time it is needed. If the expansion fails, a panic
is logged, and the default value is used.
----------------------------------------------------------
-envelope_to_remove-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
----------------------------------------------------------
Exim's transports have an option for adding an Envelope-to: header to a message
when it is delivered, in exactly the same way as Return-path: is handled.
Envelope-to: records the original recipient address from the messages's
envelope that caused the delivery to happen. Such headers should not be present
in incoming messages, and this option causes them to be removed at the time the
message is received, to avoid any problems that might occur when a delivered
message is subsequently sent on to some other recipient.
---------------------------------------------------------
-errors_copy-Use: main-Type: string list*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------
Setting this option causes Exim to send bcc copies of bounce messages that it
generates to other addresses. Note: This does not apply to bounce messages
coming from elsewhere. The value of the option is a colon-separated list of
items. Each item consists of a pattern, terminated by white space, followed by
a comma-separated list of email addresses. If a pattern contains spaces, it
must be enclosed in double quotes.
Each pattern is processed in the same way as a single item in an address list
(see section 10.19). When a pattern matches the recipient of the bounce
message, the message is copied to the addresses on the list. The items are
scanned in order, and once a matching one is found, no further items are
examined. For example:
errors_copy = spqr@mydomain postmaster@mydomain.example :\
rqps@mydomain hostmaster@mydomain.example,\
postmaster@mydomain.example
The address list is expanded before use. The expansion variables $local_part
and $domain are set from the original recipient of the error message, and if
there was any wildcard matching in the pattern, the expansion variables $0, $1,
etc. are set in the normal way.
-------------------------------------------------------
-errors_reply_to-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------
By default, Exim's bounce and delivery warning messages contain the header line
From: Mail Delivery System <Mailer-Daemon@qualify-domain>
where qualify-domain is the value of the qualify_domain option. A warning
message that is generated by the quota_warn_message option in an appendfile
transport may contain its own From: header line that overrides the default.
Experience shows that people reply to bounce messages. If the errors_reply_to
option is set, a Reply-To: header is added to bounce and warning messages. For
example:
errors_reply_to = postmaster@my.domain.example
The value of the option is not expanded. It must specify a valid RFC 2822
address. However, if a warning message that is generated by the
quota_warn_message option in an appendfile transport contain its own Reply-To:
header line, the value of the errors_reply_to option is not used.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
-exim_group-Use: main-Type: string-Default: compile-time configured-
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This option changes the gid under which Exim runs when it gives up root
privilege. The default value is compiled into the binary. The value of this
option is used only when exim_user is also set. Unless it consists entirely of
digits, the string is looked up using getgrnam(), and failure causes a
configuration error. See chapter 52 for a discussion of security issues.
-----------------------------------------------------
-exim_path-Use: main-Type: string-Default: see below-
-----------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the path name of the Exim binary, which is used when Exim
needs to re-exec itself. The default is set up to point to the file exim in the
directory configured at compile time by the BIN_DIRECTORY setting. It is
necessary to change exim_path if, exceptionally, Exim is run from some other
place. Warning: Do not use a macro to define the value of this option, because
you will break those Exim utilities that scan the configuration file to find
where the binary is. (They then use the -bP option to extract option settings
such as the value of spool_directory.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-exim_user-Use: main-Type: string-Default: compile-time configured-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This option changes the uid under which Exim runs when it gives up root
privilege. The default value is compiled into the binary. Ownership of the run
time configuration file and the use of the -C and -D command line options is
checked against the values in the binary, not what is set here.
Unless it consists entirely of digits, the string is looked up using getpwnam()
, and failure causes a configuration error. If exim_group is not also supplied,
the gid is taken from the result of getpwnam() if it is used. See chapter 52
for a discussion of security issues.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-extra_local_interfaces-Use: main-Type: string list-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This option defines network interfaces that are to be considered local when
routing, but which are not used for listening by the daemon. See section 13.8
for details.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-extract_addresses_remove_ arguments-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to some Sendmail documentation (Sun, IRIX, HP-UX), if any addresses
are present on the command line when the -t option is used to build an envelope
from a message's To:, Cc: and Bcc: headers, the command line addresses are
removed from the recipients list. This is also how Smail behaves. However,
other Sendmail documentation (the O'Reilly book) states that command line
addresses are added to those obtained from the header lines. When
extract_addresses_remove_arguments is true (the default), Exim subtracts
argument headers. If it is set false, Exim adds rather than removes argument
addresses.
-----------------------------------------------------
-finduser_retries-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 0-
-----------------------------------------------------
On systems running NIS or other schemes in which user and group information is
distributed from a remote system, there can be times when getpwnam() and
related functions fail, even when given valid data, because things time out.
Unfortunately these failures cannot be distinguished from genuine "not found"
errors. If finduser_retries is set greater than zero, Exim will try that many
extra times to find a user or a group, waiting for one second between retries.
You should not set this option greater than zero if your user information is in
a traditional /etc/passwd file, because it will cause Exim needlessly to search
the file multiple times for non-existent users, and also cause delay.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-freeze_tell-Use: main-Type: string list, comma separated-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
On encountering certain errors, or when configured to do so in a system filter,
ACL, or special router, Exim freezes a message. This means that no further
delivery attempts take place until an administrator thaws the message, or the
auto_thaw, ignore_bounce_errors_after, or timeout_frozen_after feature cause it
to be processed. If freeze_tell is set, Exim generates a warning message
whenever it freezes something, unless the message it is freezing is a
locally-generated bounce message. (Without this exception there is the
possibility of looping.) The warning message is sent to the addresses supplied
as the comma-separated value of this option. If several of the message's
addresses cause freezing, only a single message is sent. If the freezing was
automatic, the reason(s) for freezing can be found in the message log. If you
configure freezing in a filter or ACL, you must arrange for any logging that
you require.
---------------------------------------------------
-gecos_name-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------
Some operating systems, notably HP-UX, use the "gecos" field in the system
password file to hold other information in addition to users' real names. Exim
looks up this field for use when it is creating Sender: or From: headers. If
either gecos_pattern or gecos_name are unset, the contents of the field are
used unchanged, except that, if an ampersand is encountered, it is replaced by
the user's login name with the first character forced to upper case, since this
is a convention that is observed on many systems.
When these options are set, gecos_pattern is treated as a regular expression
that is to be applied to the field (again with & replaced by the login name),
and if it matches, gecos_name is expanded and used as the user's name.
Numeric variables such as $1, $2, etc. can be used in the expansion to pick up
sub-fields that were matched by the pattern. In HP-UX, where the user's name
terminates at the first comma, the following can be used:
gecos_pattern = ([^,]*)
gecos_name = $1
-----------------------------------------------------
-gecos_pattern-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------
See gecos_name above.
---------------------------------------------------------
-gnutls_require_kx-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------
This option controls the key exchange mechanisms when GnuTLS is used in an Exim
server. For details, see section 39.5.
----------------------------------------------------------
-gnutls_require_mac-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option controls the MAC algorithms when GnuTLS is used in an Exim server.
For details, see section 39.5.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-gnutls_require_protocols-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------------
This option controls the protocols when GnuTLS is used in an Exim server. For
details, see section 39.5.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-headers_charset-Use: main-Type: string-Default: see below-
-----------------------------------------------------------
This option sets a default character set for translating from encoded MIME
"words" in header lines, when referenced by an $h_xxx expansion item. The
default is the value of HEADERS_CHARSET in Local/Makefile. The ultimate default
is ISO-8859-1. For more details see the description of header insertions in
section 11.5.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-header_maxsize-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: see below-
-----------------------------------------------------------
This option controls the overall maximum size of a message's header section.
The default is the value of HEADER_MAXSIZE in Local/Makefile; the default for
that is 1M. Messages with larger header sections are rejected.
--------------------------------------------------------
-header_line_maxsize-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 0-
--------------------------------------------------------
This option limits the length of any individual header line in a message, after
all the continuations have been joined together. Messages with individual
header lines that are longer than the limit are rejected. The default value of
zero means "no limit".
------------------------------------------------------------------
-helo_accept_junk_hosts-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------------
Exim checks the syntax of HELO and EHLO commands for incoming SMTP mail, and
gives an error response for invalid data. Unfortunately, there are some SMTP
clients that send syntactic junk. They can be accommodated by setting this
option. Note that this is a syntax check only. See helo_verify_hosts if you
want to do semantic checking. See also helo_allow_chars for a way of extending
the permitted character set.
--------------------------------------------------------
-helo_allow_chars-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------
This option can be set to a string of rogue characters that are permitted in
all EHLO and HELO names in addition to the standard letters, digits, hyphens,
and dots. If you really must allow underscores, you can set
helo_allow_chars = _
Note that the value is one string, not a list.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-helo_lookup_domains-Use: main-Type: domain list*-Default: "@:@[]"-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
If the domain given by a client in a HELO or EHLO command matches this list, a
reverse lookup is done in order to establish the host's true name. The default
forces a lookup if the client host gives the server's name or any of its IP
addresses (in brackets), something that broken clients have been seen to do.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-helo_try_verify_hosts-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
By default, Exim just checks the syntax of HELO and EHLO commands (see
helo_accept_junk_hosts and helo_allow_chars). However, some sites like to do
more extensive checking of the data supplied by these commands. The ACL
condition "verify" "=" "helo" is provided to make this possible. Formerly, it
was necessary also to set this option (helo_try_verify_hosts) to force the
check to occur. From release 4.53 onwards, this is no longer necessary. If the
check has not been done before "verify" "=" "helo" is encountered, it is done
at that time. Consequently, this option is obsolete. Its specification is
retained here for backwards compatibility.
When an EHLO or HELO command is received, if the calling host matches
helo_try_verify_hosts, Exim checks that the host name given in the HELO or EHLO
command either:
* is an IP literal matching the calling address of the host, or
* matches the host name that Exim obtains by doing a reverse lookup of the
calling host address, or
* when looked up using gethostbyname() (or getipnodebyname() when available)
yields the calling host address.
However, the EHLO or HELO command is not rejected if any of the checks fail.
Processing continues, but the result of the check is remembered, and can be
detected later in an ACL by the "verify" "=" "helo" condition.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-helo_verify_hosts-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------
Like helo_try_verify_hosts, this option is obsolete, and retained only for
backwards compatibility. For hosts that match this option, Exim checks the host
name given in the HELO or EHLO in the same way as for helo_try_verify_hosts. If
the check fails, the HELO or EHLO command is rejected with a 550 error, and
entries are written to the main and reject logs. If a MAIL command is received
before EHLO or HELO, it is rejected with a 503 error.
----------------------------------------------------------
-hold_domains-Use: main-Type: domain list*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option allows mail for particular domains to be held on the queue
manually. The option is overridden if a message delivery is forced with the -M,
-qf, -Rf or -Sf options, and also while testing or verifying addresses using
-bt or -bv. Otherwise, if a domain matches an item in hold_domains, no routing
or delivery for that address is done, and it is deferred every time the message
is looked at.
This option is intended as a temporary operational measure for delaying the
delivery of mail while some problem is being sorted out, or some new
configuration tested. If you just want to delay the processing of some domains
until a queue run occurs, you should use queue_domains or queue_smtp_domains,
not hold_domains.
A setting of hold_domains does not override Exim's code for removing messages
from the queue if they have been there longer than the longest retry time in
any retry rule. If you want to hold messages for longer than the normal retry
times, insert a dummy retry rule with a long retry time.
-------------------------------------------------------
-host_lookup-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------
Exim does not look up the name of a calling host from its IP address unless it
is required to compare against some host list, or the host matches
helo_try_verify_hosts or helo_verify_hosts, or the host matches this option
(which normally contains IP addresses rather than host names). The default
configuration file contains
host_lookup = *
which causes a lookup to happen for all hosts. If the expense of these lookups
is felt to be too great, the setting can be changed or removed.
After a successful reverse lookup, Exim does a forward lookup on the name it
has obtained, to verify that it yields the IP address that it started with. If
this check fails, Exim behaves as if the name lookup failed.
After any kind of failure, the host name (in $sender_host_name) remains unset,
and $host_lookup_failed is set to the string "1". See also
dns_again_means_nonexist, helo_lookup_domains, and "verify" "="
"reverse_host_lookup" in ACLs.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-host_lookup_order-Use: main-Type: string list-Default: "bydns:byaddr"-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the order of different lookup methods when Exim is trying
to find a host name from an IP address. The default is to do a DNS lookup
first, and then to try a local lookup (using gethostbyaddr() or equivalent) if
that fails. You can change the order of these lookups, or omit one entirely, if
you want.
Warning: The "byaddr" method does not always yield aliases when there are
multiple PTR records in the DNS and the IP address is not listed in /etc/hosts.
Different operating systems give different results in this case. That is why
the default tries a DNS lookup first.
------------------------------------------------------------------
-host_reject_connection-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, incoming SMTP calls from the hosts listed are rejected
as soon as the connection is made. This option is obsolete, and retained only
for backward compatibility, because nowadays the ACL specified by
acl_smtp_connect can also reject incoming connections immediately.
The ability to give an immediate rejection (either by this option or using an
ACL) is provided for use in unusual cases. Many hosts will just try again,
sometimes without much delay. Normally, it is better to use an ACL to reject
incoming messages at a later stage, such as after RCPT commands. See chapter 40
.
------------------------------------------------------------------
-hosts_connection_nolog-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------------
This option defines a list of hosts for which connection logging does not
happen, even though the smtp_connection log selector is set. For example, you
might want not to log SMTP connections from local processes, or from 127.0.0.1,
or from your local LAN. This option is consulted in the main loop of the
daemon; you should therefore strive to restrict its value to a short inline
list of IP addresses and networks. To disable logging SMTP connections from
local processes, you must create a host list with an empty item. For example:
hosts_connection_nolog = :
If the smtp_connection log selector is not set, this option has no effect.
------------------------------------------------------------------
-hosts_treat_as_local-Use: main-Type: domain list*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, any host names that match the domain list are treated as
if they were the local host when Exim is scanning host lists obtained from MX
records or other sources. Note that the value of this option is a domain list,
not a host list, because it is always used to check host names, not IP
addresses.
This option also applies when Exim is matching the special items "@mx_any",
"@mx_primary", and "@mx_secondary" in a domain list (see section 10.8), and
when checking the hosts option in the smtp transport for the local host (see
the allow_localhost option in that transport). See also local_interfaces,
extra_local_interfaces, and chapter 13, which contains a discussion about local
network interfaces and recognizing the local host.
----------------------------------------------------------
-ibase_servers-Use: main-Type: string list-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option provides a list of InterBase servers and associated connection
data, to be used in conjunction with ibase lookups (see section 9.21). The
option is available only if Exim has been built with InterBase support.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-ignore_bounce_errors_after-Use: main-Type: time-Default: 10w-
--------------------------------------------------------------
This option affects the processing of bounce messages that cannot be delivered,
that is, those that suffer a permanent delivery failure. (Bounce messages that
suffer temporary delivery failures are of course retried in the usual way.)
After a permanent delivery failure, bounce messages are frozen, because there
is no sender to whom they can be returned. When a frozen bounce message has
been on the queue for more than the given time, it is unfrozen at the next
queue run, and a further delivery is attempted. If delivery fails again, the
bounce message is discarded. This makes it possible to keep failed bounce
messages around for a shorter time than the normal maximum retry time for
frozen messages. For example,
ignore_bounce_errors_after = 12h
retries failed bounce message deliveries after 12 hours, discarding any further
failures. If the value of this option is set to a zero time period, bounce
failures are discarded immediately. Setting a very long time (as in the default
value) has the effect of disabling this option. For ways of automatically
dealing with other kinds of frozen message, see auto_thaw and
timeout_frozen_after.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-ignore_fromline_hosts-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Some broken SMTP clients insist on sending a UUCP-like "From " line before the
headers of a message. By default this is treated as the start of the message's
body, which means that any following headers are not recognized as such. Exim
can be made to ignore it by setting ignore_fromline_hosts to match those hosts
that insist on sending it. If the sender is actually a local process rather
than a remote host, and is using -bs to inject the messages,
ignore_fromline_local must be set to achieve this effect.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-ignore_fromline_local-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------------
See ignore_fromline_hosts above.
-------------------------------------------------
-keep_malformed-Use: main-Type: time-Default: 4d-
-------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the length of time to keep messages whose spool files
have been corrupted in some way. This should, of course, never happen. At the
next attempt to deliver such a message, it gets removed. The incident is
logged.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-ldap_default_servers-Use: main-Type: string list-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This option provides a list of LDAP servers which are tried in turn when an
LDAP query does not contain a server. See section 9.14 for details of LDAP
queries. This option is available only when Exim has been built with LDAP
support.
-----------------------------------------------------
-ldap_version-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------
This option can be used to force Exim to set a specific protocol version for
LDAP. If it option is unset, it is shown by the -bP command line option as -1.
When this is the case, the default is 3 if LDAP_VERSION3 is defined in the LDAP
headers; otherwise it is 2. This option is available only when Exim has been
built with LDAP support.
--------------------------------------------------------
-local_from_check-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
--------------------------------------------------------
When a message is submitted locally (that is, not over a TCP/IP connection) by
an untrusted user, Exim removes any existing Sender: header line, and checks
that the From: header line matches the login of the calling user and the domain
specified by qualify_domain.
Note: An unqualified address (no domain) in the From: header in a locally
submitted message is automatically qualified by Exim, unless the -bnq command
line option is used.
You can use local_from_prefix and local_from_suffix to permit affixes on the
local part. If the From: header line does not match, Exim adds a Sender: header
with an address constructed from the calling user's login and the default
qualify domain.
If local_from_check is set false, the From: header check is disabled, and no
Sender: header is ever added. If, in addition, you want to retain Sender:
header lines supplied by untrusted users, you must also set local_sender_retain
to be true.
These options affect only the header lines in the message. The envelope sender
is still forced to be the login id at the qualify domain unless
untrusted_set_sender permits the user to supply an envelope sender.
For messages received over TCP/IP, an ACL can specify "submission mode" to
request similar header line checking. See section 44.16, which has more details
about Sender: processing.
---------------------------------------------------------
-local_from_prefix-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------
When Exim checks the From: header line of locally submitted messages for
matching the login id (see local_from_check above), it can be configured to
ignore certain prefixes and suffixes in the local part of the address. This is
done by setting local_from_prefix and/or local_from_suffix to appropriate
lists, in the same form as the local_part_prefix and local_part_suffix router
options (see chapter 15). For example, if
local_from_prefix = *-
is set, a From: line containing
From: anything-user@your.domain.example
will not cause a Sender: header to be added if user@your.domain.example matches
the actual sender address that is constructed from the login name and qualify
domain.
---------------------------------------------------------
-local_from_suffix-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------
See local_from_prefix above.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-local_interfaces-Use: main-Type: string list-Default: see below-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This option controls which network interfaces are used by the daemon for
listening; they are also used to identify the local host when routing. Chapter
13 contains a full description of this option and the related options
daemon_smtp_ports, extra_local_interfaces, hosts_treat_as_local, and
tls_on_connect_ports. The default value for local_interfaces is
local_interfaces = 0.0.0.0
when Exim is built without IPv6 support; otherwise it is
local_interfaces = <; ::0 ; 0.0.0.0
-----------------------------------------------------
-local_scan_timeout-Use: main-Type: time-Default: 5m-
-----------------------------------------------------
This timeout applies to the local_scan() function (see chapter 42). Zero means
"no timeout". If the timeout is exceeded, the incoming message is rejected with
a temporary error if it is an SMTP message. For a non-SMTP message, the message
is dropped and Exim ends with a non-zero code. The incident is logged on the
main and reject logs.
------------------------------------------------------------
-local_sender_retain-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
------------------------------------------------------------
When a message is submitted locally (that is, not over a TCP/IP connection) by
an untrusted user, Exim removes any existing Sender: header line. If you do not
want this to happen, you must set local_sender_retain, and you must also set
local_from_check to be false (Exim will complain if you do not). See also the
ACL modifier "control = suppress_local_fixups". Section 44.16 has more details
about Sender: processing.
---------------------------------------------------------
-localhost_number-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------
Exim's message ids are normally unique only within the local host. If
uniqueness among a set of hosts is required, each host must set a different
value for the localhost_number option. The string is expanded immediately after
reading the configuration file (so that a number can be computed from the host
name, for example) and the result of the expansion must be a number in the
range 0-16 (or 0-10 on operating systems with case-insensitive file systems).
This is available in subsequent string expansions via the variable
$localhost_number. When localhost_number is set, the final two characters of
the message id, instead of just being a fractional part of the time, are
computed from the time and the local host number as described in section 3.4.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-log_file_path-Use: main-Type: string list*-Default: set at compile time-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This option sets the path which is used to determine the names of Exim's log
files, or indicates that logging is to be to syslog, or both. It is expanded
when Exim is entered, so it can, for example, contain a reference to the host
name. If no specific path is set for the log files at compile or run time, they
are written in a sub-directory called log in Exim's spool directory. Chapter 49
contains further details about Exim's logging, and section 49.1 describes how
the contents of log_file_path are used. If this string is fixed at your
installation (contains no expansion variables) it is recommended that you do
not set this option in the configuration file, but instead supply the path
using LOG_FILE_PATH in Local/Makefile so that it is available to Exim for
logging errors detected early on - in particular, failure to read the
configuration file.
----------------------------------------------------
-log_selector-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------
This option can be used to reduce or increase the number of things that Exim
writes to its log files. Its argument is made up of names preceded by plus or
minus characters. For example:
log_selector = +arguments -retry_defer
A list of possible names and what they control is given in the chapter on
logging, in section 49.15.
-----------------------------------------------------
-log_timezone-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------
By default, the timestamps on log lines are in local time without the timezone.
This means that if your timezone changes twice a year, the timestamps in log
lines are ambiguous for an hour when the clocks go back. One way of avoiding
this problem is to set the timezone to UTC. An alternative is to set
log_timezone true. This turns on the addition of the timezone offset to
timestamps in log lines. Turning on this option can add quite a lot to the size
of log files because each line is extended by 6 characters. Note that the
$tod_log variable contains the log timestamp without the zone, but there is
another variable called $tod_zone that contains just the timezone offset.
-----------------------------------------------------
-lookup_open_max-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 25-
-----------------------------------------------------
This option limits the number of simultaneously open files for single-key
lookups that use regular files (that is, lsearch, dbm, and cdb). Exim normally
keeps these files open during routing, because often the same file is required
several times. If the limit is reached, Exim closes the least recently used
file. Note that if you are using the ndbm library, it actually opens two files
for each logical DBM database, though it still counts as one for the purposes
of lookup_open_max. If you are getting "too many open files" errors with NDBM,
you need to reduce the value of lookup_open_max.
--------------------------------------------------------
-max_username_length-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 0-
--------------------------------------------------------
Some operating systems are broken in that they truncate long arguments to
getpwnam() to eight characters, instead of returning "no such user". If this
option is set greater than zero, any attempt to call getpwnam() with an
argument that is longer behaves as if getpwnam() failed.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-message_body_newlines-Use: main-Type: bool-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------
By default, newlines in the message body are replaced by spaces when setting
the $message_body and $message_body_end expansion variables. If this option is
set true, this no longer happens.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-message_body_visible-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 500-
-----------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies how much of a message's body is to be included in the
$message_body and $message_body_end expansion variables.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-message_id_header_domain-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, the string is expanded and used as the right hand side
(domain) of the Message-ID: header that Exim creates if a locally-originated
incoming message does not have one. "Locally-originated" means "not received
over TCP/IP." Otherwise, the primary host name is used. Only letters, digits,
dot and hyphen are accepted; any other characters are replaced by hyphens. If
the expansion is forced to fail, or if the result is an empty string, the
option is ignored.
---------------------------------------------------------------
-message_id_header_text-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------------
If this variable is set, the string is expanded and used to augment the text of
the Message-id: header that Exim creates if a locally-originated incoming
message does not have one. The text of this header is required by RFC 2822 to
take the form of an address. By default, Exim uses its internal message id as
the local part, and the primary host name as the domain. If this option is set,
it is expanded, and provided the expansion is not forced to fail, and does not
yield an empty string, the result is inserted into the header immediately
before the @, separated from the internal message id by a dot. Any characters
that are illegal in an address are automatically converted into hyphens. This
means that variables such as $tod_log can be used, because the spaces and
colons will become hyphens.
----------------------------------------------------
-message_logs-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
----------------------------------------------------
If this option is turned off, per-message log files are not created in the
msglog spool sub-directory. This reduces the amount of disk I/O required by
Exim, by reducing the number of files involved in handling a message from a
minimum of four (header spool file, body spool file, delivery journal, and
per-message log) to three. The other major I/O activity is Exim's main log,
which is not affected by this option.
---------------------------------------------------------
-message_size_limit-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: 50M-
---------------------------------------------------------
This option limits the maximum size of message that Exim will process. The
value is expanded for each incoming connection so, for example, it can be made
to depend on the IP address of the remote host for messages arriving via TCP/
IP. After expansion, the value must be a sequence of decimal digits, optionally
followed by K or M.
Note: This limit cannot be made to depend on a message's sender or any other
properties of an individual message, because it has to be advertised in the
server's response to EHLO. String expansion failure causes a temporary error. A
value of zero means no limit, but its use is not recommended. See also
bounce_return_size_limit.
Incoming SMTP messages are failed with a 552 error if the limit is exceeded;
locally-generated messages either get a stderr message or a delivery failure
message to the sender, depending on the -oe setting. Rejection of an oversized
message is logged in both the main and the reject logs. See also the generic
transport option message_size_limit, which limits the size of message that an
individual transport can process.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-move_frozen_messages-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-------------------------------------------------------------
This option, which is available only if Exim has been built with the setting
SUPPORT_MOVE_FROZEN_MESSAGES=yes
in Local/Makefile, causes frozen messages and their message logs to be moved
from the input and msglog directories on the spool to Finput and Fmsglog,
respectively. There is currently no support in Exim or the standard utilities
for handling such moved messages, and they do not show up in lists generated by
-bp or by the Exim monitor.
----------------------------------------------------
-mua_wrapper-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
----------------------------------------------------
Setting this option true causes Exim to run in a very restrictive mode in which
it passes messages synchronously to a smart host. Chapter 48 contains a full
description of this facility.
----------------------------------------------------------
-mysql_servers-Use: main-Type: string list-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option provides a list of MySQL servers and associated connection data, to
be used in conjunction with mysql lookups (see section 9.21). The option is
available only if Exim has been built with MySQL support.
---------------------------------------------------------
-never_users-Use: main-Type: string list*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------
This option is expanded just once, at the start of Exim's processing. Local
message deliveries are normally run in processes that are setuid to the
recipient, and remote deliveries are normally run under Exim's own uid and gid.
It is usually desirable to prevent any deliveries from running as root, as a
safety precaution.
When Exim is built, an option called FIXED_NEVER_USERS can be set to a list of
users that must not be used for local deliveries. This list is fixed in the
binary and cannot be overridden by the configuration file. By default, it
contains just the single user name "root". The never_users runtime option can
be used to add more users to the fixed list.
If a message is to be delivered as one of the users on the fixed list or the
never_users list, an error occurs, and delivery is deferred. A common example
is
never_users = root:daemon:bin
Including root is redundant if it is also on the fixed list, but it does no
harm. This option overrides the pipe_as_creator option of the pipe transport
driver.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-oracle_servers-Use: main-Type: string list-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------
This option provides a list of Oracle servers and associated connection data,
to be used in conjunction with oracle lookups (see section 9.21). The option is
available only if Exim has been built with Oracle support.
------------------------------------------------------------------
-percent_hack_domains-Use: main-Type: domain list*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------------
The "percent hack" is the convention whereby a local part containing a percent
sign is re-interpreted as a new email address, with the percent replaced by @.
This is sometimes called "source routing", though that term is also applied to
RFC 2822 addresses that begin with an @ character. If this option is set, Exim
implements the percent facility for those domains listed, but no others. This
happens before an incoming SMTP address is tested against an ACL.
Warning: The "percent hack" has often been abused by people who are trying to
get round relaying restrictions. For this reason, it is best avoided if at all
possible. Unfortunately, a number of less security-conscious MTAs implement it
unconditionally. If you are running Exim on a gateway host, and routing mail
through to internal MTAs without processing the local parts, it is a good idea
to reject recipient addresses with percent characters in their local parts.
Exim's default configuration does this.
------------------------------------------------------
-perl_at_start-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
------------------------------------------------------
This option is available only when Exim is built with an embedded Perl
interpreter. See chapter 12 for details of its use.
----------------------------------------------------
-perl_startup-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------
This option is available only when Exim is built with an embedded Perl
interpreter. See chapter 12 for details of its use.
----------------------------------------------------------
-pgsql_servers-Use: main-Type: string list-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option provides a list of PostgreSQL servers and associated connection
data, to be used in conjunction with pgsql lookups (see section 9.21). The
option is available only if Exim has been built with PostgreSQL support.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
-pid_file_path-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: set at compile time-
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This option sets the name of the file to which the Exim daemon writes its
process id. The string is expanded, so it can contain, for example, references
to the host name:
pid_file_path = /var/log/$primary_hostname/exim.pid
If no path is set, the pid is written to the file exim-daemon.pid in Exim's
spool directory. The value set by the option can be overridden by the -oP
command line option. A pid file is not written if a "non-standard" daemon is
run by means of the -oX option, unless a path is explicitly supplied by -oP.
------------------------------------------------------------------
-pipelining_advertise_hosts-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: *-
------------------------------------------------------------------
This option can be used to suppress the advertisement of the SMTP PIPELINING
extension to specific hosts. See also the no_pipelining control in section
40.20. When PIPELINING is not advertised and smtp_enforce_sync is true, an Exim
server enforces strict synchronization for each SMTP command and response. When
PIPELINING is advertised, Exim assumes that clients will use it; "out of order"
commands that are "expected" do not count as protocol errors (see
smtp_max_synprot_errors).
--------------------------------------------------------------
-preserve_message_logs-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, message log files are not deleted when messages are
completed. Instead, they are moved to a sub-directory of the spool directory
called msglog.OLD, where they remain available for statistical or debugging
purposes. This is a dangerous option to set on systems with any appreciable
volume of mail. Use with care!
------------------------------------------------------------
-primary_hostname-Use: main-Type: string-Default: see below-
------------------------------------------------------------
This specifies the name of the current host. It is used in the default EHLO or
HELO command for outgoing SMTP messages (changeable via the helo_data option in
the smtp transport), and as the default for qualify_domain. The value is also
used by default in some SMTP response messages from an Exim server. This can be
changed dynamically by setting smtp_active_hostname.
If primary_hostname is not set, Exim calls uname() to find the host name. If
this fails, Exim panics and dies. If the name returned by uname() contains only
one component, Exim passes it to gethostbyname() (or getipnodebyname() when
available) in order to obtain the fully qualified version. The variable
$primary_hostname contains the host name, whether set explicitly by this
option, or defaulted.
----------------------------------------------------------
-print_topbitchars-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
----------------------------------------------------------
By default, Exim considers only those characters whose codes lie in the range
32-126 to be printing characters. In a number of circumstances (for example,
when writing log entries) non-printing characters are converted into escape
sequences, primarily to avoid messing up the layout. If print_topbitchars is
set, code values of 128 and above are also considered to be printing
characters.
This option also affects the header syntax checks performed by the autoreply
transport, and whether Exim uses RFC 2047 encoding of the user's full name when
constructing From: and Sender: addresses (as described in section 44.18).
Setting this option can cause Exim to generate eight bit message headers that
do not conform to the standards.
--------------------------------------------------------
-process_log_path-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------
This option sets the name of the file to which an Exim process writes its
"process log" when sent a USR1 signal. This is used by the exiwhat utility
script. If this option is unset, the file called exim-process.info in Exim's
spool directory is used. The ability to specify the name explicitly can be
useful in environments where two different Exims are running, using different
spool directories.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-prod_requires_admin-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
-----------------------------------------------------------
The -M, -R, and -q command-line options require the caller to be an admin user
unless prod_requires_admin is set false. See also queue_list_requires_admin.
----------------------------------------------------------
-qualify_domain-Use: main-Type: string-Default: see below-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the domain name that is added to any envelope sender
addresses that do not have a domain qualification. It also applies to recipient
addresses if qualify_recipient is not set. Unqualified addresses are accepted
by default only for locally-generated messages. Qualification is also applied
to addresses in header lines such as From: and To: for locally-generated
messages, unless the -bnq command line option is used.
Messages from external sources must always contain fully qualified addresses,
unless the sending host matches sender_unqualified_hosts or
recipient_unqualified_hosts (as appropriate), in which case incoming addresses
are qualified with qualify_domain or qualify_recipient as necessary.
Internally, Exim always works with fully qualified envelope addresses. If
qualify_domain is not set, it defaults to the primary_hostname value.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-qualify_recipient-Use: main-Type: string-Default: see below-
-------------------------------------------------------------
This option allows you to specify a different domain for qualifying recipient
addresses to the one that is used for senders. See qualify_domain above.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-queue_domains-Use: main-Type: domain list*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------
This option lists domains for which immediate delivery is not required. A
delivery process is started whenever a message is received, but only those
domains that do not match are processed. All other deliveries wait until the
next queue run. See also hold_domains and queue_smtp_domains.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-queue_list_requires_admin-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The -bp command-line option, which lists the messages that are on the queue,
requires the caller to be an admin user unless queue_list_requires_admin is set
false. See also prod_requires_admin.
---------------------------------------------------
-queue_only-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------
If queue_only is set, a delivery process is not automatically started whenever
a message is received. Instead, the message waits on the queue for the next
queue run. Even if queue_only is false, incoming messages may not get delivered
immediately when certain conditions (such as heavy load) occur.
The -odq command line has the same effect as queue_only. The -odb and -odi
command line options override queue_only unless queue_only_override is set
false. See also queue_only_file, queue_only_load, and smtp_accept_queue.
-------------------------------------------------------
-queue_only_file-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------
This option can be set to a colon-separated list of absolute path names, each
one optionally preceded by "smtp". When Exim is receiving a message, it tests
for the existence of each listed path using a call to stat(). For each path
that exists, the corresponding queueing option is set. For paths with no
prefix, queue_only is set; for paths prefixed by "smtp", queue_smtp_domains is
set to match all domains. So, for example,
queue_only_file = smtp/some/file
causes Exim to behave as if queue_smtp_domains were set to "*" whenever /some/
file exists.
------------------------------------------------------------
-queue_only_load-Use: main-Type: fixed-point-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------
If the system load average is higher than this value, incoming messages from
all sources are queued, and no automatic deliveries are started. If this
happens during local or remote SMTP input, all subsequent messages received on
the same SMTP connection are queued by default, whatever happens to the load in
the meantime, but this can be changed by setting queue_only_load_latch false.
Deliveries will subsequently be performed by queue runner processes. This
option has no effect on ancient operating systems on which Exim cannot
determine the load average. See also deliver_queue_load_max and
smtp_load_reserve.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-queue_only_load_latch-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
-------------------------------------------------------------
When this option is true (the default), once one message has been queued
because the load average is higher than the value set by queue_only_load, all
subsequent messages received on the same SMTP connection are also queued. This
is a deliberate choice; even though the load average may fall below the
threshold, it doesn't seem right to deliver later messages on the same
connection when not delivering earlier ones. However, there are special
circumstances such as very long-lived connections from scanning appliances
where this is not the best strategy. In such cases, queue_only_load_latch
should be set false. This causes the value of the load average to be
re-evaluated for each message.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-queue_only_override-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
-----------------------------------------------------------
When this option is true, the -odx command line options override the setting of
queue_only or queue_only_file in the configuration file. If queue_only_override
is set false, the -odx options cannot be used to override; they are accepted,
but ignored.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-queue_run_in_order-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, queue runs happen in order of message arrival instead of
in an arbitrary order. For this to happen, a complete list of the entire queue
must be set up before the deliveries start. When the queue is all held in a
single directory (the default), a single list is created for both the ordered
and the non-ordered cases. However, if split_spool_directory is set, a single
list is not created when queue_run_in_order is false. In this case, the
sub-directories are processed one at a time (in a random order), and this
avoids setting up one huge list for the whole queue. Thus, setting
queue_run_in_order with split_spool_directory may degrade performance when the
queue is large, because of the extra work in setting up the single, large list.
In most situations, queue_run_in_order should not be set.
--------------------------------------------------
-queue_run_max-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 5-
--------------------------------------------------
This controls the maximum number of queue runner processes that an Exim daemon
can run simultaneously. This does not mean that it starts them all at once, but
rather that if the maximum number are still running when the time comes to
start another one, it refrains from starting another one. This can happen with
very large queues and/or very sluggish deliveries. This option does not,
however, interlock with other processes, so additional queue runners can be
started by other means, or by killing and restarting the daemon.
Setting this option to zero does not suppress queue runs; rather, it disables
the limit, allowing any number of simultaneous queue runner processes to be
run. If you do not want queue runs to occur, omit the -qxx setting on the
daemon's command line.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-queue_smtp_domains-Use: main-Type: domain list*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------------
When this option is set, a delivery process is started whenever a message is
received, routing is performed, and local deliveries take place. However, if
any SMTP deliveries are required for domains that match queue_smtp_domains,
they are not immediately delivered, but instead the message waits on the queue
for the next queue run. Since routing of the message has taken place, Exim
knows to which remote hosts it must be delivered, and so when the queue run
happens, multiple messages for the same host are delivered over a single SMTP
connection. The -odqs command line option causes all SMTP deliveries to be
queued in this way, and is equivalent to setting queue_smtp_domains to "*". See
also hold_domains and queue_domains.
--------------------------------------------------
-receive_timeout-Use: main-Type: time-Default: 0s-
--------------------------------------------------
This option sets the timeout for accepting a non-SMTP message, that is, the
maximum time that Exim waits when reading a message on the standard input. If
the value is zero, it will wait for ever. This setting is overridden by the -or
command line option. The timeout for incoming SMTP messages is controlled by
smtp_receive_timeout.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-received_header_text-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: see below-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This string defines the contents of the Received: message header that is added
to each message, except for the timestamp, which is automatically added on at
the end (preceded by a semicolon). The string is expanded each time it is used.
If the expansion yields an empty string, no Received: header line is added to
the message. Otherwise, the string should start with the text "Received:" and
conform to the RFC 2822 specification for Received: header lines. The default
setting is:
received_header_text = Received: \
${if def:sender_rcvhost {from $sender_rcvhost\n\t}\
{${if def:sender_ident \
{from ${quote_local_part:$sender_ident} }}\
${if def:sender_helo_name {(helo=$sender_helo_name)\n\t}}}}\
by $primary_hostname \
${if def:received_protocol {with $received_protocol}} \
${if def:tls_cipher {($tls_cipher)\n\t}}\
(Exim $version_number)\n\t\
${if def:sender_address \
{(envelope-from <$sender_address>)\n\t}}\
id $message_exim_id\
${if def:received_for {\n\tfor $received_for}}
The reference to the TLS cipher is omitted when Exim is built without TLS
support. The use of conditional expansions ensures that this works for both
locally generated messages and messages received from remote hosts, giving
header lines such as the following:
Received: from scrooge.carol.example ([192.168.12.25] ident=root)
by marley.carol.example with esmtp (Exim 4.00)
(envelope-from <bob@carol.example>)
id 16IOWa-00019l-00
for chas@dickens.example; Tue, 25 Dec 2001 14:43:44 +0000
Received: by scrooge.carol.example with local (Exim 4.00)
id 16IOWW-000083-00; Tue, 25 Dec 2001 14:43:41 +0000
Until the body of the message has been received, the timestamp is the time when
the message started to be received. Once the body has arrived, and all policy
checks have taken place, the timestamp is updated to the time at which the
message was accepted.
----------------------------------------------------------
-received_headers_max-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 30-
----------------------------------------------------------
When a message is to be delivered, the number of Received: headers is counted,
and if it is greater than this parameter, a mail loop is assumed to have
occurred, the delivery is abandoned, and an error message is generated. This
applies to both local and remote deliveries.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-recipient_unqualified_hosts-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This option lists those hosts from which Exim is prepared to accept unqualified
recipient addresses in message envelopes. The addresses are made fully
qualified by the addition of the qualify_recipient value. This option also
affects message header lines. Exim does not reject unqualified recipient
addresses in headers, but it qualifies them only if the message came from a
host that matches recipient_unqualified_hosts, or if the message was submitted
locally (not using TCP/IP), and the -bnq option was not set.
---------------------------------------------------
-recipients_max-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 0-
---------------------------------------------------
If this option is set greater than zero, it specifies the maximum number of
original recipients for any message. Additional recipients that are generated
by aliasing or forwarding do not count. SMTP messages get a 452 response for
all recipients over the limit; earlier recipients are delivered as normal.
Non-SMTP messages with too many recipients are failed, and no deliveries are
done.
Note: The RFCs specify that an SMTP server should accept at least 100 RCPT
commands in a single message.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-recipients_max_reject-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set true, Exim rejects SMTP messages containing too many
recipients by giving 552 errors to the surplus RCPT commands, and a 554 error
to the eventual DATA command. Otherwise (the default) it gives a 452 error to
the surplus RCPT commands and accepts the message on behalf of the initial set
of recipients. The remote server should then re-send the message for the
remaining recipients at a later time.
--------------------------------------------------------
-remote_max_parallel-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 2-
--------------------------------------------------------
This option controls parallel delivery of one message to a number of remote
hosts. If the value is less than 2, parallel delivery is disabled, and Exim
does all the remote deliveries for a message one by one. Otherwise, if a single
message has to be delivered to more than one remote host, or if several copies
have to be sent to the same remote host, up to remote_max_parallel deliveries
are done simultaneously. If more than remote_max_parallel deliveries are
required, the maximum number of processes are started, and as each one
finishes, another is begun. The order of starting processes is the same as if
sequential delivery were being done, and can be controlled by the
remote_sort_domains option. If parallel delivery takes place while running with
debugging turned on, the debugging output from each delivery process is tagged
with its process id.
This option controls only the maximum number of parallel deliveries for one
message in one Exim delivery process. Because Exim has no central queue
manager, there is no way of controlling the total number of simultaneous
deliveries if the configuration allows a delivery attempt as soon as a message
is received.
If you want to control the total number of deliveries on the system, you need
to set the queue_only option. This ensures that all incoming messages are added
to the queue without starting a delivery process. Then set up an Exim daemon to
start queue runner processes at appropriate intervals (probably fairly often,
for example, every minute), and limit the total number of queue runners by
setting the queue_run_max parameter. Because each queue runner delivers only
one message at a time, the maximum number of deliveries that can then take
place at once is queue_run_max multiplied by remote_max_parallel.
If it is purely remote deliveries you want to control, use queue_smtp_domains
instead of queue_only. This has the added benefit of doing the SMTP routing
before queueing, so that several messages for the same host will eventually get
delivered down the same connection.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-remote_sort_domains-Use: main-Type: domain list*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
When there are a number of remote deliveries for a message, they are sorted by
domain into the order given by this list. For example,
remote_sort_domains = *.cam.ac.uk:*.uk
would attempt to deliver to all addresses in the cam.ac.uk domain first, then
to those in the uk domain, then to any others.
----------------------------------------------------
-retry_data_expire-Use: main-Type: time-Default: 7d-
----------------------------------------------------
This option sets a "use before" time on retry information in Exim's hints
database. Any older retry data is ignored. This means that, for example, once a
host has not been tried for 7 days, Exim behaves as if it has no knowledge of
past failures.
------------------------------------------------------
-retry_interval_max-Use: main-Type: time-Default: 24h-
------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 32 describes Exim's mechanisms for controlling the intervals between
delivery attempts for messages that cannot be delivered straight away. This
option sets an overall limit to the length of time between retries. It cannot
be set greater than 24 hours; any attempt to do so forces the default value.
----------------------------------------------------------
-return_path_remove-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
----------------------------------------------------------
RFC 2821, section 4.4, states that an SMTP server must insert a Return-path:
header line into a message when it makes a "final delivery". The Return-path:
header preserves the sender address as received in the MAIL command. This
description implies that this header should not be present in an incoming
message. If return_path_remove is true, any existing Return-path: headers are
removed from messages at the time they are received. Exim's transports have
options for adding Return-path: headers at the time of delivery. They are
normally used only for final local deliveries.
---------------------------------------------------------
-return_size_limit-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 100K-
---------------------------------------------------------
This option is an obsolete synonym for bounce_return_size_limit.
-----------------------------------------------------
-rfc1413_hosts-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: *-
-----------------------------------------------------
RFC 1413 identification calls are made to any client host which matches an item
in the list.
--------------------------------------------------------
-rfc1413_query_timeout-Use: main-Type: time-Default: 5s-
--------------------------------------------------------
This sets the timeout on RFC 1413 identification calls. If it is set to zero,
no RFC 1413 calls are ever made.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
-sender_unqualified_hosts-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This option lists those hosts from which Exim is prepared to accept unqualified
sender addresses. The addresses are made fully qualified by the addition of
qualify_domain. This option also affects message header lines. Exim does not
reject unqualified addresses in headers that contain sender addresses, but it
qualifies them only if the message came from a host that matches
sender_unqualified_hosts, or if the message was submitted locally (not using
TCP/IP), and the -bnq option was not set.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_accept_keepalive-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
-------------------------------------------------------------
This option controls the setting of the SO_KEEPALIVE option on incoming TCP/IP
socket connections. When set, it causes the kernel to probe idle connections
periodically, by sending packets with "old" sequence numbers. The other end of
the connection should send an acknowledgment if the connection is still okay or
a reset if the connection has been aborted. The reason for doing this is that
it has the beneficial effect of freeing up certain types of connection that can
get stuck when the remote host is disconnected without tidying up the TCP/IP
call properly. The keepalive mechanism takes several hours to detect
unreachable hosts.
-----------------------------------------------------
-smtp_accept_max-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 20-
-----------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the maximum number of simultaneous incoming SMTP calls
that Exim will accept. It applies only to the listening daemon; there is no
control (in Exim) when incoming SMTP is being handled by inetd. If the value is
set to zero, no limit is applied. However, it is required to be non-zero if
either smtp_accept_max_per_host or smtp_accept_queue is set. See also
smtp_accept_reserve and smtp_load_reserve.
A new SMTP connection is immediately rejected if the smtp_accept_max limit has
been reached. If not, Exim first checks smtp_accept_max_per_host. If that limit
has not been reached for the client host, smtp_accept_reserve and
smtp_load_reserve are then checked before accepting the connection.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_accept_max_nonmail-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 10-
-------------------------------------------------------------
Exim counts the number of "non-mail" commands in an SMTP session, and drops the
connection if there are too many. This option defines "too many". The check
catches some denial-of-service attacks, repeated failing AUTHs, or a mad client
looping sending EHLO, for example. The check is applied only if the client host
matches smtp_accept_max_nonmail_hosts.
When a new message is expected, one occurrence of RSET is not counted. This
allows a client to send one RSET between messages (this is not necessary, but
some clients do it). Exim also allows one uncounted occurrence of HELO or EHLO,
and one occurrence of STARTTLS between messages. After starting up a TLS
session, another EHLO is expected, and so it too is not counted. The first
occurrence of AUTH in a connection, or immediately following STARTTLS is not
counted. Otherwise, all commands other than MAIL, RCPT, DATA, and QUIT are
counted.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_accept_max_nonmail_hosts-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: *-
---------------------------------------------------------------------
You can control which hosts are subject to the smtp_accept_max_nonmail check by
setting this option. The default value makes it apply to all hosts. By changing
the value, you can exclude any badly-behaved hosts that you have to live with.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_accept_max_per_ connection-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 1000-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The value of this option limits the number of MAIL commands that Exim is
prepared to accept over a single SMTP connection, whether or not each command
results in the transfer of a message. After the limit is reached, a 421
response is given to subsequent MAIL commands. This limit is a safety
precaution against a client that goes mad (incidents of this type have been
seen).
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_accept_max_per_host-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This option restricts the number of simultaneous IP connections from a single
host (strictly, from a single IP address) to the Exim daemon. The option is
expanded, to enable different limits to be applied to different hosts by
reference to $sender_host_address. Once the limit is reached, additional
connection attempts from the same host are rejected with error code 421. This
is entirely independent of smtp_accept_reserve. The option's default value of
zero imposes no limit. If this option is set greater than zero, it is required
that smtp_accept_max be non-zero.
Warning: When setting this option you should not use any expansion
constructions that take an appreciable amount of time. The expansion and test
happen in the main daemon loop, in order to reject additional connections
without forking additional processes (otherwise a denial-of-service attack
could cause a vast number or processes to be created). While the daemon is
doing this processing, it cannot accept any other incoming connections.
------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_accept_queue-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 0-
------------------------------------------------------
If the number of simultaneous incoming SMTP connections being handled via the
listening daemon exceeds this value, messages received by SMTP are just placed
on the queue; no delivery processes are started automatically. The count is
fixed at the start of an SMTP connection. It cannot be updated in the
subprocess that receives messages, and so the queueing or not queueing applies
to all messages received in the same connection.
A value of zero implies no limit, and clearly any non-zero value is useful only
if it is less than the smtp_accept_max value (unless that is zero). See also
queue_only, queue_only_load, queue_smtp_domains, and the various -odx command
line options.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_accept_queue_per_ connection-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 10-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This option limits the number of delivery processes that Exim starts
automatically when receiving messages via SMTP, whether via the daemon or by
the use of -bs or -bS. If the value of the option is greater than zero, and the
number of messages received in a single SMTP session exceeds this number,
subsequent messages are placed on the queue, but no delivery processes are
started. This helps to limit the number of Exim processes when a server
restarts after downtime and there is a lot of mail waiting for it on other
systems. On large systems, the default should probably be increased, and on
dial-in client systems it should probably be set to zero (that is, disabled).
--------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_accept_reserve-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 0-
--------------------------------------------------------
When smtp_accept_max is set greater than zero, this option specifies a number
of SMTP connections that are reserved for connections from the hosts that are
specified in smtp_reserve_hosts. The value set in smtp_accept_max includes this
reserve pool. The specified hosts are not restricted to this number of
connections; the option specifies a minimum number of connection slots for
them, not a maximum. It is a guarantee that this group of hosts can always get
at least smtp_accept_reserve connections. However, the limit specified by
smtp_accept_max_per_host is still applied to each individual host.
For example, if smtp_accept_max is set to 50 and smtp_accept_reserve is set to
5, once there are 45 active connections (from any hosts), new connections are
accepted only from hosts listed in smtp_reserve_hosts, provided the other
criteria for acceptance are met.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_active_hostname-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------
This option is provided for multi-homed servers that want to masquerade as
several different hosts. At the start of an incoming SMTP connection, its value
is expanded and used instead of the value of $primary_hostname in SMTP
responses. For example, it is used as domain name in the response to an
incoming HELO or EHLO command.
The active hostname is placed in the $smtp_active_hostname variable, which is
saved with any messages that are received. It is therefore available for use in
routers and transports when the message is later delivered.
If this option is unset, or if its expansion is forced to fail, or if the
expansion results in an empty string, the value of $primary_hostname is used.
Other expansion failures cause a message to be written to the main and panic
logs, and the SMTP command receives a temporary error. Typically, the value of
smtp_active_hostname depends on the incoming interface address. For example:
smtp_active_hostname = ${if eq{$received_ip_address}{10.0.0.1}\
{cox.mydomain}{box.mydomain}}
Although $smtp_active_hostname is primarily concerned with incoming messages,
it is also used as the default for HELO commands in callout verification if
there is no remote transport from which to obtain a helo_data value.
--------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_banner-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: see below-
--------------------------------------------------------
This string, which is expanded every time it is used, is output as the initial
positive response to an SMTP connection. The default setting is:
smtp_banner = $smtp_active_hostname ESMTP Exim \
$version_number $tod_full
Failure to expand the string causes a panic error. If you want to create a
multiline response to the initial SMTP connection, use "\n" in the string at
appropriate points, but not at the end. Note that the 220 code is not included
in this string. Exim adds it automatically (several times in the case of a
multiline response).
--------------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_check_spool_space-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
--------------------------------------------------------------
When this option is set, if an incoming SMTP session encounters the SIZE option
on a MAIL command, it checks that there is enough space in the spool
directory's partition to accept a message of that size, while still leaving
free the amount specified by check_spool_space (even if that value is zero). If
there isn't enough space, a temporary error code is returned.
----------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_connect_backlog-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 20-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies a maximum number of waiting SMTP connections. Exim passes
this value to the TCP/IP system when it sets up its listener. Once this number
of connections are waiting for the daemon's attention, subsequent connection
attempts are refused at the TCP/IP level. At least, that is what the manuals
say; in some circumstances such connection attempts have been observed to time
out instead. For large systems it is probably a good idea to increase the value
(to 50, say). It also gives some protection against denial-of-service attacks
by SYN flooding.
---------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_enforce_sync-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
---------------------------------------------------------
The SMTP protocol specification requires the client to wait for a response from
the server at certain points in the dialogue. Without PIPELINING these
synchronization points are after every command; with PIPELINING they are fewer,
but they still exist.
Some spamming sites send out a complete set of SMTP commands without waiting
for any response. Exim protects against this by rejecting a message if the
client has sent further input when it should not have. The error response "554
SMTP synchronization error" is sent, and the connection is dropped. Testing for
this error cannot be perfect because of transmission delays (unexpected input
may be on its way but not yet received when Exim checks). However, it does
detect many instances.
The check can be globally disabled by setting smtp_enforce_sync false. If you
want to disable the check selectively (for example, only for certain hosts),
you can do so by an appropriate use of a control modifier in an ACL (see
section 40.20). See also pipelining_advertise_hosts.
----------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_etrn_command-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, the given command is run whenever an SMTP ETRN command
is received from a host that is permitted to issue such commands (see chapter
40). The string is split up into separate arguments which are independently
expanded. The expansion variable $domain is set to the argument of the ETRN
command, and no syntax checking is done on it. For example:
smtp_etrn_command = /etc/etrn_command $domain \
$sender_host_address
A new process is created to run the command, but Exim does not wait for it to
complete. Consequently, its status cannot be checked. If the command cannot be
run, a line is written to the panic log, but the ETRN caller still receives a
250 success response. Exim is normally running under its own uid when receiving
SMTP, so it is not possible for it to change the uid before running the
command.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_etrn_serialize-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
-----------------------------------------------------------
When this option is set, it prevents the simultaneous execution of more than
one identical command as a result of ETRN in an SMTP connection. See section
45.8 for details.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_load_reserve-Use: main-Type: fixed-point-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------------
If the system load average ever gets higher than this, incoming SMTP calls are
accepted only from those hosts that match an entry in smtp_reserve_hosts. If
smtp_reserve_hosts is not set, no incoming SMTP calls are accepted when the
load is over the limit. The option has no effect on ancient operating systems
on which Exim cannot determine the load average. See also
deliver_queue_load_max and queue_only_load.
------------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_max_synprot_errors-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 3-
------------------------------------------------------------
Exim rejects SMTP commands that contain syntax or protocol errors. In
particular, a syntactically invalid email address, as in this command:
RCPT TO:<abc xyz@a.b.c>
causes immediate rejection of the command, before any other tests are done.
(The ACL cannot be run if there is no valid address to set up for it.) An
example of a protocol error is receiving RCPT before MAIL. If there are too
many syntax or protocol errors in one SMTP session, the connection is dropped.
The limit is set by this option.
When the PIPELINING extension to SMTP is in use, some protocol errors are
"expected", for instance, a RCPT command after a rejected MAIL command. Exim
assumes that PIPELINING will be used if it advertises it (see
pipelining_advertise_hosts), and in this situation, "expected" errors do not
count towards the limit.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_max_unknown_commands-Use: main-Type: integer-Default: 3-
--------------------------------------------------------------
If there are too many unrecognized commands in an incoming SMTP session, an
Exim server drops the connection. This is a defence against some kinds of abuse
that subvert web clients into making connections to SMTP ports; in these
circumstances, a number of non-SMTP command lines are sent first.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_ratelimit_hosts-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------------
Some sites find it helpful to be able to limit the rate at which certain hosts
can send them messages, and the rate at which an individual message can specify
recipients.
Exim has two rate-limiting facilities. This section describes the older
facility, which can limit rates within a single connection. The newer ratelimit
ACL condition can limit rates across all connections. See section 40.35 for
details of the newer facility.
When a host matches smtp_ratelimit_hosts, the values of smtp_ratelimit_mail and
smtp_ratelimit_rcpt are used to control the rate of acceptance of MAIL and RCPT
commands in a single SMTP session, respectively. Each option, if set, must
contain a set of four comma-separated values:
* A threshold, before which there is no rate limiting.
* An initial time delay. Unlike other times in Exim, numbers with decimal
fractional parts are allowed here.
* A factor by which to increase the delay each time.
* A maximum value for the delay. This should normally be less than 5 minutes,
because after that time, the client is liable to timeout the SMTP command.
For example, these settings have been used successfully at the site which first
suggested this feature, for controlling mail from their customers:
smtp_ratelimit_mail = 2,0.5s,1.05,4m
smtp_ratelimit_rcpt = 4,0.25s,1.015,4m
The first setting specifies delays that are applied to MAIL commands after two
have been received over a single connection. The initial delay is 0.5 seconds,
increasing by a factor of 1.05 each time. The second setting applies delays to
RCPT commands when more than four occur in a single message.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_ratelimit_mail-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------
See smtp_ratelimit_hosts above.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_ratelimit_rcpt-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------
See smtp_ratelimit_hosts above.
-------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_receive_timeout-Use: main-Type: time-Default: 5m-
-------------------------------------------------------
This sets a timeout value for SMTP reception. It applies to all forms of SMTP
input, including batch SMTP. If a line of input (either an SMTP command or a
data line) is not received within this time, the SMTP connection is dropped and
the message is abandoned. A line is written to the log containing one of the
following messages:
SMTP command timeout on connection from...
SMTP data timeout on connection from...
The former means that Exim was expecting to read an SMTP command; the latter
means that it was in the DATA phase, reading the contents of a message.
The value set by this option can be overridden by the -os command-line option.
A setting of zero time disables the timeout, but this should never be used for
SMTP over TCP/IP. (It can be useful in some cases of local input using -bs or
-bS.) For non-SMTP input, the reception timeout is controlled by
receive_timeout and -or.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_reserve_hosts-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------------
This option defines hosts for which SMTP connections are reserved; see
smtp_accept_reserve and smtp_load_reserve above.
------------------------------------------------------------------
-smtp_return_error_details-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
------------------------------------------------------------------
In the default state, Exim uses bland messages such as "Administrative
prohibition" when it rejects SMTP commands for policy reasons. Many sysadmins
like this because it gives away little information to spammers. However, some
other sysadmins who are applying strict checking policies want to give out much
fuller information about failures. Setting smtp_return_error_details true
causes Exim to be more forthcoming. For example, instead of "Administrative
prohibition", it might give:
550-Rejected after DATA: '>' missing at end of address:
550 failing address in "From" header is: <user@dom.ain
---------------------------------------------------------
-spamd_address-Use: main-Type: string-Default: see below-
---------------------------------------------------------
This option is available when Exim is compiled with the content-scanning
extension. It specifies how Exim connects to SpamAssassin's spamd daemon. The
default value is
127.0.0.1 783
See section 41.2 for more details.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-split_spool_directory-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, it causes Exim to split its input directory into 62
subdirectories, each with a single alphanumeric character as its name. The
sixth character of the message id is used to allocate messages to
subdirectories; this is the least significant base-62 digit of the time of
arrival of the message.
Splitting up the spool in this way may provide better performance on systems
where there are long mail queues, by reducing the number of files in any one
directory. The msglog directory is also split up in a similar way to the input
directory; however, if preserve_message_logs is set, all old msglog files are
still placed in the single directory msglog.OLD.
It is not necessary to take any special action for existing messages when
changing split_spool_directory. Exim notices messages that are in the "wrong"
place, and continues to process them. If the option is turned off after a
period of being on, the subdirectories will eventually empty and be
automatically deleted.
When split_spool_directory is set, the behaviour of queue runner processes
changes. Instead of creating a list of all messages in the queue, and then
trying to deliver each one in turn, it constructs a list of those in one
sub-directory and tries to deliver them, before moving on to the next
sub-directory. The sub-directories are processed in a random order. This
spreads out the scanning of the input directories, and uses less memory. It is
particularly beneficial when there are lots of messages on the queue. However,
if queue_run_in_order is set, none of this new processing happens. The entire
queue has to be scanned and sorted before any deliveries can start.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
-spool_directory-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: set at compile time-
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This defines the directory in which Exim keeps its spool, that is, the messages
it is waiting to deliver. The default value is taken from the compile-time
configuration setting, if there is one. If not, this option must be set. The
string is expanded, so it can contain, for example, a reference to
$primary_hostname.
If the spool directory name is fixed on your installation, it is recommended
that you set it at build time rather than from this option, particularly if the
log files are being written to the spool directory (see log_file_path).
Otherwise log files cannot be used for errors that are detected early on, such
as failures in the configuration file.
By using this option to override the compiled-in path, it is possible to run
tests of Exim without using the standard spool.
------------------------------------------------------
-sqlite_lock_timeout-Use: main-Type: time-Default: 5s-
------------------------------------------------------
This option controls the timeout that the sqlite lookup uses when trying to
access an SQLite database. See section 9.25 for more details.
--------------------------------------------------------
-strict_acl_vars-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------
This option controls what happens if a syntactically valid but undefined ACL
variable is referenced. If it is false (the default), an empty string is
substituted; if it is true, an error is generated. See section 40.17 for
details of ACL variables.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
-strip_excess_angle_brackets-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, redundant pairs of angle brackets round "route-addr"
items in addresses are stripped. For example, <<xxx@a.b.c.d>> is treated as
<xxx@a.b.c.d>. If this is in the envelope and the message is passed on to
another MTA, the excess angle brackets are not passed on. If this option is not
set, multiple pairs of angle brackets cause a syntax error.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-strip_trailing_dot-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, a trailing dot at the end of a domain in an address is
ignored. If this is in the envelope and the message is passed on to another
MTA, the dot is not passed on. If this option is not set, a dot at the end of a
domain causes a syntax error. However, addresses in header lines are checked
only when an ACL requests header syntax checking.
----------------------------------------------------------
-syslog_duplication-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
----------------------------------------------------------
When Exim is logging to syslog, it writes the log lines for its three separate
logs at different syslog priorities so that they can in principle be separated
on the logging hosts. Some installations do not require this separation, and in
those cases, the duplication of certain log lines is a nuisance. If
syslog_duplication is set false, only one copy of any particular log line is
written to syslog. For lines that normally go to both the main log and the
reject log, the reject log version (possibly containing message header lines)
is written, at LOG_NOTICE priority. Lines that normally go to both the main and
the panic log are written at the LOG_ALERT priority.
-------------------------------------------------------
-syslog_facility-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------
This option sets the syslog "facility" name, used when Exim is logging to
syslog. The value must be one of the strings "mail", "user", "news", "uucp",
"daemon", or "localx" where x is a digit between 0 and 7. If this option is
unset, "mail" is used. See chapter 49 for details of Exim's logging.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-syslog_processname-Use: main-Type: string-Default: "exim"-
-----------------------------------------------------------
This option sets the syslog "ident" name, used when Exim is logging to syslog.
The value must be no longer than 32 characters. See chapter 49 for details of
Exim's logging.
--------------------------------------------------------
-syslog_timestamp-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
--------------------------------------------------------
If syslog_timestamp is set false, the timestamps on Exim's log lines are
omitted when these lines are sent to syslog. See chapter 49 for details of
Exim's logging.
------------------------------------------------------
-system_filter-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies an Exim filter file that is applied to all messages at
the start of each delivery attempt, before any routing is done. System filters
must be Exim filters; they cannot be Sieve filters. If the system filter
generates any deliveries to files or pipes, or any new mail messages, the
appropriate system_filter_..._transport option(s) must be set, to define which
transports are to be used. Details of this facility are given in chapter 43.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-system_filter_directory_transport-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This sets the name of the transport driver that is to be used when the save
command in a system message filter specifies a path ending in "/", implying
delivery of each message into a separate file in some directory. During the
delivery, the variable $address_file contains the path name.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-system_filter_file_transport-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This sets the name of the transport driver that is to be used when the save
command in a system message filter specifies a path not ending in "/". During
the delivery, the variable $address_file contains the path name.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-system_filter_group-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------
This option is used only when system_filter_user is also set. It sets the gid
under which the system filter is run, overriding any gid that is associated
with the user. The value may be numerical or symbolic.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-system_filter_pipe_transport-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This specifies the transport driver that is to be used when a pipe command is
used in a system filter. During the delivery, the variable $address_pipe
contains the pipe command.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
-system_filter_reply_transport-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This specifies the transport driver that is to be used when a mail command is
used in a system filter.
----------------------------------------------------------
-system_filter_user-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is not set, the system filter is run in the main Exim delivery
process, as root. When the option is set, the system filter runs in a separate
process, as the given user. Unless the string consists entirely of digits, it
is looked up in the password data. Failure to find the named user causes a
configuration error. The gid is either taken from the password data, or
specified by system_filter_group. When the uid is specified numerically,
system_filter_group is required to be set.
If the system filter generates any pipe, file, or reply deliveries, the uid
under which the filter is run is used when transporting them, unless a
transport option overrides. Normally you should set system_filter_user if your
system filter generates these kinds of delivery.
---------------------------------------------------
-tcp_nodelay-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
---------------------------------------------------
If this option is set false, it stops the Exim daemon setting the TCP_NODELAY
option on its listening sockets. Setting TCP_NODELAY turns off the "Nagle
algorithm", which is a way of improving network performance in interactive
(character-by-character) situations. Turning it off should improve Exim's
performance a bit, so that is what happens by default. However, it appears that
some broken clients cannot cope, and time out. Hence this option. It affects
only those sockets that are set up for listening by the daemon. Sockets created
by the smtp transport for delivering mail always set TCP_NODELAY.
-------------------------------------------------------
-timeout_frozen_after-Use: main-Type: time-Default: 0s-
-------------------------------------------------------
If timeout_frozen_after is set to a time greater than zero, a frozen message of
any kind that has been on the queue for longer than the given time is
automatically cancelled at the next queue run. If the frozen message is a
bounce message, it is just discarded; otherwise, a bounce is sent to the
sender, in a similar manner to cancellation by the -Mg command line option. If
you want to timeout frozen bounce messages earlier than other kinds of frozen
message, see ignore_bounce_errors_after.
Note: the default value of zero means no timeouts; with this setting, frozen
messages remain on the queue forever (except for any frozen bounce messages
that are released by ignore_bounce_errors_after).
------------------------------------------------
-timezone-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------
The value of timezone is used to set the environment variable TZ while running
Exim (if it is different on entry). This ensures that all timestamps created by
Exim are in the required timezone. If you want all your timestamps to be in UTC
(aka GMT) you should set
timezone = UTC
The default value is taken from TIMEZONE_DEFAULT in Local/Makefile, or, if that
is not set, from the value of the TZ environment variable when Exim is built.
If timezone is set to the empty string, either at build or run time, any
existing TZ variable is removed from the environment when Exim runs. This is
appropriate behaviour for obtaining wall-clock time on some, but unfortunately
not all, operating systems.
---------------------------------------------------------------
-tls_advertise_hosts-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------------
When Exim is built with support for TLS encrypted connections, the availability
of the STARTTLS command to set up an encrypted session is advertised in
response to EHLO only to those client hosts that match this option. See chapter
39 for details of Exim's support for TLS.
--------------------------------------------------------
-tls_certificate-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------
The value of this option is expanded, and must then be the absolute path to a
file which contains the server's certificates. The server's private key is also
assumed to be in this file if tls_privatekey is unset. See chapter 39 for
further details.
Note: The certificates defined by this option are used only when Exim is
receiving incoming messages as a server. If you want to supply certificates for
use when sending messages as a client, you must set the tls_certificate option
in the relevant smtp transport.
------------------------------------------------
-tls_crl-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------
This option specifies a certificate revocation list. The expanded value must be
the name of a file that contains a CRL in PEM format.
----------------------------------------------------
-tls_dhparam-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------
The value of this option is expanded, and must then be the absolute path to a
file which contains the server's DH parameter values. This is used only for
OpenSSL. When Exim is linked with GnuTLS, this option is ignored. See section
39.2 for further details.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-tls_on_connect_ports-Use: main-Type: string list-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies a list of incoming SSMTP (aka SMTPS) ports that should
operate the obsolete SSMTP (SMTPS) protocol, where a TLS session is immediately
set up without waiting for the client to issue a STARTTLS command. For further
details, see section 13.4.
-------------------------------------------------------
-tls_privatekey-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------
The value of this option is expanded, and must then be the absolute path to a
file which contains the server's private key. If this option is unset, or if
the expansion is forced to fail, or the result is an empty string, the private
key is assumed to be in the same file as the server's certificates. See chapter
39 for further details.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-tls_remember_esmtp-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set true, Exim violates the RFCs by remembering that it is in
"esmtp" state after successfully negotiating a TLS session. This provides
support for broken clients that fail to send a new EHLO after starting a TLS
session.
------------------------------------------------------------
-tls_require_ciphers-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------
This option controls which ciphers can be used for incoming TLS connections.
The smtp transport has an option of the same name for controlling outgoing
connections. This option is expanded for each connection, so can be varied for
different clients if required. The value of this option must be a list of
permitted cipher suites. The OpenSSL and GnuTLS libraries handle cipher control
in somewhat different ways. If GnuTLS is being used, the client controls the
preference order of the available ciphers. Details are given in sections 39.4
and 39.5.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-tls_try_verify_hosts-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------------
See tls_verify_hosts below.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-tls_verify_certificates-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------------
The value of this option is expanded, and must then be the absolute path to a
file containing permitted certificates for clients that match tls_verify_hosts
or tls_try_verify_hosts. Alternatively, if you are using OpenSSL, you can set
tls_verify_certificates to the name of a directory containing certificate
files. This does not work with GnuTLS; the option must be set to the name of a
single file if you are using GnuTLS.
------------------------------------------------------------
-tls_verify_hosts-Use: main-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------
This option, along with tls_try_verify_hosts, controls the checking of
certificates from clients. The expected certificates are defined by
tls_verify_certificates, which must be set. A configuration error occurs if
either tls_verify_hosts or tls_try_verify_hosts is set and
tls_verify_certificates is not set.
Any client that matches tls_verify_hosts is constrained by
tls_verify_certificates. When the client initiates a TLS session, it must
present one of the listed certificates. If it does not, the connection is
aborted. Warning: Including a host in tls_verify_hosts does not require the
host to use TLS. It can still send SMTP commands through unencrypted
connections. Forcing a client to use TLS has to be done separately using an ACL
to reject inappropriate commands when the connection is not encrypted.
A weaker form of checking is provided by tls_try_verify_hosts. If a client
matches this option (but not tls_verify_hosts), Exim requests a certificate and
checks it against tls_verify_certificates, but does not abort the connection if
there is no certificate or if it does not match. This state can be detected in
an ACL, which makes it possible to implement policies such as "accept for relay
only if a verified certificate has been received, but accept for local delivery
if encrypted, even without a verified certificate".
Client hosts that match neither of these lists are not asked to present
certificates.
------------------------------------------------------------
-trusted_groups-Use: main-Type: string list*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------
This option is expanded just once, at the start of Exim's processing. If this
option is set, any process that is running in one of the listed groups, or
which has one of them as a supplementary group, is trusted. The groups can be
specified numerically or by name. See section 5.2 for details of what trusted
callers are permitted to do. If neither trusted_groups nor trusted_users is
set, only root and the Exim user are trusted.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-trusted_users-Use: main-Type: string list*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------
This option is expanded just once, at the start of Exim's processing. If this
option is set, any process that is running as one of the listed users is
trusted. The users can be specified numerically or by name. See section 5.2 for
details of what trusted callers are permitted to do. If neither trusted_groups
nor trusted_users is set, only root and the Exim user are trusted.
------------------------------------------------------
-unknown_login-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------
This is a specialized feature for use in unusual configurations. By default, if
the uid of the caller of Exim cannot be looked up using getpwuid(), Exim gives
up. The unknown_login option can be used to set a login name to be used in this
circumstance. It is expanded, so values like user$caller_uid can be set. When
unknown_login is used, the value of unknown_username is used for the user's
real name (gecos field), unless this has been set by the -F option.
--------------------------------------------------------
-unknown_username-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------
See unknown_login.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-untrusted_set_sender-Use: main-Type: address list*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
When an untrusted user submits a message to Exim using the standard input, Exim
normally creates an envelope sender address from the user's login and the
default qualification domain. Data from the -f option (for setting envelope
senders on non-SMTP messages) or the SMTP MAIL command (if -bs or -bS is used)
is ignored.
However, untrusted users are permitted to set an empty envelope sender address,
to declare that a message should never generate any bounces. For example:
exim -f '<>' user@domain.example
The untrusted_set_sender option allows you to permit untrusted users to set
other envelope sender addresses in a controlled way. When it is set, untrusted
users are allowed to set envelope sender addresses that match any of the
patterns in the list. Like all address lists, the string is expanded. The
identity of the user is in $sender_ident, so you can, for example, restrict
users to setting senders that start with their login ids followed by a hyphen
by a setting like this:
untrusted_set_sender = ^$sender_ident-
If you want to allow untrusted users to set envelope sender addresses without
restriction, you can use
untrusted_set_sender = *
The untrusted_set_sender option applies to all forms of local input, but only
to the setting of the envelope sender. It does not permit untrusted users to
use the other options which trusted user can use to override message
parameters. Furthermore, it does not stop Exim from removing an existing
Sender: header in the message, or from adding a Sender: header if necessary.
See local_sender_retain and local_from_check for ways of overriding these
actions. The handling of the Sender: header is also described in section 44.16.
The log line for a message's arrival shows the envelope sender following "<=".
For local messages, the user's login always follows, after "U=". In -bp
displays, and in the Exim monitor, if an untrusted user sets an envelope sender
address, the user's login is shown in parentheses after the sender address.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-uucp_from_pattern-Use: main-Type: string-Default: see below-
-------------------------------------------------------------
Some applications that pass messages to an MTA via a command line interface use
an initial line starting with "From " to pass the envelope sender. In
particular, this is used by UUCP software. Exim recognizes such a line by means
of a regular expression that is set in uucp_from_pattern. When the pattern
matches, the sender address is constructed by expanding the contents of
uucp_from_sender, provided that the caller of Exim is a trusted user. The
default pattern recognizes lines in the following two forms:
From ph10 Fri Jan 5 12:35 GMT 1996
From ph10 Fri, 7 Jan 97 14:00:00 GMT
The pattern can be seen by running
exim -bP uucp_from_pattern
It checks only up to the hours and minutes, and allows for a 2-digit or 4-digit
year in the second case. The first word after "From " is matched in the regular
expression by a parenthesized subpattern. The default value for
uucp_from_sender is "$1", which therefore just uses this first word ("ph10" in
the example above) as the message's sender. See also ignore_fromline_hosts.
--------------------------------------------------------
-uucp_from_sender-Use: main-Type: string*-Default: "$1"-
--------------------------------------------------------
See uucp_from_pattern above.
---------------------------------------------------------
-warn_message_file-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------
This option defines a template file containing paragraphs of text to be used
for constructing the warning message which is sent by Exim when a message has
been on the queue for a specified amount of time, as specified by delay_warning
. Details of the file's contents are given in chapter 46. See also
bounce_message_file.
-------------------------------------------------------
-write_rejectlog-Use: main-Type: boolean-Default: true-
-------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set false, Exim no longer writes anything to the reject log.
See chapter 49 for details of what Exim writes to its logs.
===============================================================================
15. GENERIC OPTIONS FOR ROUTERS
This chapter describes the generic options that apply to all routers. Those
that are preconditions are marked with ** in the "use" field.
For a general description of how a router operates, see sections 3.10 and 3.12.
The latter specifies the order in which the preconditions are tested. The order
of expansion of the options that provide data for a transport is: errors_to,
headers_add, headers_remove, transport.
--------------------------------------------------------
-address_data-Use: routers-Type: string*-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------
The string is expanded just before the router is run, that is, after all the
precondition tests have succeeded. If the expansion is forced to fail, the
router declines, the value of address_data remains unchanged, and the more
option controls what happens next. Other expansion failures cause delivery of
the address to be deferred.
When the expansion succeeds, the value is retained with the address, and can be
accessed using the variable $address_data in the current router, subsequent
routers, and the eventual transport.
Warning: If the current or any subsequent router is a redirect router that runs
a user's filter file, the contents of $address_data are accessible in the
filter. This is not normally a problem, because such data is usually either not
confidential or it "belongs" to the current user, but if you do put
confidential data into $address_data you need to remember this point.
Even if the router declines or passes, the value of $address_data remains with
the address, though it can be changed by another address_data setting on a
subsequent router. If a router generates child addresses, the value of
$address_data propagates to them. This also applies to the special kind of
"child" that is generated by a router with the unseen option.
The idea of address_data is that you can use it to look up a lot of data for
the address once, and then pick out parts of the data later. For example, you
could use a single LDAP lookup to return a string of the form
uid=1234 gid=5678 mailbox=/mail/xyz forward=/home/xyz/.forward
In the transport you could pick out the mailbox by a setting such as
file = ${extract{mailbox}{$address_data}}
This makes the configuration file less messy, and also reduces the number of
lookups (though Exim does cache lookups).
The address_data facility is also useful as a means of passing information from
one router to another, and from a router to a transport. In addition, if
$address_data is set by a router when verifying a recipient address from an
ACL, it remains available for use in the rest of the ACL statement. After
verifying a sender, the value is transferred to $sender_address_data.
---------------------------------------------------------
-address_test-Use: routers**-Type: boolean-Default: true-
---------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set false, the router is skipped when routing is being tested
by means of the -bt command line option. This can be a convenience when your
first router sends messages to an external scanner, because it saves you having
to set the "already scanned" indicator when testing real address routing.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-cannot_route_message-Use: routers-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies a text message that is used when an address cannot be
routed because Exim has run out of routers. The default message is "Unrouteable
address". This option is useful only on routers that have more set false, or on
the very last router in a configuration, because the value that is used is
taken from the last router that is considered. This includes a router that is
skipped because its preconditions are not met, as well as a router that
declines. For example, using the default configuration, you could put:
cannot_route_message = Remote domain not found in DNS
on the first router, which is a dnslookup router with more set false, and
cannot_route_message = Unknown local user
on the final router that checks for local users. If string expansion fails for
this option, the default message is used. Unless the expansion failure was
explicitly forced, a message about the failure is written to the main and panic
logs, in addition to the normal message about the routing failure.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-caseful_local_part-Use: routers-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------------
By default, routers handle the local parts of addresses in a case-insensitive
manner, though the actual case is preserved for transmission with the message.
If you want the case of letters to be significant in a router, you must set
this option true. For individual router options that contain address or local
part lists (for example, local_parts), case-sensitive matching can be turned on
by "+caseful" as a list item. See section 10.20 for more details.
The value of the $local_part variable is forced to lower case while a router is
running unless caseful_local_part is set. When a router assigns an address to a
transport, the value of $local_part when the transport runs is the same as it
was in the router. Similarly, when a router generates child addresses by
aliasing or forwarding, the values of $original_local_part and
$parent_local_part are those that were used by the redirecting router.
This option applies to the processing of an address by a router. When a
recipient address is being processed in an ACL, there is a separate control
modifier that can be used to specify case-sensitive processing within the ACL
(see section 40.20).
--------------------------------------------------------------
-check_local_user-Use: routers**-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------------
When this option is true, Exim checks that the local part of the recipient
address (with affixes removed if relevant) is the name of an account on the
local system. The check is done by calling the getpwnam() function rather than
trying to read /etc/passwd directly. This means that other methods of holding
password data (such as NIS) are supported. If the local part is a local user,
$home is set from the password data, and can be tested in other preconditions
that are evaluated after this one (the order of evaluation is given in section
3.12). However, the value of $home can be overridden by router_home_directory.
If the local part is not a local user, the router is skipped.
If you want to check that the local part is either the name of a local user or
matches something else, you cannot combine check_local_user with a setting of
local_parts, because that specifies the logical and of the two conditions.
However, you can use a passwd lookup in a local_parts setting to achieve this.
For example:
local_parts = passwd;$local_part : lsearch;/etc/other/users
Note, however, that the side effects of check_local_user (such as setting up a
home directory) do not occur when a passwd lookup is used in a local_parts (or
any other) precondition.
-------------------------------------------------------
-condition-Use: routers**-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies a general precondition test that has to succeed for the
router to be called. The condition option is the last precondition to be
evaluated (see section 3.12). The string is expanded, and if the result is a
forced failure, or an empty string, or one of the strings "0" or "no" or
"false" (checked without regard to the case of the letters), the router is
skipped, and the address is offered to the next one.
If the result is any other value, the router is run (as this is the last
precondition to be evaluated, all the other preconditions must be true).
The condition option provides a means of applying custom conditions to the
running of routers. Note that in the case of a simple conditional expansion,
the default expansion values are exactly what is wanted. For example:
condition = ${if >{$message_age}{600}}
Because of the default behaviour of the string expansion, this is equivalent to
condition = ${if >{$message_age}{600}{true}{}}
If the expansion fails (other than forced failure) delivery is deferred. Some
of the other precondition options are common special cases that could in fact
be specified using condition.
-------------------------------------------------------
-debug_print-Use: routers-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set and debugging is enabled (see the -d command line
option), the string is expanded and included in the debugging output. If
expansion of the string fails, the error message is written to the debugging
output, and Exim carries on processing. This option is provided to help with
checking out the values of variables and so on when debugging router
configurations. For example, if a condition option appears not to be working,
debug_print can be used to output the variables it references. The output
happens after checks for domains, local_parts, and check_local_user but before
any other preconditions are tested. A newline is added to the text if it does
not end with one.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-disable_logging-Use: routers-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set true, nothing is logged for any routing errors or for any
deliveries caused by this router. You should not set this option unless you
really, really know what you are doing. See also the generic transport option
of the same name.
----------------------------------------------------------
-domains-Use: routers**-Type: domain list*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, the router is skipped unless the current domain matches
the list. If the match is achieved by means of a file lookup, the data that the
lookup returned for the domain is placed in $domain_data for use in string
expansions of the driver's private options. See section 3.12 for a list of the
order in which preconditions are evaluated.
-------------------------------------------------
-driver-Use: routers-Type: string-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------
This option must always be set. It specifies which of the available routers is
to be used.
-----------------------------------------------------
-errors_to-Use: routers-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------
If a router successfully handles an address, it may assign the address to a
transport for delivery or it may generate child addresses. In both cases, if
there is a delivery problem during later processing, the resulting bounce
message is sent to the address that results from expanding this string,
provided that the address verifies successfully. The errors_to option is
expanded before headers_add, headers_remove, and transport.
The errors_to setting associated with an address can be overridden if it
subsequently passes through other routers that have their own errors_to
settings, or if the message is delivered by a transport with a return_path
setting.
If errors_to is unset, or the expansion is forced to fail, or the result of the
expansion fails to verify, the errors address associated with the incoming
address is used. At top level, this is the envelope sender. A non-forced
expansion failure causes delivery to be deferred.
If an address for which errors_to has been set ends up being delivered over
SMTP, the envelope sender for that delivery is the errors_to value, so that any
bounces that are generated by other MTAs on the delivery route are also sent
there. You can set errors_to to the empty string by either of these settings:
errors_to =
errors_to = ""
An expansion item that yields an empty string has the same effect. If you do
this, a locally detected delivery error for addresses processed by this router
no longer gives rise to a bounce message; the error is discarded. If the
address is delivered to a remote host, the return path is set to "<>", unless
overridden by the return_path option on the transport.
If for some reason you want to discard local errors, but use a non-empty MAIL
command for remote delivery, you can preserve the original return path in
$address_data in the router, and reinstate it in the transport by setting
return_path.
The most common use of errors_to is to direct mailing list bounces to the
manager of the list, as described in section 47.2, or to implement VERP
(Variable Envelope Return Paths) (see section 47.6).
-------------------------------------------------
-expn-Use: routers**-Type: boolean-Default: true-
-------------------------------------------------
If this option is turned off, the router is skipped when testing an address as
a result of processing an SMTP EXPN command. You might, for example, want to
turn it off on a router for users' .forward files, while leaving it on for the
system alias file. See section 3.12 for a list of the order in which
preconditions are evaluated.
The use of the SMTP EXPN command is controlled by an ACL (see chapter 40). When
Exim is running an EXPN command, it is similar to testing an address with -bt.
Compare VRFY, whose counterpart is -bv.
-------------------------------------------------------
-fail_verify-Use: routers-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-------------------------------------------------------
Setting this option has the effect of setting both fail_verify_sender and
fail_verify_recipient to the same value.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-fail_verify_recipient-Use: routers-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true and an address is accepted by this router when verifying
a recipient, verification fails.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-fail_verify_sender-Use: routers-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true and an address is accepted by this router when verifying
a sender, verification fails.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-fallback_hosts-Use: routers-Type: string list-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------------
String expansion is not applied to this option. The argument must be a
colon-separated list of host names or IP addresses. The list separator can be
changed (see section 6.19), and a port can be specified with each name or
address. In fact, the format of each item is exactly the same as defined for
the list of hosts in a manualroute router (see section 20.5).
If a router queues an address for a remote transport, this host list is
associated with the address, and used instead of the transport's fallback host
list. If hosts_randomize is set on the transport, the order of the list is
randomized for each use. See the fallback_hosts option of the smtp transport
for further details.
-----------------------------------------------------
-group-Use: routers-Type: string*-Default: see below-
-----------------------------------------------------
When a router queues an address for a transport, and the transport does not
specify a group, the group given here is used when running the delivery
process. The group may be specified numerically or by name. If expansion fails,
the error is logged and delivery is deferred. The default is unset, unless
check_local_user is set, when the default is taken from the password
information. See also initgroups and user and the discussion in chapter 23.
-------------------------------------------------------
-headers_add-Use: routers-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies a string of text that is expanded at routing time, and
associated with any addresses that are accepted by the router. However, this
option has no effect when an address is just being verified. The way in which
the text is used to add header lines at transport time is described in section
44.17. New header lines are not actually added until the message is in the
process of being transported. This means that references to header lines in
string expansions in the transport's configuration do not "see" the added
header lines.
The headers_add option is expanded after errors_to, but before headers_remove
and transport. If the expanded string is empty, or if the expansion is forced
to fail, the option has no effect. Other expansion failures are treated as
configuration errors.
Warning 1: The headers_add option cannot be used for a redirect router that has
the one_time option set.
Warning 2: If the unseen option is set on the router, all header additions are
deleted when the address is passed on to subsequent routers. For a redirect
router, if a generated address is the same as the incoming address, this can
lead to duplicate addresses with different header modifications. Exim does not
do duplicate deliveries (except, in certain circumstances, to pipes -- see
section 22.7), but it is undefined which of the duplicates is discarded, so
this ambiguous situation should be avoided. The repeat_use option of the
redirect router may be of help.
----------------------------------------------------------
-headers_remove-Use: routers-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies a string of text that is expanded at routing time, and
associated with any addresses that are accepted by the router. However, this
option has no effect when an address is just being verified. The way in which
the text is used to remove header lines at transport time is described in
section 44.17. Header lines are not actually removed until the message is in
the process of being transported. This means that references to header lines in
string expansions in the transport's configuration still "see" the original
header lines.
The headers_remove option is expanded after errors_to and headers_add, but
before transport. If the expansion is forced to fail, the option has no effect.
Other expansion failures are treated as configuration errors.
Warning 1: The headers_remove option cannot be used for a redirect router that
has the one_time option set.
Warning 2: If the unseen option is set on the router, all header removal
requests are deleted when the address is passed on to subsequent routers, and
this can lead to problems with duplicates -- see the similar warning for
headers_add above.
------------------------------------------------------------------
-ignore_target_hosts-Use: routers-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------------
Although this option is a host list, it should normally contain IP address
entries rather than names. If any host that is looked up by the router has an
IP address that matches an item in this list, Exim behaves as if that IP
address did not exist. This option allows you to cope with rogue DNS entries
like
remote.domain.example. A 127.0.0.1
by setting
ignore_target_hosts = 127.0.0.1
on the relevant router. If all the hosts found by a dnslookup router are
discarded in this way, the router declines. In a conventional configuration, an
attempt to mail to such a domain would normally provoke the "unrouteable
domain" error, and an attempt to verify an address in the domain would fail.
Similarly, if ignore_target_hosts is set on an ipliteral router, the router
declines if presented with one of the listed addresses.
You can use this option to disable the use of IPv4 or IPv6 for mail delivery by
means of the first or the second of the following settings, respectively:
ignore_target_hosts = 0.0.0.0/0
ignore_target_hosts = <; 0::0/0
The pattern in the first line matches all IPv4 addresses, whereas the pattern
in the second line matches all IPv6 addresses.
This option may also be useful for ignoring link-local and site-local IPv6
addresses. Because, like all host lists, the value of ignore_target_hosts is
expanded before use as a list, it is possible to make it dependent on the
domain that is being routed.
During its expansion, $host_address is set to the IP address that is being
checked.
------------------------------------------------------
-initgroups-Use: routers-Type: boolean-Default: false-
------------------------------------------------------
If the router queues an address for a transport, and this option is true, and
the uid supplied by the router is not overridden by the transport, the
initgroups() function is called when running the transport to ensure that any
additional groups associated with the uid are set up. See also group and user
and the discussion in chapter 23.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-local_part_prefix-Use: routers**-Type: string list-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, the router is skipped unless the local part starts with
one of the given strings, or local_part_prefix_optional is true. See section
3.12 for a list of the order in which preconditions are evaluated.
The list is scanned from left to right, and the first prefix that matches is
used. A limited form of wildcard is available; if the prefix begins with an
asterisk, it matches the longest possible sequence of arbitrary characters at
the start of the local part. An asterisk should therefore always be followed by
some character that does not occur in normal local parts. Wildcarding can be
used to set up multiple user mailboxes, as described in section 47.8.
During the testing of the local_parts option, and while the router is running,
the prefix is removed from the local part, and is available in the expansion
variable $local_part_prefix. When a message is being delivered, if the router
accepts the address, this remains true during subsequent delivery by a
transport. In particular, the local part that is transmitted in the RCPT
command for LMTP, SMTP, and BSMTP deliveries has the prefix removed by default.
This behaviour can be overridden by setting rcpt_include_affixes true on the
relevant transport.
When an address is being verified, local_part_prefix affects only the behaviour
of the router. If the callout feature of verification is in use, this means
that the full address, including the prefix, will be used during the callout.
The prefix facility is commonly used to handle local parts of the form
owner-something. Another common use is to support local parts of the form
real-username to bypass a user's .forward file - helpful when trying to tell a
user their forwarding is broken - by placing a router like this one immediately
before the router that handles .forward files:
real_localuser:
driver = accept
local_part_prefix = real-
check_local_user
transport = local_delivery
For security, it would probably be a good idea to restrict the use of this
router to locally-generated messages, using a condition such as this:
condition = ${if match {$sender_host_address}\
{\N^(|127\.0\.0\.1)$\N}}
If both local_part_prefix and local_part_suffix are set for a router, both
conditions must be met if not optional. Care must be taken if wildcards are
used in both a prefix and a suffix on the same router. Different separator
characters must be used to avoid ambiguity.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
-local_part_prefix_optional-Use: routers-Type: boolean-Default: false-
----------------------------------------------------------------------
See local_part_prefix above.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-local_part_suffix-Use: routers**-Type: string list-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This option operates in the same way as local_part_prefix, except that the
local part must end (rather than start) with the given string, the
local_part_suffix_optional option determines whether the suffix is mandatory,
and the wildcard * character, if present, must be the last character of the
suffix. This option facility is commonly used to handle local parts of the form
something-request and multiple user mailboxes of the form username-foo.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
-local_part_suffix_optional-Use: routers-Type: boolean-Default: false-
----------------------------------------------------------------------
See local_part_suffix above.
------------------------------------------------------------------
-local_parts-Use: routers**-Type: local part list*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------------
The router is run only if the local part of the address matches the list. See
section 3.12 for a list of the order in which preconditions are evaluated, and
section 10.21 for a discussion of local part lists. Because the string is
expanded, it is possible to make it depend on the domain, for example:
local_parts = dbm;/usr/local/specials/$domain
If the match is achieved by a lookup, the data that the lookup returned for the
local part is placed in the variable $local_part_data for use in expansions of
the router's private options. You might use this option, for example, if you
have a large number of local virtual domains, and you want to send all
postmaster mail to the same place without having to set up an alias in each
virtual domain:
postmaster:
driver = redirect
local_parts = postmaster
data = postmaster@real.domain.example
------------------------------------------------------------
-log_as_local-Use: routers-Type: boolean-Default: see below-
------------------------------------------------------------
Exim has two logging styles for delivery, the idea being to make local
deliveries stand out more visibly from remote ones. In the "local" style, the
recipient address is given just as the local part, without a domain. The use of
this style is controlled by this option. It defaults to true for the accept
router, and false for all the others. This option applies only when a router
assigns an address to a transport. It has no effect on routers that redirect
addresses.
------------------------------------------------
-more-Use: routers-Type: boolean*-Default: true-
------------------------------------------------
The result of string expansion for this option must be a valid boolean value,
that is, one of the strings "yes", "no", "true", or "false". Any other result
causes an error, and delivery is deferred. If the expansion is forced to fail,
the default value for the option (true) is used. Other failures cause delivery
to be deferred.
If this option is set false, and the router declines to handle the address, no
further routers are tried, routing fails, and the address is bounced. However,
if the router explicitly passes an address to the following router by means of
the setting
self = pass
or otherwise, the setting of more is ignored. Also, the setting of more does
not affect the behaviour if one of the precondition tests fails. In that case,
the address is always passed to the next router.
Note that address_data is not considered to be a precondition. If its expansion
is forced to fail, the router declines, and the value of more controls what
happens next.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-pass_on_timeout-Use: routers-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------
If a router times out during a host lookup, it normally causes deferral of the
address. If pass_on_timeout is set, the address is passed on to the next
router, overriding no_more. This may be helpful for systems that are
intermittently connected to the Internet, or those that want to pass to a smart
host any messages that cannot immediately be delivered.
There are occasional other temporary errors that can occur while doing DNS
lookups. They are treated in the same way as a timeout, and this option applies
to all of them.
------------------------------------------------------
-pass_router-Use: routers-Type: string-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------
Routers that recognize the generic self option (dnslookup, ipliteral, and
manualroute) are able to return "pass", forcing routing to continue, and
overriding a false setting of more. When one of these routers returns "pass",
the address is normally handed on to the next router in sequence. This can be
changed by setting pass_router to the name of another router. However (unlike
redirect_router) the named router must be below the current router, to avoid
loops. Note that this option applies only to the special case of "pass". It
does not apply when a router returns "decline" because it cannot handle an
address.
----------------------------------------------------------
-redirect_router-Use: routers-Type: string-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
Sometimes an administrator knows that it is pointless to reprocess addresses
generated from alias or forward files with the same router again. For example,
if an alias file translates real names into login ids there is no point
searching the alias file a second time, especially if it is a large file.
The redirect_router option can be set to the name of any router instance. It
causes the routing of any generated addresses to start at the named router
instead of at the first router. This option has no effect if the router in
which it is set does not generate new addresses.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-require_files-Use: routers**-Type: string list*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------------
This option provides a general mechanism for predicating the running of a
router on the existence or non-existence of certain files or directories.
Before running a router, as one of its precondition tests, Exim works its way
through the require_files list, expanding each item separately.
Because the list is split before expansion, any colons in expansion items must
be doubled, or the facility for using a different list separator must be used.
If any expansion is forced to fail, the item is ignored. Other expansion
failures cause routing of the address to be deferred.
If any expanded string is empty, it is ignored. Otherwise, except as described
below, each string must be a fully qualified file path, optionally preceded by
"!". The paths are passed to the stat() function to test for the existence of
the files or directories. The router is skipped if any paths not preceded by "!
" do not exist, or if any paths preceded by "!" do exist.
If stat() cannot determine whether a file exists or not, delivery of the
message is deferred. This can happen when NFS-mounted filesystems are
unavailable.
This option is checked after the domains, local_parts, and senders options, so
you cannot use it to check for the existence of a file in which to look up a
domain, local part, or sender. (See section 3.12 for a full list of the order
in which preconditions are evaluated.) However, as these options are all
expanded, you can use the exists expansion condition to make such tests. The
require_files option is intended for checking files that the router may be
going to use internally, or which are needed by a transport (for example
.procmailrc).
During delivery, the stat() function is run as root, but there is a facility
for some checking of the accessibility of a file by another user. This is not a
proper permissions check, but just a "rough" check that operates as follows:
If an item in a require_files list does not contain any forward slash
characters, it is taken to be the user (and optional group, separated by a
comma) to be checked for subsequent files in the list. If no group is specified
but the user is specified symbolically, the gid associated with the uid is
used. For example:
require_files = mail:/some/file
require_files = $local_part:$home/.procmailrc
If a user or group name in a require_files list does not exist, the
require_files condition fails.
Exim performs the check by scanning along the components of the file path, and
checking the access for the given uid and gid. It checks for "x" access on
directories, and "r" access on the final file. Note that this means that file
access control lists, if the operating system has them, are ignored.
Warning 1: When the router is being run to verify addresses for an incoming
SMTP message, Exim is not running as root, but under its own uid. This may
affect the result of a require_files check. In particular, stat() may yield the
error EACCES ("Permission denied"). This means that the Exim user is not
permitted to read one of the directories on the file's path.
Warning 2: Even when Exim is running as root while delivering a message, stat()
can yield EACCES for a file in an NFS directory that is mounted without root
access. In this case, if a check for access by a particular user is requested,
Exim creates a subprocess that runs as that user, and tries the check again in
that process.
The default action for handling an unresolved EACCES is to consider it to be
caused by a configuration error, and routing is deferred because the existence
or non-existence of the file cannot be determined. However, in some
circumstances it may be desirable to treat this condition as if the file did
not exist. If the file name (or the exclamation mark that precedes the file
name for non-existence) is preceded by a plus sign, the EACCES error is treated
as if the file did not exist. For example:
require_files = +/some/file
If the router is not an essential part of verification (for example, it handles
users' .forward files), another solution is to set the verify option false so
that the router is skipped when verifying.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
-retry_use_local_part-Use: routers-Type: boolean-Default: see below-
--------------------------------------------------------------------
When a delivery suffers a temporary routing failure, a retry record is created
in Exim's hints database. For addresses whose routing depends only on the
domain, the key for the retry record should not involve the local part, but for
other addresses, both the domain and the local part should be included.
Usually, remote routing is of the former kind, and local routing is of the
latter kind.
This option controls whether the local part is used to form the key for retry
hints for addresses that suffer temporary errors while being handled by this
router. The default value is true for any router that has check_local_user set,
and false otherwise. Note that this option does not apply to hints keys for
transport delays; they are controlled by a generic transport option of the same
name.
The setting of retry_use_local_part applies only to the router on which it
appears. If the router generates child addresses, they are routed
independently; this setting does not become attached to them.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-router_home_directory-Use: routers-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This option sets a home directory for use while the router is running. (Compare
transport_home_directory, which sets a home directory for later transporting.)
In particular, if used on a redirect router, this option sets a value for $home
while a filter is running. The value is expanded; forced expansion failure
causes the option to be ignored - other failures cause the router to defer.
Expansion of router_home_directory happens immediately after the
check_local_user test (if configured), before any further expansions take
place. (See section 3.12 for a list of the order in which preconditions are
evaluated.) While the router is running, router_home_directory overrides the
value of $home that came from check_local_user.
When a router accepts an address and assigns it to a local transport (including
the cases when a redirect router generates a pipe, file, or autoreply
delivery), the home directory setting for the transport is taken from the first
of these values that is set:
* The home_directory option on the transport;
* The transport_home_directory option on the router;
* The password data if check_local_user is set on the router;
* The router_home_directory option on the router.
In other words, router_home_directory overrides the password data for the
router, but not for the transport.
------------------------------------------------
-self-Use: routers-Type: string-Default: freeze-
------------------------------------------------
This option applies to those routers that use a recipient address to find a
list of remote hosts. Currently, these are the dnslookup, ipliteral, and
manualroute routers. Certain configurations of the queryprogram router can also
specify a list of remote hosts. Usually such routers are configured to send the
message to a remote host via an smtp transport. The self option specifies what
happens when the first host on the list turns out to be the local host. The way
in which Exim checks for the local host is described in section 13.8.
Normally this situation indicates either an error in Exim's configuration (for
example, the router should be configured not to process this domain), or an
error in the DNS (for example, the MX should not point to this host). For this
reason, the default action is to log the incident, defer the address, and
freeze the message. The following alternatives are provided for use in special
cases:
defer
Delivery of the message is tried again later, but the message is not
frozen.
reroute: <domain>
The domain is changed to the given domain, and the address is passed back
to be reprocessed by the routers. No rewriting of headers takes place. This
behaviour is essentially a redirection.
reroute: rewrite: <domain>
The domain is changed to the given domain, and the address is passed back
to be reprocessed by the routers. Any headers that contain the original
domain are rewritten.
pass
The router passes the address to the next router, or to the router named in
the pass_router option if it is set. This overrides no_more. During
subsequent routing and delivery, the variable $self_hostname contains the
name of the local host that the router encountered. This can be used to
distinguish between different cases for hosts with multiple names. The
combination
self = pass
no_more
ensures that only those addresses that routed to the local host are passed
on. Without no_more, addresses that were declined for other reasons would
also be passed to the next router.
fail
Delivery fails and an error report is generated.
send
The anomaly is ignored and the address is queued for the transport. This
setting should be used with extreme caution. For an smtp transport, it
makes sense only in cases where the program that is listening on the SMTP
port is not this version of Exim. That is, it must be some other MTA, or
Exim with a different configuration file that handles the domain in another
way.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-senders-Use: routers**-Type: address list*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, the router is skipped unless the message's sender
address matches something on the list. See section 3.12 for a list of the order
in which preconditions are evaluated.
There are issues concerning verification when the running of routers is
dependent on the sender. When Exim is verifying the address in an errors_to
setting, it sets the sender to the null string. When using the -bt option to
check a configuration file, it is necessary also to use the -f option to set an
appropriate sender. For incoming mail, the sender is unset when verifying the
sender, but is available when verifying any recipients. If the SMTP VRFY
command is enabled, it must be used after MAIL if the sender address matters.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-translate_ip_address-Use: routers-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------------
There exist some rare networking situations (for example, packet radio) where
it is helpful to be able to translate IP addresses generated by normal routing
mechanisms into other IP addresses, thus performing a kind of manual IP
routing. This should be done only if the normal IP routing of the TCP/IP stack
is inadequate or broken. Because this is an extremely uncommon requirement, the
code to support this option is not included in the Exim binary unless
SUPPORT_TRANSLATE_IP_ADDRESS=yes is set in Local/Makefile.
The translate_ip_address string is expanded for every IP address generated by
the router, with the generated address set in $host_address. If the expansion
is forced to fail, no action is taken. For any other expansion error, delivery
of the message is deferred. If the result of the expansion is an IP address,
that replaces the original address; otherwise the result is assumed to be a
host name - this is looked up using gethostbyname() (or getipnodebyname() when
available) to produce one or more replacement IP addresses. For example, to
subvert all IP addresses in some specific networks, this could be added to a
router:
translate_ip_address = \
${lookup{${mask:$host_address/26}}lsearch{/some/file}\
{$value}fail}}
The file would contain lines like
10.2.3.128/26 some.host
10.8.4.34/26 10.44.8.15
You should not make use of this facility unless you really understand what you
are doing.
-----------------------------------------------------
-transport-Use: routers-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the transport to be used when a router accepts an address
and sets it up for delivery. A transport is never needed if a router is used
only for verification. The value of the option is expanded at routing time,
after the expansion of errors_to, headers_add, and headers_remove, and result
must be the name of one of the configured transports. If it is not, delivery is
deferred.
The transport option is not used by the redirect router, but it does have some
private options that set up transports for pipe and file deliveries (see
chapter 22).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-transport_current_directory-Use: routers-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This option associates a current directory with any address that is routed to a
local transport. This can happen either because a transport is explicitly
configured for the router, or because it generates a delivery to a file or a
pipe. During the delivery process (that is, at transport time), this option
string is expanded and is set as the current directory, unless overridden by a
setting on the transport. If the expansion fails for any reason, including
forced failure, an error is logged, and delivery is deferred. See chapter 23
for details of the local delivery environment.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-transport_home_directory-Use: routers-Type: string*-Default: see below-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This option associates a home directory with any address that is routed to a
local transport. This can happen either because a transport is explicitly
configured for the router, or because it generates a delivery to a file or a
pipe. During the delivery process (that is, at transport time), the option
string is expanded and is set as the home directory, unless overridden by a
setting of home_directory on the transport. If the expansion fails for any
reason, including forced failure, an error is logged, and delivery is deferred.
If the transport does not specify a home directory, and
transport_home_directory is not set for the router, the home directory for the
transport is taken from the password data if check_local_user is set for the
router. Otherwise it is taken from router_home_directory if that option is set;
if not, no home directory is set for the transport.
See chapter 23 for further details of the local delivery environment.
---------------------------------------------------
-unseen-Use: routers-Type: boolean*-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------
The result of string expansion for this option must be a valid boolean value,
that is, one of the strings "yes", "no", "true", or "false". Any other result
causes an error, and delivery is deferred. If the expansion is forced to fail,
the default value for the option (false) is used. Other failures cause delivery
to be deferred.
When this option is set true, routing does not cease if the router accepts the
address. Instead, a copy of the incoming address is passed to the next router,
overriding a false setting of more. There is little point in setting more false
if unseen is always true, but it may be useful in cases when the value of
unseen contains expansion items (and therefore, presumably, is sometimes true
and sometimes false).
Setting the unseen option has a similar effect to the unseen command qualifier
in filter files. It can be used to cause copies of messages to be delivered to
some other destination, while also carrying out a normal delivery. In effect,
the current address is made into a "parent" that has two children - one that is
delivered as specified by this router, and a clone that goes on to be routed
further. For this reason, unseen may not be combined with the one_time option
in a redirect router.
Warning: Header lines added to the address (or specified for removal) by this
router or by previous routers affect the "unseen" copy of the message only. The
clone that continues to be processed by further routers starts with no added
headers and none specified for removal. For a redirect router, if a generated
address is the same as the incoming address, this can lead to duplicate
addresses with different header modifications. Exim does not do duplicate
deliveries (except, in certain circumstances, to pipes -- see section 22.7),
but it is undefined which of the duplicates is discarded, so this ambiguous
situation should be avoided. The repeat_use option of the redirect router may
be of help.
Unlike the handling of header modifications, any data that was set by the
address_data option in the current or previous routers is passed on to
subsequent routers.
----------------------------------------------------
-user-Use: routers-Type: string*-Default: see below-
----------------------------------------------------
When a router queues an address for a transport, and the transport does not
specify a user, the user given here is used when running the delivery process.
The user may be specified numerically or by name. If expansion fails, the error
is logged and delivery is deferred. This user is also used by the redirect
router when running a filter file. The default is unset, except when
check_local_user is set. In this case, the default is taken from the password
information. If the user is specified as a name, and group is not set, the
group associated with the user is used. See also initgroups and group and the
discussion in chapter 23.
---------------------------------------------------
-verify-Use: routers**-Type: boolean-Default: true-
---------------------------------------------------
Setting this option has the effect of setting verify_sender and
verify_recipient to the same value.
---------------------------------------------------------
-verify_only-Use: routers**-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, the router is used only when verifying an address or
testing with the -bv option, not when actually doing a delivery, testing with
the -bt option, or running the SMTP EXPN command. It can be further restricted
to verifying only senders or recipients by means of verify_sender and
verify_recipient.
Warning: When the router is being run to verify addresses for an incoming SMTP
message, Exim is not running as root, but under its own uid. If the router
accesses any files, you need to make sure that they are accessible to the Exim
user or group.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-verify_recipient-Use: routers**-Type: boolean-Default: true-
-------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is false, the router is skipped when verifying recipient
addresses or testing recipient verification using -bv. See section 3.12 for a
list of the order in which preconditions are evaluated.
----------------------------------------------------------
-verify_sender-Use: routers**-Type: boolean-Default: true-
----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is false, the router is skipped when verifying sender addresses
or testing sender verification using -bvs. See section 3.12 for a list of the
order in which preconditions are evaluated.
===============================================================================
16. THE ACCEPT ROUTER
The accept router has no private options of its own. Unless it is being used
purely for verification (see verify_only) a transport is required to be defined
by the generic transport option. If the preconditions that are specified by
generic options are met, the router accepts the address and queues it for the
given transport. The most common use of this router is for setting up
deliveries to local mailboxes. For example:
localusers:
driver = accept
domains = mydomain.example
check_local_user
transport = local_delivery
The domains condition in this example checks the domain of the address, and
check_local_user checks that the local part is the login of a local user. When
both preconditions are met, the accept router runs, and queues the address for
the local_delivery transport.
===============================================================================
17. THE DNSLOOKUP ROUTER
The dnslookup router looks up the hosts that handle mail for the recipient's
domain in the DNS. A transport must always be set for this router, unless
verify_only is set.
If SRV support is configured (see check_srv below), Exim first searches for SRV
records. If none are found, or if SRV support is not configured, MX records are
looked up. If no MX records exist, address records are sought. However,
mx_domains can be set to disable the direct use of address records.
MX records of equal priority are sorted by Exim into a random order. Exim then
looks for address records for the host names obtained from MX or SRV records.
When a host has more than one IP address, they are sorted into a random order,
except that IPv6 addresses are always sorted before IPv4 addresses. If all the
IP addresses found are discarded by a setting of the ignore_target_hosts
generic option, the router declines.
Unless they have the highest priority (lowest MX value), MX records that point
to the local host, or to any host name that matches hosts_treat_as_local, are
discarded, together with any other MX records of equal or lower priority.
If the host pointed to by the highest priority MX record, or looked up as an
address record, is the local host, or matches hosts_treat_as_local, what
happens is controlled by the generic self option.
17.1 Problems with DNS lookups
------------------------------
There have been problems with DNS servers when SRV records are looked up. Some
mis-behaving servers return a DNS error or timeout when a non-existent SRV
record is sought. Similar problems have in the past been reported for MX
records. The global dns_again_means_nonexist option can help with this problem,
but it is heavy-handed because it is a global option.
For this reason, there are two options, srv_fail_domains and mx_fail_domains,
that control what happens when a DNS lookup in a dnslookup router results in a
DNS failure or a "try again" response. If an attempt to look up an SRV or MX
record causes one of these results, and the domain matches the relevant list,
Exim behaves as if the DNS had responded "no such record". In the case of an
SRV lookup, this means that the router proceeds to look for MX records; in the
case of an MX lookup, it proceeds to look for A or AAAA records, unless the
domain matches mx_domains, in which case routing fails.
17.2 Private options for dnslookup
----------------------------------
The private options for the dnslookup router are as follows:
----------------------------------------------------------------
-check_secondary_mx-Use: dnslookup-Type: boolean-Default: false-
----------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, the router declines unless the local host is found in
(and removed from) the list of hosts obtained by MX lookup. This can be used to
process domains for which the local host is a secondary mail exchanger
differently to other domains. The way in which Exim decides whether a host is
the local host is described in section 13.8.
-------------------------------------------------------
-check_srv-Use: dnslookup-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------
The dnslookup router supports the use of SRV records (see RFC 2782) in addition
to MX and address records. The support is disabled by default. To enable SRV
support, set the check_srv option to the name of the service required. For
example,
check_srv = smtp
looks for SRV records that refer to the normal smtp service. The option is
expanded, so the service name can vary from message to message or address to
address. This might be helpful if SRV records are being used for a submission
service. If the expansion is forced to fail, the check_srv option is ignored,
and the router proceeds to look for MX records in the normal way.
When the expansion succeeds, the router searches first for SRV records for the
given service (it assumes TCP protocol). A single SRV record with a host name
that consists of just a single dot indicates "no such service for this domain";
if this is encountered, the router declines. If other kinds of SRV record are
found, they are used to construct a host list for delivery according to the
rules of RFC 2782. MX records are not sought in this case.
When no SRV records are found, MX records (and address records) are sought in
the traditional way. In other words, SRV records take precedence over MX
records, just as MX records take precedence over address records. Note that
this behaviour is not sanctioned by RFC 2782, though a previous draft RFC
defined it. It is apparently believed that MX records are sufficient for email
and that SRV records should not be used for this purpose. However, SRV records
have an additional "weight" feature which some people might find useful when
trying to split an SMTP load between hosts of different power.
See section 17.1 above for a discussion of Exim's behaviour when there is a DNS
lookup error.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-mx_domains-Use: dnslookup-Type: domain list*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------
A domain that matches mx_domains is required to have either an MX or an SRV
record in order to be recognized. (The name of this option could be improved.)
For example, if all the mail hosts in fict.example are known to have MX
records, except for those in discworld.fict.example, you could use this
setting:
mx_domains = ! *.discworld.fict.example : *.fict.example
This specifies that messages addressed to a domain that matches the list but
has no MX record should be bounced immediately instead of being routed using
the address record.
------------------------------------------------------------------
-mx_fail_domains-Use: dnslookup-Type: domain list*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------------
If the DNS lookup for MX records for one of the domains in this list causes a
DNS lookup error, Exim behaves as if no MX records were found. See section 17.1
for more discussion.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-qualify_single-Use: dnslookup-Type: boolean-Default: true-
-----------------------------------------------------------
When this option is true, the resolver option RES_DEFNAMES is set for DNS
lookups. Typically, but not standardly, this causes the resolver to qualify
single-component names with the default domain. For example, on a machine
called dictionary.ref.example, the domain thesaurus would be changed to
thesaurus.ref.example inside the resolver. For details of what your resolver
actually does, consult your man pages for resolver and resolv.conf.
------------------------------------------------------------
-rewrite_headers-Use: dnslookup-Type: boolean-Default: true-
------------------------------------------------------------
If the domain name in the address that is being processed is not fully
qualified, it may be expanded to its full form by a DNS lookup. For example, if
an address is specified as dormouse@teaparty, the domain might be expanded to
teaparty.wonderland.fict.example. Domain expansion can also occur as a result
of setting the widen_domains option. If rewrite_headers is true, all
occurrences of the abbreviated domain name in any Bcc:, Cc:, From:, Reply-to:,
Sender:, and To: header lines of the message are rewritten with the full domain
name.
This option should be turned off only when it is known that no message is ever
going to be sent outside an environment where the abbreviation makes sense.
When an MX record is looked up in the DNS and matches a wildcard record, name
servers normally return a record containing the name that has been looked up,
making it impossible to detect whether a wildcard was present or not. However,
some name servers have recently been seen to return the wildcard entry. If the
name returned by a DNS lookup begins with an asterisk, it is not used for
header rewriting.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
-same_domain_copy_routing-Use: dnslookup-Type: boolean-Default: false-
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Addresses with the same domain are normally routed by the dnslookup router to
the same list of hosts. However, this cannot be presumed, because the router
options and preconditions may refer to the local part of the address. By
default, therefore, Exim routes each address in a message independently. DNS
servers run caches, so repeated DNS lookups are not normally expensive, and in
any case, personal messages rarely have more than a few recipients.
If you are running mailing lists with large numbers of subscribers at the same
domain, and you are using a dnslookup router which is independent of the local
part, you can set same_domain_copy_routing to bypass repeated DNS lookups for
identical domains in one message. In this case, when dnslookup routes an
address to a remote transport, any other unrouted addresses in the message that
have the same domain are automatically given the same routing without
processing them independently, provided the following conditions are met:
* No router that processed the address specified headers_add or
headers_remove.
* The router did not change the address in any way, for example, by
"widening" the domain.
------------------------------------------------------------
-search_parents-Use: dnslookup-Type: boolean-Default: false-
------------------------------------------------------------
When this option is true, the resolver option RES_DNSRCH is set for DNS
lookups. This is different from the qualify_single option in that it applies to
domains containing dots. Typically, but not standardly, it causes the resolver
to search for the name in the current domain and in parent domains. For
example, on a machine in the fict.example domain, if looking up
teaparty.wonderland failed, the resolver would try
teaparty.wonderland.fict.example. For details of what your resolver actually
does, consult your man pages for resolver and resolv.conf.
Setting this option true can cause problems in domains that have a wildcard MX
record, because any domain that does not have its own MX record matches the
local wildcard.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-srv_fail_domains-Use: dnslookup-Type: domain list*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
If the DNS lookup for SRV records for one of the domains in this list causes a
DNS lookup error, Exim behaves as if no SRV records were found. See section
17.1 for more discussion.
---------------------------------------------------------------
-widen_domains-Use: dnslookup-Type: string list-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------------
If a DNS lookup fails and this option is set, each of its strings in turn is
added onto the end of the domain, and the lookup is tried again. For example,
if
widen_domains = fict.example:ref.example
is set and a lookup of klingon.dictionary fails,
klingon.dictionary.fict.example is looked up, and if this fails,
klingon.dictionary.ref.example is tried. Note that the qualify_single and
search_parents options can cause some widening to be undertaken inside the DNS
resolver. widen_domains is not applied to sender addresses when verifying,
unless rewrite_headers is false (not the default).
17.3 Effect of qualify_single and search_parents
------------------------------------------------
When a domain from an envelope recipient is changed by the resolver as a result
of the qualify_single or search_parents options, Exim rewrites the
corresponding address in the message's header lines unless rewrite_headers is
set false. Exim then re-routes the address, using the full domain.
These two options affect only the DNS lookup that takes place inside the router
for the domain of the address that is being routed. They do not affect lookups
such as that implied by
domains = @mx_any
that may happen while processing a router precondition before the router is
entered. No widening ever takes place for these lookups.
===============================================================================
18. THE IPLITERAL ROUTER
This router has no private options. Unless it is being used purely for
verification (see verify_only) a transport is required to be defined by the
generic transport option. The router accepts the address if its domain part
takes the form of an RFC 2822 domain literal. For example, the ipliteral router
handles the address
root@[192.168.1.1]
by setting up delivery to the host with that IP address. IPv4 domain literals
consist of an IPv4 address enclosed in square brackets. IPv6 domain literals
are similar, but the address is preceded by "ipv6:". For example:
postmaster@[ipv6:fe80::a00:20ff:fe86:a061.5678]
Exim allows "ipv4:" before IPv4 addresses, for consistency, and on the grounds
that sooner or later somebody will try it.
If the IP address matches something in ignore_target_hosts, the router
declines. If an IP literal turns out to refer to the local host, the generic
self option determines what happens.
The RFCs require support for domain literals; however, their use is
controversial in today's Internet. If you want to use this router, you must
also set the main configuration option allow_domain_literals. Otherwise, Exim
will not recognize the domain literal syntax in addresses.
===============================================================================
19. THE IPLOOKUP ROUTER
The iplookup router was written to fulfil a specific requirement in Cambridge
University (which in fact no longer exists). For this reason, it is not
included in the binary of Exim by default. If you want to include it, you must
set
ROUTER_IPLOOKUP=yes
in your Local/Makefile configuration file.
The iplookup router routes an address by sending it over a TCP or UDP
connection to one or more specific hosts. The host can then return the same or
a different address - in effect rewriting the recipient address in the
message's envelope. The new address is then passed on to subsequent routers. If
this process fails, the address can be passed on to other routers, or delivery
can be deferred. Since iplookup is just a rewriting router, a transport must
not be specified for it.
-------------------------------------------------
-hosts-Use: iplookup-Type: string-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------
This option must be supplied. Its value is a colon-separated list of host
names. The hosts are looked up using gethostbyname() (or getipnodebyname() when
available) and are tried in order until one responds to the query. If none
respond, what happens is controlled by optional.
-----------------------------------------------------
-optional-Use: iplookup-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------
If optional is true, if no response is obtained from any host, the address is
passed to the next router, overriding no_more. If optional is false, delivery
to the address is deferred.
---------------------------------------------
-port-Use: iplookup-Type: integer-Default: 0-
---------------------------------------------
This option must be supplied. It specifies the port number for the TCP or UDP
call.
--------------------------------------------------
-protocol-Use: iplookup-Type: string-Default: udp-
--------------------------------------------------
This option can be set to "udp" or "tcp" to specify which of the two protocols
is to be used.
------------------------------------------------------
-query-Use: iplookup-Type: string*-Default: see below-
------------------------------------------------------
This defines the content of the query that is sent to the remote hosts. The
default value is:
$local_part@$domain $local_part@$domain
The repetition serves as a way of checking that a response is to the correct
query in the default case (see response_pattern below).
----------------------------------------------------
-reroute-Use: iplookup-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------
If this option is not set, the rerouted address is precisely the byte string
returned by the remote host, up to the first white space, if any. If set, the
string is expanded to form the rerouted address. It can include parts matched
in the response by response_pattern by means of numeric variables such as $1,
$2, etc. The variable $0 refers to the entire input string, whether or not a
pattern is in use. In all cases, the rerouted address must end up in the form
local_part@domain.
------------------------------------------------------------
-response_pattern-Use: iplookup-Type: string-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------
This option can be set to a regular expression that is applied to the string
returned from the remote host. If the pattern does not match the response, the
router declines. If response_pattern is not set, no checking of the response is
done, unless the query was defaulted, in which case there is a check that the
text returned after the first white space is the original address. This checks
that the answer that has been received is in response to the correct question.
For example, if the response is just a new domain, the following could be used:
response_pattern = ^([^@]+)$
reroute = $local_part@$1
----------------------------------------------
-timeout-Use: iplookup-Type: time-Default: 5s-
----------------------------------------------
This specifies the amount of time to wait for a response from the remote
machine. The same timeout is used for the connect() function for a TCP call. It
does not apply to UDP.
===============================================================================
20. THE MANUALROUTE ROUTER
The manualroute router is so-called because it provides a way of manually
routing an address according to its domain. It is mainly used when you want to
route addresses to remote hosts according to your own rules, bypassing the
normal DNS routing that looks up MX records. However, manualroute can also
route to local transports, a facility that may be useful if you want to save
messages for dial-in hosts in local files.
The manualroute router compares a list of domain patterns with the domain it is
trying to route. If there is no match, the router declines. Each pattern has
associated with it a list of hosts and some other optional data, which may
include a transport. The combination of a pattern and its data is called a
"routing rule". For patterns that do not have an associated transport, the
generic transport option must specify a transport, unless the router is being
used purely for verification (see verify_only).
In the case of verification, matching the domain pattern is sufficient for the
router to accept the address. When actually routing an address for delivery, an
address that matches a domain pattern is queued for the associated transport.
If the transport is not a local one, a host list must be associated with the
pattern; IP addresses are looked up for the hosts, and these are passed to the
transport along with the mail address. For local transports, a host list is
optional. If it is present, it is passed in $host as a single text string.
The list of routing rules can be provided as an inline string in route_list, or
the data can be obtained by looking up the domain in a file or database by
setting route_data. Only one of these settings may appear in any one instance
of manualroute. The format of routing rules is described below, following the
list of private options.
20.1 Private options for manualroute
------------------------------------
The private options for the manualroute router are as follows:
---------------------------------------------------------------
-host_all_ignored-Use: manualroute-Type: string-Default: defer-
---------------------------------------------------------------
See host_find_failed.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-host_find_failed-Use: manualroute-Type: string-Default: freeze-
----------------------------------------------------------------
This option controls what happens when manualroute tries to find an IP address
for a host, and the host does not exist. The option can be set to one of the
following values:
decline
defer
fail
freeze
ignore
pass
The default ("freeze") assumes that this state is a serious configuration
error. The difference between "pass" and "decline" is that the former forces
the address to be passed to the next router (or the router defined by
pass_router), overriding no_more, whereas the latter passes the address to the
next router only if more is true.
The value "ignore" causes Exim to completely ignore a host whose IP address
cannot be found. If all the hosts in the list are ignored, the behaviour is
controlled by the host_all_ignored option. This takes the same values as
host_find_failed, except that it cannot be set to "ignore".
The host_find_failed option applies only to a definite "does not exist" state;
if a host lookup gets a temporary error, delivery is deferred unless the
generic pass_on_timeout option is set.
---------------------------------------------------------------
-hosts_randomize-Use: manualroute-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, the order of the items in a host list in a routing rule
is randomized each time the list is used, unless an option in the routing rule
overrides (see below). Randomizing the order of a host list can be used to do
crude load sharing. However, if more than one mail address is routed by the
same router to the same host list, the host lists are considered to be the same
(even though they may be randomized into different orders) for the purpose of
deciding whether to batch the deliveries into a single SMTP transaction.
When hosts_randomize is true, a host list may be split into groups whose order
is separately randomized. This makes it possible to set up MX-like behaviour.
The boundaries between groups are indicated by an item that is just "+" in the
host list. For example:
route_list = * host1:host2:host3:+:host4:host5
The order of the first three hosts and the order of the last two hosts is
randomized for each use, but the first three always end up before the last two.
If hosts_randomize is not set, a "+" item in the list is ignored. If a
randomized host list is passed to an smtp transport that also has
hosts_randomize set, the list is not re-randomized.
----------------------------------------------------------
-route_data-Use: manualroute-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, it must expand to yield the data part of a routing rule.
Typically, the expansion string includes a lookup based on the domain. For
example:
route_data = ${lookup{$domain}dbm{/etc/routes}}
If the expansion is forced to fail, or the result is an empty string, the
router declines. Other kinds of expansion failure cause delivery to be
deferred.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-route_list-Use: manualroute-Type: string list-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------------
This string is a list of routing rules, in the form defined below. Note that,
unlike most string lists, the items are separated by semicolons. This is so
that they may contain colon-separated host lists.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-same_domain_copy_routing-Use: manualroute-Type: boolean-Default: false-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Addresses with the same domain are normally routed by the manualroute router to
the same list of hosts. However, this cannot be presumed, because the router
options and preconditions may refer to the local part of the address. By
default, therefore, Exim routes each address in a message independently. DNS
servers run caches, so repeated DNS lookups are not normally expensive, and in
any case, personal messages rarely have more than a few recipients.
If you are running mailing lists with large numbers of subscribers at the same
domain, and you are using a manualroute router which is independent of the
local part, you can set same_domain_copy_routing to bypass repeated DNS lookups
for identical domains in one message. In this case, when manualroute routes an
address to a remote transport, any other unrouted addresses in the message that
have the same domain are automatically given the same routing without
processing them independently. However, this is only done if headers_add and
headers_remove are unset.
20.2 Routing rules in route_list
--------------------------------
The value of route_list is a string consisting of a sequence of routing rules,
separated by semicolons. If a semicolon is needed in a rule, it can be entered
as two semicolons. Alternatively, the list separator can be changed as
described (for colon-separated lists) in section 6.19. Empty rules are ignored.
The format of each rule is
<domain pattern> <list of hosts> <options>
The following example contains two rules, each with a simple domain pattern and
no options:
route_list = \
dict.ref.example mail-1.ref.example:mail-2.ref.example ; \
thes.ref.example mail-3.ref.example:mail-4.ref.example
The three parts of a rule are separated by white space. The pattern and the
list of hosts can be enclosed in quotes if necessary, and if they are, the
usual quoting rules apply. Each rule in a route_list must start with a single
domain pattern, which is the only mandatory item in the rule. The pattern is in
the same format as one item in a domain list (see section 10.8), except that it
may not be the name of an interpolated file. That is, it may be wildcarded, or
a regular expression, or a file or database lookup (with semicolons doubled,
because of the use of semicolon as a separator in a route_list).
The rules in route_list are searched in order until one of the patterns matches
the domain that is being routed. The list of hosts and then options are then
used as described below. If there is no match, the router declines. When
route_list is set, route_data must not be set.
20.3 Routing rules in route_data
--------------------------------
The use of route_list is convenient when there are only a small number of
routing rules. For larger numbers, it is easier to use a file or database to
hold the routing information, and use the route_data option instead. The value
of route_data is a list of hosts, followed by (optional) options. Most
commonly, route_data is set as a string that contains an expansion lookup. For
example, suppose we place two routing rules in a file like this:
dict.ref.example: mail-1.ref.example:mail-2.ref.example
thes.ref.example: mail-3.ref.example:mail-4.ref.example
This data can be accessed by setting
route_data = ${lookup{$domain}lsearch{/the/file/name}}
Failure of the lookup results in an empty string, causing the router to
decline. However, you do not have to use a lookup in route_data. The only
requirement is that the result of expanding the string is a list of hosts,
possibly followed by options, separated by white space. The list of hosts must
be enclosed in quotes if it contains white space.
20.4 Format of the list of hosts
--------------------------------
A list of hosts, whether obtained via route_data or route_list, is always
separately expanded before use. If the expansion fails, the router declines.
The result of the expansion must be a colon-separated list of names and/or IP
addresses, optionally also including ports. The format of each item in the list
is described in the next section. The list separator can be changed as
described in section 6.19.
If the list of hosts was obtained from a route_list item, the following
variables are set during its expansion:
* If the domain was matched against a regular expression, the numeric
variables $1, $2, etc. may be set. For example:
route_list = ^domain(\d+) host-$1.text.example
* $0 is always set to the entire domain.
* $1 is also set when partial matching is done in a file lookup.
* If the pattern that matched the domain was a lookup item, the data that was
looked up is available in the expansion variable $value. For example:
route_list = lsearch;;/some/file.routes $value
Note the doubling of the semicolon in the pattern that is necessary because
semicolon is the default route list separator.
20.5 Format of one host item
----------------------------
Each item in the list of hosts is either a host name or an IP address,
optionally with an attached port number. When no port is given, an IP address
is not enclosed in brackets. When a port is specified, it overrides the port
specification on the transport. The port is separated from the name or address
by a colon. This leads to some complications:
* Because colon is the default separator for the list of hosts, either the
colon that specifies a port must be doubled, or the list separator must be
changed. The following two examples have the same effect:
route_list = * "host1.tld::1225 : host2.tld::1226"
route_list = * "<+ host1.tld:1225 + host2.tld:1226"
* When IPv6 addresses are involved, it gets worse, because they contain
colons of their own. To make this case easier, it is permitted to enclose
an IP address (either v4 or v6) in square brackets if a port number
follows. For example:
route_list = * "</ [10.1.1.1]:1225 / [::1]:1226"
20.6 How the list of hosts is used
----------------------------------
When an address is routed to an smtp transport by manualroute, each of the
hosts is tried, in the order specified, when carrying out the SMTP delivery.
However, the order can be changed by setting the hosts_randomize option, either
on the router (see section 20.1 above), or on the transport.
Hosts may be listed by name or by IP address. An unadorned name in the list of
hosts is interpreted as a host name. A name that is followed by "/MX" is
interpreted as an indirection to a sublist of hosts obtained by looking up MX
records in the DNS. For example:
route_list = * x.y.z:p.q.r/MX:e.f.g
If this feature is used with a port specifier, the port must come last. For
example:
route_list = * dom1.tld/mx::1225
If the hosts_randomize option is set, the order of the items in the list is
randomized before any lookups are done. Exim then scans the list; for any name
that is not followed by "/MX" it looks up an IP address. If this turns out to
be an interface on the local host and the item is not the first in the list,
Exim discards it and any subsequent items. If it is the first item, what
happens is controlled by the self option of the router.
A name on the list that is followed by "/MX" is replaced with the list of hosts
obtained by looking up MX records for the name. This is always a DNS lookup;
the bydns and byname options (see section 20.7 below) are not relevant here.
The order of these hosts is determined by the preference values in the MX
records, according to the usual rules. Because randomizing happens before the
MX lookup, it does not affect the order that is defined by MX preferences.
If the local host is present in the sublist obtained from MX records, but is
not the most preferred host in that list, it and any equally or less preferred
hosts are removed before the sublist is inserted into the main list.
If the local host is the most preferred host in the MX list, what happens
depends on where in the original list of hosts the "/MX" item appears. If it is
not the first item (that is, there are previous hosts in the main list), Exim
discards this name and any subsequent items in the main list.
If the MX item is first in the list of hosts, and the local host is the most
preferred host, what happens is controlled by the self option of the router.
DNS failures when lookup up the MX records are treated in the same way as DNS
failures when looking up IP addresses: pass_on_timeout and host_find_failed are
used when relevant.
The generic ignore_target_hosts option applies to all hosts in the list,
whether obtained from an MX lookup or not.
20.7 How the options are used
-----------------------------
The options are a sequence of words; in practice no more than three are ever
present. One of the words can be the name of a transport; this overrides the
transport option on the router for this particular routing rule only. The other
words (if present) control randomization of the list of hosts on a per-rule
basis, and how the IP addresses of the hosts are to be found when routing to a
remote transport. These options are as follows:
* randomize: randomize the order of the hosts in this list, overriding the
setting of hosts_randomize for this routing rule only.
* no_randomize: do not randomize the order of the hosts in this list,
overriding the setting of hosts_randomize for this routing rule only.
* byname: use getipnodebyname() (gethostbyname() on older systems) to find IP
addresses. This function may ultimately cause a DNS lookup, but it may also
look in /etc/hosts or other sources of information.
* bydns: look up address records for the hosts directly in the DNS; fail if
no address records are found. If there is a temporary DNS error (such as a
timeout), delivery is deferred.
For example:
route_list = domain1 host1:host2:host3 randomize bydns;\
domain2 host4:host5
If neither byname nor bydns is given, Exim behaves as follows: First, a DNS
lookup is done. If this yields anything other than HOST_NOT_FOUND, that result
is used. Otherwise, Exim goes on to try a call to getipnodebyname() or
gethostbyname(), and the result of the lookup is the result of that call.
Warning: It has been discovered that on some systems, if a DNS lookup called
via getipnodebyname() times out, HOST_NOT_FOUND is returned instead of
TRY_AGAIN. That is why the default action is to try a DNS lookup first. Only if
that gives a definite "no such host" is the local function called.
If no IP address for a host can be found, what happens is controlled by the
host_find_failed option.
When an address is routed to a local transport, IP addresses are not looked up.
The host list is passed to the transport in the $host variable.
20.8 Manualroute examples
-------------------------
In some of the examples that follow, the presence of the remote_smtp transport,
as defined in the default configuration file, is assumed:
* The manualroute router can be used to forward all external mail to a smart
host. If you have set up, in the main part of the configuration, a named
domain list that contains your local domains, for example:
domainlist local_domains = my.domain.example
You can arrange for all other domains to be routed to a smart host by
making your first router something like this:
smart_route:
driver = manualroute
domains = !+local_domains
transport = remote_smtp
route_list = * smarthost.ref.example
This causes all non-local addresses to be sent to the single host
smarthost.ref.example. If a colon-separated list of smart hosts is given,
they are tried in order (but you can use hosts_randomize to vary the order
each time). Another way of configuring the same thing is this:
smart_route:
driver = manualroute
transport = remote_smtp
route_list = !+local_domains smarthost.ref.example
There is no difference in behaviour between these two routers as they
stand. However, they behave differently if no_more is added to them. In the
first example, the router is skipped if the domain does not match the
domains precondition; the following router is always tried. If the router
runs, it always matches the domain and so can never decline. Therefore,
no_more would have no effect. In the second case, the router is never
skipped; it always runs. However, if it doesn't match the domain, it
declines. In this case no_more would prevent subsequent routers from
running.
* A mail hub is a host which receives mail for a number of domains via MX
records in the DNS and delivers it via its own private routing mechanism.
Often the final destinations are behind a firewall, with the mail hub being
the one machine that can connect to machines both inside and outside the
firewall. The manualroute router is usually used on a mail hub to route
incoming messages to the correct hosts. For a small number of domains, the
routing can be inline, using the route_list option, but for a larger number
a file or database lookup is easier to manage.
If the domain names are in fact the names of the machines to which the mail
is to be sent by the mail hub, the configuration can be quite simple. For
example:
hub_route:
driver = manualroute
transport = remote_smtp
route_list = *.rhodes.tvs.example $domain
This configuration routes domains that match "*.rhodes.tvs.example" to
hosts whose names are the same as the mail domains. A similar approach can
be taken if the host name can be obtained from the domain name by a string
manipulation that the expansion facilities can handle. Otherwise, a lookup
based on the domain can be used to find the host:
through_firewall:
driver = manualroute
transport = remote_smtp
route_data = ${lookup {$domain} cdb {/internal/host/routes}}
The result of the lookup must be the name or IP address of the host (or
hosts) to which the address is to be routed. If the lookup fails, the route
data is empty, causing the router to decline. The address then passes to
the next router.
* You can use manualroute to deliver messages to pipes or files in batched
SMTP format for onward transportation by some other means. This is one way
of storing mail for a dial-up host when it is not connected. The route list
entry can be as simple as a single domain name in a configuration like
this:
save_in_file:
driver = manualroute
transport = batchsmtp_appendfile
route_list = saved.domain.example
though often a pattern is used to pick up more than one domain. If there
are several domains or groups of domains with different transport
requirements, different transports can be listed in the routing
information:
save_in_file:
driver = manualroute
route_list = \
*.saved.domain1.example $domain batch_appendfile; \
*.saved.domain2.example \
${lookup{$domain}dbm{/domain2/hosts}{$value}fail} \
batch_pipe
The first of these just passes the domain in the $host variable, which
doesn't achieve much (since it is also in $domain), but the second does a
file lookup to find a value to pass, causing the router to decline to
handle the address if the lookup fails.
* Routing mail directly to UUCP software is a specific case of the use of
manualroute in a gateway to another mail environment. This is an example of
one way it can be done:
# Transport
uucp:
driver = pipe
user = nobody
command = /usr/local/bin/uux -r - \
${substr_-5:$host}!rmail ${local_part}
return_fail_output = true
# Router
uucphost:
transport = uucp
driver = manualroute
route_data = \
${lookup{$domain}lsearch{/usr/local/exim/uucphosts}}
The file /usr/local/exim/uucphosts contains entries like
darksite.ethereal.example: darksite.UUCP
It can be set up more simply without adding and removing ".UUCP" but this
way makes clear the distinction between the domain name
darksite.ethereal.example and the UUCP host name darksite.
===============================================================================
21. THE QUERYPROGRAM ROUTER
The queryprogram router routes an address by running an external command and
acting on its output. This is an expensive way to route, and is intended mainly
for use in lightly-loaded systems, or for performing experiments. However, if
it is possible to use the precondition options (domains, local_parts, etc) to
skip this router for most addresses, it could sensibly be used in special
cases, even on a busy host. There are the following private options:
--------------------------------------------------------
-command-Use: queryprogram-Type: string*-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------
This option must be set. It specifies the command that is to be run. The
command is split up into a command name and arguments, and then each is
expanded separately (exactly as for a pipe transport, described in chapter 29).
-------------------------------------------------------------
-command_group-Use: queryprogram-Type: string-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies a gid to be set when running the command while routing an
address for deliver. It must be set if command_user specifies a numerical uid.
If it begins with a digit, it is interpreted as the numerical value of the gid.
Otherwise it is looked up using getgrnam().
------------------------------------------------------------
-command_user-Use: queryprogram-Type: string-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------
This option must be set. It specifies the uid which is set when running the
command while routing an address for delivery. If the value begins with a
digit, it is interpreted as the numerical value of the uid. Otherwise, it is
looked up using getpwnam() to obtain a value for the uid and, if command_group
is not set, a value for the gid also.
Warning: Changing uid and gid is possible only when Exim is running as root,
which it does during a normal delivery in a conventional configuration.
However, when an address is being verified during message reception, Exim is
usually running as the Exim user, not as root. If the queryprogram router is
called from a non-root process, Exim cannot change uid or gid before running
the command. In this circumstance the command runs under the current uid and
gid.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-current_directory-Use: queryprogram-Type: string-Default: /-
-------------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies an absolute path which is made the current directory
before running the command.
--------------------------------------------------
-timeout-Use: queryprogram-Type: time-Default: 1h-
--------------------------------------------------
If the command does not complete within the timeout period, its process group
is killed and the message is frozen. A value of zero time specifies no timeout.
The standard output of the command is connected to a pipe, which is read when
the command terminates. It should consist of a single line of output,
containing up to five fields, separated by white space. The maximum length of
the line is 1023 characters. Longer lines are silently truncated. The first
field is one of the following words (case-insensitive):
* Accept: routing succeeded; the remaining fields specify what to do (see
below).
* Decline: the router declines; pass the address to the next router, unless
no_more is set.
* Fail: routing failed; do not pass the address to any more routers. Any
subsequent text on the line is an error message. If the router is run as
part of address verification during an incoming SMTP message, the message
is included in the SMTP response.
* Defer: routing could not be completed at this time; try again later. Any
subsequent text on the line is an error message which is logged. It is not
included in any SMTP response.
* Freeze: the same as defer, except that the message is frozen.
* Pass: pass the address to the next router (or the router specified by
pass_router), overriding no_more.
* Redirect: the message is redirected. The remainder of the line is a list of
new addresses, which are routed independently, starting with the first
router, or the router specified by redirect_router, if set.
When the first word is accept, the remainder of the line consists of a number
of keyed data values, as follows (split into two lines here, to fit on the
page):
ACCEPT TRANSPORT=<transport> HOSTS=<list of hosts>
LOOKUP=byname|bydns DATA=<text>
The data items can be given in any order, and all are optional. If no transport
is included, the transport specified by the generic transport option is used.
The list of hosts and the lookup type are needed only if the transport is an
smtp transport that does not itself supply a list of hosts.
The format of the list of hosts is the same as for the manualroute router. As
well as host names and IP addresses with optional port numbers, as described in
section 20.5, it may contain names followed by "/MX" to specify sublists of
hosts that are obtained by looking up MX records (see section 20.6).
If the lookup type is not specified, Exim behaves as follows when trying to
find an IP address for each host: First, a DNS lookup is done. If this yields
anything other than HOST_NOT_FOUND, that result is used. Otherwise, Exim goes
on to try a call to getipnodebyname() or gethostbyname(), and the result of the
lookup is the result of that call.
If the DATA field is set, its value is placed in the $address_data variable.
For example, this return line
accept hosts=x1.y.example:x2.y.example data="rule1"
routes the address to the default transport, passing a list of two hosts. When
the transport runs, the string "rule1" is in $address_data.
===============================================================================
22. THE REDIRECT ROUTER
The redirect router handles several kinds of address redirection. Its most
common uses are for resolving local part aliases from a central alias file
(usually called /etc/aliases) and for handling users' personal .forward files,
but it has many other potential uses. The incoming address can be redirected in
several different ways:
* It can be replaced by one or more new addresses which are themselves routed
independently.
* It can be routed to be delivered to a given file or directory.
* It can be routed to be delivered to a specified pipe command.
* It can cause an automatic reply to be generated.
* It can be forced to fail, optionally with a custom error message.
* It can be temporarily deferred, optionally with a custom message.
* It can be discarded.
The generic transport option must not be set for redirect routers. However,
there are some private options which define transports for delivery to files
and pipes, and for generating autoreplies. See the file_transport,
pipe_transport and reply_transport descriptions below.
22.1 Redirection data
---------------------
The router operates by interpreting a text string which it obtains either by
expanding the contents of the data option, or by reading the entire contents of
a file whose name is given in the file option. These two options are mutually
exclusive. The first is commonly used for handling system aliases, in a
configuration like this:
system_aliases:
driver = redirect
data = ${lookup{$local_part}lsearch{/etc/aliases}}
If the lookup fails, the expanded string in this example is empty. When the
expansion of data results in an empty string, the router declines. A forced
expansion failure also causes the router to decline; other expansion failures
cause delivery to be deferred.
A configuration using file is commonly used for handling users' .forward files,
like this:
userforward:
driver = redirect
check_local_user
file = $home/.forward
no_verify
If the file does not exist, or causes no action to be taken (for example, it is
empty or consists only of comments), the router declines. Warning: This is not
the case when the file contains syntactically valid items that happen to yield
empty addresses, for example, items containing only RFC 2822 address comments.
22.2 Forward files and address verification
-------------------------------------------
It is usual to set no_verify on redirect routers which handle users' .forward
files, as in the example above. There are two reasons for this:
* When Exim is receiving an incoming SMTP message from a remote host, it is
running under the Exim uid, not as root. Exim is unable to change uid to
read the file as the user, and it may not be able to read it as the Exim
user. So in practice the router may not be able to operate.
* However, even when the router can operate, the existence of a .forward file
is unimportant when verifying an address. What should be checked is whether
the local part is a valid user name or not. Cutting out the redirection
processing saves some resources.
22.3 Interpreting redirection data
----------------------------------
The contents of the data string, whether obtained from data or file, can be
interpreted in two different ways:
* If the allow_filter option is set true, and the data begins with the text "
#Exim filter" or "#Sieve filter", it is interpreted as a list of filtering
instructions in the form of an Exim or Sieve filter file, respectively.
Details of the syntax and semantics of filter files are described in a
separate document entitled Exim's interfaces to mail filtering; this
document is intended for use by end users.
* Otherwise, the data must be a comma-separated list of redirection items, as
described in the next section.
When a message is redirected to a file (a "mail folder"), the file name given
in a non-filter redirection list must always be an absolute path. A filter may
generate a relative path - how this is handled depends on the transport's
configuration. See section 26.1 for a discussion of this issue for the
appendfile transport.
22.4 Items in a non-filter redirection list
-------------------------------------------
When the redirection data is not an Exim or Sieve filter, for example, if it
comes from a conventional alias or forward file, it consists of a list of
addresses, file names, pipe commands, or certain special items (see section
22.6 below). The special items can be individually enabled or disabled by means
of options whose names begin with allow_ or forbid_, depending on their default
values. The items in the list are separated by commas or newlines. If a comma
is required in an item, the entire item must be enclosed in double quotes.
Lines starting with a # character are comments, and are ignored, and # may also
appear following a comma, in which case everything between the # and the next
newline character is ignored.
If an item is entirely enclosed in double quotes, these are removed. Otherwise
double quotes are retained because some forms of mail address require their use
(but never to enclose the entire address). In the following description, "item"
refers to what remains after any surrounding double quotes have been removed.
Warning: If you use an Exim expansion to construct a redirection address, and
the expansion contains a reference to $local_part, you should make use of the
quote_local_part expansion operator, in case the local part contains special
characters. For example, to redirect all mail for the domain obsolete.example,
retaining the existing local part, you could use this setting:
data = ${quote_local_part:$local_part}@newdomain.example
22.5 Redirecting to a local mailbox
-----------------------------------
A redirection item may safely be the same as the address currently under
consideration. This does not cause a routing loop, because a router is
automatically skipped if any ancestor of the address that is being processed is
the same as the current address and was processed by the current router. Such
an address is therefore passed to the following routers, so it is handled as if
there were no redirection. When making this loop-avoidance test, the complete
local part, including any prefix or suffix, is used.
Specifying the same local part without a domain is a common usage in personal
filter files when the user wants to have messages delivered to the local
mailbox and also forwarded elsewhere. For example, the user whose login is cleo
might have a .forward file containing this:
cleo, cleopatra@egypt.example
For compatibility with other MTAs, such unqualified local parts may be preceded
by "\", but this is not a requirement for loop prevention. However, it does
make a difference if more than one domain is being handled synonymously.
If an item begins with "\" and the rest of the item parses as a valid RFC 2822
address that does not include a domain, the item is qualified using the domain
of the incoming address. In the absence of a leading "\", unqualified addresses
are qualified using the value in qualify_recipient, but you can force the
incoming domain to be used by setting qualify_preserve_domain.
Care must be taken if there are alias names for local users. Consider an MTA
handling a single local domain where the system alias file contains:
Sam.Reman: spqr
Now suppose that Sam (whose login id is spqr) wants to save copies of messages
in the local mailbox, and also forward copies elsewhere. He creates this
forward file:
Sam.Reman, spqr@reme.elsewhere.example
With these settings, an incoming message addressed to Sam.Reman fails. The
redirect router for system aliases does not process Sam.Reman the second time
round, because it has previously routed it, and the following routers
presumably cannot handle the alias. The forward file should really contain
spqr, spqr@reme.elsewhere.example
but because this is such a common error, the check_ancestor option (see below)
exists to provide a way to get round it. This is normally set on a redirect
router that is handling users' .forward files.
22.6 Special items in redirection lists
---------------------------------------
In addition to addresses, the following types of item may appear in redirection
lists (that is, in non-filter redirection data):
* An item is treated as a pipe command if it begins with "|" and does not
parse as a valid RFC 2822 address that includes a domain. A transport for
running the command must be specified by the pipe_transport option.
Normally, either the router or the transport specifies a user and a group
under which to run the delivery. The default is to use the Exim user and
group.
Single or double quotes can be used for enclosing the individual arguments
of the pipe command; no interpretation of escapes is done for single
quotes. If the command contains a comma character, it is necessary to put
the whole item in double quotes, for example:
"|/some/command ready,steady,go"
since items in redirection lists are terminated by commas. Do not, however,
quote just the command. An item such as
|"/some/command ready,steady,go"
is interpreted as a pipe with a rather strange command name, and no
arguments.
* An item is interpreted as a path name if it begins with "/" and does not
parse as a valid RFC 2822 address that includes a domain. For example,
/home/world/minbari
is treated as a file name, but
/s=molari/o=babylon/@x400gate.way
is treated as an address. For a file name, a transport must be specified
using the file_transport option. However, if the generated path name ends
with a forward slash character, it is interpreted as a directory name
rather than a file name, and directory_transport is used instead.
Normally, either the router or the transport specifies a user and a group
under which to run the delivery. The default is to use the Exim user and
group.
However, if a redirection item is the path /dev/null, delivery to it is
bypassed at a high level, and the log entry shows "**bypassed**" instead of
a transport name. In this case the user and group are not used.
* If an item is of the form
:include:<path name>
a list of further items is taken from the given file and included at that
point. Note: Such a file can not be a filter file; it is just an
out-of-line addition to the list. The items in the included list are
separated by commas or newlines and are not subject to expansion. If this
is the first item in an alias list in an lsearch file, a colon must be used
to terminate the alias name. This example is incorrect:
list1 :include:/opt/lists/list1
It must be given as
list1: :include:/opt/lists/list1
* Sometimes you want to throw away mail to a particular local part. Making
the data option expand to an empty string does not work, because that
causes the router to decline. Instead, the alias item :blackhole: can be
used. It does what its name implies. No delivery is done, and no error
message is generated. This has the same effect as specifing /dev/null as a
destination, but it can be independently disabled.
Warning: If :blackhole: appears anywhere in a redirection list, no delivery
is done for the original local part, even if other redirection items are
present. If you are generating a multi-item list (for example, by reading a
database) and need the ability to provide a no-op item, you must use /dev/
null.
* An attempt to deliver a particular address can be deferred or forced to
fail by redirection items of the form
:defer:
:fail:
respectively. When a redirection list contains such an item, it applies to
the entire redirection; any other items in the list are ignored (
:blackhole: is different). Any text following :fail: or :defer: is placed
in the error text associated with the failure. For example, an alias file
might contain:
X.Employee: :fail: Gone away, no forwarding address
In the case of an address that is being verified from an ACL or as the
subject of a VRFY command, the text is included in the SMTP error response
by default. The text is not included in the response to an EXPN command. In
non-SMTP cases the text is included in the error message that Exim
generates.
By default, Exim sends a 451 SMTP code for a :defer:, and 550 for :fail:.
However, if the message starts with three digits followed by a space,
optionally followed by an extended code of the form n.n.n, also followed by
a space, and the very first digit is the same as the default error code,
the code from the message is used instead. If the very first digit is
incorrect, a panic error is logged, and the default code is used. You can
suppress the use of the supplied code in a redirect router by setting the
forbid_smtp_code option true. In this case, any SMTP code is quietly
ignored.
In an ACL, an explicitly provided message overrides the default, but the
default message is available in the variable $acl_verify_message and can
therefore be included in a custom message if this is desired.
Normally the error text is the rest of the redirection list - a comma does
not terminate it - but a newline does act as a terminator. Newlines are not
normally present in alias expansions. In lsearch lookups they are removed
as part of the continuation process, but they may exist in other kinds of
lookup and in :include: files.
During routing for message delivery (as opposed to verification), a
redirection containing :fail: causes an immediate failure of the incoming
address, whereas :defer: causes the message to remain on the queue so that
a subsequent delivery attempt can happen at a later time. If an address is
deferred for too long, it will ultimately fail, because the normal retry
rules still apply.
* Sometimes it is useful to use a single-key search type with a default (see
chapter 9) to look up aliases. However, there may be a need for exceptions
to the default. These can be handled by aliasing them to :unknown:. This
differs from :fail: in that it causes the redirect router to decline,
whereas :fail: forces routing to fail. A lookup which results in an empty
redirection list has the same effect.
22.7 Duplicate addresses
------------------------
Exim removes duplicate addresses from the list to which it is delivering, so as
to deliver just one copy to each address. This does not apply to deliveries
routed to pipes by different immediate parent addresses, but an indirect
aliasing scheme of the type
pipe: |/some/command $local_part
localpart1: pipe
localpart2: pipe
does not work with a message that is addressed to both local parts, because
when the second is aliased to the intermediate local part "pipe" it gets
discarded as being the same as a previously handled address. However, a scheme
such as
localpart1: |/some/command $local_part
localpart2: |/some/command $local_part
does result in two different pipe deliveries, because the immediate parents of
the pipes are distinct.
22.8 Repeated redirection expansion
-----------------------------------
When a message cannot be delivered to all of its recipients immediately,
leading to two or more delivery attempts, redirection expansion is carried out
afresh each time for those addresses whose children were not all previously
delivered. If redirection is being used as a mailing list, this can lead to new
members of the list receiving copies of old messages. The one_time option can
be used to avoid this.
22.9 Errors in redirection lists
--------------------------------
If skip_syntax_errors is set, a malformed address that causes a parsing error
is skipped, and an entry is written to the main log. This may be useful for
mailing lists that are automatically managed. Otherwise, if an error is
detected while generating the list of new addresses, the original address is
deferred. See also syntax_errors_to.
22.10 Private options for the redirect router
---------------------------------------------
The private options for the redirect router are as follows:
--------------------------------------------------------
-allow_defer-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------
Setting this option allows the use of :defer: in non-filter redirection data,
or the defer command in an Exim filter file.
-------------------------------------------------------
-allow_fail-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, the :fail: item can be used in a redirection list, and
the fail command may be used in an Exim filter file.
---------------------------------------------------------
-allow_filter-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------
Setting this option allows Exim to interpret redirection data that starts with
"#Exim filter" or "#Sieve filter" as a set of filtering instructions. There are
some features of Exim filter files that some administrators may wish to lock
out; see the forbid_filter_xxx options below.
It is also possible to lock out Exim filters or Sieve filters while allowing
the other type; see forbid_exim_filter and forbid_sieve_filter.
The filter is run using the uid and gid set by the generic user and group
options. These take their defaults from the password data if check_local_user
is set, so in the normal case of users' personal filter files, the filter is
run as the relevant user. When allow_filter is set true, Exim insists that
either check_local_user or user is set.
---------------------------------------------------------
-allow_freeze-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------
Setting this option allows the use of the freeze command in an Exim filter.
This command is more normally encountered in system filters, and is disabled by
default for redirection filters because it isn't something you usually want to
let ordinary users do.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-check_ancestor-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------
This option is concerned with handling generated addresses that are the same as
some address in the list of redirection ancestors of the current address.
Although it is turned off by default in the code, it is set in the default
configuration file for handling users' .forward files. It is recommended for
this use of the redirect router.
When check_ancestor is set, if a generated address (including the domain) is
the same as any ancestor of the current address, it is replaced by a copy of
the current address. This helps in the case where local part A is aliased to B,
and B has a .forward file pointing back to A. For example, within a single
domain, the local part "Joe.Bloggs" is aliased to "jb" and jb/.forward
contains:
\Joe.Bloggs, <other item(s)>
Without the check_ancestor setting, either local part ("jb" or "joe.bloggs")
gets processed once by each router and so ends up as it was originally. If "jb"
is the real mailbox name, mail to "jb" gets delivered (having been turned into
"joe.bloggs" by the .forward file and back to "jb" by the alias), but mail to
"joe.bloggs" fails. Setting check_ancestor on the redirect router that handles
the .forward file prevents it from turning "jb" back into "joe.bloggs" when
that was the original address. See also the repeat_use option below.
------------------------------------------------------------
-check_group-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: see below-
------------------------------------------------------------
When the file option is used, the group owner of the file is checked only when
this option is set. The permitted groups are those listed in the owngroups
option, together with the user's default group if check_local_user is set. If
the file has the wrong group, routing is deferred. The default setting for this
option is true if check_local_user is set and the modemask option permits the
group write bit, or if the owngroups option is set. Otherwise it is false, and
no group check occurs.
------------------------------------------------------------
-check_owner-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: see below-
------------------------------------------------------------
When the file option is used, the owner of the file is checked only when this
option is set. If check_local_user is set, the local user is permitted;
otherwise the owner must be one of those listed in the owners option. The
default value for this option is true if check_local_user or owners is set.
Otherwise the default is false, and no owner check occurs.
-------------------------------------------------
-data-Use: redirect-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------
This option is mutually exclusive with file. One or other of them must be set,
but not both. The contents of data are expanded, and then used as the list of
forwarding items, or as a set of filtering instructions. If the expansion is
forced to fail, or the result is an empty string or a string that has no effect
(consists entirely of comments), the router declines.
When filtering instructions are used, the string must begin with "#Exim
filter", and all comments in the string, including this initial one, must be
terminated with newline characters. For example:
data = #Exim filter\n\
if $h_to: contains Exim then save $home/mail/exim endif
If you are reading the data from a database where newlines cannot be included,
you can use the ${sg} expansion item to turn the escape string of your choice
into a newline.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-directory_transport-Use: redirect-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------------
A redirect router sets up a direct delivery to a directory when a path name
ending with a slash is specified as a new "address". The transport used is
specified by this option, which, after expansion, must be the name of a
configured transport. This should normally be an appendfile transport.
-------------------------------------------------
-file-Use: redirect-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the name of a file that contains the redirection data. It
is mutually exclusive with the data option. The string is expanded before use;
if the expansion is forced to fail, the router declines. Other expansion
failures cause delivery to be deferred. The result of a successful expansion
must be an absolute path. The entire file is read and used as the redirection
data. If the data is an empty string or a string that has no effect (consists
entirely of comments), the router declines.
If the attempt to open the file fails with a "does not exist" error, Exim runs
a check on the containing directory, unless ignore_enotdir is true (see below).
If the directory does not appear to exist, delivery is deferred. This can
happen when users' .forward files are in NFS-mounted directories, and there is
a mount problem. If the containing directory does exist, but the file does not,
the router declines.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-file_transport-Use: redirect-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------
A redirect router sets up a direct delivery to a file when a path name not
ending in a slash is specified as a new "address". The transport used is
specified by this option, which, after expansion, must be the name of a
configured transport. This should normally be an appendfile transport. When it
is running, the file name is in $address_file.
---------------------------------------------------------------
-filter_prepend_home-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: true-
---------------------------------------------------------------
When this option is true, if a save command in an Exim filter specifies a
relative path, and $home is defined, it is automatically prepended to the
relative path. If this option is set false, this action does not happen. The
relative path is then passed to the transport unmodified.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-forbid_blackhole-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, the :blackhole: item may not appear in a redirection
list.
---------------------------------------------------------------
-forbid_exim_filter-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set true, only Sieve filters are permitted when allow_filter
is true.
--------------------------------------------------------
-forbid_file-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, this router may not generate a new address that
specifies delivery to a local file or directory, either from a filter or from a
conventional forward file. This option is forced to be true if one_time is set.
It applies to Sieve filters as well as to Exim filters, but if true, it locks
out the Sieve's "keep" facility.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-forbid_filter_dlfunc-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, string expansions in Exim filters are not allowed to
make use of the dlfunc expansion facility to run dynamically loaded functions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-forbid_filter_existstest-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, string expansions in Exim filters are not allowed to
make use of the exists condition or the stat expansion item.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-forbid_filter_logwrite-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, use of the logging facility in Exim filters is not
permitted. Logging is in any case available only if the filter is being run
under some unprivileged uid (which is normally the case for ordinary users'
.forward files).
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-forbid_filter_lookup-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, string expansions in Exim filter files are not allowed
to make use of lookup items.
---------------------------------------------------------------
-forbid_filter_perl-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------------
This option has an effect only if Exim is built with embedded Perl support. If
it is true, string expansions in Exim filter files are not allowed to make use
of the embedded Perl support.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-forbid_filter_readfile-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, string expansions in Exim filter files are not allowed
to make use of readfile items.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-forbid_filter_readsocket-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, string expansions in Exim filter files are not allowed
to make use of readsocket items.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-forbid_filter_reply-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
----------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, this router may not generate an automatic reply
message. Automatic replies can be generated only from Exim or Sieve filter
files, not from traditional forward files. This option is forced to be true if
one_time is set.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-forbid_filter_run-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, string expansions in Exim filter files are not allowed
to make use of run items.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-forbid_include-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, items of the form
:include:<path name>
are not permitted in non-filter redirection lists.
--------------------------------------------------------
-forbid_pipe-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, this router may not generate a new address which
specifies delivery to a pipe, either from an Exim filter or from a conventional
forward file. This option is forced to be true if one_time is set.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-forbid_sieve_filter-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
----------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set true, only Exim filters are permitted when allow_filter
is true.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-forbid_smtp_code-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set true, any SMTP error codes that are present at the start
of messages specified for ":defer:" or ":fail:" are quietly ignored, and the
default codes (451 and 550, respectively) are always used.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-hide_child_in_errmsg-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, it prevents Exim from quoting a child address if it
generates a bounce or delay message for it. Instead it says "an address
generated from <the top level address>". Of course, this applies only to
bounces generated locally. If a message is forwarded to another host, its
bounce may well quote the generated address.
----------------------------------------------------------
-ignore_eacces-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set and an attempt to open a redirection file yields the
EACCES error (permission denied), the redirect router behaves as if the file
did not exist.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-ignore_enotdir-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set and an attempt to open a redirection file yields the
ENOTDIR error (something on the path is not a directory), the redirect router
behaves as if the file did not exist.
Setting ignore_enotdir has another effect as well: When a redirect router that
has the file option set discovers that the file does not exist (the ENOENT
error), it tries to stat() the parent directory, as a check against unmounted
NFS directories. If the parent can not be statted, delivery is deferred.
However, it seems wrong to do this check when ignore_enotdir is set, because
that option tells Exim to ignore "something on the path is not a directory"
(the ENOTDIR error). This is a confusing area, because it seems that some
operating systems give ENOENT where others give ENOTDIR.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-include_directory-Use: redirect-Type: string-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, the path names of any :include: items in a redirection
list must start with this directory.
---------------------------------------------------------
-modemask-Use: redirect-Type: octal integer-Default: 022-
---------------------------------------------------------
This specifies mode bits which must not be set for a file specified by the file
option. If any of the forbidden bits are set, delivery is deferred.
-----------------------------------------------------
-one_time-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------
Sometimes the fact that Exim re-evaluates aliases and reprocesses redirection
files each time it tries to deliver a message causes a problem when one or more
of the generated addresses fails be delivered at the first attempt. The problem
is not one of duplicate delivery - Exim is clever enough to handle that - but
of what happens when the redirection list changes during the time that the
message is on Exim's queue. This is particularly true in the case of mailing
lists, where new subscribers might receive copies of messages that were posted
before they subscribed.
If one_time is set and any addresses generated by the router fail to deliver at
the first attempt, the failing addresses are added to the message as "top
level" addresses, and the parent address that generated them is marked
"delivered". Thus, redirection does not happen again at the next delivery
attempt.
Warning 1: Any header line addition or removal that is specified by this router
would be lost if delivery did not succeed at the first attempt. For this
reason, the headers_add and headers_remove generic options are not permitted
when one_time is set.
Warning 2: To ensure that the router generates only addresses (as opposed to
pipe or file deliveries or auto-replies) forbid_file, forbid_pipe, and
forbid_filter_reply are forced to be true when one_time is set.
Warning 3: The unseen generic router option may not be set with one_time.
The original top-level address is remembered with each of the generated
addresses, and is output in any log messages. However, any intermediate parent
addresses are not recorded. This makes a difference to the log only if
all_parents log selector is set. It is expected that one_time will typically be
used for mailing lists, where there is normally just one level of expansion.
-------------------------------------------------------
-owners-Use: redirect-Type: string list-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------
This specifies a list of permitted owners for the file specified by file. This
list is in addition to the local user when check_local_user is set. See
check_owner above.
----------------------------------------------------------
-owngroups-Use: redirect-Type: string list-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
This specifies a list of permitted groups for the file specified by file. The
list is in addition to the local user's primary group when check_local_user is
set. See check_group above.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-pipe_transport-Use: redirect-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------
A redirect router sets up a direct delivery to a pipe when a string starting
with a vertical bar character is specified as a new "address". The transport
used is specified by this option, which, after expansion, must be the name of a
configured transport. This should normally be a pipe transport. When the
transport is run, the pipe command is in $address_pipe.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-qualify_domain-Use: redirect-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, and an unqualified address (one without a domain) is
generated, and that address would normally be qualified by the global setting
in qualify_recipient, it is instead qualified with the domain specified by
expanding this string. If the expansion fails, the router declines. If you want
to revert to the default, you can have the expansion generate
$qualify_recipient.
This option applies to all unqualified addresses generated by Exim filters, but
for traditional .forward files, it applies only to addresses that are not
preceded by a backslash. Sieve filters cannot generate unqualified addresses.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
-qualify_preserve_domain-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, the router's local qualify_domain option must not be set
(a configuration error occurs if it is). If an unqualified address (one without
a domain) is generated, it is qualified with the domain of the parent address
(the immediately preceding ancestor) instead of the global qualify_recipient
value. In the case of a traditional .forward file, this applies whether or not
the address is preceded by a backslash.
------------------------------------------------------
-repeat_use-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: true-
------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set false, the router is skipped for a child address that has
any ancestor that was routed by this router. This test happens before any of
the other preconditions are tested. Exim's default anti-looping rules skip only
when the ancestor is the same as the current address. See also check_ancestor
above and the generic redirect_router option.
------------------------------------------------------------
-reply_transport-Use: redirect-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------
A redirect router sets up an automatic reply when a mail or vacation command is
used in a filter file. The transport used is specified by this option, which,
after expansion, must be the name of a configured transport. This should
normally be an autoreply transport. Other transports are unlikely to do
anything sensible or useful.
---------------------------------------------------
-rewrite-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: true-
---------------------------------------------------
If this option is set false, addresses generated by the router are not subject
to address rewriting. Otherwise, they are treated like new addresses and are
rewritten according to the global rewriting rules.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-sieve_subaddress-Use: redirect-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------
The value of this option is passed to a Sieve filter to specify the :subaddress
part of an address.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-sieve_useraddress-Use: redirect-Type: string*-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------------
The value of this option is passed to a Sieve filter to specify the :user part
of an address. However, if it is unset, the entire original local part
(including any prefix or suffix) is used for :user.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-sieve_vacation_directory-Use: redirect-Type: string*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To enable the "vacation" extension for Sieve filters, you must set
sieve_vacation_directory to the directory where vacation databases are held (do
not put anything else in that directory), and ensure that the reply_transport
option refers to an autoreply transport. Each user needs their own directory;
Exim will create it if necessary.
---------------------------------------------------------------
-skip_syntax_errors-Use: redirect-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------------
If skip_syntax_errors is set, syntactically malformed addresses in non-filter
redirection data are skipped, and each failing address is logged. If
syntax_errors_to is set, a message is sent to the address it defines, giving
details of the failures. If syntax_errors_text is set, its contents are
expanded and placed at the head of the error message generated by
syntax_errors_to. Usually it is appropriate to set syntax_errors_to to be the
same address as the generic errors_to option. The skip_syntax_errors option is
often used when handling mailing lists.
If all the addresses in a redirection list are skipped because of syntax
errors, the router declines to handle the original address, and it is passed to
the following routers.
If skip_syntax_errors is set when an Exim filter is interpreted, any syntax
error in the filter causes filtering to be abandoned without any action being
taken. The incident is logged, and the router declines to handle the address,
so it is passed to the following routers.
Syntax errors in a Sieve filter file cause the "keep" action to occur. This
action is specified by RFC 3028. The values of skip_syntax_errors,
syntax_errors_to, and syntax_errors_text are not used.
skip_syntax_errors can be used to specify that errors in users' forward lists
or filter files should not prevent delivery. The syntax_errors_to option, used
with an address that does not get redirected, can be used to notify users of
these errors, by means of a router like this:
userforward:
driver = redirect
allow_filter
check_local_user
file = $home/.forward
file_transport = address_file
pipe_transport = address_pipe
reply_transport = address_reply
no_verify
skip_syntax_errors
syntax_errors_to = real-$local_part@$domain
syntax_errors_text = \
This is an automatically generated message. An error has\n\
been found in your .forward file. Details of the error are\n\
reported below. While this error persists, you will receive\n\
a copy of this message for every message that is addressed\n\
to you. If your .forward file is a filter file, or if it is\n\
a non-filter file containing no valid forwarding addresses,\n\
a copy of each incoming message will be put in your normal\n\
mailbox. If a non-filter file contains at least one valid\n\
forwarding address, forwarding to the valid addresses will\n\
happen, and those will be the only deliveries that occur.
You also need a router to ensure that local addresses that are prefixed by
"real-" are recognized, but not forwarded or filtered. For example, you could
put this immediately before the userforward router:
real_localuser:
driver = accept
check_local_user
local_part_prefix = real-
transport = local_delivery
For security, it would probably be a good idea to restrict the use of this
router to locally-generated messages, using a condition such as this:
condition = ${if match {$sender_host_address}\
{\N^(|127\.0\.0\.1)$\N}}
---------------------------------------------------------------
-syntax_errors_text-Use: redirect-Type: string*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------------
See skip_syntax_errors above.
------------------------------------------------------------
-syntax_errors_to-Use: redirect-Type: string-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------
See skip_syntax_errors above.
===============================================================================
23. ENVIRONMENT FOR RUNNING LOCAL TRANSPORTS
Local transports handle deliveries to files and pipes. (The autoreply transport
can be thought of as similar to a pipe.) Exim always runs transports in
subprocesses, under specified uids and gids. Typical deliveries to local
mailboxes run under the uid and gid of the local user.
Exim also sets a specific current directory while running the transport; for
some transports a home directory setting is also relevant. The pipe transport
is the only one that sets up environment variables; see section 29.4 for
details.
The values used for the uid, gid, and the directories may come from several
different places. In many cases, the router that handles the address associates
settings with that address as a result of its check_local_user, group, or user
options. However, values may also be given in the transport's own
configuration, and these override anything that comes from the router.
23.1 Concurrent deliveries
--------------------------
If two different messages for the same local recipient arrive more or less
simultaneously, the two delivery processes are likely to run concurrently. When
the appendfile transport is used to write to a file, Exim applies locking rules
to stop concurrent processes from writing to the same file at the same time.
However, when you use a pipe transport, it is up to you to arrange any locking
that is needed. Here is a silly example:
my_transport:
driver = pipe
command = /bin/sh -c 'cat >>/some/file'
This is supposed to write the message at the end of the file. However, if two
messages arrive at the same time, the file will be scrambled. You can use the
exim_lock utility program (see section 50.15) to lock a file using the same
algorithm that Exim itself uses.
23.2 Uids and gids
------------------
All transports have the options group and user. If group is set, it overrides
any group that the router set in the address, even if user is not set for the
transport. This makes it possible, for example, to run local mail delivery
under the uid of the recipient (set by the router), but in a special group (set
by the transport). For example:
# Routers ...
# User/group are set by check_local_user in this router
local_users:
driver = accept
check_local_user
transport = group_delivery
# Transports ...
# This transport overrides the group
group_delivery:
driver = appendfile
file = /var/spool/mail/$local_part
group = mail
If user is set for a transport, its value overrides what is set in the address
by the router. If user is non-numeric and group is not set, the gid associated
with the user is used. If user is numeric, group must be set.
When the uid is taken from the transport's configuration, the initgroups()
function is called for the groups associated with that uid if the initgroups
option is set for the transport. When the uid is not specified by the
transport, but is associated with the address by a router, the option for
calling initgroups() is taken from the router configuration.
The pipe transport contains the special option pipe_as_creator. If this is set
and user is not set, the uid of the process that called Exim to receive the
message is used, and if group is not set, the corresponding original gid is
also used.
This is the detailed preference order for obtaining a gid; the first of the
following that is set is used:
* A group setting of the transport;
* A group setting of the router;
* A gid associated with a user setting of the router, either as a result of
check_local_user or an explicit non-numeric user setting;
* The group associated with a non-numeric user setting of the transport;
* In a pipe transport, the creator's gid if deliver_as_creator is set and the
uid is the creator's uid;
* The Exim gid if the Exim uid is being used as a default.
If, for example, the user is specified numerically on the router and there are
no group settings, no gid is available. In this situation, an error occurs.
This is different for the uid, for which there always is an ultimate default.
The first of the following that is set is used:
* A user setting of the transport;
* In a pipe transport, the creator's uid if deliver_as_creator is set;
* A user setting of the router;
* A check_local_user setting of the router;
* The Exim uid.
Of course, an error will still occur if the uid that is chosen is on the
never_users list.
23.3 Current and home directories
---------------------------------
Routers may set current and home directories for local transports by means of
the transport_current_directory and transport_home_directory options. However,
if the transport's current_directory or home_directory options are set, they
override the router's values. In detail, the home directory for a local
transport is taken from the first of these values that is set:
* The home_directory option on the transport;
* The transport_home_directory option on the router;
* The password data if check_local_user is set on the router;
* The router_home_directory option on the router.
The current directory is taken from the first of these values that is set:
* The current_directory option on the transport;
* The transport_current_directory option on the router.
If neither the router nor the transport sets a current directory, Exim uses the
value of the home directory, if it is set. Otherwise it sets the current
directory to / before running a local transport.
23.4 Expansion variables derived from the address
-------------------------------------------------
Normally a local delivery is handling a single address, and in that case the
variables such as $domain and $local_part are set during local deliveries.
However, in some circumstances more than one address may be handled at once
(for example, while writing batch SMTP for onward transmission by some other
means). In this case, the variables associated with the local part are never
set, $domain is set only if all the addresses have the same domain, and
$original_domain is never set.
===============================================================================
24. GENERIC OPTIONS FOR TRANSPORTS
The following generic options apply to all transports:
--------------------------------------------------------
-body_only-Use: transports-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, the message's headers are not transported. It is
mutually exclusive with headers_only. If it is used with the appendfile or pipe
transports, the settings of message_prefix and message_suffix should be
checked, because this option does not automatically suppress them.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-current_directory-Use: transports-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------------
This specifies the current directory that is to be set while running the
transport, overriding any value that may have been set by the router. If the
expansion fails for any reason, including forced failure, an error is logged,
and delivery is deferred.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-disable_logging-Use: transports-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set true, nothing is logged for any deliveries by the
transport or for any transport errors. You should not set this option unless
you really, really know what you are doing.
----------------------------------------------------------
-debug_print-Use: transports-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set and debugging is enabled (see the -d command line
option), the string is expanded and included in the debugging output when the
transport is run. If expansion of the string fails, the error message is
written to the debugging output, and Exim carries on processing. This facility
is provided to help with checking out the values of variables and so on when
debugging driver configurations. For example, if a headers_add option is not
working properly, debug_print could be used to output the variables it
references. A newline is added to the text if it does not end with one.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-delivery_date_add-Use: transports-Type: boolean-Default: false-
----------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, a Delivery-date: header is added to the message. This
gives the actual time the delivery was made. As this is not a standard header,
Exim has a configuration option (delivery_date_remove) which requests its
removal from incoming messages, so that delivered messages can safely be resent
to other recipients.
----------------------------------------------------
-driver-Use: transports-Type: string-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------
This specifies which of the available transport drivers is to be used. There is
no default, and this option must be set for every transport.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-envelope_to_add-Use: transports-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, an Envelope-to: header is added to the message. This
gives the original address(es) in the incoming envelope that caused this
delivery to happen. More than one address may be present if the transport is
configured to handle several addresses at once, or if more than one original
address was redirected to the same final address. As this is not a standard
header, Exim has a configuration option (envelope_to_remove) which requests its
removal from incoming messages, so that delivered messages can safely be resent
to other recipients.
---------------------------------------------------------
-group-Use: transports-Type: string*-Default: Exim group-
---------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies a gid for running the transport process, overriding any
value that the router supplies, and also overriding any value associated with
user (see below).
----------------------------------------------------------
-headers_add-Use: transports-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies a string of text that is expanded and added to the header
portion of a message as it is transported, as described in section 44.17.
Additional header lines can also be specified by routers. If the result of the
expansion is an empty string, or if the expansion is forced to fail, no action
is taken. Other expansion failures are treated as errors and cause the delivery
to be deferred.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-headers_only-Use: transports-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, the message's body is not transported. It is mutually
exclusive with body_only. If it is used with the appendfile or pipe transports,
the settings of message_prefix and message_suffix should be checked, since this
option does not automatically suppress them.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-headers_remove-Use: transports-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies a string that is expanded into a list of header names;
these headers are omitted from the message as it is transported, as described
in section 44.17. Header removal can also be specified by routers. If the
result of the expansion is an empty string, or if the expansion is forced to
fail, no action is taken. Other expansion failures are treated as errors and
cause the delivery to be deferred.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-headers_rewrite-Use: transports-Type: string-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------
This option allows addresses in header lines to be rewritten at transport time,
that is, as the message is being copied to its destination. The contents of the
option are a colon-separated list of rewriting rules. Each rule is in exactly
the same form as one of the general rewriting rules that are applied when a
message is received. These are described in chapter 31. For example,
headers_rewrite = a@b c@d f : \
x@y w@z
changes a@b into c@d in From: header lines, and x@y into w@z in all
address-bearing header lines. The rules are applied to the header lines just
before they are written out at transport time, so they affect only those copies
of the message that pass through the transport. However, only the message's
original header lines, and any that were added by a system filter, are
rewritten. If a router or transport adds header lines, they are not affected by
this option. These rewriting rules are not applied to the envelope. You can
change the return path using return_path, but you cannot change envelope
recipients at this time.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-home_directory-Use: transports-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies a home directory setting for a local transport,
overriding any value that may be set by the router. The home directory is
placed in $home while expanding the transport's private options. It is also
used as the current directory if no current directory is set by the
current_directory option on the transport or the transport_current_directory
option on the router. If the expansion fails for any reason, including forced
failure, an error is logged, and delivery is deferred.
---------------------------------------------------------
-initgroups-Use: transports-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true and the uid for the delivery process is provided by the
transport, the initgroups() function is called when running the transport to
ensure that any additional groups associated with the uid are set up.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-message_size_limit-Use: transports-Type: string*-Default: 0-
-------------------------------------------------------------
This option controls the size of messages passed through the transport. It is
expanded before use; the result of the expansion must be a sequence of decimal
digits, optionally followed by K or M. If the expansion fails for any reason,
including forced failure, or if the result is not of the required form,
delivery is deferred. If the value is greater than zero and the size of a
message exceeds this limit, the address is failed. If there is any chance that
the resulting bounce message could be routed to the same transport, you should
ensure that return_size_limit is less than the transport's message_size_limit,
as otherwise the bounce message will fail to get delivered.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-rcpt_include_affixes-Use: transports-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
When this option is false (the default), and an address that has had any
affixes (prefixes or suffixes) removed from the local part is delivered by any
form of SMTP or LMTP, the affixes are not included. For example, if a router
that contains
local_part_prefix = *-
routes the address abc-xyz@some.domain to an SMTP transport, the envelope is
delivered with
RCPT TO:<xyz@some.domain>
This is also the case when an ACL-time callout is being used to verify a
recipient address. However, if rcpt_include_affixes is set true, the whole
local part is included in the RCPT command. This option applies to BSMTP
deliveries by the appendfile and pipe transports as well as to the lmtp and
smtp transports.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-retry_use_local_part-Use: transports-Type: boolean-Default: see below-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
When a delivery suffers a temporary failure, a retry record is created in
Exim's hints database. For remote deliveries, the key for the retry record is
based on the name and/or IP address of the failing remote host. For local
deliveries, the key is normally the entire address, including both the local
part and the domain. This is suitable for most common cases of local delivery
temporary failure - for example, exceeding a mailbox quota should delay only
deliveries to that mailbox, not to the whole domain.
However, in some special cases you may want to treat a temporary local delivery
as a failure associated with the domain, and not with a particular local part.
(For example, if you are storing all mail for some domain in files.) You can do
this by setting retry_use_local_part false.
For all the local transports, its default value is true. For remote transports,
the default value is false for tidiness, but changing the value has no effect
on a remote transport in the current implementation.
----------------------------------------------------------
-return_path-Use: transports-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, the string is expanded at transport time and replaces
the existing return path (envelope sender) value in the copy of the message
that is being delivered. An empty return path is permitted. This feature is
designed for remote deliveries, where the value of this option is used in the
SMTP MAIL command. If you set return_path for a local transport, the only
effect is to change the address that is placed in the Return-path: header line,
if one is added to the message (see the next option).
Note: A changed return path is not logged unless you add
return_path_on_delivery to the log selector.
The expansion can refer to the existing value via $return_path. This is either
the message's envelope sender, or an address set by the errors_to option on a
router. If the expansion is forced to fail, no replacement occurs; if it fails
for another reason, delivery is deferred. This option can be used to support
VERP (Variable Envelope Return Paths) - see section 47.6.
Note: If a delivery error is detected locally, including the case when a remote
server rejects a message at SMTP time, the bounce message is not sent to the
value of this option. It is sent to the previously set errors address. This
defaults to the incoming sender address, but can be changed by setting
errors_to in a router.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-return_path_add-Use: transports-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, a Return-path: header is added to the message. Although
the return path is normally available in the prefix line of BSD mailboxes, this
is commonly not displayed by MUAs, and so the user does not have easy access to
it.
RFC 2821 states that the Return-path: header is added to a message "when the
delivery SMTP server makes the final delivery". This implies that this header
should not be present in incoming messages. Exim has a configuration option,
return_path_remove, which requests removal of this header from incoming
messages, so that delivered messages can safely be resent to other recipients.
---------------------------------------------------------------
-shadow_condition-Use: transports-Type: string*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------------
See shadow_transport below.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-shadow_transport-Use: transports-Type: string-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------------
A local transport may set the shadow_transport option to the name of another
local transport. Shadow remote transports are not supported.
Whenever a delivery to the main transport succeeds, and either shadow_condition
is unset, or its expansion does not result in the empty string or one of the
strings "0" or "no" or "false", the message is also passed to the shadow
transport, with the same delivery address or addresses. If expansion fails, no
action is taken except that non-forced expansion failures cause a log line to
be written.
The result of the shadow transport is discarded and does not affect the
subsequent processing of the message. Only a single level of shadowing is
provided; the shadow_transport option is ignored on any transport when it is
running as a shadow. Options concerned with output from pipes are also ignored.
The log line for the successful delivery has an item added on the end, of the
form
ST=<shadow transport name>
If the shadow transport did not succeed, the error message is put in
parentheses afterwards. Shadow transports can be used for a number of different
purposes, including keeping more detailed log information than Exim normally
provides, and implementing automatic acknowledgment policies based on message
headers that some sites insist on.
---------------------------------------------------------------
-transport_filter-Use: transports-Type: string*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------------
This option sets up a filtering (in the Unix shell sense) process for messages
at transport time. It should not be confused with mail filtering as set up by
individual users or via a system filter.
When the message is about to be written out, the command specified by
transport_filter is started up in a separate, parallel process, and the entire
message, including the header lines, is passed to it on its standard input
(this in fact is done from a third process, to avoid deadlock). The command
must be specified as an absolute path.
The lines of the message that are written to the transport filter are
terminated by newline ("\n"). The message is passed to the filter before any
SMTP-specific processing, such as turning "\n" into "\r\n" and escaping lines
beginning with a dot, and also before any processing implied by the settings of
check_string and escape_string in the appendfile or pipe transports.
The standard error for the filter process is set to the same destination as its
standard output; this is read and written to the message's ultimate
destination. The process that writes the message to the filter, the filter
itself, and the original process that reads the result and delivers it are all
run in parallel, like a shell pipeline.
The filter can perform any transformations it likes, but of course should take
care not to break RFC 2822 syntax. A demonstration Perl script is provided in
util/transport-filter.pl; this makes a few arbitrary modifications just to show
the possibilities. Exim does not check the result, except to test for a final
newline when SMTP is in use. All messages transmitted over SMTP must end with a
newline, so Exim supplies one if it is missing.
A transport filter can be used to provide content-scanning on a per-user basis
at delivery time if the only required effect of the scan is to modify the
message. For example, a content scan could insert a new header line containing
a spam score. This could be interpreted by a filter in the user's MUA. It is
not possible to discard a message at this stage.
A problem might arise if the filter increases the size of a message that is
being sent down an SMTP connection. If the receiving SMTP server has indicated
support for the SIZE parameter, Exim will have sent the size of the message at
the start of the SMTP session. If what is actually sent is substantially more,
the server might reject the message. This can be worked round by setting the
size_addition option on the smtp transport, either to allow for additions to
the message, or to disable the use of SIZE altogether.
The value of the transport_filter option is the command string for starting the
filter, which is run directly from Exim, not under a shell. The string is
parsed by Exim in the same way as a command string for the pipe transport: Exim
breaks it up into arguments and then expands each argument separately (see
section 29.3). Any kind of expansion failure causes delivery to be deferred.
The special argument $pipe_addresses is replaced by a number of arguments, one
for each address that applies to this delivery. (This isn't an ideal name for
this feature here, but as it was already implemented for the pipe transport, it
seemed sensible not to change it.)
The expansion variables $host and $host_address are available when the
transport is a remote one. They contain the name and IP address of the host to
which the message is being sent. For example:
transport_filter = /some/directory/transport-filter.pl \
$host $host_address $sender_address $pipe_addresses
Two problems arise if you want to use more complicated expansion items to
generate transport filter commands, both of which due to the fact that the
command is split up before expansion.
* If an expansion item contains white space, you must quote it, so that it is
all part of the same command item. If the entire option setting is one such
expansion item, you have to take care what kind of quoting you use. For
example:
transport_filter = '/bin/cmd${if eq{$host}{a.b.c}{1}{2}}'
This runs the command /bin/cmd1 if the host name is a.b.c, and /bin/cmd2
otherwise. If double quotes had been used, they would have been stripped by
Exim when it read the option's value. When the value is used, if the single
quotes were missing, the line would be split into two items, "/bin/cmd${if"
and "eq{$host}{a.b.c}{1}{2}", and an error would occur when Exim tried to
expand the first one.
* Except for the special case of $pipe_addresses that is mentioned above, an
expansion cannot generate multiple arguments, or a command name followed by
arguments. Consider this example:
transport_filter = ${lookup{$host}lsearch{/a/file}\
{$value}{/bin/cat}}
The result of the lookup is interpreted as the name of the command, even if
it contains white space. The simplest way round this is to use a shell:
transport_filter = /bin/sh -c ${lookup{$host}lsearch{/a/file}\
{$value}{/bin/cat}}
The filter process is run under the same uid and gid as the normal delivery.
For remote deliveries this is the Exim uid/gid by default. The command should
normally yield a zero return code. Transport filters are not supposed to fail.
A non-zero code is taken to mean that the transport filter encountered some
serious problem. Delivery of the message is deferred; the message remains on
the queue and is tried again later. It is not possible to cause a message to be
bounced from a transport filter.
If a transport filter is set on an autoreply transport, the original message is
passed through the filter as it is being copied into the newly generated
message, which happens if the return_message option is set.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-transport_filter_timeout-Use: transports-Type: time-Default: 5m-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
When Exim is reading the output of a transport filter, it a applies a timeout
that can be set by this option. Exceeding the timeout is normally treated as a
temporary delivery failure. However, if a transport filter is used with a pipe
transport, a timeout in the transport filter is treated in the same way as a
timeout in the pipe command itself. By default, a timeout is a hard error, but
if the pipe transport's timeout_defer option is set true, it becomes a
temporary error.
-------------------------------------------------------
-user-Use: transports-Type: string*-Default: Exim user-
-------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the user under whose uid the delivery process is to be
run, overriding any uid that may have been set by the router. If the user is
given as a name, the uid is looked up from the password data, and the
associated group is taken as the value of the gid to be used if the group
option is not set.
For deliveries that use local transports, a user and group are normally
specified explicitly or implicitly (for example, as a result of
check_local_user) by the router or transport.
For remote transports, you should leave this option unset unless you really are
sure you know what you are doing. When a remote transport is running, it needs
to be able to access Exim's hints databases, because each host may have its own
retry data.
===============================================================================
25. ADDRESS BATCHING IN LOCAL TRANSPORTS
The only remote transport (smtp) is normally configured to handle more than one
address at a time, so that when several addresses are routed to the same remote
host, just one copy of the message is sent. Local transports, however, normally
handle one address at a time. That is, a separate instance of the transport is
run for each address that is routed to the transport. A separate copy of the
message is delivered each time.
In special cases, it may be desirable to handle several addresses at once in a
local transport, for example:
* In an appendfile transport, when storing messages in files for later
delivery by some other means, a single copy of the message with multiple
recipients saves space.
* In an lmtp transport, when delivering over "local SMTP" to some process, a
single copy saves time, and is the normal way LMTP is expected to work.
* In a pipe transport, when passing the message to a scanner program or to
some other delivery mechanism such as UUCP, multiple recipients may be
acceptable.
These three local transports all have the same options for controlling multiple
("batched") deliveries, namely batch_max and batch_id. To save repeating the
information for each transport, these options are described here.
The batch_max option specifies the maximum number of addresses that can be
delivered together in a single run of the transport. Its default value is one
(no batching). When more than one address is routed to a transport that has a
batch_max value greater than one, the addresses are delivered in a batch (that
is, in a single run of the transport with multiple recipients), subject to
certain conditions:
* If any of the transport's options contain a reference to $local_part, no
batching is possible.
* If any of the transport's options contain a reference to $domain, only
addresses with the same domain are batched.
* If batch_id is set, it is expanded for each address, and only those
addresses with the same expanded value are batched. This allows you to
specify customized batching conditions. Failure of the expansion for any
reason, including forced failure, disables batching, but it does not stop
the delivery from taking place.
* Batched addresses must also have the same errors address (where to send
delivery errors), the same header additions and removals, the same user and
group for the transport, and if a host list is present, the first host must
be the same.
In the case of the appendfile and pipe transports, batching applies both when
the file or pipe command is specified in the transport, and when it is
specified by a redirect router, but all the batched addresses must of course be
routed to the same file or pipe command. These two transports have an option
called use_bsmtp, which causes them to deliver the message in "batched SMTP"
format, with the envelope represented as SMTP commands. The check_string and
escape_string options are forced to the values
check_string = "."
escape_string = ".."
when batched SMTP is in use. A full description of the batch SMTP mechanism is
given in section 45.10. The lmtp transport does not have a use_bsmtp option,
because it always delivers using the SMTP protocol.
If the generic envelope_to_add option is set for a batching transport, the
Envelope-to: header that is added to the message contains all the addresses
that are being processed together. If you are using a batching appendfile
transport without use_bsmtp, the only way to preserve the recipient addresses
is to set the envelope_to_add option.
If you are using a pipe transport without BSMTP, and setting the transport's
command option, you can include $pipe_addresses as part of the command. This is
not a true variable; it is a bit of magic that causes each of the recipient
addresses to be inserted into the command as a separate argument. This provides
a way of accessing all the addresses that are being delivered in the batch.
Note: This is not possible for pipe commands that are specified by a redirect
router.
===============================================================================
26. THE APPENDFILE TRANSPORT
The appendfile transport delivers a message by appending it to an existing
file, or by creating an entirely new file in a specified directory. Single
files to which messages are appended can be in the traditional Unix mailbox
format, or optionally in the MBX format supported by the Pine MUA and
University of Washington IMAP daemon, inter alia. When each message is being
delivered as a separate file, "maildir" format can optionally be used to give
added protection against failures that happen part-way through the delivery. A
third form of separate-file delivery known as "mailstore" is also supported.
For all file formats, Exim attempts to create as many levels of directory as
necessary, provided that create_directory is set.
The code for the optional formats is not included in the Exim binary by
default. It is necessary to set SUPPORT_MBX, SUPPORT_MAILDIR and/or
SUPPORT_MAILSTORE in Local/Makefile to have the appropriate code included.
Exim recognizes system quota errors, and generates an appropriate message. Exim
also supports its own quota control within the transport, for use when the
system facility is unavailable or cannot be used for some reason.
If there is an error while appending to a file (for example, quota exceeded or
partition filled), Exim attempts to reset the file's length and last
modification time back to what they were before. If there is an error while
creating an entirely new file, the new file is removed.
Before appending to a file, a number of security checks are made, and the file
is locked. A detailed description is given below, after the list of private
options.
The appendfile transport is most commonly used for local deliveries to users'
mailboxes. However, it can also be used as a pseudo-remote transport for
putting messages into files for remote delivery by some means other than Exim.
"Batch SMTP" format is often used in this case (see the use_bsmtp option).
26.1 The file and directory options
-----------------------------------
The file option specifies a single file, to which the message is appended; the
directory option specifies a directory, in which a new file containing the
message is created. Only one of these two options can be set, and for normal
deliveries to mailboxes, one of them must be set.
However, appendfile is also used for delivering messages to files or
directories whose names (or parts of names) are obtained from alias,
forwarding, or filtering operations (for example, a save command in a user's
Exim filter). When such a transport is running, $local_part contains the local
part that was aliased or forwarded, and $address_file contains the name (or
partial name) of the file or directory generated by the redirection operation.
There are two cases:
* If neither file nor directory is set, the redirection operation must
specify an absolute path (one that begins with "/"). This is the most
common case when users with local accounts use filtering to sort mail into
different folders. See for example, the address_file transport in the
default configuration. If the path ends with a slash, it is assumed to be
the name of a directory. A delivery to a directory can also be forced by
setting maildir_format or mailstore_format.
* If file or directory is set for a delivery from a redirection, it is used
to determine the file or directory name for the delivery. Normally, the
contents of $address_file are used in some way in the string expansion.
As an example of the second case, consider an environment where users do not
have home directories. They may be permitted to use Exim filter commands of the
form:
save folder23
or Sieve filter commands of the form:
require "fileinto";
fileinto "folder23";
In this situation, the expansion of file or directory in the transport must
transform the relative path into an appropriate absolute file name. In the case
of Sieve filters, the name inbox must be handled. It is the name that is used
as a result of a "keep" action in the filter. This example shows one way of
handling this requirement:
file = ${if eq{$address_file}{inbox} \
{/var/mail/$local_part} \
{${if eq{${substr_0_1:$address_file}}{/} \
{$address_file} \
{$home/mail/$address_file} \
}} \
}
With this setting of file, inbox refers to the standard mailbox location,
absolute paths are used without change, and other folders are in the mail
directory within the home directory.
Note 1: While processing an Exim filter, a relative path such as folder23 is
turned into an absolute path if a home directory is known to the router. In
particular, this is the case if check_local_user is set. If you want to prevent
this happening at routing time, you can set router_home_directory empty. This
forces the router to pass the relative path to the transport.
Note 2: An absolute path in $address_file is not treated specially; the file or
directory option is still used if it is set.
26.2 Private options for appendfile
-----------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------
-allow_fifo-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------
Setting this option permits delivery to named pipes (FIFOs) as well as to
regular files. If no process is reading the named pipe at delivery time, the
delivery is deferred.
------------------------------------------------------------
-allow_symlink-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: false-
------------------------------------------------------------
By default, appendfile will not deliver if the path name for the file is that
of a symbolic link. Setting this option relaxes that constraint, but there are
security issues involved in the use of symbolic links. Be sure you know what
you are doing if you set this. Details of exactly what this option affects are
included in the discussion which follows this list of options.
-------------------------------------------------------
-batch_id-Use: appendfile-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------
See the description of local delivery batching in chapter 25. However, batching
is automatically disabled for appendfile deliveries that happen as a result of
forwarding or aliasing or other redirection directly to a file.
----------------------------------------------------
-batch_max-Use: appendfile-Type: integer-Default: 1-
----------------------------------------------------
See the description of local delivery batching in chapter 25.
----------------------------------------------------------
-check_group-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: false-
----------------------------------------------------------
When this option is set, the group owner of the file defined by the file option
is checked to see that it is the same as the group under which the delivery
process is running. The default setting is false because the default file mode
is 0600, which means that the group is irrelevant.
---------------------------------------------------------
-check_owner-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: true-
---------------------------------------------------------
When this option is set, the owner of the file defined by the file option is
checked to ensure that it is the same as the user under which the delivery
process is running.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-check_string-Use: appendfile-Type: string-Default: see below-
--------------------------------------------------------------
As appendfile writes the message, the start of each line is tested for matching
check_string, and if it does, the initial matching characters are replaced by
the contents of escape_string. The value of check_string is a literal string,
not a regular expression, and the case of any letters it contains is
significant.
If use_bsmtp is set the values of check_string and escape_string are forced to
"." and ".." respectively, and any settings in the configuration are ignored.
Otherwise, they default to "From " and ">From " when the file option is set,
and unset when any of the directory, maildir, or mailstore options are set.
The default settings, along with message_prefix and message_suffix, are
suitable for traditional "BSD" mailboxes, where a line beginning with "From "
indicates the start of a new message. All four options need changing if another
format is used. For example, to deliver to mailboxes in MMDF format:
check_string = "\1\1\1\1\n"
escape_string = "\1\1\1\1 \n"
message_prefix = "\1\1\1\1\n"
message_suffix = "\1\1\1\1\n"
--------------------------------------------------------------
-create_directory-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: true-
--------------------------------------------------------------
When this option is true, Exim attempts to create any missing superior
directories for the file that it is about to write. A created directory's mode
is given by the directory_mode option.
The group ownership of a newly created directory is highly dependent on the
operating system (and possibly the file system) that is being used. For
example, in Solaris, if the parent directory has the setgid bit set, its group
is propagated to the child; if not, the currently set group is used. However,
in FreeBSD, the parent's group is always used.
------------------------------------------------------------
-create_file-Use: appendfile-Type: string-Default: anywhere-
------------------------------------------------------------
This option constrains the location of files and directories that are created
by this transport. It applies to files defined by the file option and
directories defined by the directory option. In the case of maildir delivery,
it applies to the top level directory, not the maildir directories beneath.
The option must be set to one of the words "anywhere", "inhome", or
"belowhome". In the second and third cases, a home directory must have been set
for the transport. This option is not useful when an explicit file name is
given for normal mailbox deliveries. It is intended for the case when file
names are generated from users' .forward files. These are usually handled by an
appendfile transport called address_file. See also file_must_exist.
--------------------------------------------------------
-directory-Use: appendfile-Type: string*-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------
This option is mutually exclusive with the file option, but one of file or
directory must be set, unless the delivery is the direct result of a
redirection (see section 26.1).
When directory is set, the string is expanded, and the message is delivered
into a new file or files in or below the given directory, instead of being
appended to a single mailbox file. A number of different formats are provided
(see maildir_format and mailstore_format), and see section 26.4 for further
details of this form of delivery.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-directory_file-Use: appendfile-Type: string*-Default: see below-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
When directory is set, but neither maildir_format nor mailstore_format is set,
appendfile delivers each message into a file whose name is obtained by
expanding this string. The default value is:
q${base62:$tod_epoch}-$inode
This generates a unique name from the current time, in base 62 form, and the
inode of the file. The variable $inode is available only when expanding this
option.
------------------------------------------------------------------
-directory_mode-Use: appendfile-Type: octal integer-Default: 0700-
------------------------------------------------------------------
If appendfile creates any directories as a result of the create_directory
option, their mode is specified by this option.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-escape_string-Use: appendfile-Type: string-Default: see description-
---------------------------------------------------------------------
See check_string above.
---------------------------------------------------
-file-Use: appendfile-Type: string*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------
This option is mutually exclusive with the directory option, but one of file or
directory must be set, unless the delivery is the direct result of a
redirection (see section 26.1). The file option specifies a single file, to
which the message is appended. One or more of use_fcntl_lock, use_flock_lock,
or use_lockfile must be set with file.
If you are using more than one host to deliver over NFS into the same
mailboxes, you should always use lock files.
The string value is expanded for each delivery, and must yield an absolute
path. The most common settings of this option are variations on one of these
examples:
file = /var/spool/mail/$local_part
file = /home/$local_part/inbox
file = $home/inbox
In the first example, all deliveries are done into the same directory. If Exim
is configured to use lock files (see use_lockfile below) it must be able to
create a file in the directory, so the "sticky" bit must be turned on for
deliveries to be possible, or alternatively the group option can be used to run
the delivery under a group id which has write access to the directory.
---------------------------------------------------------
-file_format-Use: appendfile-Type: string-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------
This option requests the transport to check the format of an existing file
before adding to it. The check consists of matching a specific string at the
start of the file. The value of the option consists of an even number of
colon-separated strings. The first of each pair is the test string, and the
second is the name of a transport. If the transport associated with a matched
string is not the current transport, control is passed over to the other
transport. For example, suppose the standard local_delivery transport has this
added to it:
file_format = "From : local_delivery :\
\1\1\1\1\n : local_mmdf_delivery"
Mailboxes that begin with "From" are still handled by this transport, but if a
mailbox begins with four binary ones followed by a newline, control is passed
to a transport called local_mmdf_delivery, which presumably is configured to do
the delivery in MMDF format. If a mailbox does not exist or is empty, it is
assumed to match the current transport. If the start of a mailbox doesn't match
any string, or if the transport named for a given string is not defined,
delivery is deferred.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-file_must_exist-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, the file specified by the file option must exist. A
temporary error occurs if it does not, causing delivery to be deferred. If this
option is false, the file is created if it does not exist.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-lock_fcntl_timeout-Use: appendfile-Type: time-Default: 0s-
-----------------------------------------------------------
By default, the appendfile transport uses non-blocking calls to fcntl() when
locking an open mailbox file. If the call fails, the delivery process sleeps
for lock_interval and tries again, up to lock_retries times. Non-blocking calls
are used so that the file is not kept open during the wait for the lock; the
reason for this is to make it as safe as possible for deliveries over NFS in
the case when processes might be accessing an NFS mailbox without using a lock
file. This should not be done, but misunderstandings and hence
misconfigurations are not unknown.
On a busy system, however, the performance of a non-blocking lock approach is
not as good as using a blocking lock with a timeout. In this case, the waiting
is done inside the system call, and Exim's delivery process acquires the lock
and can proceed as soon as the previous lock holder releases it.
If lock_fcntl_timeout is set to a non-zero time, blocking locks, with that
timeout, are used. There may still be some retrying: the maximum number of
retries is
(lock_retries * lock_interval) / lock_fcntl_timeout
rounded up to the next whole number. In other words, the total time during
which appendfile is trying to get a lock is roughly the same, unless
lock_fcntl_timeout is set very large.
You should consider setting this option if you are getting a lot of delayed
local deliveries because of errors of the form
failed to lock mailbox /some/file (fcntl)
-----------------------------------------------------------
-lock_flock_timeout-Use: appendfile-Type: time-Default: 0s-
-----------------------------------------------------------
This timeout applies to file locking when using flock() (see use_flock); the
timeout operates in a similar manner to lock_fcntl_timeout.
------------------------------------------------------
-lock_interval-Use: appendfile-Type: time-Default: 3s-
------------------------------------------------------
This specifies the time to wait between attempts to lock the file. See below
for details of locking.
--------------------------------------------------------
-lock_retries-Use: appendfile-Type: integer-Default: 10-
--------------------------------------------------------
This specifies the maximum number of attempts to lock the file. A value of zero
is treated as 1. See below for details of locking.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-lockfile_mode-Use: appendfile-Type: octal integer-Default: 0600-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This specifies the mode of the created lock file, when a lock file is being
used (see use_lockfile and use_mbx_lock).
----------------------------------------------------------
-lockfile_timeout-Use: appendfile-Type: time-Default: 30m-
----------------------------------------------------------
When a lock file is being used (see use_lockfile), if a lock file already
exists and is older than this value, it is assumed to have been left behind by
accident, and Exim attempts to remove it.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-mailbox_filecount-Use: appendfile-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, it is expanded, and the result is taken as the current
number of files in the mailbox. It must be a decimal number, optionally
followed by K or M. This provides a way of obtaining this information from an
external source that maintains the data.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-mailbox_size-Use: appendfile-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, it is expanded, and the result is taken as the current
size the mailbox. It must be a decimal number, optionally followed by K or M.
This provides a way of obtaining this information from an external source that
maintains the data. This is likely to be helpful for maildir deliveries where
it is computationally expensive to compute the size of a mailbox.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-maildir_format-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set with the directory option, the delivery is into a new
file, in the "maildir" format that is used by other mail software. When the
transport is activated directly from a redirect router (for example, the
address_file transport in the default configuration), setting maildir_format
causes the path received from the router to be treated as a directory, whether
or not it ends with "/". This option is available only if SUPPORT_MAILDIR is
present in Local/Makefile. See section 26.5 below for further details.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-maildir_quota_directory_regex-Use: appendfile-Type: string-Default: See below-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This option is relevant only when maildir_use_size_file is set. It defines a
regular expression for specifying directories, relative to the quota directory
(see quota_directory), that should be included in the quota calculation. The
default value is:
maildir_quota_directory_regex = ^(?:cur|new|\..*)$
This includes the cur and new directories, and any maildir++ folders
(directories whose names begin with a dot). If you want to exclude the Trash
folder from the count (as some sites do), you need to change this setting to
maildir_quota_directory_regex = ^(?:cur|new|\.(?!Trash).*)$
This uses a negative lookahead in the regular expression to exclude the
directory whose name is .Trash. When a directory is excluded from quota
calculations, quota processing is bypassed for any messages that are delivered
directly into that directory.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-maildir_retries-Use: appendfile-Type: integer-Default: 10-
-----------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the number of times to retry when writing a file in
"maildir" format. See section 26.5 below.
----------------------------------------------------------
-maildir_tag-Use: appendfile-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option applies only to deliveries in maildir format, and is described in
section 26.5 below.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
-maildir_use_size_file-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Setting this option true enables support for maildirsize files. Exim creates a
maildirsize file in a maildir if one does not exist, taking the quota from the
quota option of the transport. If quota is unset, the value is zero. See
maildir_quota_directory_regex above and section 26.5 below for further details.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-maildirfolder_create_regex-Use: appendfile-Type: string-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The value of this option is a regular expression. If it is unset, it has no
effect. Otherwise, before a maildir delivery takes place, the pattern is
matched against the name of the maildir directory, that is, the directory
containing the new and tmp subdirectories that will be used for the delivery.
If there is a match, Exim checks for the existence of a file called
maildirfolder in the directory, and creates it if it does not exist. See
section 26.5 for more details.
---------------------------------------------------------------
-mailstore_format-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set with the directory option, the delivery is into two new
files in "mailstore" format. The option is available only if SUPPORT_MAILSTORE
is present in Local/Makefile. See section 26.4 below for further details.
---------------------------------------------------------------
-mailstore_prefix-Use: appendfile-Type: string*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------------
This option applies only to deliveries in mailstore format, and is described in
section 26.4 below.
---------------------------------------------------------------
-mailstore_suffix-Use: appendfile-Type: string*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------------
This option applies only to deliveries in mailstore format, and is described in
section 26.4 below.
---------------------------------------------------------
-mbx_format-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------
This option is available only if Exim has been compiled with SUPPORT_MBX set in
Local/Makefile. If mbx_format is set with the file option, the message is
appended to the mailbox file in MBX format instead of traditional Unix format.
This format is supported by Pine4 and its associated IMAP and POP daemons, by
means of the c-client library that they all use.
Note: The message_prefix and message_suffix options are not automatically
changed by the use of mbx_format. They should normally be set empty when using
MBX format, so this option almost always appears in this combination:
mbx_format = true
message_prefix =
message_suffix =
If none of the locking options are mentioned in the configuration, use_mbx_lock
is assumed and the other locking options default to false. It is possible to
specify the other kinds of locking with mbx_format, but use_fcntl_lock and
use_mbx_lock are mutually exclusive. MBX locking interworks with c-client,
providing for shared access to the mailbox. It should not be used if any
program that does not use this form of locking is going to access the mailbox,
nor should it be used if the mailbox file is NFS mounted, because it works only
when the mailbox is accessed from a single host.
If you set use_fcntl_lock with an MBX-format mailbox, you cannot use the
standard version of c-client, because as long as it has a mailbox open (this
means for the whole of a Pine or IMAP session), Exim will not be able to append
messages to it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-message_prefix-Use: appendfile-Type: string*-Default: see below-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The string specified here is expanded and output at the start of every message.
The default is unset unless file is specified and use_bsmtp is not set, in
which case it is:
message_prefix = "From ${if def:return_path{$return_path}\
{MAILER-DAEMON}} $tod_bsdinbox\n"
Note: If you set use_crlf true, you must change any occurrences of "\n" to "\r\
n" in message_prefix.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-message_suffix-Use: appendfile-Type: string*-Default: see below-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The string specified here is expanded and output at the end of every message.
The default is unset unless file is specified and use_bsmtp is not set, in
which case it is a single newline character. The suffix can be suppressed by
setting
message_suffix =
Note: If you set use_crlf true, you must change any occurrences of "\n" to "\r\
n" in message_suffix.
--------------------------------------------------------
-mode-Use: appendfile-Type: octal integer-Default: 0600-
--------------------------------------------------------
If the output file is created, it is given this mode. If it already exists and
has wider permissions, they are reduced to this mode. If it has narrower
permissions, an error occurs unless mode_fail_narrower is false. However, if
the delivery is the result of a save command in a filter file specifying a
particular mode, the mode of the output file is always forced to take that
value, and this option is ignored.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-mode_fail_narrower-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: true-
----------------------------------------------------------------
This option applies in the case when an existing mailbox file has a narrower
mode than that specified by the mode option. If mode_fail_narrower is true, the
delivery is deferred ("mailbox has the wrong mode"); otherwise Exim continues
with the delivery attempt, using the existing mode of the file.
------------------------------------------------------------
-notify_comsat-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: false-
------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, the comsat daemon is notified after every successful
delivery to a user mailbox. This is the daemon that notifies logged on users
about incoming mail.
----------------------------------------------------
-quota-Use: appendfile-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------
This option imposes a limit on the size of the file to which Exim is appending,
or to the total space used in the directory tree when the directory option is
set. In the latter case, computation of the space used is expensive, because
all the files in the directory (and any sub-directories) have to be
individually inspected and their sizes summed. (See quota_size_regex and
maildir_use_size_file for ways to avoid this in environments where users have
no shell access to their mailboxes).
As there is no interlock against two simultaneous deliveries into a multi-file
mailbox, it is possible for the quota to be overrun in this case. For
single-file mailboxes, of course, an interlock is a necessity.
A file's size is taken as its used value. Because of blocking effects, this may
be a lot less than the actual amount of disk space allocated to the file. If
the sizes of a number of files are being added up, the rounding effect can
become quite noticeable, especially on systems that have large block sizes.
Nevertheless, it seems best to stick to the used figure, because this is the
obvious value which users understand most easily.
The value of the option is expanded, and must then be a numerical value
(decimal point allowed), optionally followed by one of the letters K, M, or G,
for kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes. If Exim is running on a system with
large file support (Linux and FreeBSD have this), mailboxes larger than 2G can
be handled.
Note: A value of zero is interpreted as "no quota".
The expansion happens while Exim is running as root, before it changes uid for
the delivery. This means that files that are inaccessible to the end user can
be used to hold quota values that are looked up in the expansion. When delivery
fails because this quota is exceeded, the handling of the error is as for
system quota failures.
By default, Exim's quota checking mimics system quotas, and restricts the
mailbox to the specified maximum size, though the value is not accurate to the
last byte, owing to separator lines and additional headers that may get added
during message delivery. When a mailbox is nearly full, large messages may get
refused even though small ones are accepted, because the size of the current
message is added to the quota when the check is made. This behaviour can be
changed by setting quota_is_inclusive false. When this is done, the check for
exceeding the quota does not include the current message. Thus, deliveries
continue until the quota has been exceeded; thereafter, no further messages are
delivered. See also quota_warn_threshold.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-quota_directory-Use: appendfile-Type: string*-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------------
This option defines the directory to check for quota purposes when delivering
into individual files. The default is the delivery directory, or, if a file
called maildirfolder exists in a maildir directory, the parent of the delivery
directory.
----------------------------------------------------------
-quota_filecount-Use: appendfile-Type: string*-Default: 0-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option applies when the directory option is set. It limits the total
number of files in the directory (compare the inode limit in system quotas). It
can only be used if quota is also set. The value is expanded; an expansion
failure causes delivery to be deferred. A value of zero is interpreted as "no
quota".
----------------------------------------------------------------
-quota_is_inclusive-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: true-
----------------------------------------------------------------
See quota above.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-quota_size_regex-Use: appendfile-Type: string-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------------
This option applies when one of the delivery modes that writes a separate file
for each message is being used. When Exim wants to find the size of one of
these files in order to test the quota, it first checks quota_size_regex. If
this is set to a regular expression that matches the file name, and it captures
one string, that string is interpreted as a representation of the file's size.
The value of quota_size_regex is not expanded.
This feature is useful only when users have no shell access to their mailboxes
- otherwise they could defeat the quota simply by renaming the files. This
facility can be used with maildir deliveries, by setting maildir_tag to add the
file length to the file name. For example:
maildir_tag = ,S=$message_size
quota_size_regex = ,S=(\d+)
An alternative to $message_size is $message_linecount, which contains the
number of lines in the message.
The regular expression should not assume that the length is at the end of the
file name (even though maildir_tag puts it there) because maildir MUAs
sometimes add other information onto the ends of message file names.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-quota_warn_message-Use: appendfile-Type: string*-Default: see below-
---------------------------------------------------------------------
See below for the use of this option. If it is not set when
quota_warn_threshold is set, it defaults to
quota_warn_message = "\
To: $local_part@$domain\n\
Subject: Your mailbox\n\n\
This message is automatically created \
by mail delivery software.\n\n\
The size of your mailbox has exceeded \
a warning threshold that is\n\
set by the system administrator.\n"
---------------------------------------------------------------
-quota_warn_threshold-Use: appendfile-Type: string*-Default: 0-
---------------------------------------------------------------
This option is expanded in the same way as quota (see above). If the resulting
value is greater than zero, and delivery of the message causes the size of the
file or total space in the directory tree to cross the given threshold, a
warning message is sent. If quota is also set, the threshold may be specified
as a percentage of it by following the value with a percent sign. For example:
quota = 10M
quota_warn_threshold = 75%
If quota is not set, a setting of quota_warn_threshold that ends with a percent
sign is ignored.
The warning message itself is specified by the quota_warn_message option, and
it must start with a To: header line containing the recipient(s) of the warning
message. These do not necessarily have to include the recipient(s) of the
original message. A Subject: line should also normally be supplied. You can
include any other header lines that you want. If you do not include a From:
line, the default is:
From: Mail Delivery System <mailer-daemon@$qualify_domain_sender>
If you supply a Reply-To: line, it overrides the global errors_reply_to option.
The quota option does not have to be set in order to use this option; they are
independent of one another except when the threshold is specified as a
percentage.
--------------------------------------------------------
-use_bsmtp-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set true, appendfile writes messages in "batch SMTP" format,
with the envelope sender and recipient(s) included as SMTP commands. If you
want to include a leading HELO command with such messages, you can do so by
setting the message_prefix option. See section 45.10 for details of batch SMTP.
-------------------------------------------------------
-use_crlf-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-------------------------------------------------------
This option causes lines to be terminated with the two-character CRLF sequence
(carriage return, linefeed) instead of just a linefeed character. In the case
of batched SMTP, the byte sequence written to the file is then an exact image
of what would be sent down a real SMTP connection.
Note: The contents of the message_prefix and message_suffix options (which are
used to supply the traditional "From " and blank line separators in
Berkeley-style mailboxes) are written verbatim, so must contain their own
carriage return characters if these are needed. In cases where these options
have non-empty defaults, the values end with a single linefeed, so they must be
changed to end with "\r\n" if use_crlf is set.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-use_fcntl_lock-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: see below-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This option controls the use of the fcntl() function to lock a file for
exclusive use when a message is being appended. It is set by default unless
use_flock_lock is set. Otherwise, it should be turned off only if you know that
all your MUAs use lock file locking. When both use_fcntl_lock and
use_flock_lock are unset, use_lockfile must be set.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-use_flock_lock-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-------------------------------------------------------------
This option is provided to support the use of flock() for file locking, for the
few situations where it is needed. Most modern operating systems support fcntl
() and lockf() locking, and these two functions interwork with each other. Exim
uses fcntl() locking by default.
This option is required only if you are using an operating system where flock()
is used by programs that access mailboxes (typically MUAs), and where flock()
does not correctly interwork with fcntl(). You can use both fcntl() and flock()
locking simultaneously if you want.
Not all operating systems provide flock(). Some versions of Solaris do not have
it (and some, I think, provide a not quite right version built on top of lockf
()). If the OS does not have flock(), Exim will be built without the ability to
use it, and any attempt to do so will cause a configuration error.
Warning: flock() locks do not work on NFS files (unless flock() is just being
mapped onto fcntl() by the OS).
---------------------------------------------------------------
-use_lockfile-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: see below-
---------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is turned off, Exim does not attempt to create a lock file when
appending to a mailbox file. In this situation, the only locking is by fcntl().
You should only turn use_lockfile off if you are absolutely sure that every MUA
that is ever going to look at your users' mailboxes uses fcntl() rather than a
lock file, and even then only when you are not delivering over NFS from more
than one host.
In order to append to an NFS file safely from more than one host, it is
necessary to take out a lock before opening the file, and the lock file
achieves this. Otherwise, even with fcntl() locking, there is a risk of file
corruption.
The use_lockfile option is set by default unless use_mbx_lock is set. It is not
possible to turn both use_lockfile and use_fcntl_lock off, except when
mbx_format is set.
---------------------------------------------------------------
-use_mbx_lock-Use: appendfile-Type: boolean-Default: see below-
---------------------------------------------------------------
This option is available only if Exim has been compiled with SUPPORT_MBX set in
Local/Makefile. Setting the option specifies that special MBX locking rules be
used. It is set by default if mbx_format is set and none of the locking options
are mentioned in the configuration. The locking rules are the same as are used
by the c-client library that underlies Pine and the IMAP4 and POP daemons that
come with it (see the discussion below). The rules allow for shared access to
the mailbox. However, this kind of locking does not work when the mailbox is
NFS mounted.
You can set use_mbx_lock with either (or both) of use_fcntl_lock and
use_flock_lock to control what kind of locking is used in implementing the MBX
locking rules. The default is to use fcntl() if use_mbx_lock is set without
use_fcntl_lock or use_flock_lock.
26.3 Operational details for appending
--------------------------------------
Before appending to a file, the following preparations are made:
* If the name of the file is /dev/null, no action is taken, and a success
return is given.
* If any directories on the file's path are missing, Exim creates them if the
create_directory option is set. A created directory's mode is given by the
directory_mode option.
* If file_format is set, the format of an existing file is checked. If this
indicates that a different transport should be used, control is passed to
that transport.
* If use_lockfile is set, a lock file is built in a way that will work
reliably over NFS, as follows:
1. Create a "hitching post" file whose name is that of the lock file with
the current time, primary host name, and process id added, by opening
for writing as a new file. If this fails with an access error, delivery
is deferred.
2. Close the hitching post file, and hard link it to the lock file name.
3. If the call to link() succeeds, creation of the lock file has
succeeded. Unlink the hitching post name.
4. Otherwise, use stat() to get information about the hitching post file,
and then unlink hitching post name. If the number of links is exactly
two, creation of the lock file succeeded but something (for example, an
NFS server crash and restart) caused this fact not to be communicated
to the link() call.
5. If creation of the lock file failed, wait for lock_interval and try
again, up to lock_retries times. However, since any program that writes
to a mailbox should complete its task very quickly, it is reasonable to
time out old lock files that are normally the result of user agent and
system crashes. If an existing lock file is older than lockfile_timeout
Exim attempts to unlink it before trying again.
* A call is made to lstat() to discover whether the main file exists, and if
so, what its characteristics are. If lstat() fails for any reason other
than non-existence, delivery is deferred.
* If the file does exist and is a symbolic link, delivery is deferred, unless
the allow_symlink option is set, in which case the ownership of the link is
checked, and then stat() is called to find out about the real file, which
is then subjected to the checks below. The check on the top-level link
ownership prevents one user creating a link for another's mailbox in a
sticky directory, though allowing symbolic links in this case is definitely
not a good idea. If there is a chain of symbolic links, the intermediate
ones are not checked.
* If the file already exists but is not a regular file, or if the file's
owner and group (if the group is being checked - see check_group above) are
different from the user and group under which the delivery is running,
delivery is deferred.
* If the file's permissions are more generous than specified, they are
reduced. If they are insufficient, delivery is deferred, unless
mode_fail_narrower is set false, in which case the delivery is tried using
the existing permissions.
* The file's inode number is saved, and the file is then opened for
appending. If this fails because the file has vanished, appendfile behaves
as if it hadn't existed (see below). For any other failures, delivery is
deferred.
* If the file is opened successfully, check that the inode number hasn't
changed, that it is still a regular file, and that the owner and
permissions have not changed. If anything is wrong, defer delivery and
freeze the message.
* If the file did not exist originally, defer delivery if the file_must_exist
option is set. Otherwise, check that the file is being created in a
permitted directory if the create_file option is set (deferring on
failure), and then open for writing as a new file, with the O_EXCL and
O_CREAT options, except when dealing with a symbolic link (the
allow_symlink option must be set). In this case, which can happen if the
link points to a non-existent file, the file is opened for writing using
O_CREAT but not O_EXCL, because that prevents link following.
* If opening fails because the file exists, obey the tests given above for
existing files. However, to avoid looping in a situation where the file is
being continuously created and destroyed, the exists/not-exists loop is
broken after 10 repetitions, and the message is then frozen.
* If opening fails with any other error, defer delivery.
* Once the file is open, unless both use_fcntl_lock and use_flock_lock are
false, it is locked using fcntl() or flock() or both. If use_mbx_lock is
false, an exclusive lock is requested in each case. However, if
use_mbx_lock is true, Exim takes out a shared lock on the open file, and an
exclusive lock on the file whose name is
/tmp/.<device-number>.<inode-number>
using the device and inode numbers of the open mailbox file, in accordance
with the MBX locking rules. This file is created with a mode that is
specified by the lockfile_mode option.
If Exim fails to lock the file, there are two possible courses of action,
depending on the value of the locking timeout. This is obtained from
lock_fcntl_timeout or lock_flock_timeout, as appropriate.
If the timeout value is zero, the file is closed, Exim waits for
lock_interval, and then goes back and re-opens the file as above and tries
to lock it again. This happens up to lock_retries times, after which the
delivery is deferred.
If the timeout has a value greater than zero, blocking calls to fcntl() or
flock() are used (with the given timeout), so there has already been some
waiting involved by the time locking fails. Nevertheless, Exim does not
give up immediately. It retries up to
(lock_retries * lock_interval) / <timeout>
times (rounded up).
At the end of delivery, Exim closes the file (which releases the fcntl() and/or
flock() locks) and then deletes the lock file if one was created.
26.4 Operational details for delivery to a new file
---------------------------------------------------
When the directory option is set instead of file, each message is delivered
into a newly-created file or set of files. When appendfile is activated
directly from a redirect router, neither file nor directory is normally set,
because the path for delivery is supplied by the router. (See for example, the
address_file transport in the default configuration.) In this case, delivery is
to a new file if either the path name ends in "/", or the maildir_format or
mailstore_format option is set.
No locking is required while writing the message to a new file, so the various
locking options of the transport are ignored. The "From" line that by default
separates messages in a single file is not normally needed, nor is the escaping
of message lines that start with "From", and there is no need to ensure a
newline at the end of each message. Consequently, the default values for
check_string, message_prefix, and message_suffix are all unset when any of
directory, maildir_format, or mailstore_format is set.
If Exim is required to check a quota setting, it adds up the sizes of all the
files in the delivery directory by default. However, you can specify a
different directory by setting quota_directory. Also, for maildir deliveries
(see below) the maildirfolder convention is honoured.
There are three different ways in which delivery to individual files can be
done, controlled by the settings of the maildir_format and mailstore_format
options. Note that code to support maildir or mailstore formats is not included
in the binary unless SUPPORT_MAILDIR or SUPPORT_MAILSTORE, respectively, is set
in Local/Makefile.
In all three cases an attempt is made to create the directory and any necessary
sub-directories if they do not exist, provided that the create_directory option
is set (the default). The location of a created directory can be constrained by
setting create_file. A created directory's mode is given by the directory_mode
option. If creation fails, or if the create_directory option is not set when
creation is required, delivery is deferred.
26.5 Maildir delivery
---------------------
If the maildir_format option is true, Exim delivers each message by writing it
to a file whose name is tmp/<stime>.H<mtime>P<pid>.<host> in the directory that
is defined by the directory option (the "delivery directory"). If the delivery
is successful, the file is renamed into the new subdirectory.
In the file name, <stime> is the current time of day in seconds, and <mtime> is
the microsecond fraction of the time. After a maildir delivery, Exim checks
that the time-of-day clock has moved on by at least one microsecond before
terminating the delivery process. This guarantees uniqueness for the file name.
However, as a precaution, Exim calls stat() for the file before opening it. If
any response other than ENOENT (does not exist) is given, Exim waits 2 seconds
and tries again, up to maildir_retries times.
Before Exim carries out a maildir delivery, it ensures that subdirectories
called new, cur, and tmp exist in the delivery directory. If they do not exist,
Exim tries to create them and any superior directories in their path, subject
to the create_directory and create_file options. If the
maildirfolder_create_regex option is set, and the regular expression it
contains matches the delivery directory, Exim also ensures that a file called
maildirfolder exists in the delivery directory. If a missing directory or
maildirfolder file cannot be created, delivery is deferred.
These features make it possible to use Exim to create all the necessary files
and directories in a maildir mailbox, including subdirectories for maildir++
folders. Consider this example:
maildir_format = true
directory = /var/mail/$local_part\
${if eq{$local_part_suffix}{}{}\
{/.${substr_1:$local_part_suffix}}}
maildirfolder_create_regex = /\.[^/]+$
If $local_part_suffix is empty (there was no suffix for the local part),
delivery is into a toplevel maildir with a name like /var/mail/pimbo (for the
user called pimbo). The pattern in maildirfolder_create_regex does not match
this name, so Exim will not look for or create the file /var/mail/pimbo/
maildirfolder, though it will create /var/mail/pimbo/{cur,new,tmp} if
necessary.
However, if $local_part_suffix contains "-eximusers" (for example), delivery is
into the maildir++ folder /var/mail/pimbo/.eximusers, which does match
maildirfolder_create_regex. In this case, Exim will create /var/mail/pimbo
/.eximusers/maildirfolder as well as the three maildir directories /var/mail/
pimbo/.eximusers/{cur,new,tmp}.
Warning: Take care when setting maildirfolder_create_regex that it does not
inadvertently match the toplevel maildir directory, because a maildirfolder
file at top level would completely break quota calculations.
If Exim is required to check a quota setting before a maildir delivery, and
quota_directory is not set, it looks for a file called maildirfolder in the
maildir directory (alongside new, cur, tmp). If this exists, Exim assumes the
directory is a maildir++ folder directory, which is one level down from the
user's top level mailbox directory. This causes it to start at the parent
directory instead of the current directory when calculating the amount of space
used.
One problem with delivering into a multi-file mailbox is that it is
computationally expensive to compute the size of the mailbox for quota
checking. Various approaches have been taken to reduce the amount of work
needed. The next two sections describe two of them. A third alternative is to
use some external process for maintaining the size data, and use the expansion
of the mailbox_size option as a way of importing it into Exim.
26.6 Using tags to record message sizes
---------------------------------------
If maildir_tag is set, the string is expanded for each delivery. When the
maildir file is renamed into the new sub-directory, the tag is added to its
name. However, if adding the tag takes the length of the name to the point
where the test stat() call fails with ENAMETOOLONG, the tag is dropped and the
maildir file is created with no tag.
Tags can be used to encode the size of files in their names; see
quota_size_regex above for an example. The expansion of maildir_tag happens
after the message has been written. The value of the $message_size variable is
set to the number of bytes actually written. If the expansion is forced to
fail, the tag is ignored, but a non-forced failure causes delivery to be
deferred. The expanded tag may contain any printing characters except "/".
Non-printing characters in the string are ignored; if the resulting string is
empty, it is ignored. If it starts with an alphanumeric character, a leading
colon is inserted.
26.7 Using a maildirsize file
-----------------------------
If maildir_use_size_file is true, Exim implements the maildir++ rules for
storing quota and message size information in a file called maildirsize within
the toplevel maildir directory. If this file does not exist, Exim creates it,
setting the quota from the quota option of the transport. If the maildir
directory itself does not exist, it is created before any attempt to write a
maildirsize file.
The maildirsize file is used to hold information about the sizes of messages in
the maildir, thus speeding up quota calculations. The quota value in the file
is just a cache; if the quota is changed in the transport, the new value
overrides the cached value when the next message is delivered. The cache is
maintained for the benefit of other programs that access the maildir and need
to know the quota.
If the quota option in the transport is unset or zero, the maildirsize file is
maintained (with a zero quota setting), but no quota is imposed.
A regular expression is available for controlling which directories in the
maildir participate in quota calculations when a maildirsizefile is in use. See
the description of the maildir_quota_directory_regex option above for details.
26.8 Mailstore delivery
-----------------------
If the mailstore_format option is true, each message is written as two files in
the given directory. A unique base name is constructed from the message id and
the current delivery process, and the files that are written use this base name
plus the suffixes .env and .msg. The .env file contains the message's envelope,
and the .msg file contains the message itself. The base name is placed in the
variable $mailstore_basename.
During delivery, the envelope is first written to a file with the suffix .tmp.
The .msg file is then written, and when it is complete, the .tmp file is
renamed as the .env file. Programs that access messages in mailstore format
should wait for the presence of both a .msg and a .env file before accessing
either of them. An alternative approach is to wait for the absence of a .tmp
file.
The envelope file starts with any text defined by the mailstore_prefix option,
expanded and terminated by a newline if there isn't one. Then follows the
sender address on one line, then all the recipient addresses, one per line.
There can be more than one recipient only if the batch_max option is set
greater than one. Finally, mailstore_suffix is expanded and the result appended
to the file, followed by a newline if it does not end with one.
If expansion of mailstore_prefix or mailstore_suffix ends with a forced
failure, it is ignored. Other expansion errors are treated as serious
configuration errors, and delivery is deferred. The variable
$mailstore_basename is available for use during these expansions.
26.9 Non-special new file delivery
----------------------------------
If neither maildir_format nor mailstore_format is set, a single new file is
created directly in the named directory. For example, when delivering messages
into files in batched SMTP format for later delivery to some host (see section
45.10), a setting such as
directory = /var/bsmtp/$host
might be used. A message is written to a file with a temporary name, which is
then renamed when the delivery is complete. The final name is obtained by
expanding the contents of the directory_file option.
===============================================================================
27. THE AUTOREPLY TRANSPORT
The autoreply transport is not a true transport in that it does not cause the
message to be transmitted. Instead, it generates a new mail message as an
automatic reply to the incoming message. References: and Auto-Submitted: header
lines are included. These are constructed according to the rules in RFCs 2822
and 3834, respectively.
If the router that passes the message to this transport does not have the
unseen option set, the original message (for the current recipient) is not
delivered anywhere. However, when the unseen option is set on the router that
passes the message to this transport, routing of the address continues, so
another router can set up a normal message delivery.
The autoreply transport is usually run as the result of mail filtering, a
"vacation" message being the standard example. However, it can also be run
directly from a router like any other transport. To reduce the possibility of
message cascades, messages created by the autoreply transport always have empty
envelope sender addresses, like bounce messages.
The parameters of the message to be sent can be specified in the configuration
by options described below. However, these are used only when the address
passed to the transport does not contain its own reply information. When the
transport is run as a consequence of a mail or vacation command in a filter
file, the parameters of the message are supplied by the filter, and passed with
the address. The transport's options that define the message are then ignored
(so they are not usually set in this case). The message is specified entirely
by the filter or by the transport; it is never built from a mixture of options.
However, the file_optional, mode, and return_message options apply in all
cases.
Autoreply is implemented as a local transport. When used as a result of a
command in a user's filter file, autoreply normally runs under the uid and gid
of the user, and with appropriate current and home directories (see chapter 23
).
There is a subtle difference between routing a message to a pipe transport that
generates some text to be returned to the sender, and routing it to an
autoreply transport. This difference is noticeable only if more than one
address from the same message is so handled. In the case of a pipe, the
separate outputs from the different addresses are gathered up and returned to
the sender in a single message, whereas if autoreply is used, a separate
message is generated for each address that is passed to it.
Non-printing characters are not permitted in the header lines generated for the
message that autoreply creates, with the exception of newlines that are
immediately followed by white space. If any non-printing characters are found,
the transport defers. Whether characters with the top bit set count as printing
characters or not is controlled by the print_topbitchars global option.
If any of the generic options for manipulating headers (for example,
headers_add) are set on an autoreply transport, they apply to the copy of the
original message that is included in the generated message when return_message
is set. They do not apply to the generated message itself.
If the autoreply transport receives return code 2 from Exim when it submits the
message, indicating that there were no recipients, it does not treat this as an
error. This means that autoreplies sent to $sender_address when this is empty
(because the incoming message is a bounce message) do not cause problems. They
are just discarded.
27.1 Private options for autoreply
----------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
-bcc-Use: autoreply-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------
This specifies the addresses that are to receive "blind carbon copies" of the
message when the message is specified by the transport.
------------------------------------------------
-cc-Use: autoreply-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------
This specifies recipients of the message and the contents of the Cc: header
when the message is specified by the transport.
--------------------------------------------------
-file-Use: autoreply-Type: string*-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------
The contents of the file are sent as the body of the message when the message
is specified by the transport. If both file and text are set, the text string
comes first.
---------------------------------------------------------
-file_expand-Use: autoreply-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------
If this is set, the contents of the file named by the file option are subjected
to string expansion as they are added to the message.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-file_optional-Use: autoreply-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, no error is generated if the file named by the file
option or passed with the address does not exist or cannot be read.
--------------------------------------------------
-from-Use: autoreply-Type: string*-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------
This specifies the contents of the From: header when the message is specified
by the transport.
-----------------------------------------------------
-headers-Use: autoreply-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------
This specifies additional RFC 2822 headers that are to be added to the message
when the message is specified by the transport. Several can be given by using "
\n" to separate them. There is no check on the format.
-------------------------------------------------
-log-Use: autoreply-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------
This option names a file in which a record of every message sent is logged when
the message is specified by the transport.
-------------------------------------------------------
-mode-Use: autoreply-Type: octal integer-Default: 0600-
-------------------------------------------------------
If either the log file or the "once" file has to be created, this mode is used.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-never_mail-Use: autoreply-Type: address list*-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------------
If any run of the transport creates a message with a recipient that matches any
item in the list, that recipient is quietly discarded. If all recipients are
discarded, no message is created. This applies both when the recipients are
generated by a filter and when they are specified in the transport.
--------------------------------------------------
-once-Use: autoreply-Type: string*-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------
This option names a file or DBM database in which a record of each To:
recipient is kept when the message is specified by the transport. Note: This
does not apply to Cc: or Bcc: recipients.
If once is unset, or is set to an empty string, the message is always sent. By
default, if once is set to a non-empty file name, the message is not sent if a
potential recipient is already listed in the database. However, if the
once_repeat option specifies a time greater than zero, the message is sent if
that much time has elapsed since a message was last sent to this recipient. A
setting of zero time for once_repeat (the default) prevents a message from
being sent a second time - in this case, zero means infinity.
If once_file_size is zero, a DBM database is used to remember recipients, and
it is allowed to grow as large as necessary. If once_file_size is set greater
than zero, it changes the way Exim implements the once option. Instead of using
a DBM file to record every recipient it sends to, it uses a regular file, whose
size will never get larger than the given value.
In the file, Exim keeps a linear list of recipient addresses and the times at
which they were sent messages. If the file is full when a new address needs to
be added, the oldest address is dropped. If once_repeat is not set, this means
that a given recipient may receive multiple messages, but at unpredictable
intervals that depend on the rate of turnover of addresses in the file. If
once_repeat is set, it specifies a maximum time between repeats.
--------------------------------------------------------
-once_file_size-Use: autoreply-Type: integer-Default: 0-
--------------------------------------------------------
See once above.
----------------------------------------------------
-once_repeat-Use: autoreply-Type: time*-Default: 0s-
----------------------------------------------------
See once above. After expansion, the value of this option must be a valid time
value.
------------------------------------------------------
-reply_to-Use: autoreply-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------
This specifies the contents of the Reply-To: header when the message is
specified by the transport.
------------------------------------------------------------
-return_message-Use: autoreply-Type: boolean-Default: false-
------------------------------------------------------------
If this is set, a copy of the original message is returned with the new
message, subject to the maximum size set in the return_size_limit global
configuration option.
-----------------------------------------------------
-subject-Use: autoreply-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------
This specifies the contents of the Subject: header when the message is
specified by the transport. It is tempting to quote the original subject in
automatic responses. For example:
subject = Re: $h_subject:
There is a danger in doing this, however. It may allow a third party to
subscribe your users to an opt-in mailing list, provided that the list accepts
bounce messages as subscription confirmations. Well-managed lists require a
non-bounce message to confirm a subscription, so the danger is relatively
small.
--------------------------------------------------
-text-Use: autoreply-Type: string*-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------
This specifies a single string to be used as the body of the message when the
message is specified by the transport. If both text and file are set, the text
comes first.
------------------------------------------------
-to-Use: autoreply-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------
This specifies recipients of the message and the contents of the To: header
when the message is specified by the transport.
===============================================================================
28. THE LMTP TRANSPORT
The lmtp transport runs the LMTP protocol (RFC 2033) over a pipe to a specified
command or by interacting with a Unix domain socket. This transport is
something of a cross between the pipe and smtp transports. Exim also has
support for using LMTP over TCP/IP; this is implemented as an option for the
smtp transport. Because LMTP is expected to be of minority interest, the
default build-time configure in src/EDITME has it commented out. You need to
ensure that
TRANSPORT_LMTP=yes
is present in your Local/Makefile in order to have the lmtp transport included
in the Exim binary. The private options of the lmtp transport are as follows:
-------------------------------------------------
-batch_id-Use: lmtp-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------
See the description of local delivery batching in chapter 25.
----------------------------------------------
-batch_max-Use: lmtp-Type: integer-Default: 1-
----------------------------------------------
This limits the number of addresses that can be handled in a single delivery.
Most LMTP servers can handle several addresses at once, so it is normally a
good idea to increase this value. See the description of local delivery
batching in chapter 25.
------------------------------------------------
-command-Use: lmtp-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------
This option must be set if socket is not set. The string is a command which is
run in a separate process. It is split up into a command name and list of
arguments, each of which is separately expanded (so expansion cannot change the
number of arguments). The command is run directly, not via a shell. The message
is passed to the new process using the standard input and output to operate the
LMTP protocol.
-----------------------------------------------------
-ignore_quota-Use: lmtp-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------
If this option is set true, the string "IGNOREQUOTA" is added to RCPT commands,
provided that the LMTP server has advertised support for IGNOREQUOTA in its
response to the LHLO command.
-----------------------------------------------
-socket-Use: lmtp-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------
This option must be set if command is not set. The result of expansion must be
the name of a Unix domain socket. The transport connects to the socket and
delivers the message to it using the LMTP protocol.
------------------------------------------
-timeout-Use: lmtp-Type: time-Default: 5m-
------------------------------------------
The transport is aborted if the created process or Unix domain socket does not
respond to LMTP commands or message input within this timeout. Delivery is
deferred, and will be tried again later. Here is an example of a typical LMTP
transport:
lmtp:
driver = lmtp
command = /some/local/lmtp/delivery/program
batch_max = 20
user = exim
This delivers up to 20 addresses at a time, in a mixture of domains if
necessary, running as the user exim.
===============================================================================
29. THE PIPE TRANSPORT
The pipe transport is used to deliver messages via a pipe to a command running
in another process. One example is the use of pipe as a pseudo-remote transport
for passing messages to some other delivery mechanism (such as UUCP). Another
is the use by individual users to automatically process their incoming
messages. The pipe transport can be used in one of the following ways:
* A router routes one address to a transport in the normal way, and the
transport is configured as a pipe transport. In this case, $local_part
contains the local part of the address (as usual), and the command that is
run is specified by the command option on the transport.
* If the batch_max option is set greater than 1 (the default is 1), the
transport can handle more than one address in a single run. In this case,
when more than one address is routed to the transport, $local_part is not
set (because it is not unique). However, the pseudo-variable
$pipe_addresses (described in section 29.3 below) contains all the
addresses that are routed to the transport.
* A router redirects an address directly to a pipe command (for example, from
an alias or forward file). In this case, $address_pipe contains the text of
the pipe command, and the command option on the transport is ignored. If
only one address is being transported (batch_max is not greater than one,
or only one address was redirected to this pipe command), $local_part
contains the local part that was redirected.
The pipe transport is a non-interactive delivery method. Exim can also deliver
messages over pipes using the LMTP interactive protocol. This is implemented by
the lmtp transport.
In the case when pipe is run as a consequence of an entry in a local user's
.forward file, the command runs under the uid and gid of that user. In other
cases, the uid and gid have to be specified explicitly, either on the transport
or on the router that handles the address. Current and "home" directories are
also controllable. See chapter 23 for details of the local delivery environment
and chapter 25 for a discussion of local delivery batching.
29.1 Concurrent delivery
------------------------
If two messages arrive at almost the same time, and both are routed to a pipe
delivery, the two pipe transports may be run concurrently. You must ensure that
any pipe commands you set up are robust against this happening. If the commands
write to a file, the exim_lock utility might be of use.
29.2 Returned status and data
-----------------------------
If the command exits with a non-zero return code, the delivery is deemed to
have failed, unless either the ignore_status option is set (in which case the
return code is treated as zero), or the return code is one of those listed in
the temp_errors option, which are interpreted as meaning "try again later". In
this case, delivery is deferred. Details of a permanent failure are logged, but
are not included in the bounce message, which merely contains "local delivery
failed".
If the return code is greater than 128 and the command being run is a shell
script, it normally means that the script was terminated by a signal whose
value is the return code minus 128.
If Exim is unable to run the command (that is, if execve() fails), the return
code is set to 127. This is the value that a shell returns if it is asked to
run a non-existent command. The wording for the log line suggests that a
non-existent command may be the problem.
The return_output option can affect the result of a pipe delivery. If it is set
and the command produces any output on its standard output or standard error
streams, the command is considered to have failed, even if it gave a zero
return code or if ignore_status is set. The output from the command is included
as part of the bounce message. The return_fail_output option is similar, except
that output is returned only when the command exits with a failure return code,
that is, a value other than zero or a code that matches temp_errors.
29.3 How the command is run
---------------------------
The command line is (by default) broken down into a command name and arguments
by the pipe transport itself. The allow_commands and restrict_to_path options
can be used to restrict the commands that may be run.
Unquoted arguments are delimited by white space. If an argument appears in
double quotes, backslash is interpreted as an escape character in the usual
way. If an argument appears in single quotes, no escaping is done.
String expansion is applied to the command line except when it comes from a
traditional .forward file (commands from a filter file are expanded). The
expansion is applied to each argument in turn rather than to the whole line.
For this reason, any string expansion item that contains white space must be
quoted so as to be contained within a single argument. A setting such as
command = /some/path ${if eq{$local_part}{postmaster}{xx}{yy}}
will not work, because the expansion item gets split between several arguments.
You have to write
command = /some/path "${if eq{$local_part}{postmaster}{xx}{yy}}"
to ensure that it is all in one argument. The expansion is done in this way,
argument by argument, so that the number of arguments cannot be changed as a
result of expansion, and quotes or backslashes in inserted variables do not
interact with external quoting. However, this leads to problems if you want to
generate multiple arguments (or the command name plus arguments) from a single
expansion. In this situation, the simplest solution is to use a shell. For
example:
command = /bin/sh -c ${lookup{$local_part}lsearch{/some/file}}
Special handling takes place when an argument consists of precisely the text
"$pipe_addresses". This is not a general expansion variable; the only place
this string is recognized is when it appears as an argument for a pipe or
transport filter command. It causes each address that is being handled to be
inserted in the argument list at that point as a separate argument. This avoids
any problems with spaces or shell metacharacters, and is of use when a pipe
transport is handling groups of addresses in a batch.
After splitting up into arguments and expansion, the resulting command is run
in a subprocess directly from the transport, not under a shell. The message
that is being delivered is supplied on the standard input, and the standard
output and standard error are both connected to a single pipe that is read by
Exim. The max_output option controls how much output the command may produce,
and the return_output and return_fail_output options control what is done with
it.
Not running the command under a shell (by default) lessens the security risks
in cases when a command from a user's filter file is built out of data that was
taken from an incoming message. If a shell is required, it can of course be
explicitly specified as the command to be run. However, there are circumstances
where existing commands (for example, in .forward files) expect to be run under
a shell and cannot easily be modified. To allow for these cases, there is an
option called use_shell, which changes the way the pipe transport works.
Instead of breaking up the command line as just described, it expands it as a
single string and passes the result to /bin/sh. The restrict_to_path option and
the $pipe_addresses facility cannot be used with use_shell, and the whole
mechanism is inherently less secure.
29.4 Environment variables
--------------------------
The environment variables listed below are set up when the command is invoked.
This list is a compromise for maximum compatibility with other MTAs. Note that
the environment option can be used to add additional variables to this
environment.
DOMAIN the domain of the address
HOME the home directory, if set
HOST the host name when called from a router (see below)
LOCAL_PART see below
LOCAL_PART_PREFIX see below
LOCAL_PART_SUFFIX see below
LOGNAME see below
MESSAGE_ID Exim's local ID for the message
PATH as specified by the path option below
QUALIFY_DOMAIN the sender qualification domain
RECIPIENT the complete recipient address
SENDER the sender of the message (empty if a bounce)
SHELL /bin/sh
TZ the value of the timezone option, if set
USER see below
When a pipe transport is called directly from (for example) an accept router,
LOCAL_PART is set to the local part of the address. When it is called as a
result of a forward or alias expansion, LOCAL_PART is set to the local part of
the address that was expanded. In both cases, any affixes are removed from the
local part, and made available in LOCAL_PART_PREFIX and LOCAL_PART_SUFFIX,
respectively. LOGNAME and USER are set to the same value as LOCAL_PART for
compatibility with other MTAs.
HOST is set only when a pipe transport is called from a router that associates
hosts with an address, typically when using pipe as a pseudo-remote transport.
HOST is set to the first host name specified by the router.
If the transport's generic home_directory option is set, its value is used for
the HOME environment variable. Otherwise, a home directory may be set by the
router's transport_home_directory option, which defaults to the user's home
directory if check_local_user is set.
29.5 Private options for pipe
-----------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
-allow_commands-Use: pipe-Type: string list*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------
The string is expanded, and is then interpreted as a colon-separated list of
permitted commands. If restrict_to_path is not set, the only commands permitted
are those in the allow_commands list. They need not be absolute paths; the path
option is still used for relative paths. If restrict_to_path is set with
allow_commands, the command must either be in the allow_commands list, or a
name without any slashes that is found on the path. In other words, if neither
allow_commands nor restrict_to_path is set, there is no restriction on the
command, but otherwise only commands that are permitted by one or the other are
allowed. For example, if
allow_commands = /usr/bin/vacation
and restrict_to_path is not set, the only permitted command is /usr/bin/
vacation. The allow_commands option may not be set if use_shell is set.
-------------------------------------------------
-batch_id-Use: pipe-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------
See the description of local delivery batching in chapter 25.
----------------------------------------------
-batch_max-Use: pipe-Type: integer-Default: 1-
----------------------------------------------
This limits the number of addresses that can be handled in a single delivery.
See the description of local delivery batching in chapter 25.
----------------------------------------------------
-check_string-Use: pipe-Type: string-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------
As pipe writes the message, the start of each line is tested for matching
check_string, and if it does, the initial matching characters are replaced by
the contents of escape_string, provided both are set. The value of check_string
is a literal string, not a regular expression, and the case of any letters it
contains is significant. When use_bsmtp is set, the contents of check_string
and escape_string are forced to values that implement the SMTP escaping
protocol. Any settings made in the configuration file are ignored.
------------------------------------------------
-command-Use: pipe-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------
This option need not be set when pipe is being used to deliver to pipes
obtained directly from address redirections. In other cases, the option must be
set, to provide a command to be run. It need not yield an absolute path (see
the path option below). The command is split up into separate arguments by
Exim, and each argument is separately expanded, as described in section 29.3
above.
----------------------------------------------------
-environment-Use: pipe-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------
This option is used to add additional variables to the environment in which the
command runs (see section 29.4 for the default list). Its value is a string
which is expanded, and then interpreted as a colon-separated list of
environment settings of the form <name>=<value>.
-----------------------------------------------------
-escape_string-Use: pipe-Type: string-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------
See check_string above.
---------------------------------------------------------
-freeze_exec_fail-Use: pipe-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------
Failure to exec the command in a pipe transport is by default treated like any
other failure while running the command. However, if freeze_exec_fail is set,
failure to exec is treated specially, and causes the message to be frozen,
whatever the setting of ignore_status.
------------------------------------------------------
-ignore_status-Use: pipe-Type: boolean-Default: false-
------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, the status returned by the subprocess that is set up to
run the command is ignored, and Exim behaves as if zero had been returned.
Otherwise, a non-zero status or termination by signal causes an error return
from the transport unless the status value is one of those listed in
temp_errors; these cause the delivery to be deferred and tried again later.
Note: This option does not apply to timeouts, which do not return a status. See
the timeout_defer option for how timeouts are handled.
---------------------------------------------------------
-log_defer_output-Use: pipe-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, and the status returned by the command is one of the
codes listed in temp_errors (that is, delivery was deferred), and any output
was produced, the first line of it is written to the main log.
--------------------------------------------------------
-log_fail_output-Use: pipe-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, and the command returns any output, and also ends with a
return code that is neither zero nor one of the return codes listed in
temp_errors (that is, the delivery failed), the first line of output is written
to the main log. This option and log_output are mutually exclusive. Only one of
them may be set.
---------------------------------------------------
-log_output-Use: pipe-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------
If this option is set and the command returns any output, the first line of
output is written to the main log, whatever the return code. This option and
log_fail_output are mutually exclusive. Only one of them may be set.
-------------------------------------------------
-max_output-Use: pipe-Type: integer-Default: 20K-
-------------------------------------------------
This specifies the maximum amount of output that the command may produce on its
standard output and standard error file combined. If the limit is exceeded, the
process running the command is killed. This is intended as a safety measure to
catch runaway processes. The limit is applied independently of the settings of
the options that control what is done with such output (for example,
return_output). Because of buffering effects, the amount of output may exceed
the limit by a small amount before Exim notices.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-message_prefix-Use: pipe-Type: string*-Default: see below-
-----------------------------------------------------------
The string specified here is expanded and output at the start of every message.
The default is unset if use_bsmtp is set. Otherwise it is
message_prefix = \
From ${if def:return_path{$return_path}{MAILER-DAEMON}}\
${tod_bsdinbox}\n
This is required by the commonly used /usr/bin/vacation program. However, it
must not be present if delivery is to the Cyrus IMAP server, or to the tmail
local delivery agent. The prefix can be suppressed by setting
message_prefix =
Note: If you set use_crlf true, you must change any occurrences of "\n" to "\r\
n" in message_prefix.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-message_suffix-Use: pipe-Type: string*-Default: see below-
-----------------------------------------------------------
The string specified here is expanded and output at the end of every message.
The default is unset if use_bsmtp is set. Otherwise it is a single newline. The
suffix can be suppressed by setting
message_suffix =
Note: If you set use_crlf true, you must change any occurrences of "\n" to "\r\
n" in message_suffix.
------------------------------------------------
-path-Use: pipe-Type: string-Default: see below-
------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the string that is set up in the PATH environment
variable of the subprocess. The default is:
/bin:/usr/bin
If the command option does not yield an absolute path name, the command is
sought in the PATH directories, in the usual way. Warning: This does not apply
to a command specified as a transport filter.
--------------------------------------------------------
-pipe_as_creator-Use: pipe-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------
If the generic user option is not set and this option is true, the delivery
process is run under the uid that was in force when Exim was originally called
to accept the message. If the group id is not otherwise set (via the generic
group option), the gid that was in force when Exim was originally called to
accept the message is used.
---------------------------------------------------------
-restrict_to_path-Use: pipe-Type: boolean-Default: false-
---------------------------------------------------------
When this option is set, any command name not listed in allow_commands must
contain no slashes. The command is searched for only in the directories listed
in the path option. This option is intended for use in the case when a pipe
command has been generated from a user's .forward file. This is usually handled
by a pipe transport called address_pipe.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-return_fail_output-Use: pipe-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, and the command produced any output and ended with a
return code other than zero or one of the codes listed in temp_errors (that is,
the delivery failed), the output is returned in the bounce message. However, if
the message has a null sender (that is, it is itself a bounce message), output
from the command is discarded. This option and return_output are mutually
exclusive. Only one of them may be set.
------------------------------------------------------
-return_output-Use: pipe-Type: boolean-Default: false-
------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true, and the command produced any output, the delivery is
deemed to have failed whatever the return code from the command, and the output
is returned in the bounce message. Otherwise, the output is just discarded.
However, if the message has a null sender (that is, it is a bounce message),
output from the command is always discarded, whatever the setting of this
option. This option and return_fail_output are mutually exclusive. Only one of
them may be set.
------------------------------------------------------------
-temp_errors-Use: pipe-Type: string list-Default: see below-
------------------------------------------------------------
This option contains either a colon-separated list of numbers, or a single
asterisk. If ignore_status is false and return_output is not set, and the
command exits with a non-zero return code, the failure is treated as temporary
and the delivery is deferred if the return code matches one of the numbers, or
if the setting is a single asterisk. Otherwise, non-zero return codes are
treated as permanent errors. The default setting contains the codes defined by
EX_TEMPFAIL and EX_CANTCREAT in sysexits.h. If Exim is compiled on a system
that does not define these macros, it assumes values of 75 and 73,
respectively.
------------------------------------------
-timeout-Use: pipe-Type: time-Default: 1h-
------------------------------------------
If the command fails to complete within this time, it is killed. This normally
causes the delivery to fail (but see timeout_defer). A zero time interval
specifies no timeout. In order to ensure that any subprocesses created by the
command are also killed, Exim makes the initial process a process group leader,
and kills the whole process group on a timeout. However, this can be defeated
if one of the processes starts a new process group.
------------------------------------------------------
-timeout_defer-Use: pipe-Type: boolean-Default: false-
------------------------------------------------------
A timeout in a pipe transport, either in the command that the transport runs,
or in a transport filter that is associated with it, is by default treated as a
hard error, and the delivery fails. However, if timeout_defer is set true, both
kinds of timeout become temporary errors, causing the delivery to be deferred.
--------------------------------------------------
-umask-Use: pipe-Type: octal integer-Default: 022-
--------------------------------------------------
This specifies the umask setting for the subprocess that runs the command.
--------------------------------------------------
-use_bsmtp-Use: pipe-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------
If this option is set true, the pipe transport writes messages in "batch SMTP"
format, with the envelope sender and recipient(s) included as SMTP commands. If
you want to include a leading HELO command with such messages, you can do so by
setting the message_prefix option. See section 45.10 for details of batch SMTP.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-use_classresources-Use: pipe-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------
This option is available only when Exim is running on FreeBSD, NetBSD, or BSD/
OS. If it is set true, the setclassresources() function is used to set resource
limits when a pipe transport is run to perform a delivery. The limits for the
uid under which the pipe is to run are obtained from the login class database.
-------------------------------------------------
-use_crlf-Use: pipe-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-------------------------------------------------
This option causes lines to be terminated with the two-character CRLF sequence
(carriage return, linefeed) instead of just a linefeed character. In the case
of batched SMTP, the byte sequence written to the pipe is then an exact image
of what would be sent down a real SMTP connection.
The contents of the message_prefix and message_suffix options are written
verbatim, so must contain their own carriage return characters if these are
needed. When use_bsmtp is not set, the default values for both message_prefix
and message_suffix end with a single linefeed, so their values must be changed
to end with "\r\n" if use_crlf is set.
--------------------------------------------------
-use_shell-Use: pipe-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, it causes the command to be passed to /bin/sh instead of
being run directly from the transport, as described in section 29.3. This is
less secure, but is needed in some situations where the command is expected to
be run under a shell and cannot easily be modified. The allow_commands and
restrict_to_path options, and the "$pipe_addresses" facility are incompatible
with use_shell. The command is expanded as a single string, and handed to /bin/
sh as data for its -c option.
29.6 Using an external local delivery agent
-------------------------------------------
The pipe transport can be used to pass all messages that require local delivery
to a separate local delivery agent such as procmail. When doing this, care must
be taken to ensure that the pipe is run under an appropriate uid and gid. In
some configurations one wants this to be a uid that is trusted by the delivery
agent to supply the correct sender of the message. It may be necessary to
recompile or reconfigure the delivery agent so that it trusts an appropriate
user. The following is an example transport and router configuration for
procmail:
# transport
procmail_pipe:
driver = pipe
command = /usr/local/bin/procmail -d $local_part
return_path_add
delivery_date_add
envelope_to_add
check_string = "From "
escape_string = ">From "
user = $local_part
group = mail
# router
procmail:
driver = accept
check_local_user
transport = procmail_pipe
In this example, the pipe is run as the local user, but with the group set to
mail. An alternative is to run the pipe as a specific user such as mail or exim
, but in this case you must arrange for procmail to trust that user to supply a
correct sender address. If you do not specify either a group or a user option,
the pipe command is run as the local user. The home directory is the user's
home directory by default.
Note: The command that the pipe transport runs does not begin with
IFS=" "
as shown in some procmail documentation, because Exim does not by default use a
shell to run pipe commands.
The next example shows a transport and a router for a system where local
deliveries are handled by the Cyrus IMAP server.
# transport
local_delivery_cyrus:
driver = pipe
command = /usr/cyrus/bin/deliver \
-m ${substr_1:$local_part_suffix} -- $local_part
user = cyrus
group = mail
return_output
log_output
message_prefix =
message_suffix =
# router
local_user_cyrus:
driver = accept
check_local_user
local_part_suffix = .*
transport = local_delivery_cyrus
Note the unsetting of message_prefix and message_suffix, and the use of
return_output to cause any text written by Cyrus to be returned to the sender.
===============================================================================
30. THE SMTP TRANSPORT
The smtp transport delivers messages over TCP/IP connections using the SMTP or
LMTP protocol. The list of hosts to try can either be taken from the address
that is being processed (having been set up by the router), or specified
explicitly for the transport. Timeout and retry processing (see chapter 32) is
applied to each IP address independently.
30.1 Multiple messages on a single connection
---------------------------------------------
The sending of multiple messages over a single TCP/IP connection can arise in
two ways:
* If a message contains more than max_rcpt (see below) addresses that are
routed to the same host, more than one copy of the message has to be sent
to that host. In this situation, multiple copies may be sent in a single
run of the smtp transport over a single TCP/IP connection. (What Exim
actually does when it has too many addresses to send in one message also
depends on the value of the global remote_max_parallel option. Details are
given in section 45.1.)
* When a message has been successfully delivered over a TCP/IP connection,
Exim looks in its hints database to see if there are any other messages
awaiting a connection to the same host. If there are, a new delivery
process is started for one of them, and the current TCP/IP connection is
passed on to it. The new process may in turn send multiple copies and
possibly create yet another process.
For each copy sent over the same TCP/IP connection, a sequence counter is
incremented, and if it ever gets to the value of connection_max_messages, no
further messages are sent over that connection.
30.2 Use of the $host and $host_address variables
-------------------------------------------------
At the start of a run of the smtp transport, the values of $host and
$host_address are the name and IP address of the first host on the host list
passed by the router. However, when the transport is about to connect to a
specific host, and while it is connected to that host, $host and $host_address
are set to the values for that host. These are the values that are in force
when the helo_data, hosts_try_auth, interface, serialize_hosts, and the various
TLS options are expanded.
30.3 Use of $tls_cipher and $tls_peerdn
---------------------------------------
At the start of a run of the smtp transport, the values of $tls_cipher and
$tls_peerdn are the values that were set when the message was received. These
are the values that are used for options that are expanded before any SMTP
connections are made. Just before each connection is made, these two variables
are emptied. If TLS is subsequently started, they are set to the appropriate
values for the outgoing connection, and these are the values that are in force
when any authenticators are run and when the authenticated_sender option is
expanded.
30.4 Private options for smtp
-----------------------------
The private options of the smtp transport are as follows:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
-address_retry_include_sender-Use: smtp-Type: boolean-Default: true-
--------------------------------------------------------------------
When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it is
the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in subsequent queue
runs until the retry time is reached. You can delay the recipient without
reference to the sender (which is what earlier versions of Exim did), by
setting address_retry_include_sender false. However, this can lead to problems
with servers that regularly issue 4xx responses to RCPT commands.
--------------------------------------------------------
-allow_localhost-Use: smtp-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------
When a host specified in hosts or fallback_hosts (see below) turns out to be
the local host, or is listed in hosts_treat_as_local, delivery is deferred by
default. However, if allow_localhost is set, Exim goes on to do the delivery
anyway. This should be used only in special cases when the configuration
ensures that no looping will result (for example, a differently configured Exim
is listening on the port to which the message is sent).
-------------------------------------------------------------
-authenticated_sender-Use: smtp-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------
When Exim has authenticated as a client, or if authenticated_sender_force is
true, this option sets a value for the AUTH= item on outgoing MAIL commands,
overriding any existing authenticated sender value. If the string expansion is
forced to fail, the option is ignored. Other expansion failures cause delivery
to be deferred. If the result of expansion is an empty string, that is also
ignored.
The expansion happens after the outgoing connection has been made and TLS
started, if required. This means that the $host, $host_address, $tls_cipher,
and $tls_peerdn variables are set according to the particular connection.
If the SMTP session is not authenticated, the expansion of authenticated_sender
still happens (and can cause the delivery to be deferred if it fails), but no
AUTH= item is added to MAIL commands unless authenticated_sender_force is true.
This option allows you to use the smtp transport in LMTP mode to deliver mail
to Cyrus IMAP and provide the proper local part as the "authenticated sender",
via a setting such as:
authenticated_sender = $local_part
This removes the need for IMAP subfolders to be assigned special ACLs to allow
direct delivery to those subfolders.
Because of expected uses such as that just described for Cyrus (when no domain
is involved), there is no checking on the syntax of the provided value.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-authenticated_sender_force-Use: smtp-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set true, the authenticated_sender option's value is used for
the AUTH= item on outgoing MAIL commands, even if Exim has not authenticated as
a client.
--------------------------------------------------
-command_timeout-Use: smtp-Type: time-Default: 5m-
--------------------------------------------------
This sets a timeout for receiving a response to an SMTP command that has been
sent out. It is also used when waiting for the initial banner line from the
remote host. Its value must not be zero.
--------------------------------------------------
-connect_timeout-Use: smtp-Type: time-Default: 5m-
--------------------------------------------------
This sets a timeout for the connect() function, which sets up a TCP/IP call to
a remote host. A setting of zero allows the system timeout (typically several
minutes) to act. To have any effect, the value of this option must be less than
the system timeout. However, it has been observed that on some systems there is
no system timeout, which is why the default value for this option is 5 minutes,
a value recommended by RFC 1123.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-connection_max_messages-Use: smtp-Type: integer-Default: 500-
--------------------------------------------------------------
This controls the maximum number of separate message deliveries that are sent
over a single TCP/IP connection. If the value is zero, there is no limit. For
testing purposes, this value can be overridden by the -oB command line option.
-----------------------------------------------
-data_timeout-Use: smtp-Type: time-Default: 5m-
-----------------------------------------------
This sets a timeout for the transmission of each block in the data portion of
the message. As a result, the overall timeout for a message depends on the size
of the message. Its value must not be zero. See also final_timeout.
----------------------------------------------------------
-delay_after_cutoff-Use: smtp-Type: boolean-Default: true-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option controls what happens when all remote IP addresses for a given
domain have been inaccessible for so long that they have passed their retry
cutoff times.
In the default state, if the next retry time has not been reached for any of
them, the address is bounced without trying any deliveries. In other words,
Exim delays retrying an IP address after the final cutoff time until a new
retry time is reached, and can therefore bounce an address without ever trying
a delivery, when machines have been down for a long time. Some people are
unhappy at this prospect, so...
If delay_after_cutoff is set false, Exim behaves differently. If all IP
addresses are past their final cutoff time, Exim tries to deliver to those IP
addresses that have not been tried since the message arrived. If there are
none, of if they all fail, the address is bounced. In other words, it does not
delay when a new message arrives, but immediately tries those expired IP
addresses that haven't been tried since the message arrived. If there is a
continuous stream of messages for the dead hosts, unsetting delay_after_cutoff
means that there will be many more attempts to deliver to them.
----------------------------------------------------------
-dns_qualify_single-Use: smtp-Type: boolean-Default: true-
----------------------------------------------------------
If the hosts or fallback_hosts option is being used, and the gethostbyname
option is false, the RES_DEFNAMES resolver option is set. See the
qualify_single option in chapter 17 for more details.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-dns_search_parents-Use: smtp-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-----------------------------------------------------------
If the hosts or fallback_hosts option is being used, and the gethostbyname
option is false, the RES_DNSRCH resolver option is set. See the search_parents
option in chapter 17 for more details.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-fallback_hosts-Use: smtp-Type: string list-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------
String expansion is not applied to this option. The argument must be a
colon-separated list of host names or IP addresses, optionally also including
port numbers, though the separator can be changed, as described in section 6.19
. Each individual item in the list is the same as an item in a route_list
setting for the manualroute router, as described in section 20.5.
Fallback hosts can also be specified on routers, which associate them with the
addresses they process. As for the hosts option without hosts_override,
fallback_hosts specified on the transport is used only if the address does not
have its own associated fallback host list. Unlike hosts, a setting of
fallback_hosts on an address is not overridden by hosts_override. However,
hosts_randomize does apply to fallback host lists.
If Exim is unable to deliver to any of the hosts for a particular address, and
the errors are not permanent rejections, the address is put on a separate
transport queue with its host list replaced by the fallback hosts, unless the
address was routed via MX records and the current host was in the original MX
list. In that situation, the fallback host list is not used.
Once normal deliveries are complete, the fallback queue is delivered by
re-running the same transports with the new host lists. If several failing
addresses have the same fallback hosts (and max_rcpt permits it), a single copy
of the message is sent.
The resolution of the host names on the fallback list is controlled by the
gethostbyname option, as for the hosts option. Fallback hosts apply both to
cases when the host list comes with the address and when it is taken from hosts
. This option provides a "use a smart host only if delivery fails" facility.
-------------------------------------------------
-final_timeout-Use: smtp-Type: time-Default: 10m-
-------------------------------------------------
This is the timeout that applies while waiting for the response to the final
line containing just "." that terminates a message. Its value must not be zero.
------------------------------------------------------
-gethostbyname-Use: smtp-Type: boolean-Default: false-
------------------------------------------------------
If this option is true when the hosts and/or fallback_hosts options are being
used, names are looked up using gethostbyname() (or getipnodebyname() when
available) instead of using the DNS. Of course, that function may in fact use
the DNS, but it may also consult other sources of information such as /etc/
hosts.
---------------------------------------------------------
-gnutls_require_kx-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------
This option controls the key exchange mechanisms when GnuTLS is used in an Exim
client. For details, see section 39.5.
----------------------------------------------------------
-gnutls_require_mac-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option controls the MAC algorithms when GnuTLS is used in an Exim client.
For details, see section 39.5.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-gnutls_require_protocols-Use: main-Type: string-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------------
This option controls the protocols when GnuTLS is used in an Exim client. For
details, see section 39.5.
------------------------------------------------------
-helo_data-Use: smtp-Type: string*-Default: see below-
------------------------------------------------------
The value of this option is expanded after a connection to a another host has
been set up. The result is used as the argument for the EHLO, HELO, or LHLO
command that starts the outgoing SMTP or LMTP session. The default value of the
option is:
$primary_hostname
During the expansion, the variables $host and $host_address are set to the
identity of the remote host, and the variables $sending_ip_address and
$sending_port are set to the local IP address and port number that are being
used. These variables can be used to generate different values for different
servers or different local IP addresses. For example, if you want the string
that is used for helo_data to be obtained by a DNS lookup of the outgoing
interface address, you could use this:
helo_data = ${lookup dnsdb{ptr=$sending_ip_address}{$value}\
{$primary_hostname}}
The use of helo_data applies both to sending messages and when doing callouts.
---------------------------------------------------
-hosts-Use: smtp-Type: string list*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------
Hosts are associated with an address by a router such as dnslookup, which finds
the hosts by looking up the address domain in the DNS, or by manualroute, which
has lists of hosts in its configuration. However, email addresses can be passed
to the smtp transport by any router, and not all of them can provide an
associated list of hosts.
The hosts option specifies a list of hosts to be used if the address being
processed does not have any hosts associated with it. The hosts specified by
hosts are also used, whether or not the address has its own hosts, if
hosts_override is set.
The string is first expanded, before being interpreted as a colon-separated
list of host names or IP addresses, possibly including port numbers. The
separator may be changed to something other than colon, as described in section
6.19. Each individual item in the list is the same as an item in a route_list
setting for the manualroute router, as described in section 20.5. However, note
that the "/MX" facility of the manualroute router is not available here.
If the expansion fails, delivery is deferred. Unless the failure was caused by
the inability to complete a lookup, the error is logged to the panic log as
well as the main log. Host names are looked up either by searching directly for
address records in the DNS or by calling gethostbyname() (or getipnodebyname()
when available), depending on the setting of the gethostbyname option. When
Exim is compiled with IPv6 support, if a host that is looked up in the DNS has
both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, both types of address are used.
During delivery, the hosts are tried in order, subject to their retry status,
unless hosts_randomize is set.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-hosts_avoid_esmtp-Use: smtp-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------
This option is for use with broken hosts that announce ESMTP facilities (for
example, PIPELINING) and then fail to implement them properly. When a host
matches hosts_avoid_esmtp, Exim sends HELO rather than EHLO at the start of the
SMTP session. This means that it cannot use any of the ESMTP facilities such as
AUTH, PIPELINING, SIZE, and STARTTLS.
------------------------------------------------------------------
-hosts_avoid_pipelining-Use: smtp-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------------
Exim will not use the SMTP PIPELINING extension when delivering to any host
that matches this list, even if the server host advertises PIPELINING support.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-hosts_avoid_tls-Use: smtp-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------
Exim will not try to start a TLS session when delivering to any host that
matches this list. See chapter 39 for details of TLS.
--------------------------------------------------
-hosts_max_try-Use: smtp-Type: integer-Default: 5-
--------------------------------------------------
This option limits the number of IP addresses that are tried for any one
delivery in cases where there are temporary delivery errors. Section 30.5
describes in detail how the value of this option is used.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-hosts_max_try_hardlimit-Use: smtp-Type: integer-Default: 50-
-------------------------------------------------------------
This is an additional check on the maximum number of IP addresses that Exim
tries for any one delivery. Section 30.5 describes its use and why it exists.
------------------------------------------------------------
-hosts_nopass_tls-Use: smtp-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------
For any host that matches this list, a connection on which a TLS session has
been started will not be passed to a new delivery process for sending another
message on the same connection. See section 39.10 for an explanation of when
this might be needed.
-------------------------------------------------------
-hosts_override-Use: smtp-Type: boolean-Default: false-
-------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set and the hosts option is also set, any hosts that are
attached to the address are ignored, and instead the hosts specified by the
hosts option are always used. This option does not apply to fallback_hosts.
--------------------------------------------------------
-hosts_randomize-Use: smtp-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set, and either the list of hosts is taken from the hosts or
the fallback_hosts option, or the hosts supplied by the router were not
obtained from MX records (this includes fallback hosts from the router), and
were not randomized by the router, the order of trying the hosts is randomized
each time the transport runs. Randomizing the order of a host list can be used
to do crude load sharing.
When hosts_randomize is true, a host list may be split into groups whose order
is separately randomized. This makes it possible to set up MX-like behaviour.
The boundaries between groups are indicated by an item that is just "+" in the
host list. For example:
hosts = host1:host2:host3:+:host4:host5
The order of the first three hosts and the order of the last two hosts is
randomized for each use, but the first three always end up before the last two.
If hosts_randomize is not set, a "+" item in the list is ignored.
--------------------------------------------------------------
-hosts_require_auth-Use: smtp-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------------
This option provides a list of servers for which authentication must succeed
before Exim will try to transfer a message. If authentication fails for servers
which are not in this list, Exim tries to send unauthenticated. If
authentication fails for one of these servers, delivery is deferred. This
temporary error is detectable in the retry rules, so it can be turned into a
hard failure if required. See also hosts_try_auth, and chapter 33 for details
of authentication.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-hosts_require_tls-Use: smtp-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------
Exim will insist on using a TLS session when delivering to any host that
matches this list. See chapter 39 for details of TLS. Note: This option affects
outgoing mail only. To insist on TLS for incoming messages, use an appropriate
ACL.
----------------------------------------------------------
-hosts_try_auth-Use: smtp-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option provides a list of servers to which, provided they announce
authentication support, Exim will attempt to authenticate as a client when it
connects. If authentication fails, Exim will try to transfer the message
unauthenticated. See also hosts_require_auth, and chapter 33 for details of
authentication.
-------------------------------------------------------
-interface-Use: smtp-Type: string list*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies which interface to bind to when making an outgoing SMTP
call. The value is an IP address, not an interface name such as "eth0". Do not
confuse this with the interface address that was used when a message was
received, which is in $received_ip_address, formerly known as
$interface_address. The name was changed to minimize confusion with the
outgoing interface address. There is no variable that contains an outgoing
interface address because, unless it is set by this option, its value is
unknown.
During the expansion of the interface option the variables $host and
$host_address refer to the host to which a connection is about to be made
during the expansion of the string. Forced expansion failure, or an empty
string result causes the option to be ignored. Otherwise, after expansion, the
string must be a list of IP addresses, colon-separated by default, but the
separator can be changed in the usual way. For example:
interface = <; 192.168.123.123 ; 3ffe:ffff:836f::fe86:a061
The first interface of the correct type (IPv4 or IPv6) is used for the outgoing
connection. If none of them are the correct type, the option is ignored. If
interface is not set, or is ignored, the system's IP functions choose which
interface to use if the host has more than one.
-------------------------------------------------
-keepalive-Use: smtp-Type: boolean-Default: true-
-------------------------------------------------
This option controls the setting of SO_KEEPALIVE on outgoing TCP/IP socket
connections. When set, it causes the kernel to probe idle connections
periodically, by sending packets with "old" sequence numbers. The other end of
the connection should send a acknowledgment if the connection is still okay or
a reset if the connection has been aborted. The reason for doing this is that
it has the beneficial effect of freeing up certain types of connection that can
get stuck when the remote host is disconnected without tidying up the TCP/IP
call properly. The keepalive mechanism takes several hours to detect
unreachable hosts.
----------------------------------------------------------
-lmtp_ignore_quota-Use: smtp-Type: boolean-Default: false-
----------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set true when the protocol option is set to "lmtp", the
string "IGNOREQUOTA" is added to RCPT commands, provided that the LMTP server
has advertised support for IGNOREQUOTA in its response to the LHLO command.
-----------------------------------------------
-max_rcpt-Use: smtp-Type: integer-Default: 100-
-----------------------------------------------
This option limits the number of RCPT commands that are sent in a single SMTP
message transaction. Each set of addresses is treated independently, and so can
cause parallel connections to the same host if remote_max_parallel permits
this.
----------------------------------------------------
-multi_domain-Use: smtp-Type: boolean-Default: true-
----------------------------------------------------
When this option is set, the smtp transport can handle a number of addresses
containing a mixture of different domains provided they all resolve to the same
list of hosts. Turning the option off restricts the transport to handling only
one domain at a time. This is useful if you want to use $domain in an expansion
for the transport, because it is set only when there is a single domain
involved in a remote delivery.
-------------------------------------------------
-port-Use: smtp-Type: string*-Default: see below-
-------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the TCP/IP port on the server to which Exim connects.
Note: Do not confuse this with the port that was used when a message was
received, which is in $received_port, formerly known as $interface_port. The
name was changed to minimize confusion with the outgoing port. There is no
variable that contains an outgoing port.
If the value of this option begins with a digit it is taken as a port number;
otherwise it is looked up using getservbyname(). The default value is normally
"smtp", but if protocol is set to "lmtp", the default is "lmtp". If the
expansion fails, or if a port number cannot be found, delivery is deferred.
-----------------------------------------------
-protocol-Use: smtp-Type: string-Default: smtp-
-----------------------------------------------
If this option is set to "lmtp" instead of "smtp", the default value for the
port option changes to "lmtp", and the transport operates the LMTP protocol
(RFC 2033) instead of SMTP. This protocol is sometimes used for local
deliveries into closed message stores. Exim also has support for running LMTP
over a pipe to a local process - see chapter 28.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-retry_include_ip_address-Use: smtp-Type: boolean-Default: true-
----------------------------------------------------------------
Exim normally includes both the host name and the IP address in the key it
constructs for indexing retry data after a temporary delivery failure. This
means that when one of several IP addresses for a host is failing, it gets
tried periodically (controlled by the retry rules), but use of the other IP
addresses is not affected.
However, in some dialup environments hosts are assigned a different IP address
each time they connect. In this situation the use of the IP address as part of
the retry key leads to undesirable behaviour. Setting this option false causes
Exim to use only the host name. This should normally be done on a separate
instance of the smtp transport, set up specially to handle the dialup hosts.
-----------------------------------------------------------
-serialize_hosts-Use: smtp-Type: host list*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------
Because Exim operates in a distributed manner, if several messages for the same
host arrive at around the same time, more than one simultaneous connection to
the remote host can occur. This is not usually a problem except when there is a
slow link between the hosts. In that situation it may be helpful to restrict
Exim to one connection at a time. This can be done by setting serialize_hosts
to match the relevant hosts.
Exim implements serialization by means of a hints database in which a record is
written whenever a process connects to one of the restricted hosts. The record
is deleted when the connection is completed. Obviously there is scope for
records to get left lying around if there is a system or program crash. To
guard against this, Exim ignores any records that are more than six hours old.
If you set up this kind of serialization, you should also arrange to delete the
relevant hints database whenever your system reboots. The names of the files
start with misc and they are kept in the spool/db directory. There may be one
or two files, depending on the type of DBM in use. The same files are used for
ETRN serialization.
-----------------------------------------------------
-size_addition-Use: smtp-Type: integer-Default: 1024-
-----------------------------------------------------
If a remote SMTP server indicates that it supports the SIZE option of the MAIL
command, Exim uses this to pass over the message size at the start of an SMTP
transaction. It adds the value of size_addition to the value it sends, to allow
for headers and other text that may be added during delivery by configuration
options or in a transport filter. It may be necessary to increase this if a lot
of text is added to messages.
Alternatively, if the value of size_addition is set negative, it disables the
use of the SIZE option altogether.
--------------------------------------------------------
-tls_certificate-Use: smtp-Type: string*-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------
The value of this option must be the absolute path to a file which contains the
client's certificate, for possible use when sending a message over an encrypted
connection. The values of $host and $host_address are set to the name and
address of the server during the expansion. See chapter 39 for details of TLS.
Note: This option must be set if you want Exim to be able to use a TLS
certificate when sending messages as a client. The global option of the same
name specifies the certificate for Exim as a server; it is not automatically
assumed that the same certificate should be used when Exim is operating as a
client.
------------------------------------------------
-tls_crl-Use: smtp-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------
This option specifies a certificate revocation list. The expanded value must be
the name of a file that contains a CRL in PEM format.
-------------------------------------------------------
-tls_privatekey-Use: smtp-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------
The value of this option must be the absolute path to a file which contains the
client's private key. This is used when sending a message over an encrypted
connection using a client certificate. The values of $host and $host_address
are set to the name and address of the server during the expansion. If this
option is unset, or the expansion is forced to fail, or the result is an empty
string, the private key is assumed to be in the same file as the certificate.
See chapter 39 for details of TLS.
------------------------------------------------------------
-tls_require_ciphers-Use: smtp-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------
The value of this option must be a list of permitted cipher suites, for use
when setting up an outgoing encrypted connection. (There is a global option of
the same name for controlling incoming connections.) The values of $host and
$host_address are set to the name and address of the server during the
expansion. See chapter 39 for details of TLS; note that this option is used in
different ways by OpenSSL and GnuTLS (see sections 39.4 and 39.5). For GnuTLS,
the order of the ciphers is a preference order.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-tls_tempfail_tryclear-Use: smtp-Type: boolean-Default: true-
-------------------------------------------------------------
When the server host is not in hosts_require_tls, and there is a problem in
setting up a TLS session, this option determines whether or not Exim should try
to deliver the message unencrypted. If it is set false, delivery to the current
host is deferred; if there are other hosts, they are tried. If this option is
set true, Exim attempts to deliver unencrypted after a 4xx response to
STARTTLS. Also, if STARTTLS is accepted, but the subsequent TLS negotiation
fails, Exim closes the current connection (because it is in an unknown state),
opens a new one to the same host, and then tries the delivery in clear.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-tls_verify_certificates-Use: smtp-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------------
The value of this option must be the absolute path to a file containing
permitted server certificates, for use when setting up an encrypted connection.
Alternatively, if you are using OpenSSL, you can set tls_verify_certificates to
the name of a directory containing certificate files. This does not work with
GnuTLS; the option must be set to the name of a single file if you are using
GnuTLS. The values of $host and $host_address are set to the name and address
of the server during the expansion of this option. See chapter 39 for details
of TLS.
30.5 How the limits for the number of hosts to try are used
-----------------------------------------------------------
There are two options that are concerned with the number of hosts that are
tried when an SMTP delivery takes place. They are hosts_max_try and
hosts_max_try_hardlimit.
The hosts_max_try option limits the number of hosts that are tried for a single
delivery. However, despite the term "host" in its name, the option actually
applies to each IP address independently. In other words, a multihomed host is
treated as several independent hosts, just as it is for retrying.
Many of the larger ISPs have multiple MX records which often point to
multihomed hosts. As a result, a list of a dozen or more IP addresses may be
created as a result of routing one of these domains.
Trying every single IP address on such a long list does not seem sensible; if
several at the top of the list fail, it is reasonable to assume there is some
problem that is likely to affect all of them. Roughly speaking, the value of
hosts_max_try is the maximum number that are tried before deferring the
delivery. However, the logic cannot be quite that simple.
Firstly, IP addresses that are skipped because their retry times have not
arrived do not count, and in addition, addresses that are past their retry
limits are also not counted, even when they are tried. This means that when
some IP addresses are past their retry limits, more than the value of
hosts_max_retry may be tried. The reason for this behaviour is to ensure that
all IP addresses are considered before timing out an email address (but see
below for an exception).
Secondly, when the hosts_max_try limit is reached, Exim looks down the host
list to see if there is a subsequent host with a different (higher valued) MX.
If there is, that host is considered next, and the current IP address is used
but not counted. This behaviour helps in the case of a domain with a retry rule
that hardly ever delays any hosts, as is now explained:
Consider the case of a long list of hosts with one MX value, and a few with a
higher MX value. If hosts_max_try is small (the default is 5) only a few hosts
at the top of the list are tried at first. With the default retry rule, which
specifies increasing retry times, the higher MX hosts are eventually tried when
those at the top of the list are skipped because they have not reached their
retry times.
However, it is common practice to put a fixed short retry time on domains for
large ISPs, on the grounds that their servers are rarely down for very long.
Unfortunately, these are exactly the domains that tend to resolve to long lists
of hosts. The short retry time means that the lowest MX hosts are tried every
time. The attempts may be in a different order because of random sorting, but
without the special MX check, the higher MX hosts would never be tried until
all the lower MX hosts had timed out (which might be several days), because
there are always some lower MX hosts that have reached their retry times. With
the special check, Exim considers at least one IP address from each MX value at
every delivery attempt, even if the hosts_max_try limit has already been
reached.
The above logic means that hosts_max_try is not a hard limit, and in
particular, Exim normally eventually tries all the IP addresses before timing
out an email address. When hosts_max_try was implemented, this seemed a
reasonable thing to do. Recently, however, some lunatic DNS configurations have
been set up with hundreds of IP addresses for some domains. It can take a very
long time indeed for an address to time out in these cases.
The hosts_max_try_hardlimit option was added to help with this problem. Exim
never tries more than this number of IP addresses; if it hits this limit and
they are all timed out, the email address is bounced, even though not all
possible IP addresses have been tried.
===============================================================================
31. ADDRESS REWRITING
There are some circumstances in which Exim automatically rewrites domains in
addresses. The two most common are when an address is given without a domain
(referred to as an "unqualified address") or when an address contains an
abbreviated domain that is expanded by DNS lookup.
Unqualified envelope addresses are accepted only for locally submitted
messages, or for messages that are received from hosts matching
sender_unqualified_hosts or recipient_unqualified_hosts, as appropriate.
Unqualified addresses in header lines are qualified if they are in locally
submitted messages, or messages from hosts that are permitted to send
unqualified envelope addresses. Otherwise, unqualified addresses in header
lines are neither qualified nor rewritten.
One situation in which Exim does not automatically rewrite a domain is when it
is the name of a CNAME record in the DNS. The older RFCs suggest that such a
domain should be rewritten using the "canonical" name, and some MTAs do this.
The new RFCs do not contain this suggestion.
31.1 Explicitly configured address rewriting
--------------------------------------------
This chapter describes the rewriting rules that can be used in the main rewrite
section of the configuration file, and also in the generic headers_rewrite
option that can be set on any transport.
Some people believe that configured address rewriting is a Mortal Sin. Others
believe that life is not possible without it. Exim provides the facility; you
do not have to use it.
The main rewriting rules that appear in the "rewrite" section of the
configuration file are applied to addresses in incoming messages, both envelope
addresses and addresses in header lines. Each rule specifies the types of
address to which it applies.
Whether or not addresses in header lines are rewritten depends on the origin of
the headers and the type of rewriting. Global rewriting, that is, rewriting
rules from the rewrite section of the configuration file, is applied only to
those headers that were received with the message. Header lines that are added
by ACLs or by a system filter or by individual routers or transports (which are
specific to individual recipient addresses) are not rewritten by the global
rules.
Rewriting at transport time, by means of the headers_rewrite option, applies
all headers except those added by routers and transports. That is, as well as
the headers that were received with the message, it also applies to headers
that were added by an ACL or a system filter.
In general, rewriting addresses from your own system or domain has some
legitimacy. Rewriting other addresses should be done only with great care and
in special circumstances. The author of Exim believes that rewriting should be
used sparingly, and mainly for "regularizing" addresses in your own domains.
Although it can sometimes be used as a routing tool, this is very strongly
discouraged.
There are two commonly encountered circumstances where rewriting is used, as
illustrated by these examples:
* The company whose domain is hitch.fict.example has a number of hosts that
exchange mail with each other behind a firewall, but there is only a single
gateway to the outer world. The gateway rewrites *.hitch.fict.example as
hitch.fict.example when sending mail off-site.
* A host rewrites the local parts of its own users so that, for example,
fp42@hitch.fict.example becomes Ford.Prefect@hitch.fict.example.
31.2 When does rewriting happen?
--------------------------------
Configured address rewriting can take place at several different stages of a
message's processing.
At the start of an ACL for MAIL, the sender address may have been rewritten by
a special SMTP-time rewrite rule (see section 31.9), but no ordinary rewrite
rules have yet been applied. If, however, the sender address is verified in the
ACL, it is rewritten before verification, and remains rewritten thereafter. The
subsequent value of $sender_address is the rewritten address. This also applies
if sender verification happens in a RCPT ACL. Otherwise, when the sender
address is not verified, it is rewritten as soon as a message's header lines
have been received.
Similarly, at the start of an ACL for RCPT, the current recipient's address may
have been rewritten by a special SMTP-time rewrite rule, but no ordinary
rewrite rules have yet been applied to it. However, the behaviour is different
from the sender address when a recipient is verified. The address is rewritten
for the verification, but the rewriting is not remembered at this stage. The
value of $local_part and $domain after verification are always the same as they
were before (that is, they contain the unrewritten - except for SMTP-time
rewriting - address).
As soon as a message's header lines have been received, all the envelope
recipient addresses are permanently rewritten, and rewriting is also applied to
the addresses in the header lines (if configured). This happens before adding
any header lines that were specified in MAIL or RCPT ACLs, and before the DATA
ACL and local_scan() functions are run.
When an address is being routed, either for delivery or for verification,
rewriting is applied immediately to child addresses that are generated by
redirection, unless no_rewrite is set on the router.
At transport time, additional rewriting of addresses in header lines can be
specified by setting the generic headers_rewrite option on a transport. This
option contains rules that are identical in form to those in the rewrite
section of the configuration file. They are applied to the original message
header lines and any that were added by ACLs or a system filter. They are not
applied to header lines that are added by routers or the transport.
The outgoing envelope sender can be rewritten by means of the return_path
transport option. However, it is not possible to rewrite envelope recipients at
transport time.
31.3 Testing the rewriting rules that apply on input
----------------------------------------------------
Exim's input rewriting configuration appears in a part of the run time
configuration file headed by "begin rewrite". It can be tested by the -brw
command line option. This takes an address (which can be a full RFC 2822
address) as its argument. The output is a list of how the address would be
transformed by the rewriting rules for each of the different places it might
appear in an incoming message, that is, for each different header and for the
envelope sender and recipient fields. For example,
exim -brw ph10@exim.workshop.example
might produce the output
sender: Philip.Hazel@exim.workshop.example
from: Philip.Hazel@exim.workshop.example
to: ph10@exim.workshop.example
cc: ph10@exim.workshop.example
bcc: ph10@exim.workshop.example
reply-to: Philip.Hazel@exim.workshop.example
env-from: Philip.Hazel@exim.workshop.example
env-to: ph10@exim.workshop.example
which shows that rewriting has been set up for that address when used in any of
the source fields, but not when it appears as a recipient address. At the
present time, there is no equivalent way of testing rewriting rules that are
set for a particular transport.
31.4 Rewriting rules
--------------------
The rewrite section of the configuration file consists of lines of rewriting
rules in the form
<source pattern> <replacement> <flags>
Rewriting rules that are specified for the headers_rewrite generic transport
option are given as a colon-separated list. Each item in the list takes the
same form as a line in the main rewriting configuration (except that any colons
must be doubled, of course).
The formats of source patterns and replacement strings are described below.
Each is terminated by white space, unless enclosed in double quotes, in which
case normal quoting conventions apply inside the quotes. The flags are single
characters which may appear in any order. Spaces and tabs between them are
ignored.
For each address that could potentially be rewritten, the rules are scanned in
order, and replacements for the address from earlier rules can themselves be
replaced by later rules (but see the "q" and "R" flags).
The order in which addresses are rewritten is undefined, may change between
releases, and must not be relied on, with one exception: when a message is
received, the envelope sender is always rewritten first, before any header
lines are rewritten. For example, the replacement string for a rewrite of an
address in To: must not assume that the message's address in From: has (or has
not) already been rewritten. However, a rewrite of From: may assume that the
envelope sender has already been rewritten.
The variables $local_part and $domain can be used in the replacement string to
refer to the address that is being rewritten. Note that lookup-driven rewriting
can be done by a rule of the form
*@* ${lookup ...
where the lookup key uses $1 and $2 or $local_part and $domain to refer to the
address that is being rewritten.
31.5 Rewriting patterns
-----------------------
The source pattern in a rewriting rule is any item which may appear in an
address list (see section 10.19). It is in fact processed as a single-item
address list, which means that it is expanded before being tested against the
address. As always, if you use a regular expression as a pattern, you must take
care to escape dollar and backslash characters, or use the "\N" facility to
suppress string expansion within the regular expression.
Domains in patterns should be given in lower case. Local parts in patterns are
case-sensitive. If you want to do case-insensitive matching of local parts, you
can use a regular expression that starts with "^(?i)".
After matching, the numerical variables $1, $2, etc. may be set, depending on
the type of match which occurred. These can be used in the replacement string
to insert portions of the incoming address. $0 always refers to the complete
incoming address. When a regular expression is used, the numerical variables
are set from its capturing subexpressions. For other types of pattern they are
set as follows:
* If a local part or domain starts with an asterisk, the numerical variables
refer to the character strings matched by asterisks, with $1 associated
with the first asterisk, and $2 with the second, if present. For example,
if the pattern
*queen@*.fict.example
is matched against the address hearts-queen@wonderland.fict.example then
$0 = hearts-queen@wonderland.fict.example
$1 = hearts-
$2 = wonderland
Note that if the local part does not start with an asterisk, but the domain
does, it is $1 that contains the wild part of the domain.
* If the domain part of the pattern is a partial lookup, the wild and fixed
parts of the domain are placed in the next available numerical variables.
Suppose, for example, that the address foo@bar.baz.example is processed by
a rewriting rule of the form
*@partial-dbm;/some/dbm/file <replacement string>
and the key in the file that matches the domain is "*.baz.example". Then
$1 = foo
$2 = bar
$3 = baz.example
If the address foo@baz.example is looked up, this matches the same wildcard
file entry, and in this case $2 is set to the empty string, but $3 is still
set to baz.example. If a non-wild key is matched in a partial lookup, $2 is
again set to the empty string and $3 is set to the whole domain. For
non-partial domain lookups, no numerical variables are set.
31.6 Rewriting replacements
---------------------------
If the replacement string for a rule is a single asterisk, addresses that match
the pattern and the flags are not rewritten, and no subsequent rewriting rules
are scanned. For example,
hatta@lookingglass.fict.example * f
specifies that hatta@lookingglass.fict.example is never to be rewritten in
From: headers.
If the replacement string is not a single asterisk, it is expanded, and must
yield a fully qualified address. Within the expansion, the variables
$local_part and $domain refer to the address that is being rewritten. Any
letters they contain retain their original case - they are not lower cased. The
numerical variables are set up according to the type of pattern that matched
the address, as described above. If the expansion is forced to fail by the
presence of "fail" in a conditional or lookup item, rewriting by the current
rule is abandoned, but subsequent rules may take effect. Any other expansion
failure causes the entire rewriting operation to be abandoned, and an entry
written to the panic log.
31.7 Rewriting flags
--------------------
There are three different kinds of flag that may appear on rewriting rules:
* Flags that specify which headers and envelope addresses to rewrite: E, F,
T, b, c, f, h, r, s, t.
* A flag that specifies rewriting at SMTP time: S.
* Flags that control the rewriting process: Q, q, R, w.
For rules that are part of the headers_rewrite generic transport option, E, F,
T, and S are not permitted.
31.8 Flags specifying which headers and envelope addresses to rewrite
---------------------------------------------------------------------
If none of the following flag letters, nor the "S" flag (see section 31.9) are
present, a main rewriting rule applies to all headers and to both the sender
and recipient fields of the envelope, whereas a transport-time rewriting rule
just applies to all headers. Otherwise, the rewriting rule is skipped unless
the relevant addresses are being processed.
E rewrite all envelope fields
F rewrite the envelope From field
T rewrite the envelope To field
b rewrite the Bcc: header
c rewrite the Cc: header
f rewrite the From: header
h rewrite all headers
r rewrite the Reply-To: header
s rewrite the Sender: header
t rewrite the To: header
"All headers" means all of the headers listed above that can be selected
individually, plus their Resent- versions. It does not include other headers
such as Subject: etc.
You should be particularly careful about rewriting Sender: headers, and
restrict this to special known cases in your own domains.
31.9 The SMTP-time rewriting flag
---------------------------------
The rewrite flag "S" specifies a rewrite of incoming envelope addresses at SMTP
time, as soon as an address is received in a MAIL or RCPT command, and before
any other processing; even before syntax checking. The pattern is required to
be a regular expression, and it is matched against the whole of the data for
the command, including any surrounding angle brackets.
This form of rewrite rule allows for the handling of addresses that are not
compliant with RFCs 2821 and 2822 (for example, "bang paths" in batched SMTP
input). Because the input is not required to be a syntactically valid address,
the variables $local_part and $domain are not available during the expansion of
the replacement string. The result of rewriting replaces the original address
in the MAIL or RCPT command.
31.10 Flags controlling the rewriting process
---------------------------------------------
There are four flags which control the way the rewriting process works. These
take effect only when a rule is invoked, that is, when the address is of the
correct type (matches the flags) and matches the pattern:
* If the "Q" flag is set on a rule, the rewritten address is permitted to be
an unqualified local part. It is qualified with qualify_recipient. In the
absence of "Q" the rewritten address must always include a domain.
* If the "q" flag is set on a rule, no further rewriting rules are
considered, even if no rewriting actually takes place because of a "fail"
in the expansion. The "q" flag is not effective if the address is of the
wrong type (does not match the flags) or does not match the pattern.
* The "R" flag causes a successful rewriting rule to be re-applied to the new
address, up to ten times. It can be combined with the "q" flag, to stop
rewriting once it fails to match (after at least one successful rewrite).
* When an address in a header is rewritten, the rewriting normally applies
only to the working part of the address, with any comments and RFC 2822
"phrase" left unchanged. For example, rewriting might change
From: Ford Prefect <fp42@restaurant.hitch.fict.example>
into
From: Ford Prefect <prefectf@hitch.fict.example>
Sometimes there is a need to replace the whole address item, and this can
be done by adding the flag letter "w" to a rule. If this is set on a rule
that causes an address in a header line to be rewritten, the entire address
is replaced, not just the working part. The replacement must be a complete
RFC 2822 address, including the angle brackets if necessary. If text
outside angle brackets contains a character whose value is greater than 126
or less than 32 (except for tab), the text is encoded according to RFC
2047. The character set is taken from headers_charset, which defaults to
ISO-8859-1.
When the "w" flag is set on a rule that causes an envelope address to be
rewritten, all but the working part of the replacement address is
discarded.
31.11 Rewriting examples
------------------------
Here is an example of the two common rewriting paradigms:
*@*.hitch.fict.example $1@hitch.fict.example
*@hitch.fict.example ${lookup{$1}dbm{/etc/realnames}\
{$value}fail}@hitch.fict.example bctfrF
Note the use of "fail" in the lookup expansion in the second rule, forcing the
string expansion to fail if the lookup does not succeed. In this context it has
the effect of leaving the original address unchanged, but Exim goes on to
consider subsequent rewriting rules, if any, because the "q" flag is not
present in that rule. An alternative to "fail" would be to supply $1
explicitly, which would cause the rewritten address to be the same as before,
at the cost of a small bit of processing. Not supplying either of these is an
error, since the rewritten address would then contain no local part.
The first example above replaces the domain with a superior, more general
domain. This may not be desirable for certain local parts. If the rule
root@*.hitch.fict.example *
were inserted before the first rule, rewriting would be suppressed for the
local part root at any domain ending in hitch.fict.example.
Rewriting can be made conditional on a number of tests, by making use of ${if
in the expansion item. For example, to apply a rewriting rule only to messages
that originate outside the local host:
*@*.hitch.fict.example "${if !eq {$sender_host_address}{}\
{$1@hitch.fict.example}fail}"
The replacement string is quoted in this example because it contains white
space.
Exim does not handle addresses in the form of "bang paths". If it sees such an
address it treats it as an unqualified local part which it qualifies with the
local qualification domain (if the source of the message is local or if the
remote host is permitted to send unqualified addresses). Rewriting can
sometimes be used to handle simple bang paths with a fixed number of
components. For example, the rule
\N^([^!]+)!(.*)@your.domain.example$\N $2@$1
rewrites a two-component bang path host.name!user as the domain address
user@host.name. However, there is a security implication in using this as a
global rewriting rule for envelope addresses. It can provide a backdoor method
for using your system as a relay, because the incoming addresses appear to be
local. If the bang path addresses are received via SMTP, it is safer to use the
"S" flag to rewrite them as they are received, so that relay checking can be
done on the rewritten addresses.
===============================================================================
32. RETRY CONFIGURATION
The "retry" section of the runtime configuration file contains a list of retry
rules that control how often Exim tries to deliver messages that cannot be
delivered at the first attempt. If there are no retry rules (the section is
empty or not present), there are no retries. In this situation, temporary
errors are treated as permanent. The default configuration contains a single,
general-purpose retry rule (see section 7.5). The -brt command line option can
be used to test which retry rule will be used for a given address, domain and
error.
The most common cause of retries is temporary failure to deliver to a remote
host because the host is down, or inaccessible because of a network problem.
Exim's retry processing in this case is applied on a per-host (strictly, per IP
address) basis, not on a per-message basis. Thus, if one message has recently
been delayed, delivery of a new message to the same host is not immediately
tried, but waits for the host's retry time to arrive. If the retry_defer log
selector is set, the message "retry time not reached" is written to the main
log whenever a delivery is skipped for this reason. Section 45.2 contains more
details of the handling of errors during remote deliveries.
Retry processing applies to routing as well as to delivering, except as covered
in the next paragraph. The retry rules do not distinguish between these
actions. It is not possible, for example, to specify different behaviour for
failures to route the domain snark.fict.example and failures to deliver to the
host snark.fict.example. I didn't think anyone would ever need this added
complication, so did not implement it. However, although they share the same
retry rule, the actual retry times for routing and transporting a given domain
are maintained independently.
When a delivery is not part of a queue run (typically an immediate delivery on
receipt of a message), the routers are always run, and local deliveries are
always attempted, even if retry times are set for them. This makes for better
behaviour if one particular message is causing problems (for example, causing
quota overflow, or provoking an error in a filter file). If such a delivery
suffers a temporary failure, the retry data is updated as normal, and
subsequent delivery attempts from queue runs occur only when the retry time for
the local address is reached.
32.1 Changing retry rules
-------------------------
If you change the retry rules in your configuration, you should consider
whether or not to delete the retry data that is stored in Exim's spool area in
files with names like db/retry. Deleting any of Exim's hints files is always
safe; that is why they are called "hints".
The hints retry data contains suggested retry times based on the previous
rules. In the case of a long-running problem with a remote host, it might
record the fact that the host has timed out. If your new rules increase the
timeout time for such a host, you should definitely remove the old retry data
and let Exim recreate it, based on the new rules. Otherwise Exim might bounce
messages that it should now be retaining.
32.2 Format of retry rules
--------------------------
Each retry rule occupies one line and consists of three or four parts,
separated by white space: a pattern, an error name, an optional list of sender
addresses, and a list of retry parameters. The pattern and sender lists must be
enclosed in double quotes if they contain white space. The rules are searched
in order until one is found where the pattern, error name, and sender list (if
present) match the failing host or address, the error that occurred, and the
message's sender, respectively.
The pattern is any single item that may appear in an address list (see section
10.19). It is in fact processed as a one-item address list, which means that it
is expanded before being tested against the address that has been delayed. A
negated address list item is permitted. Address list processing treats a plain
domain name as if it were preceded by "*@", which makes it possible for many
retry rules to start with just a domain. For example,
lookingglass.fict.example * F,24h,30m;
provides a rule for any address in the lookingglass.fict.example domain,
whereas
alice@lookingglass.fict.example * F,24h,30m;
applies only to temporary failures involving the local part alice. In practice,
almost all rules start with a domain name pattern without a local part.
Warning: If you use a regular expression in a routing rule pattern, it must
match a complete address, not just a domain, because that is how regular
expressions work in address lists.
^\Nxyz\d+\.abc\.example$\N * G,1h,10m,2 Wrong
^\N[^@]+@xyz\d+\.abc\.example$\N * G,1h,10m,2 Right
32.3 Choosing which retry rule to use for address errors
--------------------------------------------------------
When Exim is looking for a retry rule after a routing attempt has failed (for
example, after a DNS timeout), each line in the retry configuration is tested
against the complete address only if retry_use_local_part is set for the
router. Otherwise, only the domain is used, except when matching against a
regular expression, when the local part of the address is replaced with "*". A
domain on its own can match a domain pattern, or a pattern that starts with
"*@". By default, retry_use_local_part is true for routers where
check_local_user is true, and false for other routers.
Similarly, when Exim is looking for a retry rule after a local delivery has
failed (for example, after a mailbox full error), each line in the retry
configuration is tested against the complete address only if
retry_use_local_part is set for the transport (it defaults true for all local
transports).
However, when Exim is looking for a retry rule after a remote delivery attempt
suffers an address error (a 4xx SMTP response for a recipient address), the
whole address is always used as the key when searching the retry rules. The
rule that is found is used to create a retry time for the combination of the
failing address and the message's sender. It is the combination of sender and
recipient that is delayed in subsequent queue runs until its retry time is
reached. You can delay the recipient without regard to the sender by setting
address_retry_include_sender false in the smtp transport but this can lead to
problems with servers that regularly issue 4xx responses to RCPT commands.
32.4 Choosing which retry rule to use for host and message errors
-----------------------------------------------------------------
For a temporary error that is not related to an individual address (for
example, a connection timeout), each line in the retry configuration is checked
twice. First, the name of the remote host is used as a domain name (preceded by
"*@" when matching a regular expression). If this does not match the line, the
domain from the email address is tried in a similar fashion. For example,
suppose the MX records for a.b.c.example are
a.b.c.example MX 5 x.y.z.example
MX 6 p.q.r.example
MX 7 m.n.o.example
and the retry rules are
p.q.r.example * F,24h,30m;
a.b.c.example * F,4d,45m;
and a delivery to the host x.y.z.example suffers a connection failure. The
first rule matches neither the host nor the domain, so Exim looks at the second
rule. This does not match the host, but it does match the domain, so it is used
to calculate the retry time for the host x.y.z.example. Meanwhile, Exim tries
to deliver to p.q.r.example. If this also suffers a host error, the first retry
rule is used, because it matches the host.
In other words, temporary failures to deliver to host p.q.r.example use the
first rule to determine retry times, but for all the other hosts for the domain
a.b.c.example, the second rule is used. The second rule is also used if routing
to a.b.c.example suffers a temporary failure.
Note: The host name is used when matching the patterns, not its IP address.
However, if a message is routed directly to an IP address without the use of a
host name, for example, if a manualroute router contains a setting such as:
route_list = *.a.example 192.168.34.23
then the "host name" that is used when searching for a retry rule is the
textual form of the IP address.
32.5 Retry rules for specific errors
------------------------------------
The second field in a retry rule is the name of a particular error, or an
asterisk, which matches any error. The errors that can be tested for are:
auth_failed
Authentication failed when trying to send to a host in the
hosts_require_auth list in an smtp transport.
data_4xx
A 4xx error was received for an outgoing DATA command, either immediately
after the command, or after sending the message's data.
mail_4xx
A 4xx error was received for an outgoing MAIL command.
rcpt_4xx
A 4xx error was received for an outgoing RCPT command.
For the three 4xx errors, either the first or both of the x's can be given as
specific digits, for example: "mail_45x" or "rcpt_436". For example, to
recognize 452 errors given to RCPT commands for addresses in a certain domain,
and have retries every ten minutes with a one-hour timeout, you could set up a
retry rule of this form:
the.domain.name rcpt_452 F,1h,10m
These errors apply to both outgoing SMTP (the smtp transport) and outgoing LMTP
(either the lmtp transport, or the smtp transport in LMTP mode).
lost_connection
A server unexpectedly closed the SMTP connection. There may, of course,
legitimate reasons for this (host died, network died), but if it repeats a
lot for the same host, it indicates something odd.
refused_MX
A connection to a host obtained from an MX record was refused.
refused_A
A connection to a host not obtained from an MX record was refused.
refused
A connection was refused.
timeout_connect_MX
A connection attempt to a host obtained from an MX record timed out.
timeout_connect_A
A connection attempt to a host not obtained from an MX record timed out.
timeout_connect
A connection attempt timed out.
timeout_MX
There was a timeout while connecting or during an SMTP session with a host
obtained from an MX record.
timeout_A
There was a timeout while connecting or during an SMTP session with a host
not obtained from an MX record.
timeout
There was a timeout while connecting or during an SMTP session.
tls_required
The server was required to use TLS (it matched hosts_require_tls in the
smtp transport), but either did not offer TLS, or it responded with 4xx to
STARTTLS, or there was a problem setting up the TLS connection.
quota
A mailbox quota was exceeded in a local delivery by the appendfile
transport.
quota_<time>
A mailbox quota was exceeded in a local delivery by the appendfile
transport, and the mailbox has not been accessed for <time>. For example,
quota_4d applies to a quota error when the mailbox has not been accessed
for four days.
The idea of quota_<time> is to make it possible to have shorter timeouts when
the mailbox is full and is not being read by its owner. Ideally, it should be
based on the last time that the user accessed the mailbox. However, it is not
always possible to determine this. Exim uses the following heuristic rules:
* If the mailbox is a single file, the time of last access (the "atime") is
used. As no new messages are being delivered (because the mailbox is over
quota), Exim does not access the file, so this is the time of last user
access.
* For a maildir delivery, the time of last modification of the new
subdirectory is used. As the mailbox is over quota, no new files are
created in the new subdirectory, because no new messages are being
delivered. Any change to the new subdirectory is therefore assumed to be
the result of an MUA moving a new message to the cur directory when it is
first read. The time that is used is therefore the last time that the user
read a new message.
* For other kinds of multi-file mailbox, the time of last access cannot be
obtained, so a retry rule that uses this type of error field is never
matched.
The quota errors apply both to system-enforced quotas and to Exim's own quota
mechanism in the appendfile transport. The quota error also applies when a
local delivery is deferred because a partition is full (the ENOSPC error).
32.6 Retry rules for specified senders
--------------------------------------
You can specify retry rules that apply only when the failing message has a
specific sender. In particular, this can be used to define retry rules that
apply only to bounce messages. The third item in a retry rule can be of this
form:
senders=<address list>
The retry timings themselves are then the fourth item. For example:
* rcpt_4xx senders=: F,1h,30m
matches recipient 4xx errors for bounce messages sent to any address at any
host. If the address list contains white space, it must be enclosed in quotes.
For example:
a.domain rcpt_452 senders="xb.dom : yc.dom" G,8h,10m,1.5
Warning: This facility can be unhelpful if it is used for host errors (which do
not depend on the recipient). The reason is that the sender is used only to
match the retry rule. Once the rule has been found for a host error, its
contents are used to set a retry time for the host, and this will apply to all
messages, not just those with specific senders.
When testing retry rules using -brt, you can supply a sender using the -f
command line option, like this:
exim -f "" -brt user@dom.ain
If you do not set -f with -brt, a retry rule that contains a senders list is
never matched.
32.7 Retry parameters
---------------------
The third (or fourth, if a senders list is present) field in a retry rule is a
sequence of retry parameter sets, separated by semicolons. Each set consists of
<letter>,<cutoff time>,<arguments>
The letter identifies the algorithm for computing a new retry time; the cutoff
time is the time beyond which this algorithm no longer applies, and the
arguments vary the algorithm's action. The cutoff time is measured from the
time that the first failure for the domain (combined with the local part if
relevant) was detected, not from the time the message was received.
The available algorithms are:
* F: retry at fixed intervals. There is a single time parameter specifying
the interval.
* G: retry at geometrically increasing intervals. The first argument
specifies a starting value for the interval, and the second a multiplier,
which is used to increase the size of the interval at each retry.
* H: retry at randomized intervals. The arguments are as for G. For each
retry, the previous interval is multiplied by the factor in order to get a
maximum for the next interval. The minimum interval is the first argument
of the parameter, and an actual interval is chosen randomly between them.
Such a rule has been found to be helpful in cluster configurations when all
the members of the cluster restart at once, and may therefore synchronize
their queue processing times.
When computing the next retry time, the algorithm definitions are scanned in
order until one whose cutoff time has not yet passed is reached. This is then
used to compute a new retry time that is later than the current time. In the
case of fixed interval retries, this simply means adding the interval to the
current time. For geometrically increasing intervals, retry intervals are
computed from the rule's parameters until one that is greater than the previous
interval is found. The main configuration variable retry_interval_max limits
the maximum interval between retries. It cannot be set greater than "24h",
which is its default value.
A single remote domain may have a number of hosts associated with it, and each
host may have more than one IP address. Retry algorithms are selected on the
basis of the domain name, but are applied to each IP address independently. If,
for example, a host has two IP addresses and one is unusable, Exim will
generate retry times for it and will not try to use it until its next retry
time comes. Thus the good IP address is likely to be tried first most of the
time.
Retry times are hints rather than promises. Exim does not make any attempt to
run deliveries exactly at the computed times. Instead, a queue runner process
starts delivery processes for delayed messages periodically, and these attempt
new deliveries only for those addresses that have passed their next retry time.
If a new message arrives for a deferred address, an immediate delivery attempt
occurs only if the address has passed its retry time. In the absence of new
messages, the minimum time between retries is the interval between queue runner
processes. There is not much point in setting retry times of five minutes if
your queue runners happen only once an hour, unless there are a significant
number of incoming messages (which might be the case on a system that is
sending everything to a smart host, for example).
The data in the retry hints database can be inspected by using the exim_dumpdb
or exim_fixdb utility programs (see chapter 50). The latter utility can also be
used to change the data. The exinext utility script can be used to find out
what the next retry times are for the hosts associated with a particular mail
domain, and also for local deliveries that have been deferred.
32.8 Retry rule examples
------------------------
Here are some example retry rules:
alice@wonderland.fict.example quota_5d F,7d,3h
wonderland.fict.example quota_5d
wonderland.fict.example * F,1h,15m; G,2d,1h,2;
lookingglass.fict.example * F,24h,30m;
* refused_A F,2h,20m;
* * F,2h,15m; G,16h,1h,1.5; F,5d,8h
The first rule sets up special handling for mail to
alice@wonderland.fict.example when there is an over-quota error and the mailbox
has not been read for at least 5 days. Retries continue every three hours for 7
days. The second rule handles over-quota errors for all other local parts at
wonderland.fict.example; the absence of a local part has the same effect as
supplying "*@". As no retry algorithms are supplied, messages that fail are
bounced immediately if the mailbox has not been read for at least 5 days.
The third rule handles all other errors at wonderland.fict.example; retries
happen every 15 minutes for an hour, then with geometrically increasing
intervals until two days have passed since a delivery first failed. After the
first hour there is a delay of one hour, then two hours, then four hours, and
so on (this is a rather extreme example).
The fourth rule controls retries for the domain lookingglass.fict.example. They
happen every 30 minutes for 24 hours only. The remaining two rules handle all
other domains, with special action for connection refusal from hosts that were
not obtained from an MX record.
The final rule in a retry configuration should always have asterisks in the
first two fields so as to provide a general catch-all for any addresses that do
not have their own special handling. This example tries every 15 minutes for 2
hours, then with intervals starting at one hour and increasing by a factor of
1.5 up to 16 hours, then every 8 hours up to 5 days.
32.9 Timeout of retry data
--------------------------
Exim timestamps the data that it writes to its retry hints database. When it
consults the data during a delivery it ignores any that is older than the value
set in retry_data_expire (default 7 days). If, for example, a host hasn't been
tried for 7 days, Exim will try to deliver to it immediately a message arrives,
and if that fails, it will calculate a retry time as if it were failing for the
first time.
This improves the behaviour for messages routed to rarely-used hosts such as MX
backups. If such a host was down at one time, and happens to be down again when
Exim tries a month later, using the old retry data would imply that it had been
down all the time, which is not a justified assumption.
If a host really is permanently dead, this behaviour causes a burst of retries
every now and again, but only if messages routed to it are rare. If there is a
message at least once every 7 days the retry data never expires.
32.10 Long-term failures
------------------------
Special processing happens when an email address has been failing for so long
that the cutoff time for the last algorithm is reached. For example, using the
default retry rule:
* * F,2h,15m; G,16h,1h,1.5; F,4d,6h
the cutoff time is four days. Reaching the retry cutoff is independent of how
long any specific message has been failing; it is the length of continuous
failure for the recipient address that counts.
When the cutoff time is reached for a local delivery, or for all the IP
addresses associated with a remote delivery, a subsequent delivery failure
causes Exim to give up on the address, and a bounce message is generated. In
order to cater for new messages that use the failing address, a next retry time
is still computed from the final algorithm, and is used as follows:
For local deliveries, one delivery attempt is always made for any subsequent
messages. If this delivery fails, the address fails immediately. The
post-cutoff retry time is not used.
If the delivery is remote, there are two possibilities, controlled by the
delay_after_cutoff option of the smtp transport. The option is true by default.
Until the post-cutoff retry time for one of the IP addresses is reached, the
failing email address is bounced immediately, without a delivery attempt taking
place. After that time, one new delivery attempt is made to those IP addresses
that are past their retry times, and if that still fails, the address is
bounced and new retry times are computed.
In other words, when all the hosts for a given email address have been failing
for a long time, Exim bounces rather then defers until one of the hosts' retry
times is reached. Then it tries once, and bounces if that attempt fails. This
behaviour ensures that few resources are wasted in repeatedly trying to deliver
to a broken destination, but if the host does recover, Exim will eventually
notice.
If delay_after_cutoff is set false, Exim behaves differently. If all IP
addresses are past their final cutoff time, Exim tries to deliver to those IP
addresses that have not been tried since the message arrived. If there are no
suitable IP addresses, or if they all fail, the address is bounced. In other
words, it does not delay when a new message arrives, but tries the expired
addresses immediately, unless they have been tried since the message arrived.
If there is a continuous stream of messages for the failing domains, setting
delay_after_cutoff false means that there will be many more attempts to deliver
to permanently failing IP addresses than when delay_after_cutoff is true.
32.11 Deliveries that work intermittently
-----------------------------------------
Some additional logic is needed to cope with cases where a host is
intermittently available, or when a message has some attribute that prevents
its delivery when others to the same address get through. In this situation,
because some messages are successfully delivered, the "retry clock" for the
host or address keeps getting reset by the successful deliveries, and so
failing messages remain on the queue for ever because the cutoff time is never
reached.
Two exceptional actions are applied to prevent this happening. The first
applies to errors that are related to a message rather than a remote host.
Section 45.2 has a discussion of the different kinds of error; examples of
message-related errors are 4xx responses to MAIL or DATA commands, and quota
failures. For this type of error, if a message's arrival time is earlier than
the "first failed" time for the error, the earlier time is used when scanning
the retry rules to decide when to try next and when to time out the address.
The exceptional second action applies in all cases. If a message has been on
the queue for longer than the cutoff time of any applicable retry rule for a
given address, a delivery is attempted for that address, even if it is not yet
time, and if this delivery fails, the address is timed out. A new retry time is
not computed in this case, so that other messages for the same address are
considered immediately.
===============================================================================
33. SMTP AUTHENTICATION
The "authenticators" section of Exim's run time configuration is concerned with
SMTP authentication. This facility is an extension to the SMTP protocol,
described in RFC 2554, which allows a client SMTP host to authenticate itself
to a server. This is a common way for a server to recognize clients that are
permitted to use it as a relay. SMTP authentication is not of relevance to the
transfer of mail between servers that have no managerial connection with each
other.
Very briefly, the way SMTP authentication works is as follows:
* The server advertises a number of authentication mechanisms in response to
the client's EHLO command.
* The client issues an AUTH command, naming a specific mechanism. The command
may, optionally, contain some authentication data.
* The server may issue one or more challenges, to which the client must send
appropriate responses. In simple authentication mechanisms, the challenges
are just prompts for user names and passwords. The server does not have to
issue any challenges - in some mechanisms the relevant data may all be
transmitted with the AUTH command.
* The server either accepts or denies authentication.
* If authentication succeeds, the client may optionally make use of the AUTH
option on the MAIL command to pass an authenticated sender in subsequent
mail transactions. Authentication lasts for the remainder of the SMTP
connection.
* If authentication fails, the client may give up, or it may try a different
authentication mechanism, or it may try transferring mail over the
unauthenticated connection.
If you are setting up a client, and want to know which authentication
mechanisms the server supports, you can use Telnet to connect to port 25 (the
SMTP port) on the server, and issue an EHLO command. The response to this
includes the list of supported mechanisms. For example:
$ telnet server.example 25
Trying 192.168.34.25...
Connected to server.example.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 server.example ESMTP Exim 4.20 ...
ehlo client.example
250-server.example Hello client.example [10.8.4.5]
250-SIZE 52428800
250-PIPELINING
250-AUTH PLAIN
250 HELP
The second-last line of this example output shows that the server supports
authentication using the PLAIN mechanism. In Exim, the different authentication
mechanisms are configured by specifying authenticator drivers. Like the routers
and transports, which authenticators are included in the binary is controlled
by build-time definitions. The following are currently available, included by
setting
AUTH_CRAM_MD5=yes
AUTH_CYRUS_SASL=yes
AUTH_PLAINTEXT=yes
AUTH_SPA=yes
in Local/Makefile, respectively. The first of these supports the CRAM-MD5
authentication mechanism (RFC 2195), and the second provides an interface to
the Cyrus SASL authentication library. The third can be configured to support
the PLAIN authentication mechanism (RFC 2595) or the LOGIN mechanism, which is
not formally documented, but used by several MUAs. The fourth authenticator
supports Microsoft's Secure Password Authentication mechanism.
The authenticators are configured using the same syntax as other drivers (see
section 6.22). If no authenticators are required, no authentication section
need be present in the configuration file. Each authenticator can in principle
have both server and client functions. When Exim is receiving SMTP mail, it is
acting as a server; when it is sending out messages over SMTP, it is acting as
a client. Authenticator configuration options are provided for use in both
these circumstances.
To make it clear which options apply to which situation, the prefixes server_
and client_ are used on option names that are specific to either the server or
the client function, respectively. Server and client functions are disabled if
none of their options are set. If an authenticator is to be used for both
server and client functions, a single definition, using both sets of options,
is required. For example:
cram:
driver = cram_md5
public_name = CRAM-MD5
server_secret = ${if eq{$auth1}{ph10}{secret1}fail}
client_name = ph10
client_secret = secret2
The server_ option is used when Exim is acting as a server, and the client_
options when it is acting as a client.
Descriptions of the individual authenticators are given in subsequent chapters.
The remainder of this chapter covers the generic options for the
authenticators, followed by general discussion of the way authentication works
in Exim.
33.1 Generic options for authenticators
---------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-client_condition-Use: authenticators-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
When Exim is authenticating as a client, it skips any authenticator whose
client_condition expansion yields "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for
example, to skip plain text authenticators when the connection is not encrypted
by a setting such as:
client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}}
(Older documentation incorrectly states that $tls_cipher contains the cipher
used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it contains the
cipher used for the delivery.)
--------------------------------------------------------
-driver-Use: authenticators-Type: string-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------
This option must always be set. It specifies which of the available
authenticators is to be used.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-public_name-Use: authenticators-Type: string-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the name of the authentication mechanism that the driver
implements, and by which it is known to the outside world. These names should
contain only upper case letters, digits, underscores, and hyphens (RFC 2222),
but Exim in fact matches them caselessly. If public_name is not set, it
defaults to the driver's instance name.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-server_advertise_condition-Use: authenticators-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
When a server is about to advertise an authentication mechanism, the condition
is expanded. If it yields the empty string, "0", "no", or "false", the
mechanism is not advertised. If the expansion fails, the mechanism is not
advertised. If the failure was not forced, and was not caused by a lookup
defer, the incident is logged. See section 33.3 below for further discussion.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-server_condition-Use: authenticators-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This option must be set for a plaintext server authenticator, where it is used
directly to control authentication. See section 34.2 for details.
For the other authenticators, server_condition can be used as an additional
authentication or authorization mechanism that is applied after the other
authenticator conditions succeed. If it is set, it is expanded when the
authenticator would otherwise return a success code. If the expansion is forced
to fail, authentication fails. Any other expansion failure causes a temporary
error code to be returned. If the result of a successful expansion is an empty
string, "0", "no", or "false", authentication fails. If the result of the
expansion is "1", "yes", or "true", authentication succeeds. For any other
result, a temporary error code is returned, with the expanded string as the
error text.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-server_debug_print-Use: authenticators-Type: string*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------------------
If this option is set and authentication debugging is enabled (see the -d
command line option), the string is expanded and included in the debugging
output when the authenticator is run as a server. This can help with checking
out the values of variables. If expansion of the string fails, the error
message is written to the debugging output, and Exim carries on processing.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-server_set_id-Use: authenticators-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------------
When an Exim server successfully authenticates a client, this string is
expanded using data from the authentication, and preserved for any incoming
messages in the variable $authenticated_id. It is also included in the log
lines for incoming messages. For example, a user/password authenticator
configuration might preserve the user name that was used to authenticate, and
refer to it subsequently during delivery of the message. If expansion fails,
the option is ignored.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-server_mail_auth_condition-Use: authenticators-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This option allows a server to discard authenticated sender addresses supplied
as part of MAIL commands in SMTP connections that are authenticated by the
driver on which server_mail_auth_condition is set. The option is not used as
part of the authentication process; instead its (unexpanded) value is
remembered for later use. How it is used is described in the following section.
33.2 The AUTH parameter on MAIL commands
----------------------------------------
When a client supplied an AUTH= item on a MAIL command, Exim applies the
following checks before accepting it as the authenticated sender of the
message:
* If the connection is not using extended SMTP (that is, HELO was used rather
than EHLO), the use of AUTH= is a syntax error.
* If the value of the AUTH= parameter is "<>", it is ignored.
* If acl_smtp_mailauth is defined, the ACL it specifies is run. While it is
running, the value of $authenticated_sender is set to the value obtained
from the AUTH= parameter. If the ACL does not yield "accept", the value of
$authenticated_sender is deleted. The acl_smtp_mailauth ACL may not return
"drop" or "discard". If it defers, a temporary error code (451) is given
for the MAIL command.
* If acl_smtp_mailauth is not defined, the value of the AUTH= parameter is
accepted and placed in $authenticated_sender only if the client has
authenticated.
* If the AUTH= value was accepted by either of the two previous rules, and
the client has authenticated, and the authenticator has a setting for the
server_mail_auth_condition, the condition is checked at this point. The
valued that was saved from the authenticator is expanded. If the expansion
fails, or yields an empty string, "0", "no", or "false", the value of
$authenticated_sender is deleted. If the expansion yields any other value,
the value of $authenticated_sender is retained and passed on with the
message.
When $authenticated_sender is set for a message, it is passed on to other hosts
to which Exim authenticates as a client. Do not confuse this value with
$authenticated_id, which is a string obtained from the authentication process,
and which is not usually a complete email address.
Whenever an AUTH= value is ignored, the incident is logged. The ACL for MAIL,
if defined, is run after AUTH= is accepted or ignored. It can therefore make
use of $authenticated_sender. The converse is not true: the value of
$sender_address is not yet set up when the acl_smtp_mailauth ACL is run.
33.3 Authentication on an Exim server
-------------------------------------
When Exim receives an EHLO command, it advertises the public names of those
authenticators that are configured as servers, subject to the following
conditions:
* The client host must match auth_advertise_hosts (default *).
* It the server_advertise_condition option is set, its expansion must not
yield the empty string, "0", "no", or "false".
The order in which the authenticators are defined controls the order in which
the mechanisms are advertised.
Some mail clients (for example, some versions of Netscape) require the user to
provide a name and password for authentication whenever AUTH is advertised,
even though authentication may not in fact be needed (for example, Exim may be
set up to allow unconditional relaying from the client by an IP address check).
You can make such clients more friendly by not advertising AUTH to them. For
example, if clients on the 10.9.8.0/24 network are permitted (by the ACL that
runs for RCPT) to relay without authentication, you should set
auth_advertise_hosts = ! 10.9.8.0/24
so that no authentication mechanisms are advertised to them.
The server_advertise_condition controls the advertisement of individual
authentication mechanisms. For example, it can be used to restrict the
advertisement of a particular mechanism to encrypted connections, by a setting
such as:
server_advertise_condition = ${if eq{$tls_cipher}{}{no}{yes}}
If the session is encrypted, $tls_cipher is not empty, and so the expansion
yields "yes", which allows the advertisement to happen.
When an Exim server receives an AUTH command from a client, it rejects it
immediately if AUTH was not advertised in response to an earlier EHLO command.
This is the case if
* The client host does not match auth_advertise_hosts; or
* No authenticators are configured with server options; or
* Expansion of server_advertise_condition blocked the advertising of all the
server authenticators.
Otherwise, Exim runs the ACL specified by acl_smtp_auth in order to decide
whether to accept the command. If acl_smtp_auth is not set, AUTH is accepted
from any client host.
If AUTH is not rejected by the ACL, Exim searches its configuration for a
server authentication mechanism that was advertised in response to EHLO and
that matches the one named in the AUTH command. If it finds one, it runs the
appropriate authentication protocol, and authentication either succeeds or
fails. If there is no matching advertised mechanism, the AUTH command is
rejected with a 504 error.
When a message is received from an authenticated host, the value of
$received_protocol is set to "esmtpa" or "esmtpsa" instead of "esmtp" or
"esmtps", and $sender_host_authenticated contains the name (not the public
name) of the authenticator driver that successfully authenticated the client
from which the message was received. This variable is empty if there was no
successful authentication.
33.4 Testing server authentication
----------------------------------
Exim's -bh option can be useful for testing server authentication
configurations. The data for the AUTH command has to be sent using base64
encoding. A quick way to produce such data for testing is the following Perl
script:
use MIME::Base64;
printf ("%s", encode_base64(eval "\"$ARGV[0]\""));
This interprets its argument as a Perl string, and then encodes it. The
interpretation as a Perl string allows binary zeros, which are required for
some kinds of authentication, to be included in the data. For example, a
command line to run this script on such data might be
encode '\0user\0password'
Note the use of single quotes to prevent the shell interpreting the
backslashes, so that they can be interpreted by Perl to specify characters
whose code value is zero.
Warning 1: If either of the user or password strings starts with an octal
digit, you must use three zeros instead of one after the leading backslash. If
you do not, the octal digit that starts your string will be incorrectly
interpreted as part of the code for the first character.
Warning 2: If there are characters in the strings that Perl interprets
specially, you must use a Perl escape to prevent them being misinterpreted. For
example, a command such as
encode '\0user@domain.com\0pas$$word'
gives an incorrect answer because of the unescaped "@" and "$" characters.
If you have the mimencode command installed, another way to do produce
base64-encoded strings is to run the command
echo -e -n `\0user\0password' | mimencode
The -e option of echo enables the interpretation of backslash escapes in the
argument, and the -n option specifies no newline at the end of its output.
However, not all versions of echo recognize these options, so you should check
your version before relying on this suggestion.
33.5 Authentication by an Exim client
-------------------------------------
The smtp transport has two options called hosts_require_auth and hosts_try_auth
. When the smtp transport connects to a server that announces support for
authentication, and the host matches an entry in either of these options, Exim
(as a client) tries to authenticate as follows:
* For each authenticator that is configured as a client, in the order in
which they are defined in the configuration, it searches the authentication
mechanisms announced by the server for one whose name matches the public
name of the authenticator.
* When it finds one that matches, it runs the authenticator's client code.
The variables $host and $host_address are available for any string
expansions that the client might do. They are set to the server's name and
IP address. If any expansion is forced to fail, the authentication attempt
is abandoned, and Exim moves on to the next authenticator. Otherwise an
expansion failure causes delivery to be deferred.
* If the result of the authentication attempt is a temporary error or a
timeout, Exim abandons trying to send the message to the host for the
moment. It will try again later. If there are any backup hosts available,
they are tried in the usual way.
* If the response to authentication is a permanent error (5xx code), Exim
carries on searching the list of authenticators and tries another one if
possible. If all authentication attempts give permanent errors, or if there
are no attempts because no mechanisms match (or option expansions force
failure), what happens depends on whether the host matches
hosts_require_auth or hosts_try_auth. In the first case, a temporary error
is generated, and delivery is deferred. The error can be detected in the
retry rules, and thereby turned into a permanent error if you wish. In the
second case, Exim tries to deliver the message unauthenticated.
When Exim has authenticated itself to a remote server, it adds the AUTH
parameter to the MAIL commands it sends, if it has an authenticated sender for
the message. If the message came from a remote host, the authenticated sender
is the one that was receiving on an incoming MAIL command, provided that the
incoming connection was authenticated and the server_mail_auth condition
allowed the authenticated sender to be retained. If a local process calls Exim
to send a message, the sender address that is built from the login name and
qualify_domain is treated as authenticated. However, if the
authenticated_sender option is set on the smtp transport, it overrides the
authenticated sender that was received with the message.
===============================================================================
34. THE PLAINTEXT AUTHENTICATOR
The plaintext authenticator can be configured to support the PLAIN and LOGIN
authentication mechanisms, both of which transfer authentication data as plain
(unencrypted) text (though base64 encoded). The use of plain text is a security
risk; you are strongly advised to insist on the use of SMTP encryption (see
chapter 39) if you use the PLAIN or LOGIN mechanisms. If you do use unencrypted
plain text, you should not use the same passwords for SMTP connections as you
do for login accounts.
34.1 Plaintext options
----------------------
When configured as a server, plaintext uses the following options:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-server_condition-Use: authenticators-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This is actually a global authentication option, but it must be set in order to
configure the plaintext driver as a server. Its use is described below.
------------------------------------------------------------
-server_prompts-Use: plaintext-Type: string*-Default: unset-
------------------------------------------------------------
The contents of this option, after expansion, must be a colon-separated list of
prompt strings. If expansion fails, a temporary authentication rejection is
given.
34.2 Using plaintext in a server
--------------------------------
When running as a server, plaintext performs the authentication test by
expanding a string. The data sent by the client with the AUTH command, or in
response to subsequent prompts, is base64 encoded, and so may contain any byte
values when decoded. If any data is supplied with the command, it is treated as
a list of strings, separated by NULs (binary zeros), the first three of which
are placed in the expansion variables $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 (neither LOGIN
nor PLAIN uses more than three strings).
For compatibility with previous releases of Exim, the values are also placed in
the expansion variables $1, $2, and $3. However, the use of these variables for
this purpose is now deprecated, as it can lead to confusion in string
expansions that also use them for other things.
If there are more strings in server_prompts than the number of strings supplied
with the AUTH command, the remaining prompts are used to obtain more data. Each
response from the client may be a list of NUL-separated strings.
Once a sufficient number of data strings have been received, server_condition
is expanded. If the expansion is forced to fail, authentication fails. Any
other expansion failure causes a temporary error code to be returned. If the
result of a successful expansion is an empty string, "0", "no", or "false",
authentication fails. If the result of the expansion is "1", "yes", or "true",
authentication succeeds and the generic server_set_id option is expanded and
saved in $authenticated_id. For any other result, a temporary error code is
returned, with the expanded string as the error text.
Warning: If you use a lookup in the expansion to find the user's password, be
sure to make the authentication fail if the user is unknown. There are good and
bad examples at the end of the next section.
34.3 The PLAIN authentication mechanism
---------------------------------------
The PLAIN authentication mechanism (RFC 2595) specifies that three strings be
sent as one item of data (that is, one combined string containing two NUL
separators). The data is sent either as part of the AUTH command, or
subsequently in response to an empty prompt from the server.
The second and third strings are a user name and a corresponding password.
Using a single fixed user name and password as an example, this could be
configured as follows:
fixed_plain:
driver = plaintext
public_name = PLAIN
server_prompts = :
server_condition = \
${if and {{eq{$auth2}{username}}{eq{$auth3}{mysecret}}}}
server_set_id = $auth2
Note that the default result strings from if ("true" or an empty string) are
exactly what we want here, so they need not be specified. Obviously, if the
password contains expansion-significant characters such as dollar, backslash,
or closing brace, they have to be escaped.
The server_prompts setting specifies a single, empty prompt (empty items at the
end of a string list are ignored). If all the data comes as part of the AUTH
command, as is commonly the case, the prompt is not used. This authenticator is
advertised in the response to EHLO as
250-AUTH PLAIN
and a client host can authenticate itself by sending the command
AUTH PLAIN AHVzZXJuYW1lAG15c2VjcmV0
As this contains three strings (more than the number of prompts), no further
data is required from the client. Alternatively, the client may just send
AUTH PLAIN
to initiate authentication, in which case the server replies with an empty
prompt. The client must respond with the combined data string.
The data string is base64 encoded, as required by the RFC. This example, when
decoded, is <NUL>"username"<NUL>"mysecret", where <NUL> represents a zero byte.
This is split up into three strings, the first of which is empty. The
server_condition option in the authenticator checks that the second two are
"username" and "mysecret" respectively.
Having just one fixed user name and password, as in this example, is not very
realistic, though for a small organization with only a handful of
authenticating clients it could make sense.
A more sophisticated instance of this authenticator could use the user name in
$auth2 to look up a password in a file or database, and maybe do an encrypted
comparison (see crypteq in chapter 11). Here is a example of this approach,
where the passwords are looked up in a DBM file. Warning: This is an incorrect
example:
server_condition = \
${if eq{$auth3}{${lookup{$auth2}dbm{/etc/authpwd}}}}
The expansion uses the user name ($auth2) as the key to look up a password,
which it then compares to the supplied password ($auth3). Why is this example
incorrect? It works fine for existing users, but consider what happens if a
non-existent user name is given. The lookup fails, but as no success/failure
strings are given for the lookup, it yields an empty string. Thus, to defeat
the authentication, all a client has to do is to supply a non-existent user
name and an empty password. The correct way of writing this test is:
server_condition = ${lookup{$auth2}dbm{/etc/authpwd}\
{${if eq{$value}{$auth3}}} {false}}
In this case, if the lookup succeeds, the result is checked; if the lookup
fails, "false" is returned and authentication fails. If crypteq is being used
instead of eq, the first example is in fact safe, because crypteq always fails
if its second argument is empty. However, the second way of writing the test
makes the logic clearer.
34.4 The LOGIN authentication mechanism
---------------------------------------
The LOGIN authentication mechanism is not documented in any RFC, but is in use
in a number of programs. No data is sent with the AUTH command. Instead, a user
name and password are supplied separately, in response to prompts. The
plaintext authenticator can be configured to support this as in this example:
fixed_login:
driver = plaintext
public_name = LOGIN
server_prompts = User Name : Password
server_condition = \
${if and {{eq{$auth1}{username}}{eq{$auth2}{mysecret}}}}
server_set_id = $auth1
Because of the way plaintext operates, this authenticator accepts data supplied
with the AUTH command (in contravention of the specification of LOGIN), but if
the client does not supply it (as is the case for LOGIN clients), the prompt
strings are used to obtain two data items.
Some clients are very particular about the precise text of the prompts. For
example, Outlook Express is reported to recognize only "Username:" and
"Password:". Here is an example of a LOGIN authenticator that uses those
strings. It uses the ldapauth expansion condition to check the user name and
password by binding to an LDAP server:
login:
driver = plaintext
public_name = LOGIN
server_prompts = Username:: : Password::
server_condition = ${if ldapauth \
{user="cn=${quote_ldap_dn:$auth1},ou=people,o=example.org" \
pass=${quote:$auth2} \
ldap://ldap.example.org/}}
server_set_id = uid=$auth1,ou=people,o=example.org
Note the use of the quote_ldap_dn operator to correctly quote the DN for
authentication. However, the basic quote operator, rather than any of the LDAP
quoting operators, is the correct one to use for the password, because quoting
is needed only to make the password conform to the Exim syntax. At the LDAP
level, the password is an uninterpreted string.
34.5 Support for different kinds of authentication
--------------------------------------------------
A number of string expansion features are provided for the purpose of
interfacing to different ways of user authentication. These include checking
traditionally encrypted passwords from /etc/passwd (or equivalent), PAM,
Radius, ldapauth, pwcheck, and saslauthd. For details see section 11.7.
34.6 Using plaintext in a client
--------------------------------
The plaintext authenticator has two client options:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-client_ignore_invalid_base64-Use: plaintext-Type: boolean-Default: false-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
If the client receives a server prompt that is not a valid base64 string,
authentication is abandoned by default. However, if this option is set true,
the error in the challenge is ignored and the client sends the response as
usual.
---------------------------------------------------------
-client_send-Use: plaintext-Type: string*-Default: unset-
---------------------------------------------------------
The string is a colon-separated list of authentication data strings. Each
string is independently expanded before being sent to the server. The first
string is sent with the AUTH command; any more strings are sent in response to
prompts from the server. Before each string is expanded, the value of the most
recent prompt is placed in the next $auth<n> variable, starting with $auth1 for
the first prompt. Up to three prompts are stored in this way. Thus, the prompt
that is received in response to sending the first string (with the AUTH
command) can be used in the expansion of the second string, and so on. If an
invalid base64 string is received when client_ignore_invalid_base64 is set, an
empty string is put in the $auth<n> variable.
Note: You cannot use expansion to create multiple strings, because splitting
takes priority and happens first.
Because the PLAIN authentication mechanism requires NUL (binary zero) bytes in
the data, further processing is applied to each string before it is sent. If
there are any single circumflex characters in the string, they are converted to
NULs. Should an actual circumflex be required as data, it must be doubled in
the string.
This is an example of a client configuration that implements the PLAIN
authentication mechanism with a fixed user name and password:
fixed_plain:
driver = plaintext
public_name = PLAIN
client_send = ^username^mysecret
The lack of colons means that the entire text is sent with the AUTH command,
with the circumflex characters converted to NULs. A similar example that uses
the LOGIN mechanism is:
fixed_login:
driver = plaintext
public_name = LOGIN
client_send = : username : mysecret
The initial colon means that the first string is empty, so no data is sent with
the AUTH command itself. The remaining strings are sent in response to prompts.
===============================================================================
35. THE CRAM_MD5 AUTHENTICATOR
The CRAM-MD5 authentication mechanism is described in RFC 2195. The server
sends a challenge string to the client, and the response consists of a user
name and the CRAM-MD5 digest of the challenge string combined with a secret
string (password) which is known to both server and client. Thus, the secret is
not sent over the network as plain text, which makes this authenticator more
secure than plaintext. However, the downside is that the secret has to be
available in plain text at either end.
35.1 Using cram_md5 as a server
-------------------------------
This authenticator has one server option, which must be set to configure the
authenticator as a server:
----------------------------------------------------------
-server_secret-Use: cram_md5-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
When the server receives the client's response, the user name is placed in the
expansion variable $auth1, and server_secret is expanded to obtain the password
for that user. The server then computes the CRAM-MD5 digest that the client
should have sent, and checks that it received the correct string. If the
expansion of server_secret is forced to fail, authentication fails. If the
expansion fails for some other reason, a temporary error code is returned to
the client.
For compatibility with previous releases of Exim, the user name is also placed
in $1. However, the use of this variables for this purpose is now deprecated,
as it can lead to confusion in string expansions that also use numeric
variables for other things.
For example, the following authenticator checks that the user name given by the
client is "ph10", and if so, uses "secret" as the password. For any other user
name, authentication fails.
fixed_cram:
driver = cram_md5
public_name = CRAM-MD5
server_secret = ${if eq{$auth1}{ph10}{secret}fail}
server_set_id = $auth1
If authentication succeeds, the setting of server_set_id preserves the user
name in $authenticated_id. A more typical configuration might look up the
secret string in a file, using the user name as the key. For example:
lookup_cram:
driver = cram_md5
public_name = CRAM-MD5
server_secret = ${lookup{$auth1}lsearch{/etc/authpwd}\
{$value}fail}
server_set_id = $auth1
Note that this expansion explicitly forces failure if the lookup fails because
$auth1 contains an unknown user name.
35.2 Using cram_md5 as a client
-------------------------------
When used as a client, the cram_md5 authenticator has two options:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-client_name-Use: cram_md5-Type: string*-Default: the primary host name-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This string is expanded, and the result used as the user name data when
computing the response to the server's challenge.
----------------------------------------------------------
-client_secret-Use: cram_md5-Type: string*-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
This option must be set for the authenticator to work as a client. Its value is
expanded and the result used as the secret string when computing the response.
Different user names and secrets can be used for different servers by referring
to $host or $host_address in the options. Forced failure of either expansion
string is treated as an indication that this authenticator is not prepared to
handle this case. Exim moves on to the next configured client authenticator.
Any other expansion failure causes Exim to give up trying to send the message
to the current server.
A simple example configuration of a cram_md5 authenticator, using fixed
strings, is:
fixed_cram:
driver = cram_md5
public_name = CRAM-MD5
client_name = ph10
client_secret = secret
===============================================================================
36. THE CYRUS_SASL AUTHENTICATOR
The code for this authenticator was provided by Matthew Byng-Maddick of A L
Digital Ltd (http://www.aldigital.co.uk).
The cyrus_sasl authenticator provides server support for the Cyrus SASL library
implementation of the RFC 2222 ("Simple Authentication and Security Layer").
This library supports a number of authentication mechanisms, including PLAIN
and LOGIN, but also several others that Exim does not support directly. In
particular, there is support for Kerberos authentication.
The cyrus_sasl authenticator provides a gatewaying mechanism directly to the
Cyrus interface, so if your Cyrus library can do, for example, CRAM-MD5, then
so can the cyrus_sasl authenticator. By default it uses the public name of the
driver to determine which mechanism to support.
Where access to some kind of secret file is required, for example in GSSAPI or
CRAM-MD5, it is worth noting that the authenticator runs as the Exim user, and
that the Cyrus SASL library has no way of escalating privileges by default. You
may also find you need to set environment variables, depending on the driver
you are using.
The application name provided by Exim is "exim", so various SASL options may be
set in exim.conf in your SASL directory. If you are using GSSAPI for Kerberos,
note that because of limitations in the GSSAPI interface, changing the server
keytab might need to be communicated down to the Kerberos layer independently.
The mechanism for doing so is dependent upon the Kerberos implementation. For
example, for Heimdal, the environment variable KRB5_KTNAME may be set to point
to an alternative keytab file. Exim will pass this variable through from its
own inherited environment when started as root or the Exim user. The keytab
file needs to be readable by the Exim user.
36.1 Using cyrus_sasl as a server
---------------------------------
The cyrus_sasl authenticator has four private options. It puts the username (on
a successful authentication) into $auth1. For compatibility with previous
releases of Exim, the username is also placed in $1. However, the use of this
variable for this purpose is now deprecated, as it can lead to confusion in
string expansions that also use numeric variables for other things.
------------------------------------------------------------------
-server_hostname-Use: cyrus_sasl-Type: string*-Default: see below-
------------------------------------------------------------------
This option selects the hostname that is used when communicating with the
library. The default value is "$primary_hostname". It is up to the underlying
SASL plug-in what it does with this data.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-server_mech-Use: cyrus_sasl-Type: string-Default: see below-
-------------------------------------------------------------
This option selects the authentication mechanism this driver should use. The
default is the value of the generic public_name option. This option allows you
to use a different underlying mechanism from the advertised name. For example:
sasl:
driver = cyrus_sasl
public_name = X-ANYTHING
server_mech = CRAM-MD5
server_set_id = $auth1
----------------------------------------------------------
-server_realm-Use: cyrus_sasl-Type: string-Default: unset-
----------------------------------------------------------
This specifies the SASL realm that the server claims to be in.
-------------------------------------------------------------
-server_service-Use: cyrus_sasl-Type: string-Default: "smtp"-
-------------------------------------------------------------
This is the SASL service that the server claims to implement.
For straightforward cases, you do not need to set any of the authenticator's
private options. All you need to do is to specify an appropriate mechanism as
the public name. Thus, if you have a SASL library that supports CRAM-MD5 and
PLAIN, you could have two authenticators as follows:
sasl_cram_md5:
driver = cyrus_sasl
public_name = CRAM-MD5
server_set_id = $auth1
sasl_plain:
driver = cyrus_sasl
public_name = PLAIN
server_set_id = $auth1
Cyrus SASL does implement the LOGIN authentication method, even though it is
not a standard method. It is disabled by default in the source distribution,
but it is present in many binary distributions.
===============================================================================
37. THE DOVECOT AUTHENTICATOR
This authenticator is an interface to the authentication facility of the
Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a number of authentication methods.
If you are using Dovecot to authenticate POP/IMAP clients, it might be helpful
to use the same mechanisms for SMTP authentication. This is a server
authenticator only. There is only one option:
--------------------------------------------------------
-server_socket-Use: dovecot-Type: string-Default: unset-
--------------------------------------------------------
This option must specify the socket that is the interface to Dovecot
authentication. The public_name option must specify an authentication mechanism
that Dovecot is configured to support. You can have several authenticators for
different mechanisms. For example:
dovecot_plain:
driver = dovecot
public_name = PLAIN
server_socket = /var/run/dovecot/auth-client
server_set_id = $auth1
dovecot_ntlm:
driver = dovecot
public_name = NTLM
server_socket = /var/run/dovecot/auth-client
server_set_id = $auth1
If the SMTP connection is encrypted, or if $sender_host_address is equal to
$received_ip_address (that is, the connection is local), the "secured" option
is passed in the Dovecot authentication command. If, for a TLS connection, a
client certificate has been verified, the "valid-client-cert" option is passed.
When authentication succeeds, the identity of the user who authenticated is
placed in $auth1.
===============================================================================
38. THE SPA AUTHENTICATOR
The spa authenticator provides client support for Microsoft's Secure Password
Authentication mechanism, which is also sometimes known as NTLM (NT LanMan).
The code for client side of this authenticator was contributed by Marc
Prud'hommeaux, and much of it is taken from the Samba project (http://
www.samba.org). The code for the server side was subsequently contributed by
Tom Kistner. The mechanism works as follows:
* After the AUTH command has been accepted, the client sends an SPA
authentication request based on the user name and optional domain.
* The server sends back a challenge.
* The client builds a challenge response which makes use of the user's
password and sends it to the server, which then accepts or rejects it.
Encryption is used to protect the password in transit.
38.1 Using spa as a server
--------------------------
The spa authenticator has just one server option:
-------------------------------------------------------
-server_password-Use: spa-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------
This option is expanded, and the result must be the cleartext password for the
authenticating user, whose name is at this point in $auth1. For compatibility
with previous releases of Exim, the user name is also placed in $1. However,
the use of this variable for this purpose is now deprecated, as it can lead to
confusion in string expansions that also use numeric variables for other
things. For example:
spa:
driver = spa
public_name = NTLM
server_password = \
${lookup{$auth1}lsearch{/etc/exim/spa_clearpass}{$value}fail}
If the expansion is forced to fail, authentication fails. Any other expansion
failure causes a temporary error code to be returned.
38.2 Using spa as a client
--------------------------
The spa authenticator has the following client options:
-----------------------------------------------------
-client_domain-Use: spa-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-----------------------------------------------------
This option specifies an optional domain for the authentication.
-------------------------------------------------------
-client_password-Use: spa-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the user's password, and must be set.
-------------------------------------------------------
-client_username-Use: spa-Type: string*-Default: unset-
-------------------------------------------------------
This option specifies the user name, and must be set. Here is an example of a
configuration of this authenticator for use with the mail servers at msn.com:
msn:
driver = spa
public_name = MSN
client_username = msn/msn_username
client_password = msn_plaintext_password
client_domain = DOMAIN_OR_UNSET
===============================================================================
39. ENCRYPTED SMTP CONNECTIONS USING TLS/SSL
Support for TLS (Transport Layer Security), formerly known as SSL (Secure
Sockets Layer), is implemented by making use of the OpenSSL library or the
GnuTLS library (Exim requires GnuTLS release 1.0 or later). There is no
cryptographic code in the Exim distribution itself for implementing TLS. In
order to use this feature you must install OpenSSL or GnuTLS, and then build a
version of Exim that includes TLS support (see section 4.6). You also need to
understand the basic concepts of encryption at a managerial level, and in
particular, the way that public keys, private keys, and certificates are used.
RFC 3207 defines how SMTP connections can make use of encryption. Once a
connection is established, the client issues a STARTTLS command. If the server
accepts this, the client and the server negotiate an encryption mechanism. If
the negotiation succeeds, the data that subsequently passes between them is
encrypted.
Exim's ACLs can detect whether the current SMTP session is encrypted or not,
and if so, what cipher suite is in use, whether the client supplied a
certificate, and whether or not that certificate was verified. This makes it
possible for an Exim server to deny or accept certain commands based on the
encryption state.
Warning: Certain types of firewall and certain anti-virus products can disrupt
TLS connections. You need to turn off SMTP scanning for these products in order
to get TLS to work.
39.1 Support for the legacy "ssmtp" (aka "smtps") protocol
----------------------------------------------------------
Early implementations of encrypted SMTP used a different TCP port from normal
SMTP, and expected an encryption negotiation to start immediately, instead of
waiting for a STARTTLS command from the client using the standard SMTP port.
The protocol was called "ssmtp" or "smtps", and port 465 was allocated for this
purpose.
This approach was abandoned when encrypted SMTP was standardized, but there are
still some legacy clients that use it. Exim supports these clients by means of
the tls_on_connect_ports global option. Its value must be a list of port
numbers; the most common use is expected to be:
tls_on_connect_ports = 465
The port numbers specified by this option apply to all SMTP connections, both
via the daemon and via inetd. You still need to specify all the ports that the
daemon uses (by setting daemon_smtp_ports or local_interfaces or the -oX
command line option) because tls_on_connect_ports does not add an extra port -
rather, it specifies different behaviour on a port that is defined elsewhere.
There is also a -tls-on-connect command line option. This overrides
tls_on_connect_ports; it forces the legacy behaviour for all ports.
39.2 OpenSSL vs GnuTLS
----------------------
The first TLS support in Exim was implemented using OpenSSL. Support for GnuTLS
followed later, when the first versions of GnuTLS were released. To build Exim
to use GnuTLS, you need to set
USE_GNUTLS=yes
in Local/Makefile, in addition to
SUPPORT_TLS=yes
You must also set TLS_LIBS and TLS_INCLUDE appropriately, so that the include
files and libraries for GnuTLS can be found.
There are some differences in usage when using GnuTLS instead of OpenSSL:
* The tls_verify_certificates option must contain the name of a file, not the
name of a directory (for OpenSSL it can be either).
* The tls_dhparam option is ignored, because early versions of GnuTLS had no
facility for varying its Diffie-Hellman parameters. I understand that this
has changed, but Exim has not been updated to provide this facility.
* Distinguished Name (DN) strings reported by the OpenSSL library use a slash
for separating fields; GnuTLS uses commas, in accordance with RFC 2253.
This affects the value of the $tls_peerdn variable.
* OpenSSL identifies cipher suites using hyphens as separators, for example:
DES-CBC3-SHA. GnuTLS uses underscores, for example: RSA_ARCFOUR_SHA. What
is more, OpenSSL complains if underscores are present in a cipher list. To
make life simpler, Exim changes underscores to hyphens for OpenSSL and
hyphens to underscores for GnuTLS when processing lists of cipher suites in
the tls_require_ciphers options (the global option and the smtp transport
option).
* The tls_require_ciphers options operate differently, as described in the
sections 39.4 and 39.5.
39.3 GnuTLS parameter computation
---------------------------------
GnuTLS uses RSA and D-H parameters that may take a substantial amount of time
to compute. It is unreasonable to re-compute them for every TLS session.
Therefore, Exim keeps this data in a file in its spool directory, called
gnutls-params. The file is owned by the Exim user and is readable only by its
owner. Every Exim process that start up GnuTLS reads the RSA and D-H parameters
from this file. If the file does not exist, the first Exim process that needs
it computes the data and writes it to a temporary file which is renamed once it
is complete. It does not matter if several Exim processes do this
simultaneously (apart from wasting a few resources). Once a file is in place,
new Exim processes immediately start using it.
For maximum security, the parameters that are stored in this file should be
recalculated periodically, the frequency depending on your paranoia level.
Arranging this is easy in principle; just delete the file when you want new
values to be computed. However, there may be a problem. The calculation of new
parameters needs random numbers, and these are obtained from /dev/random. If
the system is not very active, /dev/random may delay returning data until
enough randomness (entropy) is available. This may cause Exim to hang for a
substantial amount of time, causing timeouts on incoming connections.
The solution is to generate the parameters externally to Exim. They are stored
in gnutls-params in PEM format, which means that they can be generated
externally using the certtool command that is part of GnuTLS.
To replace the parameters with new ones, instead of deleting the file and
letting Exim re-create it, you can generate new parameters using certtool and,
when this has been done, replace Exim's cache file by renaming. The relevant
commands are something like this:
# rm -f new-params
# touch new-params
# chown exim:exim new-params
# chmod 0400 new-params
# certtool --generate-privkey --bits 512 >new-params
# echo "" >>new-params
# certtool --generate-dh-params --bits 1024 >> new-params
# mv new-params gnutls-params
If Exim never has to generate the parameters itself, the possibility of
stalling is removed.
39.4 Requiring specific ciphers in OpenSSL
------------------------------------------
There is a function in the OpenSSL library that can be passed a list of cipher
suites before the cipher negotiation takes place. This specifies which ciphers
are acceptable. The list is colon separated and may contain names like
DES-CBC3-SHA. Exim passes the expanded value of tls_require_ciphers directly to
this function call. The following quotation from the OpenSSL documentation
specifies what forms of item are allowed in the cipher string:
* It can consist of a single cipher suite such as RC4-SHA.
* It can represent a list of cipher suites containing a certain algorithm, or
cipher suites of a certain type. For example SHA1 represents all ciphers
suites using the digest algorithm SHA1 and SSLv3 represents all SSL v3
algorithms.
* Lists of cipher suites can be combined in a single cipher string using the
+ character. This is used as a logical and operation. For example SHA1+DES
represents all cipher suites containing the SHA1 and the DES algorithms.
Each cipher string can be optionally preceded by one of the characters "!", "-"
or "+".
* If "!" is used, the ciphers are permanently deleted from the list. The
ciphers deleted can never reappear in the list even if they are explicitly
stated.
* If "-" is used, the ciphers are deleted from the list, but some or all of
the ciphers can be added again by later options.
* If "+" is used, the ciphers are moved to the end of the list. This option
does not add any new ciphers; it just moves matching existing ones.
If none of these characters is present, the string is interpreted as a list of
ciphers to be appended to the current preference list. If the list includes any
ciphers already present they will be ignored: that is, they will not be moved
to the end of the list.
39.5 Requiring specific ciphers or other parameters in GnuTLS
-------------------------------------------------------------
The GnuTLS library allows the caller to specify separate lists of permitted key
exchange methods, main cipher algorithms, MAC algorithms, and protocols.
Unfortunately, these lists are numerical, and the library does not have a
function for turning names into numbers. Consequently, lists of recognized
names have to be built into the application. The permitted key exchange
methods, ciphers, and MAC algorithms may be used in any combination to form a
cipher suite. This is unlike OpenSSL, where complete cipher suite names are
passed to its control function.
For compatibility with OpenSSL, the tls_require_ciphers option can be set to
complete cipher suite names such as RSA_ARCFOUR_SHA, but for GnuTLS this option
controls only the cipher algorithms. Exim searches each item in the list for
the name of an available algorithm. For example, if the list contains
RSA_AES_SHA, then AES is recognized, and the behaviour is exactly the same as
if just AES were given.
There are additional options called gnutls_require_kx, gnutls_require_mac, and
gnutls_require_protocols that can be used to restrict the key exchange methods,
MAC algorithms, and protocols, respectively. These options are ignored if
OpenSSL is in use.
All four options are available as global options, controlling how Exim behaves
as a server, and also as options of the smtp transport, controlling how Exim
behaves as a client. All the values are string expanded. After expansion, the
values must be colon-separated lists, though the separator can be changed in
the usual way.
Each of the four lists starts out with a default set of algorithms. If the
first item in a list does not start with an exclamation mark, all the default
items are deleted. In this case, only those that are explicitly specified can
be used. If the first item in a list does start with an exclamation mark, the
defaults are left on the list.
Then, any item that starts with an exclamation mark causes the relevant entry
to be removed from the list, and any item that does not start with an
exclamation mark causes a new entry to be added to the list. Unrecognized items
in the list are ignored. Thus:
tls_require_ciphers = !ARCFOUR
allows all the defaults except ARCFOUR, whereas
tls_require_ciphers = AES : 3DES
allows only cipher suites that use AES or 3DES.
For tls_require_ciphers the recognized names are AES_256, AES_128, AES (both of
the preceding), 3DES, ARCFOUR_128, ARCFOUR_40, and ARCFOUR (both of the
preceding). The default list does not contain all of these; it just has
AES_256, AES_128, 3DES, and ARCFOUR_128.
For gnutls_require_kx, the recognized names are DHE_RSA, RSA (which includes
DHE_RSA), DHE_DSS, and DHE (which includes both DHE_RSA and DHE_DSS). The
default list contains RSA, DHE_DSS, DHE_RSA.
For gnutls_require_mac, the recognized names are SHA (synonym SHA1), and MD5.
The default list contains SHA, MD5.
For gnutls_require_protocols, the recognized names are TLS1 and SSL3. The
default list contains TLS1, SSL3.
In a server, the order of items in these lists is unimportant. The server
advertises the availability of all the relevant cipher suites. However, in a
client, the order in the tls_require_ciphers list specifies a preference order
for the cipher algorithms. The first one in the client's list that is also
advertised by the server is tried first. The default order is as listed above.
39.6 Configuring an Exim server to use TLS
------------------------------------------
When Exim has been built with TLS support, it advertises the availability of
the STARTTLS command to client hosts that match tls_advertise_hosts, but not to
any others. The default value of this option is unset, which means that
STARTTLS is not advertised at all. This default is chosen because you need to
set some other options in order to make TLS available, and also it is sensible
for systems that want to use TLS only as a client.
If a client issues a STARTTLS command and there is some configuration problem
in the server, the command is rejected with a 454 error. If the client persists
in trying to issue SMTP commands, all except QUIT are rejected with the error
554 Security failure
If a STARTTLS command is issued within an existing TLS session, it is rejected
with a 554 error code.
To enable TLS operations on a server, you must set tls_advertise_hosts to match
some hosts. You can, of course, set it to * to match all hosts. However, this
is not all you need to do. TLS sessions to a server won't work without some
further configuration at the server end.
It is rumoured that all existing clients that support TLS/SSL use RSA
encryption. To make this work you need to set, in the server,
tls_certificate = /some/file/name
tls_privatekey = /some/file/name
These options are, in fact, expanded strings, so you can make them depend on
the identity of the client that is connected if you wish. The first file
contains the server's X509 certificate, and the second contains the private key
that goes with it. These files need to be readable by the Exim user, and must
always be given as full path names. They can be the same file if both the
certificate and the key are contained within it. If tls_privatekey is not set,
or if its expansion is forced to fail or results in an empty string, this is
assumed to be the case. The certificate file may also contain intermediate
certificates that need to be sent to the client to enable it to authenticate
the server's certificate.
If you do not understand about certificates and keys, please try to find a
source of this background information, which is not Exim-specific. (There are a
few comments below in section 39.11.)
Note: These options do not apply when Exim is operating as a client - they
apply only in the case of a server. If you need to use a certificate in an Exim
client, you must set the options of the same names in an smtp transport.
With just these options, an Exim server will be able to use TLS. It does not
require the client to have a certificate (but see below for how to insist on
this). There is one other option that may be needed in other situations. If
tls_dhparam = /some/file/name
is set, the SSL library is initialized for the use of Diffie-Hellman ciphers
with the parameters contained in the file. This increases the set of cipher
suites that the server supports. See the command
openssl dhparam
for a way of generating this data. At present, tls_dhparam is used only when
Exim is linked with OpenSSL. It is ignored if GnuTLS is being used.
The strings supplied for these three options are expanded every time a client
host connects. It is therefore possible to use different certificates and keys
for different hosts, if you so wish, by making use of the client's IP address
in $sender_host_address to control the expansion. If a string expansion is
forced to fail, Exim behaves as if the option is not set.
The variable $tls_cipher is set to the cipher suite that was negotiated for an
incoming TLS connection. It is included in the Received: header of an incoming
message (by default - you can, of course, change this), and it is also included
in the log line that records a message's arrival, keyed by "X=", unless the
tls_cipher log selector is turned off. The encrypted condition can be used to
test for specific cipher suites in ACLs. (For outgoing SMTP deliveries,
$tls_cipher is reset - see section 39.9.)
Once TLS has been established, the ACLs that run for subsequent SMTP commands
can check the name of the cipher suite and vary their actions accordingly. The
cipher suite names vary, depending on which TLS library is being used. For
example, OpenSSL uses the name DES-CBC3-SHA for the cipher suite which in other
contexts is known as TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA. Check the OpenSSL or GnuTLS
documentation for more details.
39.7 Requesting and verifying client certificates
-------------------------------------------------
If you want an Exim server to request a certificate when negotiating a TLS
session with a client, you must set either tls_verify_hosts or
tls_try_verify_hosts. You can, of course, set either of them to * to apply to
all TLS connections. For any host that matches one of these options, Exim
requests a certificate as part of the setup of the TLS session. The contents of
the certificate are verified by comparing it with a list of expected
certificates. These must be available in a file or, for OpenSSL only (not
GnuTLS), a directory, identified by tls_verify_certificates.
A file can contain multiple certificates, concatenated end to end. If a
directory is used (OpenSSL only), each certificate must be in a separate file,
with a name (or a symbolic link) of the form <hash>.0, where <hash> is a hash
value constructed from the certificate. You can compute the relevant hash by
running the command
openssl x509 -hash -noout -in /cert/file
where /cert/file contains a single certificate.
The difference between tls_verify_hosts and tls_try_verify_hosts is what
happens if the client does not supply a certificate, or if the certificate does
not match any of the certificates in the collection named by
tls_verify_certificates. If the client matches tls_verify_hosts, the attempt to
set up a TLS session is aborted, and the incoming connection is dropped. If the
client matches tls_try_verify_hosts, the (encrypted) SMTP session continues.
ACLs that run for subsequent SMTP commands can detect the fact that no
certificate was verified, and vary their actions accordingly. For example, you
can insist on a certificate before accepting a message for relaying, but not
when the message is destined for local delivery.
When a client supplies a certificate (whether it verifies or not), the value of
the Distinguished Name of the certificate is made available in the variable
$tls_peerdn during subsequent processing of the message.
Because it is often a long text string, it is not included in the log line or
Received: header by default. You can arrange for it to be logged, keyed by "DN=
", by setting the tls_peerdn log selector, and you can use received_header_text
to change the Received: header. When no certificate is supplied, $tls_peerdn is
empty.
39.8 Revoked certificates
-------------------------
Certificate issuing authorities issue Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) when
certificates are revoked. If you have such a list, you can pass it to an Exim
server using the global option called tls_crl and to an Exim client using an
identically named option for the smtp transport. In each case, the value of the
option is expanded and must then be the name of a file that contains a CRL in
PEM format.
39.9 Configuring an Exim client to use TLS
------------------------------------------
The tls_cipher and tls_peerdn log selectors apply to outgoing SMTP deliveries
as well as to incoming, the latter one causing logging of the server
certificate's DN. The remaining client configuration for TLS is all within the
smtp transport.
It is not necessary to set any options to have TLS work in the smtp transport.
If Exim is built with TLS support, and TLS is advertised by a server, the smtp
transport always tries to start a TLS session. However, this can be prevented
by setting hosts_avoid_tls (an option of the transport) to a list of server
hosts for which TLS should not be used.
If you do not want Exim to attempt to send messages unencrypted when an attempt
to set up an encrypted connection fails in any way, you can set
hosts_require_tls to a list of hosts for which encryption is mandatory. For
those hosts, delivery is always deferred if an encrypted connection cannot be
set up. If there are any other hosts for the address, they are tried in the
usual way.
When the server host is not in hosts_require_tls, Exim may try to deliver the
message unencrypted. It always does this if the response to STARTTLS is a 5xx
code. For a temporary error code, or for a failure to negotiate a TLS session
after a success response code, what happens is controlled by the
tls_tempfail_tryclear option of the smtp transport. If it is false, delivery to
this host is deferred, and other hosts (if available) are tried. If it is true,
Exim attempts to deliver unencrypted after a 4xx response to STARTTLS, and if
STARTTLS is accepted, but the subsequent TLS negotiation fails, Exim closes the
current connection (because it is in an unknown state), opens a new one to the
same host, and then tries the delivery unencrypted.
The tls_certificate and tls_privatekey options of the smtp transport provide
the client with a certificate, which is passed to the server if it requests it.
If the server is Exim, it will request a certificate only if tls_verify_hosts
or tls_try_verify_hosts matches the client. Note: These options must be set in
the smtp transport for Exim to use TLS when it is operating as a client. Exim
does not assume that a server certificate (set by the global options of the
same name) should also be used when operating as a client.
If tls_verify_certificates is set, it must name a file or, for OpenSSL only
(not GnuTLS), a directory, that contains a collection of expected server
certificates. The client verifies the server's certificate against this
collection, taking into account any revoked certificates that are in the list
defined by tls_crl.
If tls_require_ciphers is set on the smtp transport, it must contain a list of
permitted cipher suites. If either of these checks fails, delivery to the
current host is abandoned, and the smtp transport tries to deliver to
alternative hosts, if any.
All the TLS options in the smtp transport are expanded before use, with $host
and $host_address containing the name and address of the server to which the
client is connected. Forced failure of an expansion causes Exim to behave as if
the relevant option were unset.
Before an SMTP connection is established, the $tls_cipher and $tls_peerdn
variables are emptied. (Until the first connection, they contain the values
that were set when the message was received.) If STARTTLS is subsequently
successfully obeyed, these variables are set to the relevant values for the
outgoing connection.
39.10 Multiple messages on the same encrypted TCP/IP connection
---------------------------------------------------------------
Exim sends multiple messages down the same TCP/IP connection by starting up an
entirely new delivery process for each message, passing the socket from one
process to the next. This implementation does not fit well with the use of TLS,
because there is quite a lot of state information associated with a TLS
connection, not just a socket identification. Passing all the state information
to a new process is not feasible. Consequently, Exim shuts down an existing TLS
session before passing the socket to a new process. The new process may then
try to start a new TLS session, and if successful, may try to re-authenticate
if AUTH is in use, before sending the next message.
The RFC is not clear as to whether or not an SMTP session continues in clear
after TLS has been shut down, or whether TLS may be restarted again later, as
just described. However, if the server is Exim, this shutdown and
reinitialization works. It is not known which (if any) other servers operate
successfully if the client closes a TLS session and continues with unencrypted
SMTP, but there are certainly some that do not work. For such servers, Exim
should not pass the socket to another process, because the failure of the
subsequent attempt to use it would cause Exim to record a temporary host error,
and delay other deliveries to that host.
To test for this case, Exim sends an EHLO command to the server after closing
down the TLS session. If this fails in any way, the connection is closed
instead of being passed to a new delivery process, but no retry information is
recorded.
There is also a manual override; you can set hosts_nopass_tls on the smtp
transport to match those hosts for which Exim should not pass connections to
new processes if TLS has been used.
39.11 Certificates and all that
-------------------------------
In order to understand fully how TLS works, you need to know about
certificates, certificate signing, and certificate authorities. This is not the
place to give a tutorial, especially as I do not know very much about it
myself. Some helpful introduction can be found in the FAQ for the SSL addition
to Apache, currently at
http://www.modssl.org/docs/2.7/ssl_faq.html#ToC24
Other parts of the modssl documentation are also helpful, and have links to
further files. Eric Rescorla's book, SSL and TLS, published by Addison-Wesley
(ISBN 0-201-61598-3), contains both introductory and more in-depth
descriptions. Some sample programs taken from the book are available from
http://www.rtfm.com/openssl-examples/
39.12 Certificate chains
------------------------
The file named by tls_certificate may contain more than one certificate. This
is useful in the case where the certificate that is being sent is validated by
an intermediate certificate which the other end does not have. Multiple
certificates must be in the correct order in the file. First the host's
certificate itself, then the first intermediate certificate to validate the
issuer of the host certificate, then the next intermediate certificate to
validate the issuer of the first intermediate certificate, and so on, until
finally (optionally) the root certificate. The root certificate must already be
trusted by the recipient for validation to succeed, of course, but if it's not
preinstalled, sending the root certificate along with the rest makes it
available for the user to install if the receiving end is a client MUA that can
interact with a user.
39.13 Self-signed certificates
------------------------------
You can create a self-signed certificate using the req command provided with
OpenSSL, like this:
openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout file1 -out file2 \
-days 9999 -nodes
file1 and file2 can be the same file; the key and the certificate are delimited
and so can be identified independently. The -days option specifies a period for
which the certificate is valid. The -nodes option is important: if you do not
set it, the key is encrypted with a passphrase that you are prompted for, and
any use that is made of the key causes more prompting for the passphrase. This
is not helpful if you are going to use this certificate and key in an MTA,
where prompting is not possible.
A self-signed certificate made in this way is sufficient for testing, and may
be adequate for all your requirements if you are mainly interested in
encrypting transfers, and not in secure identification.
However, many clients require that the certificate presented by the server be a
user (also called "leaf" or "site") certificate, and not a self-signed
certificate. In this situation, the self-signed certificate described above
must be installed on the client host as a trusted root certification authority
(CA), and the certificate used by Exim must be a user certificate signed with
that self-signed certificate.
For information on creating self-signed CA certificates and using them to sign
user certificates, see the General implementation overview chapter of the
Open-source PKI book, available online at http://ospkibook.sourceforge.net/.
===============================================================================
40. ACCESS CONTROL LISTS
Access Control Lists (ACLs) are defined in a separate section of the run time
configuration file, headed by "begin acl". Each ACL definition starts with a
name, terminated by a colon. Here is a complete ACL section that contains just
one very small ACL:
begin acl
small_acl:
accept hosts = one.host.only
You can have as many lists as you like in the ACL section, and the order in
which they appear does not matter. The lists are self-terminating.
The majority of ACLs are used to control Exim's behaviour when it receives
certain SMTP commands. This applies both to incoming TCP/IP connections, and
when a local process submits a message using SMTP by specifying the -bs option.
The most common use is for controlling which recipients are accepted in
incoming messages. In addition, you can define an ACL that is used to check
local non-SMTP messages. The default configuration file contains an example of
a realistic ACL for checking RCPT commands. This is discussed in chapter 7.
40.1 Testing ACLs
-----------------
The -bh command line option provides a way of testing your ACL configuration
locally by running a fake SMTP session with which you interact. The host
relay-test.mail-abuse.org provides a service for checking your relaying
configuration (see section 40.49 for more details).
40.2 Specifying when ACLs are used
----------------------------------
In order to cause an ACL to be used, you have to name it in one of the relevant
options in the main part of the configuration. These options are:
acl_not_smtp ACL for non-SMTP messages
acl_not_smtp_mime ACL for non-SMTP MIME parts
acl_not_smtp_start ACL at start of non-SMTP message
acl_smtp_auth ACL for AUTH
acl_smtp_connect ACL for start of SMTP connection
acl_smtp_data ACL after DATA is complete
acl_smtp_etrn ACL for ETRN
acl_smtp_expn ACL for EXPN
acl_smtp_helo ACL for HELO or EHLO
acl_smtp_mail ACL for MAIL
acl_smtp_mailauth ACL for the AUTH parameter of MAIL
acl_smtp_mime ACL for content-scanning MIME parts
acl_smtp_notquit ACL for non-QUIT terminations
acl_smtp_predata ACL at start of DATA command
acl_smtp_quit ACL for QUIT
acl_smtp_rcpt ACL for RCPT
acl_smtp_starttls ACL for STARTTLS
acl_smtp_vrfy ACL for VRFY
For example, if you set
acl_smtp_rcpt = small_acl
the little ACL defined above is used whenever Exim receives a RCPT command in
an SMTP dialogue. The majority of policy tests on incoming messages can be done
when RCPT commands arrive. A rejection of RCPT should cause the sending MTA to
give up on the recipient address contained in the RCPT command, whereas
rejection at other times may cause the client MTA to keep on trying to deliver
the message. It is therefore recommended that you do as much testing as
possible at RCPT time.
40.3 The non-SMTP ACLs
----------------------
The non-SMTP ACLs apply to all non-interactive incoming messages, that is, they
apply to batched SMTP as well as to non-SMTP messages. (Batched SMTP is not
really SMTP.) Many of the ACL conditions (for example, host tests, and tests on
the state of the SMTP connection such as encryption and authentication) are not
relevant and are forbidden in these ACLs. However, the sender and recipients
are known, so the senders and sender_domains conditions and the $sender_address
and $recipients variables can be used. Variables such as $authenticated_sender
are also available. You can specify added header lines in any of these ACLs.
The acl_not_smtp_start ACL is run right at the start of receiving a non-SMTP
message, before any of the message has been read. (This is the analogue of the
acl_smtp_predata ACL for SMTP input.) In the case of batched SMTP input, it
runs after the DATA command has been reached. The result of this ACL is
ignored; it cannot be used to reject a message. If you really need to, you
could set a value in an ACL variable here and reject based on that in the
acl_not_smtp ACL. However, this ACL can be used to set controls, and in
particular, it can be used to set
control = suppress_local_fixups
This cannot be used in the other non-SMTP ACLs because by the time they are
run, it is too late.
The acl_not_smtp_mime ACL is available only when Exim is compiled with the
content-scanning extension. For details, see chapter 41.
The acl_not_smtp ACL is run just before the local_scan() function. Any kind of
rejection is treated as permanent, because there is no way of sending a
temporary error for these kinds of message.
40.4 The SMTP connect ACL
-------------------------
The ACL test specified by acl_smtp_connect happens at the start of an SMTP
session, after the test specified by host_reject_connection (which is now an
anomaly) and any TCP Wrappers testing (if configured). If the connection is
accepted by an accept verb that has a message modifier, the contents of the
message override the banner message that is otherwise specified by the
smtp_banner option.
40.5 The EHLO/HELO ACL
----------------------
The ACL test specified by acl_smtp_helo happens when the client issues an EHLO
or HELO command, after the tests specified by helo_accept_junk_hosts,
helo_allow_chars, helo_verify_hosts, and helo_try_verify_hosts. Note that a
client may issue more than one EHLO or HELO command in an SMTP session, and
indeed is required to issue a new EHLO or HELO after successfully setting up
encryption following a STARTTLS command.
If the command is accepted by an accept verb that has a message modifier, the
message may not contain more than one line (it will be truncated at the first
newline and a panic logged if it does). Such a message cannot affect the EHLO
options that are listed on the second and subsequent lines of an EHLO response.
40.6 The DATA ACLs
------------------
Two ACLs are associated with the DATA command, because it is two-stage command,
with two responses being sent to the client. When the DATA command is received,
the ACL defined by acl_smtp_predata is obeyed. This gives you control after all
the RCPT commands, but before the message itself is received. It offers the
opportunity to give a negative response to the DATA command before the data is
transmitted. Header lines added by MAIL or RCPT ACLs are not visible at this
time, but any that are defined here are visible when the acl_smtp_data ACL is
run.
You cannot test the contents of the message, for example, to verify addresses
in the headers, at RCPT time or when the DATA command is received. Such tests
have to appear in the ACL that is run after the message itself has been
received, before the final response to the DATA command is sent. This is the
ACL specified by acl_smtp_data, which is the second ACL that is associated with
the DATA command.
For both of these ACLs, it is not possible to reject individual recipients. An
error response rejects the entire message. Unfortunately, it is known that some
MTAs do not treat hard (5xx) responses to the DATA command (either before or
after the data) correctly - they keep the message on their queues and try again
later, but that is their problem, though it does waste some of your resources.
40.7 The SMTP MIME ACL
----------------------
The acl_smtp_mime option is available only when Exim is compiled with the
content-scanning extension. For details, see chapter 41.
40.8 The QUIT ACL
-----------------
The ACL for the SMTP QUIT command is anomalous, in that the outcome of the ACL
does not affect the response code to QUIT, which is always 221. Thus, the ACL
does not in fact control any access. For this reason, the only verbs that are
permitted are accept and warn.
This ACL can be used for tasks such as custom logging at the end of an SMTP
session. For example, you can use ACL variables in other ACLs to count
messages, recipients, etc., and log the totals at QUIT time using one or more
logwrite modifiers on a warn verb.
Warning: Only the $acl_cx variables can be used for this, because the $acl_mx
variables are reset at the end of each incoming message.
You do not need to have a final accept, but if you do, you can use a message
modifier to specify custom text that is sent as part of the 221 response to
QUIT.
This ACL is run only for a "normal" QUIT. For certain kinds of disastrous
failure (for example, failure to open a log file, or when Exim is bombing out
because it has detected an unrecoverable error), all SMTP commands from the
client are given temporary error responses until QUIT is received or the
connection is closed. In these special cases, the QUIT ACL does not run.
40.9 The not-QUIT ACL
---------------------
The not-QUIT ACL, specified by smtp_notquit_acl, is run in most cases when an
SMTP session ends without sending QUIT. However, when Exim itself is is bad
trouble, such as being unable to write to its log files, this ACL is not run,
because it might try to do things (such as write to log files) that make the
situation even worse.
Like the QUIT ACL, this ACL is provided to make it possible to do customized
logging or to gather statistics, and its outcome is ignored. The delay modifier
is forbidden in this ACL, and the only permitted verbs are accept and warn.
When the not-QUIT ACL is running, the variable $smtp_notquit_reason is set to a
string that indicates the reason for the termination of the SMTP connection.
The possible values are:
"acl-drop" Another ACL issued a drop command
"bad-commands" Too many unknown or non-mail commands
"command-timeout" Timeout while reading SMTP commands
"connection-lost" The SMTP connection has been lost
"data-timeout" Timeout while reading message data
"local-scan-error" The local_scan() function crashed
"local-scan-timeout" The local_scan() function timed out
"signal-exit" SIGTERM or SIGINT
"synchronization-error" SMTP synchronization error
"tls-failed" TLS failed to start
In most cases when an SMTP connection is closed without having received QUIT,
Exim sends an SMTP response message before actually closing the connection.
With the exception of the "acl-drop" case, the default message can be
overridden by the message modifier in the not-QUIT ACL. In the case of a drop
verb in another ACL, it is the message from the other ACL that is used.
40.10 Finding an ACL to use
---------------------------
The value of an acl_smtp_xxx option is expanded before use, so you can use
different ACLs in different circumstances. For example,
acl_smtp_rcpt = ${if ={25}{$interface_port} \
{acl_check_rcpt} {acl_check_rcpt_submit} }
In the default configuration file there are some example settings for providing
an RFC 4409 message submission service on port 587 and a non-standard "smtps"
service on port 465. You can use a string expansion like this to choose an ACL
for MUAs on these ports which is more appropriate for this purpose than the
default ACL on port 25.
The expanded string does not have to be the name of an ACL in the configuration
file; there are other possibilities. Having expanded the string, Exim searches
for an ACL as follows:
* If the string begins with a slash, Exim uses it as a file name, and reads
its contents as an ACL. The lines are processed in the same way as lines in
the Exim configuration file. In particular, continuation lines are
supported, blank lines are ignored, as are lines whose first non-whitespace
character is "#". If the file does not exist or cannot be read, an error
occurs (typically causing a temporary failure of whatever caused the ACL to
be run). For example:
acl_smtp_data = /etc/acls/\
${lookup{$sender_host_address}lsearch\
{/etc/acllist}{$value}{default}}
This looks up an ACL file to use on the basis of the host's IP address,
falling back to a default if the lookup fails. If an ACL is successfully
read from a file, it is retained in memory for the duration of the Exim
process, so that it can be re-used without having to re-read the file.
* If the string does not start with a slash, and does not contain any spaces,
Exim searches the ACL section of the configuration for an ACL whose name
matches the string.
* If no named ACL is found, or if the string contains spaces, Exim parses the
string as an inline ACL. This can save typing in cases where you just want
to have something like
acl_smtp_vrfy = accept
in order to allow free use of the VRFY command. Such a string may contain
newlines; it is processed in the same way as an ACL that is read from a
file.
40.11 ACL return codes
----------------------
Except for the QUIT ACL, which does not affect the SMTP return code (see
section 40.8 above), the result of running an ACL is either "accept" or "deny",
or, if some test cannot be completed (for example, if a database is down),
"defer". These results cause 2xx, 5xx, and 4xx return codes, respectively, to
be used in the SMTP dialogue. A fourth return, "error", occurs when there is an
error such as invalid syntax in the ACL. This also causes a 4xx return code.
For the non-SMTP ACL, "defer" and "error" are treated in the same way as
"deny", because there is no mechanism for passing temporary errors to the
submitters of non-SMTP messages.
ACLs that are relevant to message reception may also return "discard". This has
the effect of "accept", but causes either the entire message or an individual
recipient address to be discarded. In other words, it is a blackholing
facility. Use it with care.
If the ACL for MAIL returns "discard", all recipients are discarded, and no ACL
is run for subsequent RCPT commands. The effect of "discard" in a RCPT ACL is
to discard just the one recipient address. If there are no recipients left when
the message's data is received, the DATA ACL is not run. A "discard" return
from the DATA or the non-SMTP ACL discards all the remaining recipients. The
"discard" return is not permitted for the acl_smtp_predata ACL.
The local_scan() function is always run, even if there are no remaining
recipients; it may create new recipients.
40.12 Unset ACL options
-----------------------
The default actions when any of the acl_xxx options are unset are not all the
same. Note: These defaults apply only when the relevant ACL is not defined at
all. For any defined ACL, the default action when control reaches the end of
the ACL statements is "deny".
For acl_smtp_quit and acl_not_smtp_start there is no default because these two
are ACLs that are used only for their side effects. They cannot be used to
accept or reject anything.
For acl_not_smtp, acl_smtp_auth, acl_smtp_connect, acl_smtp_data, acl_smtp_helo
, acl_smtp_mail, acl_smtp_mailauth, acl_smtp_mime, acl_smtp_predata, and
acl_smtp_starttls, the action when the ACL is not defined is "accept".
For the others (acl_smtp_etrn, acl_smtp_expn, acl_smtp_rcpt, and acl_smtp_vrfy
), the action when the ACL is not defined is "deny". This means that
acl_smtp_rcpt must be defined in order to receive any messages over an SMTP
connection. For an example, see the ACL in the default configuration file.
40.13 Data for message ACLs
---------------------------
When a MAIL or RCPT ACL, or either of the DATA ACLs, is running, the variables
that contain information about the host and the message's sender (for example,
$sender_host_address and $sender_address) are set, and can be used in ACL
statements. In the case of RCPT (but not MAIL or DATA), $domain and $local_part
are set from the argument address. The entire SMTP command is available in
$smtp_command.
When an ACL for the AUTH parameter of MAIL is running, the variables that
contain information about the host are set, but $sender_address is not yet set.
Section 33.2 contains a discussion of this parameter and how it is used.
The $message_size variable is set to the value of the SIZE parameter on the
MAIL command at MAIL, RCPT and pre-data time, or to -1 if that parameter is not
given. The value is updated to the true message size by the time the final DATA
ACL is run (after the message data has been received).
The $rcpt_count variable increases by one for each RCPT command received. The
$recipients_count variable increases by one each time a RCPT command is
accepted, so while an ACL for RCPT is being processed, it contains the number
of previously accepted recipients. At DATA time (for both the DATA ACLs),
$rcpt_count contains the total number of RCPT commands, and $recipients_count
contains the total number of accepted recipients.
40.14 Data for non-message ACLs
-------------------------------
When an ACL is being run for AUTH, EHLO, ETRN, EXPN, HELO, STARTTLS, or VRFY,
the remainder of the SMTP command line is placed in $smtp_command_argument, and
the entire SMTP command is available in $smtp_command. These variables can be
tested using a condition condition. For example, here is an ACL for use with
AUTH, which insists that either the session is encrypted, or the CRAM-MD5
authentication method is used. In other words, it does not permit
authentication methods that use cleartext passwords on unencrypted connections.
acl_check_auth:
accept encrypted = *
accept condition = ${if eq{${uc:$smtp_command_argument}}\
{CRAM-MD5}}
deny message = TLS encryption or CRAM-MD5 required
(Another way of applying this restriction is to arrange for the authenticators
that use cleartext passwords not to be advertised when the connection is not
encrypted. You can use the generic server_advertise_condition authenticator
option to do this.)
40.15 Format of an ACL
----------------------
An individual ACL consists of a number of statements. Each statement starts
with a verb, optionally followed by a number of conditions and "modifiers".
Modifiers can change the way the verb operates, define error and log messages,
set variables, insert delays, and vary the processing of accepted messages.
If all the conditions are met, the verb is obeyed. The same condition may be
used (with different arguments) more than once in the same statement. This
provides a means of specifying an "and" conjunction between conditions. For
example:
deny dnslists = list1.example
dnslists = list2.example
If there are no conditions, the verb is always obeyed. Exim stops evaluating
the conditions and modifiers when it reaches a condition that fails. What
happens then depends on the verb (and in one case, on a special modifier). Not
all the conditions make sense at every testing point. For example, you cannot
test a sender address in the ACL that is run for a VRFY command.
40.16 ACL verbs
---------------
The ACL verbs are as follows:
* accept: If all the conditions are met, the ACL returns "accept". If any of
the conditions are not met, what happens depends on whether endpass appears
among the conditions (for syntax see below). If the failing condition is
before endpass, control is passed to the next ACL statement; if it is after
endpass, the ACL returns "deny". Consider this statement, used to check a
RCPT command:
accept domains = +local_domains
endpass
verify = recipient
If the recipient domain does not match the domains condition, control
passes to the next statement. If it does match, the recipient is verified,
and the command is accepted if verification succeeds. However, if
verification fails, the ACL yields "deny", because the failing condition is
after endpass.
The endpass feature has turned out to be confusing to many people, so its
use is not recommended nowadays. It is always possible to rewrite an ACL so
that endpass is not needed, and it is no longer used in the default
configuration.
If a message modifier appears on an accept statement, its action depends on
whether or not endpass is present. In the absence of endpass (when an
accept verb either accepts or passes control to the next statement),
message can be used to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command
is accepted. For example, in a RCPT ACL you could have:
accept <some conditions>
message = OK, I will allow you through today
You can specify an SMTP response code, optionally followed by an "extended
response code" at the start of the message, but the first digit must be the
same as would be sent by default, which is 2 for an accept verb.
If endpass is present in an accept statement, message specifies an error
message that is used when access is denied. This behaviour is retained for
backward compatibility, but current "best practice" is to avoid the use of
endpass.
* defer: If all the conditions are true, the ACL returns "defer" which, in an
SMTP session, causes a 4xx response to be given. For a non-SMTP ACL, defer
is the same as deny, because there is no way of sending a temporary error.
For a RCPT command, defer is much the same as using a redirect router and
":defer:" while verifying, but the defer verb can be used in any ACL, and
even for a recipient it might be a simpler approach.
* deny: If all the conditions are met, the ACL returns "deny". If any of the
conditions are not met, control is passed to the next ACL statement. For
example,
deny dnslists = blackholes.mail-abuse.org
rejects commands from hosts that are on a DNS black list.
* discard: This verb behaves like accept, except that it returns "discard"
from the ACL instead of "accept". It is permitted only on ACLs that are
concerned with receiving messages. When all the conditions are true, the
sending entity receives a "success" response. However, discard causes
recipients to be discarded. If it is used in an ACL for RCPT, just the one
recipient is discarded; if used for MAIL, DATA or in the non-SMTP ACL, all
the message's recipients are discarded. Recipients that are discarded
before DATA do not appear in the log line when the log_recipients log
selector is set.
If the log_message modifier is set when discard operates, its contents are
added to the line that is automatically written to the log. The message
modifier operates exactly as it does for accept.
* drop: This verb behaves like deny, except that an SMTP connection is
forcibly closed after the 5xx error message has been sent. For example:
drop message = I don't take more than 20 RCPTs
condition = ${if > {$rcpt_count}{20}}
There is no difference between deny and drop for the connect-time ACL. The
connection is always dropped after sending a 550 response.
* require: If all the conditions are met, control is passed to the next ACL
statement. If any of the conditions are not met, the ACL returns "deny".
For example, when checking a RCPT command,
require message = Sender did not verify
verify = sender
passes control to subsequent statements only if the message's sender can be
verified. Otherwise, it rejects the command. Note the positioning of the
message modifier, before the verify condition. The reason for this is
discussed in section 40.18.
* warn: If all the conditions are true, a line specified by the log_message
modifier is written to Exim's main log. Control always passes to the next
ACL statement. If any condition is false, the log line is not written. If
an identical log line is requested several times in the same message, only
one copy is actually written to the log. If you want to force duplicates to
be written, use the logwrite modifier instead.
If log_message is not present, a warn verb just checks its conditions and
obeys any "immediate" modifiers (such as control, set, logwrite, and
add_header) that appear before the first failing condition. There is more
about adding header lines in section 40.22.
If any condition on a warn statement cannot be completed (that is, there is
some sort of defer), the log line specified by log_message is not written.
This does not include the case of a forced failure from a lookup, which is
considered to be a successful completion. After a defer, no further
conditions or modifiers in the warn statement are processed. The incident
is logged, and the ACL continues to be processed, from the next statement
onwards.
When one of the warn conditions is an address verification that fails, the
text of the verification failure message is in $acl_verify_message. If you
want this logged, you must set it up explicitly. For example:
warn !verify = sender
log_message = sender verify failed: $acl_verify_message
At the end of each ACL there is an implicit unconditional deny.
As you can see from the examples above, the conditions and modifiers are
written one to a line, with the first one on the same line as the verb, and
subsequent ones on following lines. If you have a very long condition, you can
continue it onto several physical lines by the usual backslash continuation
mechanism. It is conventional to align the conditions vertically.
40.17 ACL variables
-------------------
There are some special variables that can be set during ACL processing. They
can be used to pass information between different ACLs, different invocations
of the same ACL in the same SMTP connection, and between ACLs and the routers,
transports, and filters that are used to deliver a message. The names of these
variables must begin with $acl_c or $acl_m, followed either by a digit or an
underscore, but the remainder of the name can be any sequence of alphanumeric
characters and underscores that you choose. There is no limit on the number of
ACL variables. The two sets act as follows:
* The values of those variables whose names begin with $acl_c persist
throughout an SMTP connection. They are never reset. Thus, a value that is
set while receiving one message is still available when receiving the next
message on the same SMTP connection.
* The values of those variables whose names begin with $acl_m persist only
while a message is being received. They are reset afterwards. They are also
reset by MAIL, RSET, EHLO, HELO, and after starting up a TLS session.
When a message is accepted, the current values of all the ACL variables are
preserved with the message and are subsequently made available at delivery
time. The ACL variables are set by a modifier called set. For example:
accept hosts = whatever
set acl_m4 = some value
accept authenticated = *
set acl_c_auth = yes
Note: A leading dollar sign is not used when naming a variable that is to be
set. If you want to set a variable without taking any action, you can use a
warn verb without any other modifiers or conditions.
What happens if a syntactically valid but undefined ACL variable is referenced
depends on the setting of the strict_acl_vars option. If it is false (the
default), an empty string is substituted; if it is true, an error is generated.
Versions of Exim before 4.64 have a limited set of numbered variables, but
their names are compatible, so there is no problem with upgrading.
40.18 Condition and modifier processing
---------------------------------------
An exclamation mark preceding a condition negates its result. For example:
deny domains = *.dom.example
!verify = recipient
causes the ACL to return "deny" if the recipient domain ends in dom.example and
the recipient address cannot be verified. Sometimes negation can be used on the
right-hand side of a condition. For example, these two statements are
equivalent:
deny hosts = !192.168.3.4
deny !hosts = 192.168.3.4
However, for many conditions (verify being a good example), only left-hand side
negation of the whole condition is possible.
The arguments of conditions and modifiers are expanded. A forced failure of an
expansion causes a condition to be ignored, that is, it behaves as if the
condition is true. Consider these two statements:
accept senders = ${lookup{$host_name}lsearch\
{/some/file}{$value}fail}
accept senders = ${lookup{$host_name}lsearch\
{/some/file}{$value}{}}
Each attempts to look up a list of acceptable senders. If the lookup succeeds,
the returned list is searched, but if the lookup fails the behaviour is
different in the two cases. The fail in the first statement causes the
condition to be ignored, leaving no further conditions. The accept verb
therefore succeeds. The second statement, however, generates an empty list when
the lookup fails. No sender can match an empty list, so the condition fails,
and therefore the accept also fails.
ACL modifiers appear mixed in with conditions in ACL statements. Some of them
specify actions that are taken as the conditions for a statement are checked;
others specify text for messages that are used when access is denied or a
warning is generated. The control modifier affects the way an incoming message
is handled.
The positioning of the modifiers in an ACL statement important, because the
processing of a verb ceases as soon as its outcome is known. Only those
modifiers that have already been encountered will take effect. For example,
consider this use of the message modifier:
require message = Can't verify sender
verify = sender
message = Can't verify recipient
verify = recipient
message = This message cannot be used
If sender verification fails, Exim knows that the result of the statement is
"deny", so it goes no further. The first message modifier has been seen, so its
text is used as the error message. If sender verification succeeds, but
recipient verification fails, the second message is used. If recipient
verification succeeds, the third message becomes "current", but is never used
because there are no more conditions to cause failure.
For the deny verb, on the other hand, it is always the last message modifier
that is used, because all the conditions must be true for rejection to happen.
Specifying more than one message modifier does not make sense, and the message
can even be specified after all the conditions. For example:
deny hosts = ...
!senders = *@my.domain.example
message = Invalid sender from client host
The "deny" result does not happen until the end of the statement is reached, by
which time Exim has set up the message.
40.19 ACL modifiers
-------------------
The ACL modifiers are as follows:
add_header = <text>
This modifier specifies one or more header lines that are to be added to an
incoming message, assuming, of course, that the message is ultimately
accepted. For details, see section 40.22.
continue = <text>
This modifier does nothing of itself, and processing of the ACL always
continues with the next condition or modifier. The value of continue is in
the side effects of expanding its argument. Typically this could be used to
update a database. It is really just a syntactic tidiness, to avoid having
to write rather ugly lines like this:
condition = ${if eq{0}{<some expansion>}{true}{true}}
Instead, all you need is
continue = <some expansion>
control = <text>
This modifier affects the subsequent processing of the SMTP connection or
of an incoming message that is accepted. The effect of the first type of
control lasts for the duration of the connection, whereas the effect of the
second type lasts only until the current message has been received. The
message-specific controls always apply to the whole message, not to
individual recipients, even if the control modifier appears in a RCPT ACL.
As there are now quite a few controls that can be applied, they are
described separately in section 40.20. The control modifier can be used in
several different ways. For example:
* It can be at the end of an accept statement:
accept ...some conditions
control = queue_only
In this case, the control is applied when this statement yields
"accept", in other words, when the conditions are all true.
* It can be in the middle of an accept statement:
accept ...some conditions...
control = queue_only
...some more conditions...
If the first set of conditions are true, the control is applied, even
if the statement does not accept because one of the second set of
conditions is false. In this case, some subsequent statement must yield
"accept" for the control to be relevant.
* It can be used with warn to apply the control, leaving the decision
about accepting or denying to a subsequent verb. For example:
warn ...some conditions...
control = freeze
accept ...
This example of warn does not contain message, log_message, or logwrite
, so it does not add anything to the message and does not write a log
entry.
* If you want to apply a control unconditionally, you can use it with a
require verb. For example:
require control = no_multiline_responses
delay = <time>
This modifier may appear in any ACL. It causes Exim to wait for the time
interval before proceeding. However, when testing Exim using the -bh
option, the delay is not actually imposed (an appropriate message is output
instead). The time is given in the usual Exim notation, and the delay
happens as soon as the modifier is processed. In an SMTP session, pending
output is flushed before the delay is imposed.
Like control, delay can be used with accept or deny, for example:
deny ...some conditions...
delay = 30s
The delay happens if all the conditions are true, before the statement
returns "deny". Compare this with:
deny delay = 30s
...some conditions...
which waits for 30s before processing the conditions. The delay modifier
can also be used with warn and together with control:
warn ...some conditions...
delay = 2m
control = freeze
accept ...
If delay is encountered when the SMTP PIPELINING extension is in use,
responses to several commands are no longer buffered and sent in one packet
(as they would normally be) because all output is flushed before imposing
the delay. This optimization is disabled so that a number of small delays
do not appear to the client as one large aggregated delay that might
provoke an unwanted timeout. You can, however, disable output flushing for
delay by using a control modifier to set no_delay_flush.
endpass
This modifier, which has no argument, is recognized only in accept and
discard statements. It marks the boundary between the conditions whose
failure causes control to pass to the next statement, and the conditions
whose failure causes the ACL to return "deny". This concept has proved to
be confusing to some people, so the use of endpass is no longer recommended
as "best practice". See the description of accept above for more details.
log_message = <text>
This modifier sets up a message that is used as part of the log message if
the ACL denies access or a warn statement's conditions are true. For
example:
require log_message = wrong cipher suite $tls_cipher
encrypted = DES-CBC3-SHA
log_message is also used when recipients are discarded by discard. For
example:
discard <some conditions>
log_message = Discarded $local_part@$domain because...
When access is denied, log_message adds to any underlying error message
that may exist because of a condition failure. For example, while verifying
a recipient address, a :fail: redirection might have already set up a
message.
The message may be defined before the conditions to which it applies,
because the string expansion does not happen until Exim decides that access
is to be denied. This means that any variables that are set by the
condition are available for inclusion in the message. For example, the
$dnslist_<xxx> variables are set after a DNS black list lookup succeeds. If
the expansion of log_message fails, or if the result is an empty string,
the modifier is ignored.
If you want to use a warn statement to log the result of an address
verification, you can use $acl_verify_message to include the verification
error message.
If log_message is used with a warn statement, "Warning:" is added to the
start of the logged message. If the same warning log message is requested
more than once while receiving a single email message, only one copy is
actually logged. If you want to log multiple copies, use logwrite instead
of log_message. In the absence of log_message and logwrite, nothing is
logged for a successful warn statement.
If log_message is not present and there is no underlying error message (for
example, from the failure of address verification), but message is present,
the message text is used for logging rejections. However, if any text for
logging contains newlines, only the first line is logged. In the absence of
both log_message and message, a default built-in message is used for
logging rejections.
log_reject_target = <log name list>
This modifier makes it possible to specify which logs are used for messages
about ACL rejections. Its argument is a colon-separated list of words that
can be "main", "reject", or "panic". The default is "main:reject". The list
may be empty, in which case a rejection is not logged at all. For example,
this ACL fragment writes no logging information when access is denied:
deny <some conditions>
log_reject_target =
This modifier can be used in SMTP and non-SMTP ACLs. It applies to both
permanent and temporary rejections.
logwrite = <text>
This modifier writes a message to a log file as soon as it is encountered
when processing an ACL. (Compare log_message, which, except in the case of
warn and discard, is used only if the ACL statement denies access.) The
logwrite modifier can be used to log special incidents in ACLs. For
example:
accept <some special conditions>
control = freeze
logwrite = froze message because ...
By default, the message is written to the main log. However, it may begin
with a colon, followed by a comma-separated list of log names, and then
another colon, to specify exactly which logs are to be written. For
example:
logwrite = :main,reject: text for main and reject logs
logwrite = :panic: text for panic log only
message = <text>
This modifier sets up a text string that is expanded and used as a response
message when an ACL statement terminates the ACL with an "accept", "deny",
or "defer" response. (In the case of the accept and discard verbs, there is
some complication if endpass is involved; see the description of accept for
details.)
The expansion of the message happens at the time Exim decides that the ACL
is to end, not at the time it processes message. If the expansion fails, or
generates an empty string, the modifier is ignored. Here is an example
where message must be specified first, because the ACL ends with a
rejection if the hosts condition fails:
require message = Host not recognized
hosts = 10.0.0.0/8
(Once a condition has failed, no further conditions or modifiers are
processed.)
For ACLs that are triggered by SMTP commands, the message is returned as
part of the SMTP response. The use of message with accept (or discard) is
meaningful only for SMTP, as no message is returned when a non-SMTP message
is accepted. In the case of the connect ACL, accepting with a message
modifier overrides the value of smtp_banner. For the EHLO/HELO ACL, a
customized accept message may not contain more than one line (otherwise it
will be truncated at the first newline and a panic logged), and it cannot
affect the EHLO options.
When SMTP is involved, the message may begin with an overriding response
code, consisting of three digits optionally followed by an "extended
response code" of the form n.n.n, each code being followed by a space. For
example:
deny message = 599 1.2.3 Host not welcome
hosts = 192.168.34.0/24
The first digit of the supplied response code must be the same as would be
sent by default. A panic occurs if it is not. Exim uses a 550 code when it
denies access, but for the predata ACL, note that the default success code
is 354, not 2xx.
Notwithstanding the previous paragraph, for the QUIT ACL, unlike the
others, the message modifier cannot override the 221 response code.
The text in a message modifier is literal; any quotes are taken as
literals, but because the string is expanded, backslash escapes are
processed anyway. If the message contains newlines, this gives rise to a
multi-line SMTP response.
If message is used on a statement that verifies an address, the message
specified overrides any message that is generated by the verification
process. However, the original message is available in the variable
$acl_verify_message, so you can incorporate it into your message if you
wish. In particular, if you want the text from :fail: items in redirect
routers to be passed back as part of the SMTP response, you should either
not use a message modifier, or make use of $acl_verify_message.
For compatibility with previous releases of Exim, a message modifier that
is used with a warn verb behaves in a similar way to the add_header
modifier, but this usage is now deprecated. However, message acts only when
all the conditions are true, wherever it appears in an ACL command, whereas
add_header acts as soon as it is encountered. If message is used with warn
in an ACL that is not concerned with receiving a message, it has no effect.
set <acl_name> = <value>
This modifier puts a value into one of the ACL variables (see section 40.17
).
40.20 Use of the control modifier
---------------------------------
The control modifier supports the following settings:
control = allow_auth_unadvertised
This modifier allows a client host to use the SMTP AUTH command even when
it has not been advertised in response to EHLO. Furthermore, because there
are apparently some really broken clients that do this, Exim will accept
AUTH after HELO (rather than EHLO) when this control is set. It should be
used only if you really need it, and you should limit its use to those
broken clients that do not work without it. For example:
warn hosts = 192.168.34.25
control = allow_auth_unadvertised
Normally, when an Exim server receives an AUTH command, it checks the name
of the authentication mechanism that is given in the command to ensure that
it matches an advertised mechanism. When this control is set, the check
that a mechanism has been advertised is bypassed. Any configured mechanism
can be used by the client. This control is permitted only in the connection
and HELO ACLs.
control = caseful_local_part, control = caselower_local_part
These two controls are permitted only in the ACL specified by acl_smtp_rcpt
(that is, during RCPT processing). By default, the contents of $local_part
are lower cased before ACL processing. If "caseful_local_part" is
specified, any uppercase letters in the original local part are restored in
$local_part for the rest of the ACL, or until a control that sets
"caselower_local_part" is encountered.
These controls affect only the current recipient. Moreover, they apply only
to local part handling that takes place directly in the ACL (for example,
as a key in lookups). If a test to verify the recipient is obeyed, the
case-related handling of the local part during the verification is
controlled by the router configuration (see the caseful_local_part generic
router option).
This facility could be used, for example, to add a spam score to local
parts containing upper case letters. For example, using $acl_m4 to
accumulate the spam score:
warn control = caseful_local_part
set acl_m4 = ${eval:\
$acl_m4 + \
${if match{$local_part}{[A-Z]}{1}{0}}\
}
control = caselower_local_part
Notice that we put back the lower cased version afterwards, assuming that
is what is wanted for subsequent tests.
control = enforce_sync, control = no_enforce_sync
These controls make it possible to be selective about when SMTP
synchronization is enforced. The global option smtp_enforce_sync specifies
the initial state of the switch (it is true by default). See the
description of this option in chapter 14 for details of SMTP
synchronization checking.
The effect of these two controls lasts for the remainder of the SMTP
connection. They can appear in any ACL except the one for the non-SMTP
messages. The most straightforward place to put them is in the ACL defined
by acl_smtp_connect, which is run at the start of an incoming SMTP
connection, before the first synchronization check. The expected use is to
turn off the synchronization checks for badly-behaved hosts that you
nevertheless need to work with.
control = fakedefer/<message>
This control works in exactly the same way as fakereject (described below)
except that it causes an SMTP 450 response after the message data instead
of a 550 response. You must take care when using fakedefer because it
causes the messages to be duplicated when the sender retries. Therefore,
you should not use fakedefer if the message is to be delivered normally.
control = fakereject/<message>
This control is permitted only for the MAIL, RCPT, and DATA ACLs, in other
words, only when an SMTP message is being received. If Exim accepts the
message, instead the final 250 response, a 550 rejection message is sent.
However, Exim proceeds to deliver the message as normal. The control
applies only to the current message, not to any subsequent ones that may be
received in the same SMTP connection.
The text for the 550 response is taken from the control modifier. If no
message is supplied, the following is used:
550-Your message has been rejected but is being
550-kept for evaluation.
550-If it was a legitimate message, it may still be
550 delivered to the target recipient(s).
This facility should be used with extreme caution.
control = freeze
This control is permitted only for the MAIL, RCPT, DATA, and non-SMTP ACLs,
in other words, only when a message is being received. If the message is
accepted, it is placed on Exim's queue and frozen. The control applies only
to the current message, not to any subsequent ones that may be received in
the same SMTP connection.
This modifier can optionally be followed by "/no_tell". If the global
option freeze_tell is set, it is ignored for the current message (that is,
nobody is told about the freezing), provided all the control=freeze
modifiers that are obeyed for the current message have the "/no_tell"
option.
control = no_delay_flush
Exim normally flushes SMTP output before implementing a delay in an ACL, to
avoid unexpected timeouts in clients when the SMTP PIPELINING extension is
in use. This control, as long as it is encountered before the delay
modifier, disables such output flushing.
control = no_callout_flush
Exim normally flushes SMTP output before performing a callout in an ACL, to
avoid unexpected timeouts in clients when the SMTP PIPELINING extension is
in use. This control, as long as it is encountered before the verify
condition that causes the callout, disables such output flushing.
control = no_mbox_unspool
This control is available when Exim is compiled with the content scanning
extension. Content scanning may require a copy of the current message, or
parts of it, to be written in "mbox format" to a spool file, for passing to
a virus or spam scanner. Normally, such copies are deleted when they are no
longer needed. If this control is set, the copies are not deleted. The
control applies only to the current message, not to any subsequent ones
that may be received in the same SMTP connection. It is provided for
debugging purposes and is unlikely to be useful in production.
control = no_multiline_responses
This control is permitted for any ACL except the one for non-SMTP messages.
It seems that there are broken clients in use that cannot handle multiline
SMTP responses, despite the fact that RFC 821 defined them over 20 years
ago.
If this control is set, multiline SMTP responses from ACL rejections are
suppressed. One way of doing this would have been to put out these
responses as one long line. However, RFC 2821 specifies a maximum of 512
bytes per response ("use multiline responses for more" it says - ha!), and
some of the responses might get close to that. So this facility, which is
after all only a sop to broken clients, is implemented by doing two very
easy things:
* Extra information that is normally output as part of a rejection caused
by sender verification failure is omitted. Only the final line
(typically "sender verification failed") is sent.
* If a message modifier supplies a multiline response, only the first
line is output.
The setting of the switch can, of course, be made conditional on the
calling host. Its effect lasts until the end of the SMTP connection.
control = no_pipelining
This control turns off the advertising of the PIPELINING extension to SMTP
in the current session. To be useful, it must be obeyed before Exim sends
its response to an EHLO command. Therefore, it should normally appear in an
ACL controlled by acl_smtp_connect or acl_smtp_helo. See also
pipelining_advertise_hosts.
control = queue_only
This control is permitted only for the MAIL, RCPT, DATA, and non-SMTP ACLs,
in other words, only when a message is being received. If the message is
accepted, it is placed on Exim's queue and left there for delivery by a
subsequent queue runner. No immediate delivery process is started. In other
words, it has the effect as the queue_only global option. However, the
control applies only to the current message, not to any subsequent ones
that may be received in the same SMTP connection.
control = submission/<options>
This control is permitted only for the MAIL, RCPT, and start of data ACLs
(the latter is the one defined by acl_smtp_predata). Setting it tells Exim
that the current message is a submission from a local MUA. In this case,
Exim operates in "submission mode", and applies certain fixups to the
message if necessary. For example, it add a Date: header line if one is not
present. This control is not permitted in the acl_smtp_data ACL, because
that is too late (the message has already been created).
Chapter 44 describes the processing that Exim applies to messages. Section
44.1 covers the processing that happens in submission mode; the available
options for this control are described there. The control applies only to
the current message, not to any subsequent ones that may be received in the
same SMTP connection.
control = suppress_local_fixups
This control applies to locally submitted (non TCP/IP) messages, and is the
complement of "control" "=" "submission". It disables the fixups that are
normally applied to locally-submitted messages. Specifically:
* Any Sender: header line is left alone (in this respect, it is a dynamic
version of local_sender_retain).
* No Message-ID:, From:, or Date: header lines are added.
* There is no check that From: corresponds to the actual sender.
This control may be useful when a remotely-originated message is accepted,
passed to some scanning program, and then re-submitted for delivery. It can
be used only in the acl_smtp_mail, acl_smtp_rcpt, acl_smtp_predata, and
acl_not_smtp_start ACLs, because it has to be set before the message's data
is read.
Note: This control applies only to the current message, not to any others
that are being submitted at the same time using -bs or -bS.
40.21 Summary of message fixup control
--------------------------------------
All four possibilities for message fixups can be specified:
* Locally submitted, fixups applied: the default.
* Locally submitted, no fixups applied: use "control" "="
"suppress_local_fixups".
* Remotely submitted, no fixups applied: the default.
* Remotely submitted, fixups applied: use "control" "=" "submission".
40.22 Adding header lines in ACLs
---------------------------------
The add_header modifier can be used to add one or more extra header lines to an
incoming message, as in this example:
warn dnslists = sbl.spamhaus.org : \
dialup.mail-abuse.org
add_header = X-blacklisted-at: $dnslist_domain
The add_header modifier is permitted in the MAIL, RCPT, PREDATA, DATA, MIME,
and non-SMTP ACLs (in other words, those that are concerned with receiving a
message). The message must ultimately be accepted for add_header to have any
significant effect. You can use add_header with any ACL verb, including deny
(though this is potentially useful only in a RCPT ACL).
If the data for the add_header modifier contains one or more newlines that are
not followed by a space or a tab, it is assumed to contain multiple header
lines. Each one is checked for valid syntax; "X-ACL-Warn:" is added to the
front of any line that is not a valid header line.
Added header lines are accumulated during the MAIL, RCPT, and predata ACLs.
They are added to the message before processing the DATA and MIME ACLs.
However, if an identical header line is requested more than once, only one copy
is actually added to the message. Further header lines may be accumulated
during the DATA and MIME ACLs, after which they are added to the message, again
with duplicates suppressed. Thus, it is possible to add two identical header
lines to an SMTP message, but only if one is added before DATA and one after.
In the case of non-SMTP messages, new headers are accumulated during the
non-SMTP ACLs, and are added to the message after all the ACLs have run. If a
message is rejected after DATA or by the non-SMTP ACL, all added header lines
are included in the entry that is written to the reject log.
Header lines are not visible in string expansions until they are added to the
message. It follows that header lines defined in the MAIL, RCPT, and predata
ACLs are not visible until the DATA ACL and MIME ACLs are run. Similarly,
header lines that are added by the DATA or MIME ACLs are not visible in those
ACLs. Because of this restriction, you cannot use header lines as a way of
passing data between (for example) the MAIL and RCPT ACLs. If you want to do
this, you can use ACL variables, as described in section 40.17.
The add_header modifier acts immediately it is encountered during the
processing of an ACL. Notice the difference between these two cases:
accept add_header = ADDED: some text
<some condition>
accept <some condition>
add_header = ADDED: some text
In the first case, the header line is always added, whether or not the
condition is true. In the second case, the header line is added only if the
condition is true. Multiple occurrences of add_header may occur in the same ACL
statement. All those that are encountered before a condition fails are
honoured.
For compatibility with previous versions of Exim, a message modifier for a warn
verb acts in the same way as add_header, except that it takes effect only if
all the conditions are true, even if it appears before some of them.
Furthermore, only the last occurrence of message is honoured. This usage of
message is now deprecated. If both add_header and message are present on a warn
verb, both are processed according to their specifications.
By default, new header lines are added to a message at the end of the existing
header lines. However, you can specify that any particular header line should
be added right at the start (before all the Received: lines), immediately after
the first block of Received: lines, or immediately before any line that is not
a Received: or Resent-something: header.
This is done by specifying ":at_start:", ":after_received:", or
":at_start_rfc:" (or, for completeness, ":at_end:") before the text of the
header line, respectively. (Header text cannot start with a colon, as there has
to be a header name first.) For example:
warn add_header = \
:after_received:X-My-Header: something or other...
If more than one header line is supplied in a single add_header modifier, each
one is treated independently and can therefore be placed differently. If you
add more than one line at the start, or after the Received: block, they end up
in reverse order.
Warning: This facility currently applies only to header lines that are added in
an ACL. It does NOT work for header lines that are added in a system filter or
in a router or transport.
40.23 ACL conditions
--------------------
Some of conditions listed in this section are available only when Exim is
compiled with the content-scanning extension. They are included here briefly
for completeness. More detailed descriptions can be found in the discussion on
content scanning in chapter 41.
Not all conditions are relevant in all circumstances. For example, testing
senders and recipients does not make sense in an ACL that is being run as the
result of the arrival of an ETRN command, and checks on message headers can be
done only in the ACLs specified by acl_smtp_data and acl_not_smtp. You can use
the same condition (with different parameters) more than once in the same ACL
statement. This provides a way of specifying an "and" conjunction. The
conditions are as follows:
acl = <name of acl or ACL string or file name >
The possible values of the argument are the same as for the acl_smtp_xxx
options. The named or inline ACL is run. If it returns "accept" the
condition is true; if it returns "deny" the condition is false. If it
returns "defer", the current ACL returns "defer" unless the condition is on
a warn verb. In that case, a "defer" return makes the condition false. This
means that further processing of the warn verb ceases, but processing of
the ACL continues.
If the nested acl returns "drop" and the outer condition denies access, the
connection is dropped. If it returns "discard", the verb must be accept or
discard, and the action is taken immediately - no further conditions are
tested.
ACLs may be nested up to 20 deep; the limit exists purely to catch runaway
loops. This condition allows you to use different ACLs in different
circumstances. For example, different ACLs can be used to handle RCPT
commands for different local users or different local domains.
authenticated = <string list>
If the SMTP connection is not authenticated, the condition is false.
Otherwise, the name of the authenticator is tested against the list. To
test for authentication by any authenticator, you can set
authenticated = *
condition = <string>
This feature allows you to make up custom conditions. If the result of
expanding the string is an empty string, the number zero, or one of the
strings "no" or "false", the condition is false. If the result is any
non-zero number, or one of the strings "yes" or "true", the condition is
true. For any other value, some error is assumed to have occurred, and the
ACL returns "defer". However, if the expansion is forced to fail, the
condition is ignored. The effect is to treat it as true, whether it is
positive or negative.
decode = <location>
This condition is available only when Exim is compiled with the
content-scanning extension, and it is allowed only in the ACL defined by
acl_smtp_mime. It causes the current MIME part to be decoded into a file.
If all goes well, the condition is true. It is false only if there are
problems such as a syntax error or a memory shortage. For more details, see
chapter 41.
demime = <extension list>
This condition is available only when Exim is compiled with the
content-scanning extension. Its use is described in section 41.6.
dnslists = <list of domain names and other data>
This condition checks for entries in DNS black lists. These are also known
as "RBL lists", after the original Realtime Blackhole List, but note that
the use of the lists at mail-abuse.org now carries a charge. There are too
many different variants of this condition to describe briefly here. See
sections 40.24-40.34 for details.
domains = <domain list>
This condition is relevant only after a RCPT command. It checks that the
domain of the recipient address is in the domain list. If percent-hack
processing is enabled, it is done before this test is done. If the check
succeeds with a lookup, the result of the lookup is placed in $domain_data
until the next domains test.
Note carefully (because many people seem to fall foul of this): you cannot
use domains in a DATA ACL.
encrypted = <string list>
If the SMTP connection is not encrypted, the condition is false. Otherwise,
the name of the cipher suite in use is tested against the list. To test for
encryption without testing for any specific cipher suite(s), set
encrypted = *
hosts = < host list>
This condition tests that the calling host matches the host list. If you
have name lookups or wildcarded host names and IP addresses in the same
host list, you should normally put the IP addresses first. For example, you
could have:
accept hosts = 10.9.8.7 : dbm;/etc/friendly/hosts
The lookup in this example uses the host name for its key. This is implied
by the lookup type "dbm". (For a host address lookup you would use
"net-dbm" and it wouldn't matter which way round you had these two items.)
The reason for the problem with host names lies in the left-to-right way
that Exim processes lists. It can test IP addresses without doing any DNS
lookups, but when it reaches an item that requires a host name, it fails if
it cannot find a host name to compare with the pattern. If the above list
is given in the opposite order, the accept statement fails for a host whose
name cannot be found, even if its IP address is 10.9.8.7.
If you really do want to do the name check first, and still recognize the
IP address even if the name lookup fails, you can rewrite the ACL like
this:
accept hosts = dbm;/etc/friendly/hosts
accept hosts = 10.9.8.7
The default action on failing to find the host name is to assume that the
host is not in the list, so the first accept statement fails. The second
statement can then check the IP address.
If a hosts condition is satisfied by means of a lookup, the result of the
lookup is made available in the $host_data variable. This allows you, for
example, to set up a statement like this:
deny hosts = net-lsearch;/some/file
message = $host_data
which gives a custom error message for each denied host.
local_parts = <local part list>
This condition is relevant only after a RCPT command. It checks that the
local part of the recipient address is in the list. If percent-hack
processing is enabled, it is done before this test. If the check succeeds
with a lookup, the result of the lookup is placed in $local_part_data,
which remains set until the next local_parts test.
malware = <option>
This condition is available only when Exim is compiled with the
content-scanning extension. It causes the incoming message to be scanned
for viruses. For details, see chapter 41.
mime_regex = <list of regular expressions>
This condition is available only when Exim is compiled with the
content-scanning extension, and it is allowed only in the ACL defined by
acl_smtp_mime. It causes the current MIME part to be scanned for a match
with any of the regular expressions. For details, see chapter 41.
ratelimit = <parameters>
This condition can be used to limit the rate at which a user or host
submits messages. Details are given in section 40.35.
recipients = <address list>
This condition is relevant only after a RCPT command. It checks the entire
recipient address against a list of recipients.
regex = <list of regular expressions>
This condition is available only when Exim is compiled with the
content-scanning extension, and is available only in the DATA, MIME, and
non-SMTP ACLs. It causes the incoming message to be scanned for a match
with any of the regular expressions. For details, see chapter 41.
sender_domains = <domain list>
This condition tests the domain of the sender of the message against the
given domain list. Note: The domain of the sender address is in
$sender_address_domain. It is not put in $domain during the testing of this
condition. This is an exception to the general rule for testing domain
lists. It is done this way so that, if this condition is used in an ACL for
a RCPT command, the recipient's domain (which is in $domain) can be used to
influence the sender checking.
Warning: It is a bad idea to use this condition on its own as a control on
relaying, because sender addresses are easily, and commonly, forged.
senders = <address list>
This condition tests the sender of the message against the given list. To
test for a bounce message, which has an empty sender, set
senders = :
Warning: It is a bad idea to use this condition on its own as a control on
relaying, because sender addresses are easily, and commonly, forged.
spam = <username>
This condition is available only when Exim is compiled with the
content-scanning extension. It causes the incoming message to be scanned by
SpamAssassin. For details, see chapter 41.
verify = certificate
This condition is true in an SMTP session if the session is encrypted, and
a certificate was received from the client, and the certificate was
verified. The server requests a certificate only if the client matches
tls_verify_hosts or tls_try_verify_hosts (see chapter 39).
verify = csa
This condition checks whether the sending host (the client) is authorized
to send email. Details of how this works are given in section 40.46.
verify = header_sender/<options>
This condition is relevant only in an ACL that is run after a message has
been received, that is, in an ACL specified by acl_smtp_data or
acl_not_smtp. It checks that there is a verifiable address in at least one
of the Sender:, Reply-To:, or From: header lines. Such an address is
loosely thought of as a "sender" address (hence the name of the test).
However, an address that appears in one of these headers need not be an
address that accepts bounce messages; only sender addresses in envelopes
are required to accept bounces. Therefore, if you use the callout option on
this check, you might want to arrange for a non-empty address in the MAIL
command.
Details of address verification and the options are given later, starting
at section 40.40 (callouts are described in section 40.41). You can combine
this condition with the senders condition to restrict it to bounce messages
only:
deny senders = :
message = A valid sender header is required for bounces
!verify = header_sender
verify = header_syntax
This condition is relevant only in an ACL that is run after a message has
been received, that is, in an ACL specified by acl_smtp_data or
acl_not_smtp. It checks the syntax of all header lines that can contain
lists of addresses (Sender:, From:, Reply-To:, To:, Cc:, and Bcc:).
Unqualified addresses (local parts without domains) are permitted only in
locally generated messages and from hosts that match
sender_unqualified_hosts or recipient_unqualified_hosts, as appropriate.
Note that this condition is a syntax check only. However, a common spamming
ploy used to be to send syntactically invalid headers such as
To: @
and this condition can be used to reject such messages, though they are not
as common as they used to be.
verify = helo
This condition is true if a HELO or EHLO command has been received from the
client host, and its contents have been verified. If there has been no
previous attempt to verify the HELO/EHLO contents, it is carried out when
this condition is encountered. See the description of the helo_verify_hosts
and helo_try_verify_hosts options for details of how to request
verification independently of this condition.
For SMTP input that does not come over TCP/IP (the -bs command line
option), this condition is always true.
verify = not_blind
This condition checks that there are no blind (bcc) recipients in the
message. Every envelope recipient must appear either in a To: header line
or in a Cc: header line for this condition to be true. Local parts are
checked case-sensitively; domains are checked case-insensitively. If
Resent-To: or Resent-Cc: header lines exist, they are also checked. This
condition can be used only in a DATA or non-SMTP ACL.
There are, of course, many legitimate messages that make use of blind (bcc)
recipients. This check should not be used on its own for blocking messages.
verify = recipient/<options>
This condition is relevant only after a RCPT command. It verifies the
current recipient. Details of address verification are given later,
starting at section 40.40. After a recipient has been verified, the value
of $address_data is the last value that was set while routing the address.
This applies even if the verification fails. When an address that is being
verified is redirected to a single address, verification continues with the
new address, and in that case, the subsequent value of $address_data is the
value for the child address.
verify = reverse_host_lookup
This condition ensures that a verified host name has been looked up from
the IP address of the client host. (This may have happened already if the
host name was needed for checking a host list, or if the host matched
host_lookup.) Verification ensures that the host name obtained from a
reverse DNS lookup, or one of its aliases, does, when it is itself looked
up in the DNS, yield the original IP address.
If this condition is used for a locally generated message (that is, when
there is no client host involved), it always succeeds.
verify = sender/<options>
This condition is relevant only after a MAIL or RCPT command, or after a
message has been received (the acl_smtp_data or acl_not_smtp ACLs). If the
message's sender is empty (that is, this is a bounce message), the
condition is true. Otherwise, the sender address is verified.
If there is data in the $address_data variable at the end of routing, its
value is placed in $sender_address_data at the end of verification. This
value can be used in subsequent conditions and modifiers in the same ACL
statement. It does not persist after the end of the current statement. If
you want to preserve the value for longer, you can save it in an ACL
variable.
Details of verification are given later, starting at section 40.40. Exim
caches the result of sender verification, to avoid doing it more than once
per message.
verify = sender=<address>/<options>
This is a variation of the previous option, in which a modified address is
verified as a sender.
40.24 Using DNS lists
---------------------
In its simplest form, the dnslists condition tests whether the calling host is
on at least one of a number of DNS lists by looking up the inverted IP address
in one or more DNS domains. For example, if the calling host's IP address is
192.168.62.43, and the ACL statement is
deny dnslists = blackholes.mail-abuse.org : \
dialups.mail-abuse.org
the following records are looked up:
43.62.168.192.blackholes.mail-abuse.org
43.62.168.192.dialups.mail-abuse.org
As soon as Exim finds an existing DNS record, processing of the list stops.
Thus, multiple entries on the list provide an "or" conjunction. If you want to
test that a host is on more than one list (an "and" conjunction), you can use
two separate conditions:
deny dnslists = blackholes.mail-abuse.org
dnslists = dialups.mail-abuse.org
If a DNS lookup times out or otherwise fails to give a decisive answer, Exim
behaves as if the host does not match the list item, that is, as if the DNS
record does not exist. If there are further items in the DNS list, they are
processed.
This is usually the required action when dnslists is used with deny (which is
the most common usage), because it prevents a DNS failure from blocking mail.
However, you can change this behaviour by putting one of the following special
items in the list:
+include_unknown behave as if the item is on the list
+exclude_unknown behave as if the item is not on the list (default)
+defer_unknown give a temporary error
Each of these applies to any subsequent items on the list. For example:
deny dnslists = +defer_unknown : foo.bar.example
Testing the list of domains stops as soon as a match is found. If you want to
warn for one list and block for another, you can use two different statements:
deny dnslists = blackholes.mail-abuse.org
warn message = X-Warn: sending host is on dialups list
dnslists = dialups.mail-abuse.org
DNS list lookups are cached by Exim for the duration of the SMTP session, so a
lookup based on the IP address is done at most once for any incoming
connection. Exim does not share information between multiple incoming
connections (but your local name server cache should be active).
40.25 Specifying the IP address for a DNS list lookup
-----------------------------------------------------
By default, the IP address that is used in a DNS list lookup is the IP address
of the calling host. However, you can specify another IP address by listing it
after the domain name, introduced by a slash. For example:
deny dnslists = black.list.tld/192.168.1.2
This feature is not very helpful with explicit IP addresses; it is intended for
use with IP addresses that are looked up, for example, the IP addresses of the
MX hosts or nameservers of an email sender address. For an example, see section
40.27 below.
40.26 DNS lists keyed on domain names
-------------------------------------
There are some lists that are keyed on domain names rather than inverted IP
addresses (see for example the domain based zones link at http://
www.rfc-ignorant.org/). No reversing of components is used with these lists.
You can change the name that is looked up in a DNS list by listing it after the
domain name, introduced by a slash. For example,
deny message = Sender's domain is listed at $dnslist_domain
dnslists = dsn.rfc-ignorant.org/$sender_address_domain
This particular example is useful only in ACLs that are obeyed after the RCPT
or DATA commands, when a sender address is available. If (for example) the
message's sender is user@tld.example the name that is looked up by this example
is
tld.example.dsn.rfc-ignorant.org
A single dnslists condition can contain entries for both names and IP
addresses. For example:
deny dnslists = sbl.spamhaus.org : \
dsn.rfc-ignorant.org/$sender_address_domain
The first item checks the sending host's IP address; the second checks a domain
name. The whole condition is true if either of the DNS lookups succeeds.
40.27 Multiple explicit keys for a DNS list
-------------------------------------------
The syntax described above for looking up explicitly-defined values (either
names or IP addresses) in a DNS blacklist is a simplification. After the domain
name for the DNS list, what follows the slash can in fact be a list of items.
As with all lists in Exim, the default separator is a colon. However, because
this is a sublist within the list of DNS blacklist domains, it is necessary
either to double the separators like this:
dnslists = black.list.tld/name.1::name.2
or to change the separator character, like this:
dnslists = black.list.tld/<;name.1;name.2
If an item in the list is an IP address, it is inverted before the DNS
blacklist domain is appended. If it is not an IP address, no inversion occurs.
Consider this condition:
dnslists = black.list.tld/<;192.168.1.2;a.domain
The DNS lookups that occur are:
2.1.168.192.black.list.tld
a.domain.black.list.tld
Once a DNS record has been found (that matches a specific IP return address, if
specified - see section 40.30), no further lookups are done. If there is a
temporary DNS error, the rest of the sublist of domains or IP addresses is
tried. A temporary error for the whole dnslists item occurs only if no other
DNS lookup in this sublist succeeds. In other words, a successful lookup for
any of the items in the sublist overrides a temporary error for a previous
item.
The ability to supply a list of items after the slash is in some sense just a
syntactic convenience. These two examples have the same effect:
dnslists = black.list.tld/a.domain : black.list.tld/b.domain
dnslists = black.list.tld/a.domain::b.domain
However, when the data for the list is obtained from a lookup, the second form
is usually much more convenient. Consider this example:
deny message = The mail servers for the domain \
$sender_address_domain \
are listed at $dnslist_domain ($dnslist_value); \
see $dnslist_text.
dnslists = sbl.spamhaus.org/<|${lookup dnsdb {>|a=<|\
${lookup dnsdb {>|mxh=\
$sender_address_domain} }} }
Note the use of ">|" in the dnsdb lookup to specify the separator for multiple
DNS records. The inner dnsdb lookup produces a list of MX hosts and the outer
dnsdb lookup finds the IP addresses for these hosts. The result of expanding
the condition might be something like this:
dnslists = sbl.spahmaus.org/<|192.168.2.3|192.168.5.6|...
Thus, this example checks whether or not the IP addresses of the sender
domain's mail servers are on the Spamhaus black list.
The key that was used for a successful DNS list lookup is put into the variable
$dnslist_matched (see section 40.29).
40.28 Data returned by DNS lists
--------------------------------
DNS lists are constructed using address records in the DNS. The original RBL
just used the address 127.0.0.1 on the right hand side of each record, but the
RBL+ list and some other lists use a number of values with different meanings.
The values used on the RBL+ list are:
127.1.0.1 RBL
127.1.0.2 DUL
127.1.0.3 DUL and RBL
127.1.0.4 RSS
127.1.0.5 RSS and RBL
127.1.0.6 RSS and DUL
127.1.0.7 RSS and DUL and RBL
Section 40.30 below describes how you can distinguish between different values.
Some DNS lists may return more than one address record; see section 40.32 for
details of how they are checked.
40.29 Variables set from DNS lists
----------------------------------
When an entry is found in a DNS list, the variable $dnslist_domain contains the
name of the overall domain that matched (for example, "spamhaus.example"),
$dnslist_matched contains the key within that domain (for example,
"192.168.5.3"), and $dnslist_value contains the data from the DNS record. When
the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in $dnslist_matched (though it is,
of course, in the actual lookup). In simple cases, for example:
deny dnslists = spamhaus.example
the key is also available in another variable (in this case,
$sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not true.
For example, using a data lookup (as described in section 40.27) might generate
a dnslists lookup like this:
deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|...
If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be
"192.168.6.7" (for example).
If more than one address record is returned by the DNS lookup, all the IP
addresses are included in $dnslist_value, separated by commas and spaces. The
variable $dnslist_text contains the contents of any associated TXT record. For
lists such as RBL+ the TXT record for a merged entry is often not very
meaningful. See section 40.33 for a way of obtaining more information.
You can use the DNS list variables in message or log_message modifiers -
although these appear before the condition in the ACL, they are not expanded
until after it has failed. For example:
deny hosts = !+local_networks
message = $sender_host_address is listed \
at $dnslist_domain
dnslists = rbl-plus.mail-abuse.example
40.30 Additional matching conditions for DNS lists
--------------------------------------------------
You can add an equals sign and an IP address after a dnslists domain name in
order to restrict its action to DNS records with a matching right hand side.
For example,
deny dnslists = rblplus.mail-abuse.org=127.0.0.2
rejects only those hosts that yield 127.0.0.2. Without this additional data,
any address record is considered to be a match. For the moment, we assume that
the DNS lookup returns just one record. Section 40.32 describes how multiple
records are handled.
More than one IP address may be given for checking, using a comma as a
separator. These are alternatives - if any one of them matches, the dnslists
condition is true. For example:
deny dnslists = a.b.c=127.0.0.2,127.0.0.3
If you want to specify a constraining address list and also specify names or IP
addresses to be looked up, the constraining address list must be specified
first. For example:
deny dnslists = dsn.rfc-ignorant.org\
=127.0.0.2/$sender_address_domain
If the character "&" is used instead of "=", the comparison for each listed IP
address is done by a bitwise "and" instead of by an equality test. In other
words, the listed addresses are used as bit masks. The comparison is true if
all the bits in the mask are present in the address that is being tested. For
example:
dnslists = a.b.c&0.0.0.3
matches if the address is x.x.x.3, x.x.x.7, x.x.x.11, etc. If you want to test
whether one bit or another bit is present (as opposed to both being present),
you must use multiple values. For example:
dnslists = a.b.c&0.0.0.1,0.0.0.2
matches if the final component of the address is an odd number or two times an
odd number.
40.31 Negated DNS matching conditions
-------------------------------------
You can supply a negative list of IP addresses as part of a dnslists condition.
Whereas
deny dnslists = a.b.c=127.0.0.2,127.0.0.3
means "deny if the host is in the black list at the domain a.b.c and the IP
address yielded by the list is either 127.0.0.2 or 127.0.0.3",
deny dnslists = a.b.c!=127.0.0.2,127.0.0.3
means "deny if the host is in the black list at the domain a.b.c and the IP
address yielded by the list is not 127.0.0.2 and not 127.0.0.3". In other
words, the result of the test is inverted if an exclamation mark appears before
the "=" (or the "&") sign.
Note: This kind of negation is not the same as negation in a domain, host, or
address list (which is why the syntax is different).
If you are using just one list, the negation syntax does not gain you much. The
previous example is precisely equivalent to
deny dnslists = a.b.c
!dnslists = a.b.c=127.0.0.2,127.0.0.3
However, if you are using multiple lists, the negation syntax is clearer.
Consider this example:
deny dnslists = sbl.spamhaus.org : \
list.dsbl.org : \
dnsbl.njabl.org!=127.0.0.3 : \
relays.ordb.org
Using only positive lists, this would have to be:
deny dnslists = sbl.spamhaus.org : \
list.dsbl.org
deny dnslists = dnsbl.njabl.org
!dnslists = dnsbl.njabl.org=127.0.0.3
deny dnslists = relays.ordb.org
which is less clear, and harder to maintain.
40.32 Handling multiple DNS records from a DNS list
---------------------------------------------------
A DNS lookup for a dnslists condition may return more than one DNS record,
thereby providing more than one IP address. When an item in a dnslists list is
followed by "=" or "&" and a list of IP addresses, in order to restrict the
match to specific results from the DNS lookup, there are two ways in which the
checking can be handled. For example, consider the condition:
dnslists = a.b.c=127.0.0.1
What happens if the DNS lookup for the incoming IP address yields both
127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2 by means of two separate DNS records? Is the condition
true because at least one given value was found, or is it false because at
least one of the found values was not listed? And how does this affect negated
conditions? Both possibilities are provided for with the help of additional
separators "==" and "=&".
* If "=" or "&" is used, the condition is true if any one of the looked up IP
addresses matches one of the listed addresses. For the example above, the
condition is true because 127.0.0.1 matches.
* If "==" or "=&" is used, the condition is true only if every one of the
looked up IP addresses matches one of the listed addresses. If the
condition is changed to:
dnslists = a.b.c==127.0.0.1
and the DNS lookup yields both 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2, the condition is
false because 127.0.0.2 is not listed. You would need to have:
dnslists = a.b.c==127.0.0.1,127.0.0.2
for the condition to be true.
When "!" is used to negate IP address matching, it inverts the result, giving
the precise opposite of the behaviour above. Thus:
* If "!=" or "!&" is used, the condition is true if none of the looked up IP
addresses matches one of the listed addresses. Consider:
dnslists = a.b.c!&0.0.0.1
If the DNS lookup yields both 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2, the condition is
false because 127.0.0.1 matches.
* If "!==" or "!=&" is used, the condition is true there is at least one
looked up IP address that does not match. Consider:
dnslists = a.b.c!=&0.0.0.1
If the DNS lookup yields both 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2, the condition is
true, because 127.0.0.2 does not match. You would need to have:
dnslists = a.b.c!=&0.0.0.1,0.0.0.2
for the condition to be false.
When the DNS lookup yields only a single IP address, there is no difference
between "=" and "==" and between "&" and "=&".
40.33 Detailed information from merged DNS lists
------------------------------------------------
When the facility for restricting the matching IP values in a DNS list is used,
the text from the TXT record that is set in $dnslist_text may not reflect the
true reason for rejection. This happens when lists are merged and the IP
address in the A record is used to distinguish them; unfortunately there is
only one TXT record. One way round this is not to use merged lists, but that
can be inefficient because it requires multiple DNS lookups where one would do
in the vast majority of cases when the host of interest is not on any of the
lists.
A less inefficient way of solving this problem is available. If two domain
names, comma-separated, are given, the second is used first to do an initial
check, making use of any IP value restrictions that are set. If there is a
match, the first domain is used, without any IP value restrictions, to get the
TXT record. As a byproduct of this, there is also a check that the IP being
tested is indeed on the first list. The first domain is the one that is put in
$dnslist_domain. For example:
reject message = \
rejected because $sender_host_address is blacklisted \
at $dnslist_domain\n$dnslist_text
dnslists = \
sbl.spamhaus.org,sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org=127.0.0.2 : \
dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net,dnsbl.sorbs.net=127.0.0.10
For the first blacklist item, this starts by doing a lookup in
sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org and testing for a 127.0.0.2 return. If there is a match,
it then looks in sbl.spamhaus.org, without checking the return value, and as
long as something is found, it looks for the corresponding TXT record. If there
is no match in sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org, nothing more is done. The second blacklist
item is processed similarly.
If you are interested in more than one merged list, the same list must be given
several times, but because the results of the DNS lookups are cached, the DNS
calls themselves are not repeated. For example:
reject dnslists = \
http.dnsbl.sorbs.net,dnsbl.sorbs.net=127.0.0.2 : \
socks.dnsbl.sorbs.net,dnsbl.sorbs.net=127.0.0.3 : \
misc.dnsbl.sorbs.net,dnsbl.sorbs.net=127.0.0.4 : \
dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net,dnsbl.sorbs.net=127.0.0.10
In this case there is one lookup in dnsbl.sorbs.net, and if none of the IP
values matches (or if no record is found), this is the only lookup that is
done. Only if there is a match is one of the more specific lists consulted.
40.34 DNS lists and IPv6
------------------------
If Exim is asked to do a dnslist lookup for an IPv6 address, it inverts it
nibble by nibble. For example, if the calling host's IP address is
3ffe:ffff:836f:0a00:000a:0800:200a:c031, Exim might look up
1.3.0.c.a.0.0.2.0.0.8.0.a.0.0.0.0.0.a.0.f.6.3.8.
f.f.f.f.e.f.f.3.blackholes.mail-abuse.org
(split over two lines here to fit on the page). Unfortunately, some of the DNS
lists contain wildcard records, intended for IPv4, that interact badly with
IPv6. For example, the DNS entry
*.3.some.list.example. A 127.0.0.1
is probably intended to put the entire 3.0.0.0/8 IPv4 network on the list.
Unfortunately, it also matches the entire 3::/4 IPv6 network.
You can exclude IPv6 addresses from DNS lookups by making use of a suitable
condition condition, as in this example:
deny condition = ${if isip4{$sender_host_address}}
dnslists = some.list.example
40.35 Rate limiting incoming messages
-------------------------------------
The ratelimit ACL condition can be used to measure and control the rate at
which clients can send email. This is more powerful than the smtp_ratelimit_*
options, because those options control the rate of commands in a single SMTP
session only, whereas the ratelimit condition works across all connections
(concurrent and sequential) from the same client host. The syntax of the
ratelimit condition is:
ratelimit = <m> / <p> / <options> / <key>
If the average client sending rate is less than m messages per time period p
then the condition is false; otherwise it is true.
As a side-effect, the ratelimit condition sets the expansion variable
$sender_rate to the client's computed rate, $sender_rate_limit to the
configured value of m, and $sender_rate_period to the configured value of p.
The parameter p is the smoothing time constant, in the form of an Exim time
interval, for example, "8h" for eight hours. A larger time constant means that
it takes Exim longer to forget a client's past behaviour. The parameter m is
the maximum number of messages that a client is permitted to send in each time
interval. It also specifies the number of messages permitted in a fast burst.
By increasing both m and p but keeping m/p constant, you can allow a client to
send more messages in a burst without changing its overall sending rate limit.
Conversely, if m and p are both small, messages must be sent at an even rate.
There is a script in util/ratelimit.pl which extracts sending rates from log
files, to assist with choosing appropriate settings for m and p when deploying
the ratelimit ACL condition. The script prints usage instructions when it is
run with no arguments.
The key is used to look up the data for calculating the client's average
sending rate. This data is stored in a database maintained by Exim in its spool
directory, alongside the retry and other hints databases. The default key is
$sender_host_address, which applies the limit to each client host IP address.
By changing the key you can change how Exim identifies clients for the purpose
of ratelimiting. For example, to limit the sending rate of each authenticated
user, independent of the computer they are sending from, set the key to
$authenticated_id. You must ensure that the lookup key is meaningful; for
example, $authenticated_id is only meaningful if the client has authenticated,
and you can check with the authenticated ACL condition.
If you want to limit the rate at which a recipient receives messages, you can
use the key "$local_part@$domain" with the per_rcpt option (see below) in a
RCPT ACL.
Internally, Exim includes the smoothing constant p and the options in the
lookup key because they alter the meaning of the stored data. This is not true
for the limit m, so you can alter the configured maximum rate and Exim will
still remember clients' past behaviour, but if you alter the other ratelimit
parameters Exim forgets past behaviour.
Each ratelimit condition can have up to three options. One option specifies
what Exim measures the rate of, and the second specifies how Exim handles
excessively fast clients. The third option can be "noupdate", to disable
updating of the ratelimiting database (see section 40.39). The options are
separated by a slash, like the other parameters. They may appear in any order.
40.36 Ratelimit options for what is being measured
--------------------------------------------------
The per_conn option limits the client's connection rate.
The per_mail option limits the client's rate of sending messages. This is the
default if none of the per_* options is specified.
The per_byte option limits the sender's email bandwidth. Note that it is best
to use this option in the DATA ACL; if it is used in an earlier ACL it relies
on the SIZE parameter on the MAIL command, which may be inaccurate or
completely missing. You can follow the limit m in the configuration with K, M,
or G to specify limits in kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes, respectively.
The per_rcpt option causes Exim to limit the rate at which recipients are
accepted. To be effective, it would need to be used in either the acl_smtp_rcpt
or the acl_not_smtp ACL. In the acl_smtp_rcpt ACL, the number of recipients is
incremented by one. In the case of a locally submitted message in the
acl_not_smtp ACL, the number of recipients incremented is equal to
$recipients_count for the entire message. Note that in either case the rate
limiting engine will see a message with many recipients as a large high-speed
burst.
The per_cmd option causes Exim to recompute the rate every time the condition
is processed. This can be used to limit the SMTP command rate. This command is
essentially an alias of per_rcpt to make it clear that the effect is to limit
the rate at which individual commands, rather than recipients, are accepted.
40.37 Ratelimit options for handling fast clients
-------------------------------------------------
If a client's average rate is greater than the maximum, the rate limiting
engine can react in two possible ways, depending on the presence of the strict
or leaky options. This is independent of the other counter-measures (such as
rejecting the message) that may be specified by the rest of the ACL. The
default mode is leaky, which avoids a sender's over-aggressive retry rate
preventing it from getting any email through.
The strict option means that the client's recorded rate is always updated. The
effect of this is that Exim measures the client's average rate of attempts to
send email, which can be much higher than the maximum it is actually allowed.
If the client is over the limit it may be subjected to counter-measures in the
ACL until it slows down below the maximum rate. The smoothing period determines
the time it takes for a high sending rate to decay exponentially to 37% of its
peak value, which means that you can work out the time (the number of smoothing
periods) that a client is subjected to counter-measures after an over-limit
burst with this formula:
ln(peakrate/maxrate)
The leaky (default) option means that the client's recorded rate is not updated
if it is above the limit. The effect of this is that Exim measures the client's
average rate of successfully sent email, which cannot be greater than the
maximum allowed. If the client is over the limit it may suffer some
counter-measures (as specified in the ACL), but it will still be able to send
email at the configured maximum rate, whatever the rate of its attempts. This
is generally the better choice if you have clients that retry automatically.
40.38 Using rate limiting
-------------------------
Exim's other ACL facilities are used to define what counter-measures are taken
when the rate limit is exceeded. This might be anything from logging a warning
(for example, while measuring existing sending rates in order to define
policy), through time delays to slow down fast senders, up to rejecting the
message. For example:
# Log all senders' rates
warn ratelimit = 0 / 1h / strict
log_message = Sender rate $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period
# Slow down fast senders; note the need to truncate $sender_rate
# at the decimal point.
warn ratelimit = 100 / 1h / per_rcpt / strict
delay = ${eval: ${sg{$sender_rate}{[.].*}{}} - \
$sender_rate_limit }s
# Keep authenticated users under control
deny authenticated = *
ratelimit = 100 / 1d / strict / $authenticated_id
# System-wide rate limit
defer message = Sorry, too busy. Try again later.
ratelimit = 10 / 1s / $primary_hostname
# Restrict incoming rate from each host, with a default
# set using a macro and special cases looked up in a table.
defer message = Sender rate exceeds $sender_rate_limit \
messages per $sender_rate_period
ratelimit = ${lookup {$sender_host_address} \
cdb {DB/ratelimits.cdb} \
{$value} {RATELIMIT} }
Warning: If you have a busy server with a lot of ratelimit tests, especially
with the per_rcpt option, you may suffer from a performance bottleneck caused
by locking on the ratelimit hints database. Apart from making your ACLs less
complicated, you can reduce the problem by using a RAM disk for Exim's hints
directory (usually /var/spool/exim/db/). However this means that Exim will lose
its hints data after a reboot (including retry hints, the callout cache, and
ratelimit data).
40.39 Reading ratelimit data without updating
---------------------------------------------
If the noupdate option is present on a ratelimit ACL condition, Exim computes
the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update the saved data.
This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup the existence of a
specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without incrementing the ratelimit
counter for that key. In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must
set the rate for the same key (otherwise it will always be zero). For example:
acl_check_connect:
deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate
log_message = RATE: $sender_rate/$sender_rate_period \
(max $sender_rate_limit)
... some other logic and tests...
acl_check_mail:
warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd
condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}}
logwrite = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate/$sender_rate_period \
(max $sender_rate_limit)
In this example, the rate is tested and used to deny access (when it is too
high) in the connect ACL, but the actual computation of the remembered rate
happens later, on a per-command basis, in another ACL.
40.40 Address verification
--------------------------
Several of the verify conditions described in section 40.23 cause addresses to
be verified. Section 40.44 discusses the reporting of sender verification
failures. The verification conditions can be followed by options that modify
the verification process. The options are separated from the keyword and from
each other by slashes, and some of them contain parameters. For example:
verify = sender/callout
verify = recipient/defer_ok/callout=10s,defer_ok
The first stage of address verification, which always happens, is to run the
address through the routers, in "verify mode". Routers can detect the
difference between verification and routing for delivery, and their actions can
be varied by a number of generic options such as verify and verify_only (see
chapter 15). If routing fails, verification fails. The available options are as
follows:
* If the callout option is specified, successful routing to one or more
remote hosts is followed by a "callout" to those hosts as an additional
check. Callouts and their sub-options are discussed in the next section.
* If there is a defer error while doing verification routing, the ACL
normally returns "defer". However, if you include defer_ok in the options,
the condition is forced to be true instead. Note that this is a main
verification option as well as a suboption for callouts.
* The no_details option is covered in section 40.44, which discusses the
reporting of sender address verification failures.
* The success_on_redirect option causes verification always to succeed
immediately after a successful redirection. By default, if a redirection
generates just one address, that address is also verified. See further
discussion in section 40.45.
After an address verification failure, $acl_verify_message contains the error
message that is associated with the failure. It can be preserved by coding like
this:
warn !verify = sender
set acl_m0 = $acl_verify_message
If you are writing your own custom rejection message or log message when
denying access, you can use this variable to include information about the
verification failure.
In addition, $sender_verify_failure or $recipient_verify_failure (as
appropriate) contains one of the following words:
* qualify: The address was unqualified (no domain), and the message was
neither local nor came from an exempted host.
* route: Routing failed.
* mail: Routing succeeded, and a callout was attempted; rejection occurred at
or before the MAIL command (that is, on initial connection, HELO, or MAIL).
* recipient: The RCPT command in a callout was rejected.
* postmaster: The postmaster check in a callout was rejected.
The main use of these variables is expected to be to distinguish between
rejections of MAIL and rejections of RCPT in callouts.
40.41 Callout verification
--------------------------
For non-local addresses, routing verifies the domain, but is unable to do any
checking of the local part. There are situations where some means of verifying
the local part is desirable. One way this can be done is to make an SMTP
callback to a delivery host for the sender address or a callforward to a
subsequent host for a recipient address, to see if the host accepts the
address. We use the term callout to cover both cases. Note that for a sender
address, the callback is not to the client host that is trying to deliver the
message, but to one of the hosts that accepts incoming mail for the sender's
domain.
Exim does not do callouts by default. If you want them to happen, you must
request them by setting appropriate options on the verify condition, as
described below. This facility should be used with care, because it can add a
lot of resource usage to the cost of verifying an address. However, Exim does
cache the results of callouts, which helps to reduce the cost. Details of
caching are in section 40.43.
Recipient callouts are usually used only between hosts that are controlled by
the same administration. For example, a corporate gateway host could use
callouts to check for valid recipients on an internal mailserver. A successful
callout does not guarantee that a real delivery to the address would succeed;
on the other hand, a failing callout does guarantee that a delivery would fail.
If the callout option is present on a condition that verifies an address, a
second stage of verification occurs if the address is successfully routed to
one or more remote hosts. The usual case is routing by a dnslookup or a
manualroute router, where the router specifies the hosts. However, if a router
that does not set up hosts routes to an smtp transport with a hosts setting,
the transport's hosts are used. If an smtp transport has hosts_override set,
its hosts are always used, whether or not the router supplies a host list.
The port that is used is taken from the transport, if it is specified and is a
remote transport. (For routers that do verification only, no transport need be
specified.) Otherwise, the default SMTP port is used. If a remote transport
specifies an outgoing interface, this is used; otherwise the interface is not
specified. Likewise, the text that is used for the HELO command is taken from
the transport's helo_data option; if there is no transport, the value of
$smtp_active_hostname is used.
For a sender callout check, Exim makes SMTP connections to the remote hosts, to
test whether a bounce message could be delivered to the sender address. The
following SMTP commands are sent:
HELO <local host name>
MAIL FROM:<>
RCPT TO:<the address to be tested>
QUIT
LHLO is used instead of HELO if the transport's protocol option is set to
"lmtp".
A recipient callout check is similar. By default, it also uses an empty address
for the sender. This default is chosen because most hosts do not make use of
the sender address when verifying a recipient. Using the same address means
that a single cache entry can be used for each recipient. Some sites, however,
do make use of the sender address when verifying. These are catered for by the
use_sender and use_postmaster options, described in the next section.
If the response to the RCPT command is a 2xx code, the verification succeeds.
If it is 5xx, the verification fails. For any other condition, Exim tries the
next host, if any. If there is a problem with all the remote hosts, the ACL
yields "defer", unless the defer_ok parameter of the callout option is given,
in which case the condition is forced to succeed.
A callout may take a little time. For this reason, Exim normally flushes SMTP
output before performing a callout in an ACL, to avoid unexpected timeouts in
clients when the SMTP PIPELINING extension is in use. The flushing can be
disabled by using a control modifier to set no_callout_flush.
40.42 Additional parameters for callouts
----------------------------------------
The callout option can be followed by an equals sign and a number of optional
parameters, separated by commas. For example:
verify = recipient/callout=10s,defer_ok
The old syntax, which had callout_defer_ok and check_postmaster as separate
verify options, is retained for backwards compatibility, but is now deprecated.
The additional parameters for callout are as follows:
<a time interval>
This specifies the timeout that applies for the callout attempt to each
host. For example:
verify = sender/callout=5s
The default is 30 seconds. The timeout is used for each response from the
remote host. It is also used for the initial connection, unless overridden
by the connect parameter.
connect = <time interval>
This parameter makes it possible to set a different (usually smaller)
timeout for making the SMTP connection. For example:
verify = sender/callout=5s,connect=1s
If not specified, this timeout defaults to the general timeout value.
defer_ok
When this parameter is present, failure to contact any host, or any other
kind of temporary error, is treated as success by the ACL. However, the
cache is not updated in this circumstance.
fullpostmaster
This operates like the postmaster option (see below), but if the check for
postmaster@domain fails, it tries just postmaster, without a domain, in
accordance with the specification in RFC 2821. The RFC states that the
unqualified address postmaster should be accepted.
mailfrom = <email address>
When verifying addresses in header lines using the header_sender
verification option, Exim behaves by default as if the addresses are
envelope sender addresses from a message. Callout verification therefore
tests to see whether a bounce message could be delivered, by using an empty
address in the MAIL command. However, it is arguable that these addresses
might never be used as envelope senders, and could therefore justifiably
reject bounce messages (empty senders). The mailfrom callout parameter
allows you to specify what address to use in the MAIL command. For example:
require verify = header_sender/callout=mailfrom=abcd@x.y.z
This parameter is available only for the header_sender verification option.
maxwait = <time interval>
This parameter sets an overall timeout for performing a callout
verification. For example:
verify = sender/callout=5s,maxwait=30s
This timeout defaults to four times the callout timeout for individual SMTP
commands. The overall timeout applies when there is more than one host that
can be tried. The timeout is checked before trying the next host. This
prevents very long delays if there are a large number of hosts and all are
timing out (for example, when network connections are timing out).
no_cache
When this parameter is given, the callout cache is neither read nor
updated.
postmaster
When this parameter is set, a successful callout check is followed by a
similar check for the local part postmaster at the same domain. If this
address is rejected, the callout fails (but see fullpostmaster above). The
result of the postmaster check is recorded in a cache record; if it is a
failure, this is used to fail subsequent callouts for the domain without a
connection being made, until the cache record expires.
postmaster_mailfrom = <email address>
The postmaster check uses an empty sender in the MAIL command by default.
You can use this parameter to do a postmaster check using a different
address. For example:
require verify = sender/callout=postmaster_mailfrom=abc@x.y.z
If both postmaster and postmaster_mailfrom are present, the rightmost one
overrides. The postmaster parameter is equivalent to this example:
require verify = sender/callout=postmaster_mailfrom=
Warning: The caching arrangements for postmaster checking do not take
account of the sender address. It is assumed that either the empty address
or a fixed non-empty address will be used. All that Exim remembers is that
the postmaster check for the domain succeeded or failed.
random
When this parameter is set, before doing the normal callout check, Exim
does a check for a "random" local part at the same domain. The local part
is not really random - it is defined by the expansion of the option
callout_random_local_part, which defaults to
$primary_host_name-$tod_epoch-testing
The idea here is to try to determine whether the remote host accepts all
local parts without checking. If it does, there is no point in doing
callouts for specific local parts. If the "random" check succeeds, the
result is saved in a cache record, and used to force the current and
subsequent callout checks to succeed without a connection being made, until
the cache record expires.
use_postmaster
This parameter applies to recipient callouts only. For example:
deny !verify = recipient/callout=use_postmaster
It causes a non-empty postmaster address to be used in the MAIL command
when performing the callout for the recipient, and also for a "random"
check if that is configured. The local part of the address is "postmaster"
and the domain is the contents of $qualify_domain.
use_sender
This option applies to recipient callouts only. For example:
require verify = recipient/callout=use_sender
It causes the message's actual sender address to be used in the MAIL
command when performing the callout, instead of an empty address. There is
no need to use this option unless you know that the called hosts make use
of the sender when checking recipients. If used indiscriminately, it
reduces the usefulness of callout caching.
If you use any of the parameters that set a non-empty sender for the MAIL
command (mailfrom, postmaster_mailfrom, use_postmaster, or use_sender), you
should think about possible loops. Recipient checking is usually done between
two hosts that are under the same management, and the host that receives the
callouts is not normally configured to do callouts itself. Therefore, it is
normally safe to use use_postmaster or use_sender in these circumstances.
However, if you use a non-empty sender address for a callout to an arbitrary
host, there is the likelihood that the remote host will itself initiate a
callout check back to your host. As it is checking what appears to be a message
sender, it is likely to use an empty address in MAIL, thus avoiding a callout
loop. However, to be on the safe side it would be best to set up your own ACLs
so that they do not do sender verification checks when the recipient is the
address you use for header sender or postmaster callout checking.
Another issue to think about when using non-empty senders for callouts is
caching. When you set mailfrom or use_sender, the cache record is keyed by the
sender/recipient combination; thus, for any given recipient, many more actual
callouts are performed than when an empty sender or postmaster is used.
40.43 Callout caching
---------------------
Exim caches the results of callouts in order to reduce the amount of resources
used, unless you specify the no_cache parameter with the callout option. A
hints database called "callout" is used for the cache. Two different record
types are used: one records the result of a callout check for a specific
address, and the other records information that applies to the entire domain
(for example, that it accepts the local part postmaster).
When an original callout fails, a detailed SMTP error message is given about
the failure. However, for subsequent failures use the cache data, this message
is not available.
The expiry times for negative and positive address cache records are
independent, and can be set by the global options callout_negative_expire
(default 2h) and callout_positive_expire (default 24h), respectively.
If a host gives a negative response to an SMTP connection, or rejects any
commands up to and including
MAIL FROM:<>
(but not including the MAIL command with a non-empty address), any callout
attempt is bound to fail. Exim remembers such failures in a domain cache
record, which it uses to fail callouts for the domain without making new
connections, until the domain record times out. There are two separate expiry
times for domain cache records: callout_domain_negative_expire (default 3h) and
callout_domain_positive_expire (default 7d).
Domain records expire when the negative expiry time is reached if callouts
cannot be made for the domain, or if the postmaster check failed. Otherwise,
they expire when the positive expiry time is reached. This ensures that, for
example, a host that stops accepting "random" local parts will eventually be
noticed.
The callout caching mechanism is based on the domain of the address that is
being tested. If the domain routes to several hosts, it is assumed that their
behaviour will be the same.
40.44 Sender address verification reporting
-------------------------------------------
See section 40.40 for a general discussion of verification. When sender
verification fails in an ACL, the details of the failure are given as
additional output lines before the 550 response to the relevant SMTP command
(RCPT or DATA). For example, if sender callout is in use, you might see:
MAIL FROM:<xyz@abc.example>
250 OK
RCPT TO:<pqr@def.example>
550-Verification failed for <xyz@abc.example>
550-Called: 192.168.34.43
550-Sent: RCPT TO:<xyz@abc.example>
550-Response: 550 Unknown local part xyz in <xyz@abc.example>
550 Sender verification failed
If more than one RCPT command fails in the same way, the details are given only
for the first of them. However, some administrators do not want to send out
this much information. You can suppress the details by adding "/no_details" to
the ACL statement that requests sender verification. For example:
verify = sender/no_details
40.45 Redirection while verifying
---------------------------------
A dilemma arises when a local address is redirected by aliasing or forwarding
during verification: should the generated addresses themselves be verified, or
should the successful expansion of the original address be enough to verify it?
By default, Exim takes the following pragmatic approach:
* When an incoming address is redirected to just one child address,
verification continues with the child address, and if that fails to verify,
the original verification also fails.
* When an incoming address is redirected to more than one child address,
verification does not continue. A success result is returned.
This seems the most reasonable behaviour for the common use of aliasing as a
way of redirecting different local parts to the same mailbox. It means, for
example, that a pair of alias entries of the form
A.Wol: aw123
aw123: :fail: Gone away, no forwarding address
work as expected, with both local parts causing verification failure. When a
redirection generates more than one address, the behaviour is more like a
mailing list, where the existence of the alias itself is sufficient for
verification to succeed.
It is possible, however, to change the default behaviour so that all successful
redirections count as successful verifications, however many new addresses are
generated. This is specified by the success_on_redirect verification option.
For example:
require verify = recipient/success_on_redirect/callout=10s
In this example, verification succeeds if a router generates a new address, and
the callout does not occur, because no address was routed to a remote host.
When verification is being tested via the -bv option, the treatment of
redirections is as just described, unless the -v or any debugging option is
also specified. In that case, full verification is done for every generated
address and a report is output for each of them.
40.46 Client SMTP authorization (CSA)
-------------------------------------
Client SMTP Authorization is a system that allows a site to advertise which
machines are and are not permitted to send email. This is done by placing
special SRV records in the DNS; these are looked up using the client's HELO
domain. At the time of writing, CSA is still an Internet Draft. Client SMTP
Authorization checks in Exim are performed by the ACL condition:
verify = csa
This fails if the client is not authorized. If there is a DNS problem, or if no
valid CSA SRV record is found, or if the client is authorized, the condition
succeeds. These three cases can be distinguished using the expansion variable
$csa_status, which can take one of the values "fail", "defer", "unknown", or
"ok". The condition does not itself defer because that would be likely to cause
problems for legitimate email.
The error messages produced by the CSA code include slightly more detail. If
$csa_status is "defer", this may be because of problems looking up the CSA SRV
record, or problems looking up the CSA target address record. There are four
reasons for $csa_status being "fail":
* The client's host name is explicitly not authorized.
* The client's IP address does not match any of the CSA target IP addresses.
* The client's host name is authorized but it has no valid target IP
addresses (for example, the target's addresses are IPv6 and the client is
using IPv4).
* The client's host name has no CSA SRV record but a parent domain has
asserted that all subdomains must be explicitly authorized.
The csa verification condition can take an argument which is the domain to use
for the DNS query. The default is:
verify = csa/$sender_helo_name
This implementation includes an extension to CSA. If the query domain is an
address literal such as [192.0.2.95], or if it is a bare IP address, Exim
searches for CSA SRV records in the reverse DNS as if the HELO domain was (for
example) 95.2.0.192.in-addr.arpa. Therefore it is meaningful to say:
verify = csa/$sender_host_address
In fact, this is the check that Exim performs if the client does not say HELO.
This extension can be turned off by setting the main configuration option
dns_csa_use_reverse to be false.
If a CSA SRV record is not found for the domain itself, a search is performed
through its parent domains for a record which might be making assertions about
subdomains. The maximum depth of this search is limited using the main
configuration option dns_csa_search_limit, which is 5 by default. Exim does not
look for CSA SRV records in a top level domain, so the default settings handle
HELO domains as long as seven (hostname.five.four.three.two.one.com). This
encompasses the vast majority of legitimate HELO domains.
The dnsdb lookup also has support for CSA. Although dnsdb also supports direct
SRV lookups, this is not sufficient because of the extra parent domain search
behaviour of CSA, and (as with PTR lookups) dnsdb also turns IP addresses into
lookups in the reverse DNS space. The result of a successful lookup such as:
${lookup dnsdb {csa=$sender_helo_name}}
has two space-separated fields: an authorization code and a target host name.
The authorization code can be "Y" for yes, "N" for no, "X" for explicit
authorization required but absent, or "?" for unknown.
40.47 Bounce address tag validation
-----------------------------------
Bounce address tag validation (BATV) is a scheme whereby the envelope senders
of outgoing messages have a cryptographic, timestamped "tag" added to them.
Genuine incoming bounce messages should therefore always be addressed to
recipients that have a valid tag. This scheme is a way of detecting unwanted
bounce messages caused by sender address forgeries (often called "collateral
spam"), because the recipients of such messages do not include valid tags.
There are two expansion items to help with the implementation of the BATV
"prvs" (private signature) scheme in an Exim configuration. This scheme signs
the original envelope sender address by using a simple key to add a hash of the
address and some time-based randomizing information. The prvs expansion item
creates a signed address, and the prvscheck expansion item checks one. The
syntax of these expansion items is described in section 11.5.
As an example, suppose the secret per-address keys are stored in an MySQL
database. A query to look up the key for an address could be defined as a macro
like this:
PRVSCHECK_SQL = ${lookup mysql{SELECT secret FROM batv_prvs \
WHERE sender='${quote_mysql:$prvscheck_address}'\
}{$value}}
Suppose also that the senders who make use of BATV are defined by an address
list called batv_senders. Then, in the ACL for RCPT commands, you could use
this:
# Bounces: drop unsigned addresses for BATV senders
deny message = This address does not send an unsigned reverse path
senders = :
recipients = +batv_senders
# Bounces: In case of prvs-signed address, check signature.
deny message = Invalid reverse path signature.
senders = :
condition = ${prvscheck {$local_part@$domain}\
{PRVSCHECK_SQL}{1}}
!condition = $prvscheck_result
The first statement rejects recipients for bounce messages that are addressed
to plain BATV sender addresses, because it is known that BATV senders do not
send out messages with plain sender addresses. The second statement rejects
recipients that are prvs-signed, but with invalid signatures (either because
the key is wrong, or the signature has timed out).
A non-prvs-signed address is not rejected by the second statement, because the
prvscheck expansion yields an empty string if its first argument is not a
prvs-signed address, thus causing the condition condition to be false. If the
first argument is a syntactically valid prvs-signed address, the yield is the
third string (in this case "1"), whether or not the cryptographic and timeout
checks succeed. The $prvscheck_result variable contains the result of the
checks (empty for failure, "1" for success).
There are two more issues you must consider when implementing prvs-signing.
Firstly, you need to ensure that prvs-signed addresses are not blocked by your
ACLs. A prvs-signed address contains a slash character, but the default Exim
configuration contains this statement in the RCPT ACL:
deny message = Restricted characters in address
domains = +local_domains
local_parts = ^[.] : ^.*[@%!/|]
This is a conservative rule that blocks local parts that contain slashes. You
should remove the slash in the last line.
Secondly, you have to ensure that the routers accept prvs-signed addresses and
deliver them correctly. The easiest way to handle this is to use a redirect
router to remove the signature with a configuration along these lines:
batv_redirect:
driver = redirect
data = ${prvscheck {$local_part@$domain}{PRVSCHECK_SQL}}
This works because, if the third argument of prvscheck is empty, the result of
the expansion of a prvs-signed address is the decoded value of the original
address. This router should probably be the first of your routers that handles
local addresses.
To create BATV-signed addresses in the first place, a transport of this form
can be used:
external_smtp_batv:
driver = smtp
return_path = ${prvs {$return_path} \
{${lookup mysql{SELECT \
secret FROM batv_prvs WHERE \
sender='${quote_mysql:$sender_address}'} \
{$value}fail}}}
If no key can be found for the existing return path, no signing takes place.
40.48 Using an ACL to control relaying
--------------------------------------
An MTA is said to relay a message if it receives it from some host and delivers
it directly to another host as a result of a remote address contained within
it. Redirecting a local address via an alias or forward file and then passing
the message on to another host is not relaying, but a redirection as a result
of the "percent hack" is.
Two kinds of relaying exist, which are termed "incoming" and "outgoing". A host
which is acting as a gateway or an MX backup is concerned with incoming
relaying from arbitrary hosts to a specific set of domains. On the other hand,
a host which is acting as a smart host for a number of clients is concerned
with outgoing relaying from those clients to the Internet at large. Often the
same host is fulfilling both functions, but in principle these two kinds of
relaying are entirely independent. What is not wanted is the transmission of
mail from arbitrary remote hosts through your system to arbitrary domains.
You can implement relay control by means of suitable statements in the ACL that
runs for each RCPT command. For convenience, it is often easiest to use Exim's
named list facility to define the domains and hosts involved. For example,
suppose you want to do the following:
* Deliver a number of domains to mailboxes on the local host (or process them
locally in some other way). Let's say these are my.dom1.example and
my.dom2.example.
* Relay mail for a number of other domains for which you are the secondary
MX. These might be friend1.example and friend2.example.
* Relay mail from the hosts on your local LAN, to whatever domains are
involved. Suppose your LAN is 192.168.45.0/24.
In the main part of the configuration, you put the following definitions:
domainlist local_domains = my.dom1.example : my.dom2.example
domainlist relay_domains = friend1.example : friend2.example
hostlist relay_hosts = 192.168.45.0/24
Now you can use these definitions in the ACL that is run for every RCPT
command:
acl_check_rcpt:
accept domains = +local_domains : +relay_domains
accept hosts = +relay_hosts
The first statement accepts any RCPT command that contains an address in the
local or relay domains. For any other domain, control passes to the second
statement, which accepts the command only if it comes from one of the relay
hosts. In practice, you will probably want to make your ACL more sophisticated
than this, for example, by including sender and recipient verification. The
default configuration includes a more comprehensive example, which is described
in chapter 7.
40.49 Checking a relay configuration
------------------------------------
You can check the relay characteristics of your configuration in the same way
that you can test any ACL behaviour for an incoming SMTP connection, by using
the -bh option to run a fake SMTP session with which you interact.
For specifically testing for unwanted relaying, the host
relay-test.mail-abuse.org provides a useful service. If you telnet to this host
from the host on which Exim is running, using the normal telnet port, you will
see a normal telnet connection message and then quite a long delay. Be patient.
The remote host is making an SMTP connection back to your host, and trying a
number of common probes to test for open relay vulnerability. The results of
the tests will eventually appear on your terminal.
===============================================================================
41. CONTENT SCANNING AT ACL TIME
The extension of Exim to include content scanning at ACL time, formerly known
as "exiscan", was originally implemented as a patch by Tom Kistner. The code
was integrated into the main source for Exim release 4.50, and Tom continues to
maintain it. Most of the wording of this chapter is taken from Tom's
specification.
It is also possible to scan the content of messages at other times. The
local_scan() function (see chapter 42) allows for content scanning after all
the ACLs have run. A transport filter can be used to scan messages at delivery
time (see the transport_filter option, described in chapter 24).
If you want to include the ACL-time content-scanning features when you compile
Exim, you need to arrange for WITH_CONTENT_SCAN to be defined in your Local/
Makefile. When you do that, the Exim binary is built with:
* Two additional ACLs (acl_smtp_mime and acl_not_smtp_mime) that are run for
all MIME parts for SMTP and non-SMTP messages, respectively.
* Additional ACL conditions and modifiers: decode, malware, mime_regex, regex
, and spam. These can be used in the ACL that is run at the end of message
reception (the acl_smtp_data ACL).
* An additional control feature ("no_mbox_unspool") that saves spooled copies
of messages, or parts of messages, for debugging purposes.
* Additional expansion variables that are set in the new ACL and by the new
conditions.
* Two new main configuration options: av_scanner and spamd_address.
There is another content-scanning configuration option for Local/Makefile,
called WITH_OLD_DEMIME. If this is set, the old, deprecated demime ACL
condition is compiled, in addition to all the other content-scanning features.
Content-scanning is continually evolving, and new features are still being
added. While such features are still unstable and liable to incompatible
changes, they are made available in Exim by setting options whose names begin
EXPERIMENTAL_ in Local/Makefile. Such features are not documented in this
manual. You can find out about them by reading the file called doc/
experimental.txt.
All the content-scanning facilities work on a MBOX copy of the message that is
temporarily created in a file called:
<spool_directory>/scan/<message_id>/<message_id>.eml
The .eml extension is a friendly hint to virus scanners that they can expect an
MBOX-like structure inside that file. The file is created when the first
content scanning facility is called. Subsequent calls to content scanning
conditions open the same file again. The directory is recursively removed when
the acl_smtp_data ACL has finished running, unless
control = no_mbox_unspool
has been encountered. When the MIME ACL decodes files, they are put into the
same directory by default.
41.1 Scanning for viruses
-------------------------
The malware ACL condition lets you connect virus scanner software to Exim. It
supports a "generic" interface to scanners called via the shell, and
specialized interfaces for "daemon" type virus scanners, which are resident in
memory and thus are much faster.
You can set the av_scanner option in first part of the Exim configuration file
to specify which scanner to use, together with any additional options that are
needed. The basic syntax is as follows:
av_scanner = <scanner-type>:<option1>:<option2>:[...]
If you do not set av_scanner, it defaults to
av_scanner = sophie:/var/run/sophie
If the value of av_scanner starts with dollar character, it is expanded before
use. The following scanner types are supported in this release:
aveserver
This is the scanner daemon of Kaspersky Version 5. You can get a trial
version at http://www.kaspersky.com. This scanner type takes one option,
which is the path to the daemon's UNIX socket. The default is shown in this
example:
av_scanner = aveserver:/var/run/aveserver
clamd
This daemon-type scanner is GPL and free. You can get it at http://
www.clamav.net/. Some older versions of clamd do not seem to unpack MIME
containers, so it used to be recommended to unpack MIME attachments in the
MIME ACL. This no longer believed to be necessary. One option is required:
either the path and name of a UNIX socket file, or a hostname or IP number,
and a port, separated by space, as in the second of these examples:
av_scanner = clamd:/opt/clamd/socket
av_scanner = clamd:192.168.2.100 1234
If the option is unset, the default is /tmp/clamd. Thanks to David Saez for
contributing the code for this scanner.
cmdline
This is the keyword for the generic command line scanner interface. It can
be used to attach virus scanners that are invoked from the shell. This
scanner type takes 3 mandatory options:
1. The full path and name of the scanner binary, with all command line
options, and a placeholder ("%s") for the directory to scan.
2. A regular expression to match against the STDOUT and STDERR output of
the virus scanner. If the expression matches, a virus was found. You
must make absolutely sure that this expression matches on "virus
found". This is called the "trigger" expression.
3. Another regular expression, containing exactly one pair of parentheses,
to match the name of the virus found in the scanners output. This is
called the "name" expression.
For example, Sophos Sweep reports a virus on a line like this:
Virus 'W32/Magistr-B' found in file ./those.bat
For the trigger expression, we can match the phrase "found in file". For
the name expression, we want to extract the W32/Magistr-B string, so we can
match for the single quotes left and right of it. Altogether, this makes
the configuration setting:
av_scanner = cmdline:\
/path/to/sweep -ss -all -rec -archive %s:\
found in file:'(.+)'
drweb
The DrWeb daemon scanner (http://www.sald.com/) interface takes one
argument, either a full path to a UNIX socket, or an IP address and port
separated by white space, as in these examples:
av_scanner = drweb:/var/run/drwebd.sock
av_scanner = drweb:192.168.2.20 31337
If you omit the argument, the default path /usr/local/drweb/run/drwebd.sock
is used. Thanks to Alex Miller for contributing the code for this scanner.
fsecure
The F-Secure daemon scanner (http://www.f-secure.com) takes one argument
which is the path to a UNIX socket. For example:
av_scanner = fsecure:/path/to/.fsav
If no argument is given, the default is /var/run/.fsav. Thanks to Johan
Thelmen for contributing the code for this scanner.
kavdaemon
This is the scanner daemon of Kaspersky Version 4. This version of the
Kaspersky scanner is outdated. Please upgrade (see aveserver above). This
scanner type takes one option, which is the path to the daemon's UNIX
socket. For example:
av_scanner = kavdaemon:/opt/AVP/AvpCtl
The default path is /var/run/AvpCtl.
mksd
This is a daemon type scanner that is aimed mainly at Polish users, though
some parts of documentation are now available in English. You can get it at
http://linux.mks.com.pl/. The only option for this scanner type is the
maximum number of processes used simultaneously to scan the attachments,
provided that the demime facility is employed and also provided that mksd
has been run with at least the same number of child processes. For example:
av_scanner = mksd:2
You can safely omit this option (the default value is 1).
sophie
Sophie is a daemon that uses Sophos' libsavi library to scan for viruses.
You can get Sophie at http://www.clanfield.info/sophie/. The only option
for this scanner type is the path to the UNIX socket that Sophie uses for
client communication. For example:
av_scanner = sophie:/tmp/sophie
The default path is /var/run/sophie, so if you are using this, you can omit
the option.
When av_scanner is correctly set, you can use the malware condition in the DATA
ACL. Note: You cannot use the malware condition in the MIME ACL.
The av_scanner option is expanded each time malware is called. This makes it
possible to use different scanners. See further below for an example. The
malware condition caches its results, so when you use it multiple times for the
same message, the actual scanning process is only carried out once. However,
using expandable items in av_scanner disables this caching, in which case each
use of the malware condition causes a new scan of the message.
The malware condition takes a right-hand argument that is expanded before use.
It can then be one of
* "true", "*", or "1", in which case the message is scanned for viruses. The
condition succeeds if a virus was found, and fail otherwise. This is the
recommended usage.
* "false" or "0" or an empty string, in which case no scanning is done and
the condition fails immediately.
* A regular expression, in which case the message is scanned for viruses. The
condition succeeds if a virus is found and its name matches the regular
expression. This allows you to take special actions on certain types of
virus.
You can append "/defer_ok" to the malware condition to accept messages even if
there is a problem with the virus scanner. Otherwise, such a problem causes the
ACL to defer.
When a virus is found, the condition sets up an expansion variable called
$malware_name that contains the name of the virus. You can use it in a message
modifier that specifies the error returned to the sender, and/or in logging
data.
If your virus scanner cannot unpack MIME and TNEF containers itself, you should
use the demime condition (see section 41.6) before the malware condition.
Here is a very simple scanning example:
deny message = This message contains malware ($malware_name)
demime = *
malware = *
The next example accepts messages when there is a problem with the scanner:
deny message = This message contains malware ($malware_name)
demime = *
malware = */defer_ok
The next example shows how to use an ACL variable to scan with both sophie and
aveserver. It assumes you have set:
av_scanner = $acl_m0
in the main Exim configuration.
deny message = This message contains malware ($malware_name)
set acl_m0 = sophie
malware = *
deny message = This message contains malware ($malware_name)
set acl_m0 = aveserver
malware = *
41.2 Scanning with SpamAssassin
-------------------------------
The spam ACL condition calls SpamAssassin's spamd daemon to get a spam score
and a report for the message. You can get SpamAssassin at http://
www.spamassassin.org, or, if you have a working Perl installation, you can use
CPAN by running:
perl -MCPAN -e 'install Mail::SpamAssassin'
SpamAssassin has its own set of configuration files. Please review its
documentation to see how you can tweak it. The default installation should work
nicely, however.
After having installed and configured SpamAssassin, start the spamd daemon. By
default, it listens on 127.0.0.1, TCP port 783. If you use another host or port
for spamd, you must set the spamd_address option in the global part of the Exim
configuration as follows (example):
spamd_address = 192.168.99.45 387
You do not need to set this option if you use the default. As of version 2.60,
spamd also supports communication over UNIX sockets. If you want to use these,
supply spamd_address with an absolute file name instead of a address/port pair:
spamd_address = /var/run/spamd_socket
You can have multiple spamd servers to improve scalability. These can reside on
other hardware reachable over the network. To specify multiple spamd servers,
put multiple address/port pairs in the spamd_address option, separated with
colons:
spamd_address = 192.168.2.10 783 : \
192.168.2.11 783 : \
192.168.2.12 783
Up to 32 spamd servers are supported. The servers are queried in a random
fashion. When a server fails to respond to the connection attempt, all other
servers are tried until one succeeds. If no server responds, the spam condition
defers.
Warning: It is not possible to use the UNIX socket connection method with
multiple spamd servers.
41.3 Calling SpamAssassin from an Exim ACL
------------------------------------------
Here is a simple example of the use of the spam condition in a DATA ACL:
deny message = This message was classified as SPAM
spam = joe
The right-hand side of the spam condition specifies a name. This is relevant if
you have set up multiple SpamAssassin profiles. If you do not want to scan
using a specific profile, but rather use the SpamAssassin system-wide default
profile, you can scan for an unknown name, or simply use "nobody". However, you
must put something on the right-hand side.
The name allows you to use per-domain or per-user antispam profiles in
principle, but this is not straightforward in practice, because a message may
have multiple recipients, not necessarily all in the same domain. Because the
spam condition has to be called from a DATA ACL in order to be able to read the
contents of the message, the variables $local_part and $domain are not set.
The right-hand side of the spam condition is expanded before being used, so you
can put lookups or conditions there. When the right-hand side evaluates to "0"
or "false", no scanning is done and the condition fails immediately.
Scanning with SpamAssassin uses a lot of resources. If you scan every message,
large ones may cause significant performance degradation. As most spam messages
are quite small, it is recommended that you do not scan the big ones. For
example:
deny message = This message was classified as SPAM
condition = ${if < {$message_size}{10K}}
spam = nobody
The spam condition returns true if the threshold specified in the user's
SpamAssassin profile has been matched or exceeded. If you want to use the spam
condition for its side effects (see the variables below), you can make it
always return "true" by appending ":true" to the username.
When the spam condition is run, it sets up a number of expansion variables.
With the exception of $spam_score_int, these are usable only within ACLs; their
values are not retained with the message and so cannot be used at delivery
time.
$spam_score
The spam score of the message, for example "3.4" or "30.5". This is useful
for inclusion in log or reject messages.
$spam_score_int
The spam score of the message, multiplied by ten, as an integer value. For
example "34" or "305". This is useful for numeric comparisons in
conditions. This variable is special; its value is saved with the message,
and written to Exim's spool file. This means that it can be used during the
whole life of the message on your Exim system, in particular, in routers or
transports during the later delivery phase.
$spam_bar
A string consisting of a number of "+" or "-" characters, representing the
integer part of the spam score value. A spam score of 4.4 would have a
$spam_bar value of "++++". This is useful for inclusion in warning headers,
since MUAs can match on such strings.
$spam_report
A multiline text table, containing the full SpamAssassin report for the
message. Useful for inclusion in headers or reject messages.
The spam condition caches its results. If you call it again with the same user
name, it does not scan again, but rather returns the same values as before.
The spam condition returns DEFER if there is any error while running the
message through SpamAssassin. If you want to treat DEFER as FAIL (to pass on to
the next ACL statement block), append "/defer_ok" to the right-hand side of the
spam condition, like this:
deny message = This message was classified as SPAM
spam = joe/defer_ok
This causes messages to be accepted even if there is a problem with spamd.
Here is a longer, commented example of the use of the spam condition:
# put headers in all messages (no matter if spam or not)
warn spam = nobody:true
add_header = X-Spam-Score: $spam_score ($spam_bar)
add_header = X-Spam-Report: $spam_report
# add second subject line with *SPAM* marker when message
# is over threshold
warn spam = nobody
add_header = Subject: *SPAM* $h_Subject:
# reject spam at high scores (> 12)
deny message = This message scored $spam_score spam points.
spam = nobody:true
condition = ${if >{$spam_score_int}{120}{1}{0}}
41.4 Scanning MIME parts
------------------------
The acl_smtp_mime global option specifies an ACL that is called once for each
MIME part of an SMTP message, including multipart types, in the sequence of
their position in the message. Similarly, the acl_not_smtp_mime option
specifies an ACL that is used for the MIME parts of non-SMTP messages. These
options may both refer to the same ACL if you want the same processing in both
cases.
These ACLs are called (possibly many times) just before the acl_smtp_data ACL
in the case of an SMTP message, or just before the acl_not_smtp ACL in the case
of a non-SMTP message. However, a MIME ACL is called only if the message
contains a Content-Type: header line. When a call to a MIME ACL does not yield
"accept", ACL processing is aborted and the appropriate result code is sent to
the client. In the case of an SMTP message, the acl_smtp_data ACL is not called
when this happens.
You cannot use the malware or spam conditions in a MIME ACL; these can only be
used in the DATA or non-SMTP ACLs. However, you can use the regex condition to
match against the raw MIME part. You can also use the mime_regex condition to
match against the decoded MIME part (see section 41.5).
At the start of a MIME ACL, a number of variables are set from the header
information for the relevant MIME part. These are described below. The contents
of the MIME part are not by default decoded into a disk file except for MIME
parts whose content-type is "message/rfc822". If you want to decode a MIME part
into a disk file, you can use the decode condition. The general syntax is:
decode = [/<path>/]<filename>
The right hand side is expanded before use. After expansion, the value can be:
1. "0" or "false", in which case no decoding is done.
2. The string "default". In that case, the file is put in the temporary
"default" directory <spool_directory>/scan/<message_id>/ with a sequential
file name consisting of the message id and a sequence number. The full path
and name is available in $mime_decoded_filename after decoding.
3. A full path name starting with a slash. If the full name is an existing
directory, it is used as a replacement for the default directory. The
filename is then sequentially assigned. If the path does not exist, it is
used as the full path and file name.
4. If the string does not start with a slash, it is used as the filename, and
the default path is then used.
The decode condition normally succeeds. It is only false for syntax errors or
unusual circumstances such as memory shortages. You can easily decode a file
with its original, proposed filename using
decode = $mime_filename
However, you should keep in mind that $mime_filename might contain anything. If
you place files outside of the default path, they are not automatically
unlinked.
For RFC822 attachments (these are messages attached to messages, with a
content-type of "message/rfc822"), the ACL is called again in the same manner
as for the primary message, only that the $mime_is_rfc822 expansion variable is
set (see below). Attached messages are always decoded to disk before being
checked, and the files are unlinked once the check is done.
The MIME ACL supports the regex and mime_regex conditions. These can be used to
match regular expressions against raw and decoded MIME parts, respectively.
They are described in section 41.5.
The following list describes all expansion variables that are available in the
MIME ACL:
$mime_boundary
If the current part is a multipart (see $mime_is_multipart) below, it
should have a boundary string, which is stored in this variable. If the
current part has no boundary parameter in the Content-Type: header, this
variable contains the empty string.
$mime_charset
This variable contains the character set identifier, if one was found in
the Content-Type: header. Examples for charset identifiers are:
us-ascii
gb2312 (Chinese)
iso-8859-1
Please note that this value is not normalized, so you should do matches
case-insensitively.
$mime_content_description
This variable contains the normalized content of the Content-Description:
header. It can contain a human-readable description of the parts content.
Some implementations repeat the filename for attachments here, but they are
usually only used for display purposes.
$mime_content_disposition
This variable contains the normalized content of the Content-Disposition:
header. You can expect strings like "attachment" or "inline" here.
$mime_content_id
This variable contains the normalized content of the Content-ID: header.
This is a unique ID that can be used to reference a part from another part.
$mime_content_size
This variable is set only after the decode modifier (see above) has been
successfully run. It contains the size of the decoded part in kilobytes.
The size is always rounded up to full kilobytes, so only a completely empty
part has a $mime_content_size of zero.
$mime_content_transfer_encoding
This variable contains the normalized content of the
Content-transfer-encoding: header. This is a symbolic name for an encoding
type. Typical values are "base64" and "quoted-printable".
$mime_content_type
If the MIME part has a Content-Type: header, this variable contains its
value, lowercased, and without any options (like "name" or "charset"). Here
are some examples of popular MIME types, as they may appear in this
variable:
text/plain
text/html
application/octet-stream
image/jpeg
audio/midi
If the MIME part has no Content-Type: header, this variable contains the
empty string.
$mime_decoded_filename
This variable is set only after the decode modifier (see above) has been
successfully run. It contains the full path and file name of the file
containing the decoded data.
$mime_filename
This is perhaps the most important of the MIME variables. It contains a
proposed filename for an attachment, if one was found in either the
Content-Type: or Content-Disposition: headers. The filename will be RFC2047
decoded, but no additional sanity checks are done. If no filename was
found, this variable contains the empty string.
$mime_is_coverletter
This variable attempts to differentiate the "cover letter" of an e-mail
from attached data. It can be used to clamp down on flashy or unnecessarily
encoded content in the cover letter, while not restricting attachments at
all.
The variable contains 1 (true) for a MIME part believed to be part of the
cover letter, and 0 (false) for an attachment. At present, the algorithm is
as follows:
1. The outermost MIME part of a message is always a cover letter.
2. If a multipart/alternative or multipart/related MIME part is a cover
letter, so are all MIME subparts within that multipart.
3. If any other multipart is a cover letter, the first subpart is a cover
letter, and the rest are attachments.
4. All parts contained within an attachment multipart are attachments.
As an example, the following will ban "HTML mail" (including that sent with
alternative plain text), while allowing HTML files to be attached. HTML
coverletter mail attached to non-HMTL coverletter mail will also be
allowed:
deny message = HTML mail is not accepted here
!condition = $mime_is_rfc822
condition = $mime_is_coverletter
condition = ${if eq{$mime_content_type}{text/html}{1}{0}}
$mime_is_multipart
This variable has the value 1 (true) when the current part has the main
type "multipart", for example "multipart/alternative" or "multipart/mixed".
Since multipart entities only serve as containers for other parts, you may
not want to carry out specific actions on them.
$mime_is_rfc822
This variable has the value 1 (true) if the current part is not a part of
the checked message itself, but part of an attached message. Attached
message decoding is fully recursive.
$mime_part_count
This variable is a counter that is raised for each processed MIME part. It
starts at zero for the very first part (which is usually a multipart). The
counter is per-message, so it is reset when processing RFC822 attachments
(see $mime_is_rfc822). The counter stays set after acl_smtp_mime is
complete, so you can use it in the DATA ACL to determine the number of MIME
parts of a message. For non-MIME messages, this variable contains the value
-1.
41.5 Scanning with regular expressions
--------------------------------------
You can specify your own custom regular expression matches on the full body of
the message, or on individual MIME parts.
The regex condition takes one or more regular expressions as arguments and
matches them against the full message (when called in the DATA ACL) or a raw
MIME part (when called in the MIME ACL). The regex condition matches linewise,
with a maximum line length of 32K characters. That means you cannot have
multiline matches with the regex condition.
The mime_regex condition can be called only in the MIME ACL. It matches up to
32K of decoded content (the whole content at once, not linewise). If the part
has not been decoded with the decode modifier earlier in the ACL, it is decoded
automatically when mime_regex is executed (using default path and filename
values). If the decoded data is larger than 32K, only the first 32K characters
are checked.
The regular expressions are passed as a colon-separated list. To include a
literal colon, you must double it. Since the whole right-hand side string is
expanded before being used, you must also escape dollar signs and backslashes
with more backslashes, or use the "\N" facility to disable expansion. Here is a
simple example that contains two regular expressions:
deny message = contains blacklisted regex ($regex_match_string)
regex = [Mm]ortgage : URGENT BUSINESS PROPOSAL
The conditions returns true if any one of the regular expressions matches. The
$regex_match_string expansion variable is then set up and contains the matching
regular expression.
Warning: With large messages, these conditions can be fairly CPU-intensive.
41.6 The demime condition
-------------------------
The demime ACL condition provides MIME unpacking, sanity checking and file
extension blocking. It is usable only in the DATA and non-SMTP ACLs. The demime
condition uses a simpler interface to MIME decoding than the MIME ACL
functionality, but provides no additional facilities. Please note that this
condition is deprecated and kept only for backward compatibility. You must set
the WITH_OLD_DEMIME option in Local/Makefile at build time to be able to use
the demime condition.
The demime condition unpacks MIME containers in the message. It detects errors
in MIME containers and can match file extensions found in the message against a
list. Using this facility produces files containing the unpacked MIME parts of
the message in the temporary scan directory. If you do antivirus scanning, it
is recommended that you use the demime condition before the antivirus (malware)
condition.
On the right-hand side of the demime condition you can pass a colon-separated
list of file extensions that it should match against. For example:
deny message = Found blacklisted file attachment
demime = vbs:com:bat:pif:prf:lnk
If one of the file extensions is found, the condition is true, otherwise it is
false. If there is a temporary error while demimeing (for example, "disk
full"), the condition defers, and the message is temporarily rejected (unless
the condition is on a warn verb).
The right-hand side is expanded before being treated as a list, so you can have
conditions and lookups there. If it expands to an empty string, "false", or
zero ("0"), no demimeing is done and the condition is false.
The demime condition set the following variables:
$demime_errorlevel
When an error is detected in a MIME container, this variable contains the
severity of the error, as an integer number. The higher the value, the more
severe the error (the current maximum value is 3). If this variable is
unset or zero, no error occurred.
$demime_reason
When $demime_errorlevel is greater than zero, this variable contains a
human-readable text string describing the MIME error that occurred.
$found_extension
When the demime condition is true, this variable contains the file
extension it found.
Both $demime_errorlevel and $demime_reason are set by the first call of the
demime condition, and are not changed on subsequent calls.
If you do not want to check for file extensions, but rather use the demime
condition for unpacking or error checking purposes, pass "*" as the right-hand
side value. Here is a more elaborate example of how to use this facility:
# Reject messages with serious MIME container errors
deny message = Found MIME error ($demime_reason).
demime = *
condition = ${if >{$demime_errorlevel}{2}{1}{0}}
# Reject known virus spreading file extensions.
# Accepting these is pretty much braindead.
deny message = contains $found_extension file (blacklisted).
demime = com:vbs:bat:pif:scr
# Freeze .exe and .doc files. Postmaster can
# examine them and eventually thaw them.
deny log_message = Another $found_extension file.
demime = exe:doc
control = freeze
===============================================================================
42. ADDING A LOCAL SCAN FUNCTION TO EXIM
In these days of email worms, viruses, and ever-increasing spam, some sites
want to apply a lot of checking to messages before accepting them.
The content scanning extension (chapter 41) has facilities for passing messages
to external virus and spam scanning software. You can also do a certain amount
in Exim itself through string expansions and the condition condition in the ACL
that runs after the SMTP DATA command or the ACL for non-SMTP messages (see
chapter 40), but this has its limitations.
To allow for further customization to a site's own requirements, there is the
possibility of linking Exim with a private message scanning function, written
in C. If you want to run code that is written in something other than C, you
can of course use a little C stub to call it.
The local scan function is run once for every incoming message, at the point
when Exim is just about to accept the message. It can therefore be used to
control non-SMTP messages from local processes as well as messages arriving via
SMTP.
Exim applies a timeout to calls of the local scan function, and there is an
option called local_scan_timeout for setting it. The default is 5 minutes. Zero
means "no timeout". Exim also sets up signal handlers for SIGSEGV, SIGILL,
SIGFPE, and SIGBUS before calling the local scan function, so that the most
common types of crash are caught. If the timeout is exceeded or one of those
signals is caught, the incoming message is rejected with a temporary error if
it is an SMTP message. For a non-SMTP message, the message is dropped and Exim
ends with a non-zero code. The incident is logged on the main and reject logs.
42.1 Building Exim to use a local scan function
-----------------------------------------------
To make use of the local scan function feature, you must tell Exim where your
function is before building Exim, by setting LOCAL_SCAN_SOURCE in your Local/
Makefile. A recommended place to put it is in the Local directory, so you might
set
LOCAL_SCAN_SOURCE=Local/local_scan.c
for example. The function must be called local_scan(). It is called by Exim
after it has received a message, when the success return code is about to be
sent. This is after all the ACLs have been run. The return code from your
function controls whether the message is actually accepted or not. There is a
commented template function (that just accepts the message) in the file _src/
local_scan.c_.
If you want to make use of Exim's run time configuration file to set options
for your local_scan() function, you must also set
LOCAL_SCAN_HAS_OPTIONS=yes
in Local/Makefile (see section 42.3 below).
42.2 API for local_scan()
-------------------------
You must include this line near the start of your code:
#include "local_scan.h"
This header file defines a number of variables and other values, and the
prototype for the function itself. Exim is coded to use unsigned char values
almost exclusively, and one of the things this header defines is a shorthand
for "unsigned char" called "uschar". It also contains the following macro
definitions, to simplify casting character strings and pointers to character
strings:
#define CS (char *)
#define CCS (const char *)
#define CSS (char **)
#define US (unsigned char *)
#define CUS (const unsigned char *)
#define USS (unsigned char **)
The function prototype for local_scan() is:
extern int local_scan(int fd, uschar **return_text);
The arguments are as follows:
* fd is a file descriptor for the file that contains the body of the message
(the -D file). The file is open for reading and writing, but updating it is
not recommended. Warning: You must not close this file descriptor.
The descriptor is positioned at character 19 of the file, which is the
first character of the body itself, because the first 19 characters are the
message id followed by "-D" and a newline. If you rewind the file, you
should use the macro SPOOL_DATA_START_OFFSET to reset to the start of the
data, just in case this changes in some future version.
* return_text is an address which you can use to return a pointer to a text
string at the end of the function. The value it points to on entry is NULL.
The function must return an int value which is one of the following macros:
"LOCAL_SCAN_ACCEPT"
The message is accepted. If you pass back a string of text, it is saved
with the message, and made available in the variable $local_scan_data. No
newlines are permitted (if there are any, they are turned into spaces) and
the maximum length of text is 1000 characters.
"LOCAL_SCAN_ACCEPT_FREEZE"
This behaves as LOCAL_SCAN_ACCEPT, except that the accepted message is
queued without immediate delivery, and is frozen.
"LOCAL_SCAN_ACCEPT_QUEUE"
This behaves as LOCAL_SCAN_ACCEPT, except that the accepted message is
queued without immediate delivery.
"LOCAL_SCAN_REJECT"
The message is rejected; the returned text is used as an error message
which is passed back to the sender and which is also logged. Newlines are
permitted - they cause a multiline response for SMTP rejections, but are
converted to "\n" in log lines. If no message is given, "Administrative
prohibition" is used.
"LOCAL_SCAN_TEMPREJECT"
The message is temporarily rejected; the returned text is used as an error
message as for LOCAL_SCAN_REJECT. If no message is given, "Temporary local
problem" is used.
"LOCAL_SCAN_REJECT_NOLOGHDR"
This behaves as LOCAL_SCAN_REJECT, except that the header of the rejected
message is not written to the reject log. It has the effect of unsetting
the rejected_header log selector for just this rejection. If
rejected_header is already unset (see the discussion of the log_selection
option in section 49.15), this code is the same as LOCAL_SCAN_REJECT.
"LOCAL_SCAN_TEMPREJECT_NOLOGHDR"
This code is a variation of LOCAL_SCAN_TEMPREJECT in the same way that
LOCAL_SCAN_REJECT_NOLOGHDR is a variation of LOCAL_SCAN_REJECT.
If the message is not being received by interactive SMTP, rejections are
reported by writing to stderr or by sending an email, as configured by the -oe
command line options.
42.3 Configuration options for local_scan()
-------------------------------------------
It is possible to have option settings in the main configuration file that set
values in static variables in the local_scan() module. If you want to do this,
you must have the line
LOCAL_SCAN_HAS_OPTIONS=yes
in your Local/Makefile when you build Exim. (This line is in OS/
Makefile-Default, commented out). Then, in the local_scan() source file, you
must define static variables to hold the option values, and a table to define
them.
The table must be a vector called local_scan_options, of type "optionlist".
Each entry is a triplet, consisting of a name, an option type, and a pointer to
the variable that holds the value. The entries must appear in alphabetical
order. Following local_scan_options you must also define a variable called
local_scan_options_count that contains the number of entries in the table. Here
is a short example, showing two kinds of option:
static int my_integer_option = 42;
static uschar *my_string_option = US"a default string";
optionlist local_scan_options[] = {
{ "my_integer", opt_int, &my_integer_option },
{ "my_string", opt_stringptr, &my_string_option }
};
int local_scan_options_count =
sizeof(local_scan_options)/sizeof(optionlist);
The values of the variables can now be changed from Exim's runtime
configuration file by including a local scan section as in this example:
begin local_scan
my_integer = 99
my_string = some string of text...
The available types of option data are as follows:
opt_bool
This specifies a boolean (true/false) option. The address should point to a
variable of type "BOOL", which will be set to TRUE or FALSE, which are
macros that are defined as "1" and "0", respectively. If you want to detect
whether such a variable has been set at all, you can initialize it to
TRUE_UNSET. (BOOL variables are integers underneath, so can hold more than
two values.)
opt_fixed
This specifies a fixed point number, such as is used for load averages. The
address should point to a variable of type "int". The value is stored
multiplied by 1000, so, for example, 1.4142 is truncated and stored as
1414.
opt_int
This specifies an integer; the address should point to a variable of type
"int". The value may be specified in any of the integer formats accepted by
Exim.
opt_mkint
This is the same as opt_int, except that when such a value is output in a
-bP listing, if it is an exact number of kilobytes or megabytes, it is
printed with the suffix K or M.
opt_octint
This also specifies an integer, but the value is always interpreted as an
octal integer, whether or not it starts with the digit zero, and it is
always output in octal.
opt_stringptr
This specifies a string value; the address must be a pointer to a variable
that points to a string (for example, of type "uschar *").
opt_time
This specifies a time interval value. The address must point to a variable
of type "int". The value that is placed there is a number of seconds.
If the -bP command line option is followed by "local_scan", Exim prints out the
values of all the local_scan() options.
42.4 Available Exim variables
-----------------------------
The header local_scan.h gives you access to a number of C variables. These are
the only ones that are guaranteed to be maintained from release to release.
Note, however, that you can obtain the value of any Exim expansion variable,
including $recipients, by calling expand_string(). The exported C variables are
as follows:
int body_linecount
This variable contains the number of lines in the message's body.
int body_zerocount
This variable contains the number of binary zero bytes in the message's
body.
unsigned int debug_selector
This variable is set to zero when no debugging is taking place. Otherwise,
it is a bitmap of debugging selectors. Two bits are identified for use in
local_scan(); they are defined as macros:
* The "D_v" bit is set when -v was present on the command line. This is a
testing option that is not privileged - any caller may set it. All the
other selector bits can be set only by admin users.
* The "D_local_scan" bit is provided for use by local_scan(); it is set
by the "+local_scan" debug selector. It is not included in the default
set of debugging bits.
Thus, to write to the debugging output only when "+local_scan" has been
selected, you should use code like this:
if ((debug_selector & D_local_scan) != 0)
debug_printf("xxx", ...);
uschar *expand_string_message
After a failing call to expand_string() (returned value NULL), the variable
expand_string_message contains the error message, zero-terminated.
header_line *header_list
A pointer to a chain of header lines. The header_line structure is
discussed below.
header_line *header_last
A pointer to the last of the header lines.
uschar *headers_charset
The value of the headers_charset configuration option.
BOOL host_checking
This variable is TRUE during a host checking session that is initiated by
the -bh command line option.
uschar *interface_address
The IP address of the interface that received the message, as a string.
This is NULL for locally submitted messages.
int interface_port
The port on which this message was received. When testing with the -bh
command line option, the value of this variable is -1 unless a port has
been specified via the -oMi option.
uschar *message_id
This variable contains Exim's message id for the incoming message (the
value of $message_exim_id) as a zero-terminated string.
uschar *received_protocol
The name of the protocol by which the message was received.
int recipients_count
The number of accepted recipients.
recipient_item *recipients_list
The list of accepted recipients, held in a vector of length
recipients_count. The recipient_item structure is discussed below. You can
add additional recipients by calling receive_add_recipient() (see below).
You can delete recipients by removing them from the vector and adjusting
the value in recipients_count. In particular, by setting recipients_count
to zero you remove all recipients. If you then return the value
"LOCAL_SCAN_ACCEPT", the message is accepted, but immediately blackholed.
To replace the recipients, you can set recipients_count to zero and then
call receive_add_recipient() as often as needed.
uschar *sender_address
The envelope sender address. For bounce messages this is the empty string.
uschar *sender_host_address
The IP address of the sending host, as a string. This is NULL for
locally-submitted messages.
uschar *sender_host_authenticated
The name of the authentication mechanism that was used, or NULL if the
message was not received over an authenticated SMTP connection.
uschar *sender_host_name
The name of the sending host, if known.
int sender_host_port
The port on the sending host.
BOOL smtp_input
This variable is TRUE for all SMTP input, including BSMTP.
BOOL smtp_batched_input
This variable is TRUE for BSMTP input.
int store_pool
The contents of this variable control which pool of memory is used for new
requests. See section 42.8 for details.
42.5 Structure of header lines
------------------------------
The header_line structure contains the members listed below. You can add
additional header lines by calling the header_add() function (see below). You
can cause header lines to be ignored (deleted) by setting their type to *.
struct header_line *next
A pointer to the next header line, or NULL for the last line.
int type
A code identifying certain headers that Exim recognizes. The codes are
printing characters, and are documented in chapter 53 of this manual.
Notice in particular that any header line whose type is * is not
transmitted with the message. This flagging is used for header lines that
have been rewritten, or are to be removed (for example, Envelope-sender:
header lines.) Effectively, * means "deleted".
int slen
The number of characters in the header line, including the terminating and
any internal newlines.
uschar *text
A pointer to the text of the header. It always ends with a newline,
followed by a zero byte. Internal newlines are preserved.
42.6 Structure of recipient items
---------------------------------
The recipient_item structure contains these members:
uschar *address
This is a pointer to the recipient address as it was received.
int pno
This is used in later Exim processing when top level addresses are created
by the one_time option. It is not relevant at the time local_scan() is run
and must always contain -1 at this stage.
uschar *errors_to
If this value is not NULL, bounce messages caused by failing to deliver to
the recipient are sent to the address it contains. In other words, it
overrides the envelope sender for this one recipient. (Compare the
errors_to generic router option.) If a local_scan() function sets an
errors_to field to an unqualified address, Exim qualifies it using the
domain from qualify_recipient. When local_scan() is called, the errors_to
field is NULL for all recipients.
42.7 Available Exim functions
-----------------------------
The header local_scan.h gives you access to a number of Exim functions. These
are the only ones that are guaranteed to be maintained from release to release:
pid_t child_open
(uschar **argv, uschar **envp, int newumask, int *infdptr, int *outfdptr,
BOOL make_leader)
This function creates a child process that runs the command specified by
argv. The environment for the process is specified by envp, which can be
NULL if no environment variables are to be passed. A new umask is supplied
for the process in newumask.
Pipes to the standard input and output of the new process are set up and
returned to the caller via the infdptr and outfdptr arguments. The standard
error is cloned to the standard output. If there are any file descriptors
"in the way" in the new process, they are closed. If the final argument is
TRUE, the new process is made into a process group leader.
The function returns the pid of the new process, or -1 if things go wrong.
int child_close(pid_t pid, int timeout)
This function waits for a child process to terminate, or for a timeout (in
seconds) to expire. A timeout value of zero means wait as long as it takes.
The return value is as follows:
* >= 0
The process terminated by a normal exit and the value is the process
ending status.
* < 0 and > -256
The process was terminated by a signal and the value is the negation of
the signal number.
* -256
The process timed out.
* -257
The was some other error in wait(); errno is still set.
pid_t child_open_exim(int *fd)
This function provide you with a means of submitting a new message to Exim.
(Of course, you can also call /usr/sbin/sendmail yourself if you want, but
this packages it all up for you.) The function creates a pipe, forks a
subprocess that is running
exim -t -oem -oi -f <>
and returns to you (via the "int *" argument) a file descriptor for the
pipe that is connected to the standard input. The yield of the function is
the PID of the subprocess. You can then write a message to the file
descriptor, with recipients in To:, Cc:, and/or Bcc: header lines.
When you have finished, call child_close() to wait for the process to
finish and to collect its ending status. A timeout value of zero is usually
fine in this circumstance. Unless you have made a mistake with the
recipient addresses, you should get a return code of zero.
pid_t child_open_exim2(int *fd, uschar *sender, uschar *sender_authentication)
This function is a more sophisticated version of child_open(). The command
that it runs is:
exim -t -oem -oi -f sender -oMas sender_authentication
The third argument may be NULL, in which case the -oMas option is omitted.
void debug_printf(char *, ...)
This is Exim's debugging function, with arguments as for (printf(). The
output is written to the standard error stream. If no debugging is
selected, calls to debug_printf() have no effect. Normally, you should make
calls conditional on the "local_scan" debug selector by coding like this:
if ((debug_selector & D_local_scan) != 0)
debug_printf("xxx", ...);
uschar *expand_string(uschar *string)
This is an interface to Exim's string expansion code. The return value is
the expanded string, or NULL if there was an expansion failure. The C
variable expand_string_message contains an error message after an expansion
failure. If expansion does not change the string, the return value is the
pointer to the input string. Otherwise, the return value points to a new
block of memory that was obtained by a call to store_get(). See section
42.8 below for a discussion of memory handling.
void header_add(int type, char *format, ...)
This function allows you to an add additional header line at the end of the
existing ones. The first argument is the type, and should normally be a
space character. The second argument is a format string and any number of
substitution arguments as for sprintf(). You may include internal newlines
if you want, and you must ensure that the string ends with a newline.
void header_add_at_position
(BOOL after, uschar *name, BOOL topnot, int type, char *format, ...)
This function adds a new header line at a specified point in the header
chain. The header itself is specified as for header_add().
If name is NULL, the new header is added at the end of the chain if after
is true, or at the start if after is false. If name is not NULL, the header
lines are searched for the first non-deleted header that matches the name.
If one is found, the new header is added before it if after is false. If
after is true, the new header is added after the found header and any
adjacent subsequent ones with the same name (even if marked "deleted"). If
no matching non-deleted header is found, the topnot option controls where
the header is added. If it is true, addition is at the top; otherwise at
the bottom. Thus, to add a header after all the Received: headers, or at
the top if there are no Received: headers, you could use
header_add_at_position(TRUE, US"Received", TRUE,
' ', "X-xxx: ...");
Normally, there is always at least one non-deleted Received: header, but
there may not be if received_header_text expands to an empty string.
void header_remove(int occurrence, uschar *name)
This function removes header lines. If occurrence is zero or negative, all
occurrences of the header are removed. If occurrence is greater than zero,
that particular instance of the header is removed. If no header(s) can be
found that match the specification, the function does nothing.
BOOL header_testname(header_line *hdr, uschar *name, int length, BOOL notdel)
This function tests whether the given header has the given name. It is not
just a string comparison, because white space is permitted between the name
and the colon. If the notdel argument is true, a false return is forced for
all "deleted" headers; otherwise they are not treated specially. For
example:
if (header_testname(h, US"X-Spam", 6, TRUE)) ...
uschar *lss_b64encode(uschar *cleartext, int length)
This function base64-encodes a string, which is passed by address and
length. The text may contain bytes of any value, including zero. The result
is passed back in dynamic memory that is obtained by calling store_get().
It is zero-terminated.
int lss_b64decode(uschar *codetext, uschar **cleartext)
This function decodes a base64-encoded string. Its arguments are a
zero-terminated base64-encoded string and the address of a variable that is
set to point to the result, which is in dynamic memory. The length of the
decoded string is the yield of the function. If the input is invalid base64
data, the yield is -1. A zero byte is added to the end of the output string
to make it easy to interpret as a C string (assuming it contains no zeros
of its own). The added zero byte is not included in the returned count.
int lss_match_domain(uschar *domain, uschar *list)
This function checks for a match in a domain list. Domains are always
matched caselessly. The return value is one of the following:
OK match succeeded
FAIL match failed
DEFER match deferred
DEFER is usually caused by some kind of lookup defer, such as the inability
to contact a database.
int lss_match_local_part(uschar *localpart, uschar *list, BOOL caseless)
This function checks for a match in a local part list. The third argument
controls case-sensitivity. The return values are as for lss_match_domain().
int lss_match_address(uschar *address, uschar *list, BOOL caseless)
This function checks for a match in an address list. The third argument
controls the case-sensitivity of the local part match. The domain is always
matched caselessly. The return values are as for lss_match_domain().
int lss_match_host(uschar *host_name, uschar *host_address, uschar *list)
This function checks for a match in a host list. The most common usage is
expected to be
lss_match_host(sender_host_name, sender_host_address, ...)
An empty address field matches an empty item in the host list. If the host
name is NULL, the name corresponding to $sender_host_address is
automatically looked up if a host name is required to match an item in the
list. The return values are as for lss_match_domain(), but in addition,
lss_match_host() returns ERROR in the case when it had to look up a host
name, but the lookup failed.
void log_write(unsigned int selector, int which, char *format, ...)
This function writes to Exim's log files. The first argument should be zero
(it is concerned with log_selector). The second argument can be "LOG_MAIN"
or "LOG_REJECT" or "LOG_PANIC" or the inclusive "or" of any combination of
them. It specifies to which log or logs the message is written. The
remaining arguments are a format and relevant insertion arguments. The
string should not contain any newlines, not even at the end.
void receive_add_recipient(uschar *address, int pno)
This function adds an additional recipient to the message. The first
argument is the recipient address. If it is unqualified (has no domain), it
is qualified with the qualify_recipient domain. The second argument must
always be -1.
This function does not allow you to specify a private errors_to address (as
described with the structure of recipient_item above), because it pre-dates
the addition of that field to the structure. However, it is easy to add
such a value afterwards. For example:
receive_add_recipient(US"monitor@mydom.example", -1);
recipients_list[recipients_count-1].errors_to =
US"postmaster@mydom.example";
BOOL receive_remove_recipient(uschar *recipient)
This is a convenience function to remove a named recipient from the list of
recipients. It returns true if a recipient was removed, and false if no
matching recipient could be found. The argument must be a complete email
address.
uschar rfc2047_decode
(uschar *string, BOOL lencheck, uschar *target, int zeroval, int *lenptr,
uschar **error)
This function decodes strings that are encoded according to RFC 2047.
Typically these are the contents of header lines. First, each "encoded
word" is decoded from the Q or B encoding into a byte-string. Then, if
provided with the name of a charset encoding, and if the iconv() function
is available, an attempt is made to translate the result to the named
character set. If this fails, the binary string is returned with an error
message.
The first argument is the string to be decoded. If lencheck is TRUE, the
maximum MIME word length is enforced. The third argument is the target
encoding, or NULL if no translation is wanted.
If a binary zero is encountered in the decoded string, it is replaced by
the contents of the zeroval argument. For use with Exim headers, the value
must not be 0 because header lines are handled as zero-terminated strings.
The function returns the result of processing the string, zero-terminated;
if lenptr is not NULL, the length of the result is set in the variable to
which it points. When zeroval is 0, lenptr should not be NULL.
If an error is encountered, the function returns NULL and uses the error
argument to return an error message. The variable pointed to by error is
set to NULL if there is no error; it may be set non-NULL even when the
function returns a non-NULL value if decoding was successful, but there was
a problem with translation.
int smtp_fflush(void)
This function is used in conjunction with smtp_printf(), as described
below.
void smtp_printf(char *, ...)
The arguments of this function are like printf(); it writes to the SMTP
output stream. You should use this function only when there is an SMTP
output stream, that is, when the incoming message is being received via
interactive SMTP. This is the case when smtp_input is TRUE and
smtp_batched_input is FALSE. If you want to test for an incoming message
from another host (as opposed to a local process that used the -bs command
line option), you can test the value of sender_host_address, which is
non-NULL when a remote host is involved.
If an SMTP TLS connection is established, smtp_printf() uses the TLS output
function, so it can be used for all forms of SMTP connection.
Strings that are written by smtp_printf() from within local_scan() must
start with an appropriate response code: 550 if you are going to return
LOCAL_SCAN_REJECT, 451 if you are going to return LOCAL_SCAN_TEMPREJECT,
and 250 otherwise. Because you are writing the initial lines of a
multi-line response, the code must be followed by a hyphen to indicate that
the line is not the final response line. You must also ensure that the
lines you write terminate with CRLF. For example:
smtp_printf("550-this is some extra info\r\n");
return LOCAL_SCAN_REJECT;
Note that you can also create multi-line responses by including newlines in
the data returned via the return_text argument. The added value of using
smtp_printf() is that, for instance, you could introduce delays between
multiple output lines.
The smtp_printf() function does not return any error indication, because it
does not automatically flush pending output, and therefore does not test
the state of the stream. (In the main code of Exim, flushing and error
detection is done when Exim is ready for the next SMTP input command.) If
you want to flush the output and check for an error (for example, the
dropping of a TCP/IP connection), you can call smtp_fflush(), which has no
arguments. It flushes the output stream, and returns a non-zero value if
there is an error.
void *store_get(int)
This function accesses Exim's internal store (memory) manager. It gets a
new chunk of memory whose size is given by the argument. Exim bombs out if
it ever runs out of memory. See the next section for a discussion of memory
handling.
void *store_get_perm(int)
This function is like store_get(), but it always gets memory from the
permanent pool. See the next section for a discussion of memory handling.
uschar *string_copy(uschar *string)
See below.
uschar *string_copyn(uschar *string, int length)
See below.
uschar *string_sprintf(char *format, ...)
These three functions create strings using Exim's dynamic memory
facilities. The first makes a copy of an entire string. The second copies
up to a maximum number of characters, indicated by the second argument. The
third uses a format and insertion arguments to create a new string. In each
case, the result is a pointer to a new string in the current memory pool.
See the next section for more discussion.
42.8 More about Exim's memory handling
--------------------------------------
No function is provided for freeing memory, because that is never needed. The
dynamic memory that Exim uses when receiving a message is automatically
recycled if another message is received by the same process (this applies only
to incoming SMTP connections - other input methods can supply only one message
at a time). After receiving the last message, a reception process terminates.
Because it is recycled, the normal dynamic memory cannot be used for holding
data that must be preserved over a number of incoming messages on the same SMTP
connection. However, Exim in fact uses two pools of dynamic memory; the second
one is not recycled, and can be used for this purpose.
If you want to allocate memory that remains available for subsequent messages
in the same SMTP connection, you should set
store_pool = POOL_PERM
before calling the function that does the allocation. There is no need to
restore the value if you do not need to; however, if you do want to revert to
the normal pool, you can either restore the previous value of store_pool or set
it explicitly to POOL_MAIN.
The pool setting applies to all functions that get dynamic memory, including
expand_string(), store_get(), and the string_xxx() functions. There is also a
convenience function called store_get_perm() that gets a block of memory from
the permanent pool while preserving the value of store_pool.
===============================================================================
43. SYSTEM-WIDE MESSAGE FILTERING
The previous chapters (on ACLs and the local scan function) describe checks
that can be applied to messages before they are accepted by a host. There is
also a mechanism for checking messages once they have been received, but before
they are delivered. This is called the system filter.
The system filter operates in a similar manner to users' filter files, but it
is run just once per message (however many recipients the message has). It
should not normally be used as a substitute for routing, because deliver
commands in a system router provide new envelope recipient addresses. The
system filter must be an Exim filter. It cannot be a Sieve filter.
The system filter is run at the start of a delivery attempt, before any routing
is done. If a message fails to be completely delivered at the first attempt,
the system filter is run again at the start of every retry. If you want your
filter to do something only once per message, you can make use of the
first_delivery condition in an if command in the filter to prevent it happening
on retries.
Warning: Because the system filter runs just once, variables that are specific
to individual recipient addresses, such as $local_part and $domain, are not
set, and the "personal" condition is not meaningful. If you want to run a
centrally-specified filter for each recipient address independently, you can do
so by setting up a suitable redirect router, as described in section 43.8
below.
43.1 Specifying a system filter
-------------------------------
The name of the file that contains the system filter must be specified by
setting system_filter. If you want the filter to run under a uid and gid other
than root, you must also set system_filter_user and system_filter_group as
appropriate. For example:
system_filter = /etc/mail/exim.filter
system_filter_user = exim
If a system filter generates any deliveries directly to files or pipes (via the
save or pipe commands), transports to handle these deliveries must be specified
by setting system_filter_file_transport and system_filter_pipe_transport,
respectively. Similarly, system_filter_reply_transport must be set to handle
any messages generated by the reply command.
43.2 Testing a system filter
----------------------------
You can run simple tests of a system filter in the same way as for a user
filter, but you should use -bF rather than -bf, so that features that are
permitted only in system filters are recognized.
If you want to test the combined effect of a system filter and a user filter,
you can use both -bF and -bf on the same command line.
43.3 Contents of a system filter
--------------------------------
The language used to specify system filters is the same as for users' filter
files. It is described in the separate end-user document Exim's interface to
mail filtering. However, there are some additional features that are available
only in system filters; these are described in subsequent sections. If they are
encountered in a user's filter file or when testing with -bf, they cause
errors.
There are two special conditions which, though available in users' filter
files, are designed for use in system filters. The condition first_delivery is
true only for the first attempt at delivering a message, and manually_thawed is
true only if the message has been frozen, and subsequently thawed by an admin
user. An explicit forced delivery counts as a manual thaw, but thawing as a
result of the auto_thaw setting does not.
Warning: If a system filter uses the first_delivery condition to specify an
"unseen" (non-significant) delivery, and that delivery does not succeed, it
will not be tried again. If you want Exim to retry an unseen delivery until it
succeeds, you should arrange to set it up every time the filter runs.
When a system filter finishes running, the values of the variables $n0 - $n9
are copied into $sn0 - $sn9 and are thereby made available to users' filter
files. Thus a system filter can, for example, set up "scores" to which users'
filter files can refer.
43.4 Additional variable for system filters
-------------------------------------------
The expansion variable $recipients, containing a list of all the recipients of
the message (separated by commas and white space), is available in system
filters. It is not available in users' filters for privacy reasons.
43.5 Defer, freeze, and fail commands for system filters
--------------------------------------------------------
There are three extra commands (defer, freeze and fail) which are always
available in system filters, but are not normally enabled in users' filters.
(See the allow_defer, allow_freeze and allow_fail options for the redirect
router.) These commands can optionally be followed by the word text and a
string containing an error message, for example:
fail text "this message looks like spam to me"
The keyword text is optional if the next character is a double quote.
The defer command defers delivery of the original recipients of the message.
The fail command causes all the original recipients to be failed, and a bounce
message to be created. The freeze command suspends all delivery attempts for
the original recipients. In all cases, any new deliveries that are specified by
the filter are attempted as normal after the filter has run.
The freeze command is ignored if the message has been manually unfrozen and not
manually frozen since. This means that automatic freezing by a system filter
can be used as a way of checking out suspicious messages. If a message is found
to be all right, manually unfreezing it allows it to be delivered.
The text given with a fail command is used as part of the bounce message as
well as being written to the log. If the message is quite long, this can fill
up a lot of log space when such failures are common. To reduce the size of the
log message, Exim interprets the text in a special way if it starts with the
two characters "<<" and contains ">>" later. The text between these two strings
is written to the log, and the rest of the text is used in the bounce message.
For example:
fail "<<filter test 1>>Your message is rejected \
because it contains attachments that we are \
not prepared to receive."
Take great care with the fail command when basing the decision to fail on the
contents of the message, because the bounce message will of course include the
contents of the original message and will therefore trigger the fail command
again (causing a mail loop) unless steps are taken to prevent this. Testing the
error_message condition is one way to prevent this. You could use, for example
if $message_body contains "this is spam" and not error_message
then fail text "spam is not wanted here" endif
though of course that might let through unwanted bounce messages. The
alternative is clever checking of the body and/or headers to detect bounces
generated by the filter.
The interpretation of a system filter file ceases after a defer, freeze, or
fail command is obeyed. However, any deliveries that were set up earlier in the
filter file are honoured, so you can use a sequence such as
mail ...
freeze
to send a specified message when the system filter is freezing (or deferring or
failing) a message. The normal deliveries for the message do not, of course,
take place.
43.6 Adding and removing headers in a system filter
---------------------------------------------------
Two filter commands that are available only in system filters are:
headers add <string>
headers remove <string>
The argument for the headers add is a string that is expanded and then added to
the end of the message's headers. It is the responsibility of the filter
maintainer to make sure it conforms to RFC 2822 syntax. Leading white space is
ignored, and if the string is otherwise empty, or if the expansion is forced to
fail, the command has no effect.
You can use "\n" within the string, followed by white space, to specify
continued header lines. More than one header may be added in one command by
including "\n" within the string without any following white space. For
example:
headers add "X-header-1: ....\n \
continuation of X-header-1 ...\n\
X-header-2: ...."
Note that the header line continuation white space after the first newline must
be placed before the backslash that continues the input string, because white
space after input continuations is ignored.
The argument for headers remove is a colon-separated list of header names. This
command applies only to those headers that are stored with the message; those
that are added at delivery time (such as Envelope-To: and Return-Path:) cannot
be removed by this means. If there is more than one header with the same name,
they are all removed.
The headers command in a system filter makes an immediate change to the set of
header lines that was received with the message (with possible additions from
ACL processing). Subsequent commands in the system filter operate on the
modified set, which also forms the basis for subsequent message delivery.
Unless further modified during routing or transporting, this set of headers is
used for all recipients of the message.
During routing and transporting, the variables that refer to the contents of
header lines refer only to those lines that are in this set. Thus, header lines
that are added by a system filter are visible to users' filter files and to all
routers and transports. This contrasts with the manipulation of header lines by
routers and transports, which is not immediate, but which instead is saved up
until the message is actually being written (see section 44.17).
If the message is not delivered at the first attempt, header lines that were
added by the system filter are stored with the message, and so are still
present at the next delivery attempt. Header lines that were removed are still
present, but marked "deleted" so that they are not transported with the
message. For this reason, it is usual to make the headers command conditional
on first_delivery so that the set of header lines is not modified more than
once.
Because header modification in a system filter acts immediately, you have to
use an indirect approach if you want to modify the contents of a header line.
For example:
headers add "Old-Subject: $h_subject:"
headers remove "Subject"
headers add "Subject: new subject (was: $h_old-subject:)"
headers remove "Old-Subject"
43.7 Setting an errors address in a system filter
-------------------------------------------------
In a system filter, if a deliver command is followed by
errors_to <some address>
in order to change the envelope sender (and hence the error reporting) for that
delivery, any address may be specified. (In a user filter, only the current
user's address can be set.) For example, if some mail is being monitored, you
might use
unseen deliver monitor@spying.example errors_to root@local.example
to take a copy which would not be sent back to the normal error reporting
address if its delivery failed.
43.8 Per-address filtering
--------------------------
In contrast to the system filter, which is run just once per message for each
delivery attempt, it is also possible to set up a system-wide filtering
operation that runs once for each recipient address. In this case, variables
such as $local_part and $domain can be used, and indeed, the choice of filter
file could be made dependent on them. This is an example of a router which
implements such a filter:
central_filter:
check_local_user
driver = redirect
domains = +local_domains
file = /central/filters/$local_part
no_verify
allow_filter
allow_freeze
The filter is run in a separate process under its own uid. Therefore, either
check_local_user must be set (as above), in which case the filter is run as the
local user, or the user option must be used to specify which user to use. If
both are set, user overrides.
Care should be taken to ensure that none of the commands in the filter file
specify a significant delivery if the message is to go on to be delivered to
its intended recipient. The router will not then claim to have dealt with the
address, so it will be passed on to subsequent routers to be delivered in the
normal way.
===============================================================================
44. MESSAGE PROCESSING
Exim performs various transformations on the sender and recipient addresses of
all messages that it handles, and also on the messages' header lines. Some of
these are optional and configurable, while others always take place. All of
this processing, except rewriting as a result of routing, and the addition or
removal of header lines while delivering, happens when a message is received,
before it is placed on Exim's queue.
Some of the automatic processing takes place by default only for
"locally-originated" messages. This adjective is used to describe messages that
are not received over TCP/IP, but instead are passed to an Exim process on its
standard input. This includes the interactive "local SMTP" case that is set up
by the -bs command line option.
Note: Messages received over TCP/IP on the loopback interface (127.0.0.1 or
::1) are not considered to be locally-originated. Exim does not treat the
loopback interface specially in any way.
If you want the loopback interface to be treated specially, you must ensure
that there are appropriate entries in your ACLs.
44.1 Submission mode for non-local messages
-------------------------------------------
Processing that happens automatically for locally-originated messages (unless
suppress_local_fixups is set) can also be requested for messages that are
received over TCP/IP. The term "submission mode" is used to describe this
state. Submission mode is set by the modifier
control = submission
in a MAIL, RCPT, or pre-data ACL for an incoming message (see sections 40.19
and 40.20). This makes Exim treat the message as a local submission, and is
normally used when the source of the message is known to be an MUA running on a
client host (as opposed to an MTA). For example, to set submission mode for
messages originating on the IPv4 loopback interface, you could include the
following in the MAIL ACL:
warn hosts = 127.0.0.1
control = submission
There are some options that can be used when setting submission mode. A slash
is used to separate options. For example:
control = submission/sender_retain
Specifying sender_retain has the effect of setting local_sender_retain true and
local_from_check false for the current incoming message. The first of these
allows an existing Sender: header in the message to remain, and the second
suppresses the check to ensure that From: matches the authenticated sender.
With this setting, Exim still fixes up messages by adding Date: and Message-ID:
header lines if they are missing, but makes no attempt to check sender
authenticity in header lines.
When sender_retain is not set, a submission mode setting may specify a domain
to be used when generating a From: or Sender: header line. For example:
control = submission/domain=some.domain
The domain may be empty. How this value is used is described in sections 44.11
and 44.16. There is also a name option that allows you to specify the user's
full name for inclusion in a created Sender: or From: header line. For example:
accept authenticated = *
control = submission/domain=wonderland.example/\
name=${lookup {$authenticated_id} \
lsearch {/etc/exim/namelist}}
Because the name may contain any characters, including slashes, the name option
must be given last. The remainder of the string is used as the name. For the
example above, if /etc/exim/namelist contains:
bigegg: Humpty Dumpty
then when the sender has authenticated as bigegg, the generated Sender: line
would be:
Sender: Humpty Dumpty <bigegg@wonderland.example>
By default, submission mode forces the return path to the same address as is
used to create the Sender: header. However, if sender_retain is specified, the
return path is also left unchanged.
Note: The changes caused by submission mode take effect after the predata ACL.
This means that any sender checks performed before the fix-ups use the
untrusted sender address specified by the user, not the trusted sender address
specified by submission mode. Although this might be slightly unexpected, it
does mean that you can configure ACL checks to spot that a user is trying to
spoof another's address.
44.2 Line endings
-----------------
RFC 2821 specifies that CRLF (two characters: carriage-return, followed by
linefeed) is the line ending for messages transmitted over the Internet using
SMTP over TCP/IP. However, within individual operating systems, different
conventions are used. For example, Unix-like systems use just LF, but others
use CRLF or just CR.
Exim was designed for Unix-like systems, and internally, it stores messages
using the system's convention of a single LF as a line terminator. When
receiving a message, all line endings are translated to this standard format.
Originally, it was thought that programs that passed messages directly to an
MTA within an operating system would use that system's convention. Experience
has shown that this is not the case; for example, there are Unix applications
that use CRLF in this circumstance. For this reason, and for compatibility with
other MTAs, the way Exim handles line endings for all messages is now as
follows:
* LF not preceded by CR is treated as a line ending.
* CR is treated as a line ending; if it is immediately followed by LF, the LF
is ignored.
* The sequence "CR, dot, CR" does not terminate an incoming SMTP message, nor
a local message in the state where a line containing only a dot is a
terminator.
* If a bare CR is encountered within a header line, an extra space is added
after the line terminator so as not to end the header line. The reasoning
behind this is that bare CRs in header lines are most likely either to be
mistakes, or people trying to play silly games.
* If the first header line received in a message ends with CRLF, a subsequent
bare LF in a header line is treated in the same way as a bare CR in a
header line.
44.3 Unqualified addresses
--------------------------
By default, Exim expects every envelope address it receives from an external
host to be fully qualified. Unqualified addresses cause negative responses to
SMTP commands. However, because SMTP is used as a means of transporting
messages from MUAs running on personal workstations, there is sometimes a
requirement to accept unqualified addresses from specific hosts or IP networks.
Exim has two options that separately control which hosts may send unqualified
sender or recipient addresses in SMTP commands, namely sender_unqualified_hosts
and recipient_unqualified_hosts. In both cases, if an unqualified address is
accepted, it is qualified by adding the value of qualify_domain or
qualify_recipient, as appropriate.
Unqualified addresses in header lines are automatically qualified for messages
that are locally originated, unless the -bnq option is given on the command
line. For messages received over SMTP, unqualified addresses in header lines
are qualified only if unqualified addresses are permitted in SMTP commands. In
other words, such qualification is also controlled by sender_unqualified_hosts
and recipient_unqualified_hosts,
44.4 The UUCP From line
-----------------------
Messages that have come from UUCP (and some other applications) often begin
with a line containing the envelope sender and a timestamp, following the word
"From". Examples of two common formats are:
From a.oakley@berlin.mus Fri Jan 5 12:35 GMT 1996
From f.butler@berlin.mus Fri, 7 Jan 97 14:00:00 GMT
This line precedes the RFC 2822 header lines. For compatibility with Sendmail,
Exim recognizes such lines at the start of messages that are submitted to it
via the command line (that is, on the standard input). It does not recognize
such lines in incoming SMTP messages, unless the sending host matches
ignore_fromline_hosts or the -bs option was used for a local message and
ignore_fromline_local is set. The recognition is controlled by a regular
expression that is defined by the uucp_from_pattern option, whose default value
matches the two common cases shown above and puts the address that follows
"From" into $1.
When the caller of Exim for a non-SMTP message that contains a "From" line is a
trusted user, the message's sender address is constructed by expanding the
contents of uucp_sender_address, whose default value is "$1". This is then
parsed as an RFC 2822 address. If there is no domain, the local part is
qualified with qualify_domain unless it is the empty string. However, if the
command line -f option is used, it overrides the "From" line.
If the caller of Exim is not trusted, the "From" line is recognized, but the
sender address is not changed. This is also the case for incoming SMTP messages
that are permitted to contain "From" lines.
Only one "From" line is recognized. If there is more than one, the second is
treated as a data line that starts the body of the message, as it is not valid
as a header line. This also happens if a "From" line is present in an incoming
SMTP message from a source that is not permitted to send them.
44.5 Resent- header lines
-------------------------
RFC 2822 makes provision for sets of header lines starting with the string
"Resent-" to be added to a message when it is resent by the original recipient
to somebody else. These headers are Resent-Date:, Resent-From:, Resent-Sender:,
Resent-To:, Resent-Cc:, Resent-Bcc: and Resent-Message-ID:. The RFC says:
Resent fields are strictly informational. They MUST NOT be used in the
normal processing of replies or other such automatic actions on messages.
This leaves things a bit vague as far as other processing actions such as
address rewriting are concerned. Exim treats Resent- header lines as follows:
* A Resent-From: line that just contains the login id of the submitting user
is automatically rewritten in the same way as From: (see below).
* If there's a rewriting rule for a particular header line, it is also
applied to Resent- header lines of the same type. For example, a rule that
rewrites From: also rewrites Resent-From:.
* For local messages, if Sender: is removed on input, Resent-Sender: is also
removed.
* For a locally-submitted message, if there are any Resent- header lines but
no Resent-Date:, Resent-From:, or Resent-Message-Id:, they are added as
necessary. It is the contents of Resent-Message-Id: (rather than
Message-Id:) which are included in log lines in this case.
* The logic for adding Sender: is duplicated for Resent-Sender: when any
Resent- header lines are present.
44.6 The Auto-Submitted: header line
------------------------------------
Whenever Exim generates an autoreply, a bounce, or a delay warning message, it
includes the header line:
Auto-Submitted: auto-replied
44.7 The Bcc: header line
-------------------------
If Exim is called with the -t option, to take recipient addresses from a
message's header, it removes any Bcc: header line that may exist (after
extracting its addresses). If -t is not present on the command line, any
existing Bcc: is not removed.
44.8 The Date: header line
--------------------------
If a locally-generated or submission-mode message has no Date: header line,
Exim adds one, using the current date and time, unless the
suppress_local_fixups control has been specified.
44.9 The Delivery-date: header line
-----------------------------------
Delivery-date: header lines are not part of the standard RFC 2822 header set.
Exim can be configured to add them to the final delivery of messages. (See the
generic delivery_date_add transport option.) They should not be present in
messages in transit. If the delivery_date_remove configuration option is set
(the default), Exim removes Delivery-date: header lines from incoming messages.
44.10 The Envelope-to: header line
----------------------------------
Envelope-to: header lines are not part of the standard RFC 2822 header set.
Exim can be configured to add them to the final delivery of messages. (See the
generic envelope_to_add transport option.) They should not be present in
messages in transit. If the envelope_to_remove configuration option is set (the
default), Exim removes Envelope-to: header lines from incoming messages.
44.11 The From: header line
---------------------------
If a submission-mode message does not contain a From: header line, Exim adds
one if either of the following conditions is true:
* The envelope sender address is not empty (that is, this is not a bounce
message). The added header line copies the envelope sender address.
* The SMTP session is authenticated and $authenticated_id is not empty.
1. If no domain is specified by the submission control, the local part is
$authenticated_id and the domain is $qualify_domain.
2. If a non-empty domain is specified by the submission control, the local
part is $authenticated_id, and the domain is the specified domain.
3. If an empty domain is specified by the submission control,
$authenticated_id is assumed to be the complete address.
A non-empty envelope sender takes precedence.
If a locally-generated incoming message does not contain a From: header line,
and the suppress_local_fixups control is not set, Exim adds one containing the
sender's address. The calling user's login name and full name are used to
construct the address, as described in section 44.18. They are obtained from
the password data by calling getpwuid() (but see the unknown_login
configuration option). The address is qualified with qualify_domain.
For compatibility with Sendmail, if an incoming, non-SMTP message has a From:
header line containing just the unqualified login name of the calling user,
this is replaced by an address containing the user's login name and full name
as described in section 44.18.
44.12 The Message-ID: header line
---------------------------------
If a locally-generated or submission-mode incoming message does not contain a
Message-ID: or Resent-Message-ID: header line, and the suppress_local_fixups
control is not set, Exim adds a suitable header line to the message. If there
are any Resent-: headers in the message, it creates Resent-Message-ID:. The id
is constructed from Exim's internal message id, preceded by the letter E to
ensure it starts with a letter, and followed by @ and the primary host name.
Additional information can be included in this header line by setting the
message_id_header_text and/or message_id_header_domain options.
44.13 The Received: header line
-------------------------------
A Received: header line is added at the start of every message. The contents
are defined by the received_header_text configuration option, and Exim
automatically adds a semicolon and a timestamp to the configured string.
The Received: header is generated as soon as the message's header lines have
been received. At this stage, the timestamp in the Received: header line is the
time that the message started to be received. This is the value that is seen by
the DATA ACL and by the local_scan() function.
Once a message is accepted, the timestamp in the Received: header line is
changed to the time of acceptance, which is (apart from a small delay while the
-H spool file is written) the earliest time at which delivery could start.
44.14 The References: header line
---------------------------------
Messages created by the autoreply transport include a References: header line.
This is constructed according to the rules that are described in section 3.64
of RFC 2822 (which states that replies should contain such a header line), and
section 3.14 of RFC 3834 (which states that automatic responses are not
different in this respect). However, because some mail processing software does
not cope well with very long header lines, no more than 12 message IDs are
copied from the References: header line in the incoming message. If there are
more than 12, the first one and then the final 11 are copied, before adding the
message ID of the incoming message.
44.15 The Return-path: header line
----------------------------------
Return-path: header lines are defined as something an MTA may insert when it
does the final delivery of messages. (See the generic return_path_add transport
option.) Therefore, they should not be present in messages in transit. If the
return_path_remove configuration option is set (the default), Exim removes
Return-path: header lines from incoming messages.
44.16 The Sender: header line
-----------------------------
For a locally-originated message from an untrusted user, Exim may remove an
existing Sender: header line, and it may add a new one. You can modify these
actions by setting the local_sender_retain option true, the local_from_check
option false, or by using the suppress_local_fixups control setting.
When a local message is received from an untrusted user and local_from_check is
true (the default), and the suppress_local_fixups control has not been set, a
check is made to see if the address given in the From: header line is the
correct (local) sender of the message. The address that is expected has the
login name as the local part and the value of qualify_domain as the domain.
Prefixes and suffixes for the local part can be permitted by setting
local_from_prefix and local_from_suffix appropriately. If From: does not
contain the correct sender, a Sender: line is added to the message.
If you set local_from_check false, this checking does not occur. However, the
removal of an existing Sender: line still happens, unless you also set
local_sender_retain to be true. It is not possible to set both of these options
true at the same time.
By default, no processing of Sender: header lines is done for messages received
over TCP/IP or for messages submitted by trusted users. However, when a message
is received over TCP/IP in submission mode, and sender_retain is not specified
on the submission control, the following processing takes place:
First, any existing Sender: lines are removed. Then, if the SMTP session is
authenticated, and $authenticated_id is not empty, a sender address is created
as follows:
* If no domain is specified by the submission control, the local part is
$authenticated_id and the domain is $qualify_domain.
* If a non-empty domain is specified by the submission control, the local
part is $authenticated_id, and the domain is the specified domain.
* If an empty domain is specified by the submission control,
$authenticated_id is assumed to be the complete address.
This address is compared with the address in the From: header line. If they are
different, a Sender: header line containing the created address is added.
Prefixes and suffixes for the local part in From: can be permitted by setting
local_from_prefix and local_from_suffix appropriately.
Note: Whenever a Sender: header line is created, the return path for the
message (the envelope sender address) is changed to be the same address, except
in the case of submission mode when sender_retain is specified.
44.17 Adding and removing header lines in routers and transports
----------------------------------------------------------------
When a message is delivered, the addition and removal of header lines can be
specified in a system filter, or on any of the routers and transports that
process the message. Section 43.6 contains details about modifying headers in a
system filter. Header lines can also be added in an ACL as a message is
received (see section 40.22).
In contrast to what happens in a system filter, header modifications that are
specified on routers and transports apply only to the particular recipient
addresses that are being processed by those routers and transports. These
changes do not actually take place until a copy of the message is being
transported. Therefore, they do not affect the basic set of header lines, and
they do not affect the values of the variables that refer to header lines.
Note: In particular, this means that any expansions in the configuration of the
transport cannot refer to the modified header lines, because such expansions
all occur before the message is actually transported.
For both routers and transports, the result of expanding a headers_add option
must be in the form of one or more RFC 2822 header lines, separated by newlines
(coded as "\n"). For example:
headers_add = X-added-header: added by $primary_hostname\n\
X-added-second: another added header line
Exim does not check the syntax of these added header lines.
The result of expanding headers_remove must consist of a colon-separated list
of header names. This is confusing, because header names themselves are often
terminated by colons. In this case, the colons are the list separators, not
part of the names. For example:
headers_remove = return-receipt-to:acknowledge-to
When headers_add or headers_remove is specified on a router, its value is
expanded at routing time, and then associated with all addresses that are
accepted by that router, and also with any new addresses that it generates. If
an address passes through several routers as a result of aliasing or
forwarding, the changes are cumulative.
However, this does not apply to multiple routers that result from the use of
the unseen option. Any header modifications that were specified by the "unseen"
router or its predecessors apply only to the "unseen" delivery.
Addresses that end up with different headers_add or headers_remove settings
cannot be delivered together in a batch, so a transport is always dealing with
a set of addresses that have the same header-processing requirements.
The transport starts by writing the original set of header lines that arrived
with the message, possibly modified by the system filter. As it writes out
these lines, it consults the list of header names that were attached to the
recipient address(es) by headers_remove options in routers, and it also
consults the transport's own headers_remove option. Header lines whose names
are on either of these lists are not written out. If there are multiple
instances of any listed header, they are all skipped.
After the remaining original header lines have been written, new header lines
that were specified by routers' headers_add options are written, in the order
in which they were attached to the address. These are followed by any header
lines specified by the transport's headers_add option.
This way of handling header line modifications in routers and transports has
the following consequences:
* The original set of header lines, possibly modified by the system filter,
remains "visible", in the sense that the $header_xxx variables refer to it,
at all times.
* Header lines that are added by a router's headers_add option are not
accessible by means of the $header_xxx expansion syntax in subsequent
routers or the transport.
* Conversely, header lines that are specified for removal by headers_remove
in a router remain visible to subsequent routers and the transport.
* Headers added to an address by headers_add in a router cannot be removed by
a later router or by a transport.
* An added header can refer to the contents of an original header that is to
be removed, even it has the same name as the added header. For example:
headers_remove = subject
headers_add = Subject: new subject (was: $h_subject:)
Warning: The headers_add and headers_remove options cannot be used for a
redirect router that has the one_time option set.
44.18 Constructed addresses
---------------------------
When Exim constructs a sender address for a locally-generated message, it uses
the form
<user name> <login@qualify_domain>
For example:
Zaphod Beeblebrox <zaphod@end.univ.example>
The user name is obtained from the -F command line option if set, or otherwise
by looking up the calling user by getpwuid() and extracting the "gecos" field
from the password entry. If the "gecos" field contains an ampersand character,
this is replaced by the login name with the first letter upper cased, as is
conventional in a number of operating systems. See the gecos_name option for a
way to tailor the handling of the "gecos" field. The unknown_username option
can be used to specify user names in cases when there is no password file
entry.
In all cases, the user name is made to conform to RFC 2822 by quoting all or
parts of it if necessary. In addition, if it contains any non-printing
characters, it is encoded as described in RFC 2047, which defines a way of
including non-ASCII characters in header lines. The value of the
headers_charset option specifies the name of the encoding that is used (the
characters are assumed to be in this encoding). The setting of
print_topbitchars controls whether characters with the top bit set (that is,
with codes greater than 127) count as printing characters or not.
44.19 Case of local parts
-------------------------
RFC 2822 states that the case of letters in the local parts of addresses cannot
be assumed to be non-significant. Exim preserves the case of local parts of
addresses, but by default it uses a lower-cased form when it is routing,
because on most Unix systems, usernames are in lower case and case-insensitive
routing is required. However, any particular router can be made to use the
original case for local parts by setting the caseful_local_part generic router
option.
If you must have mixed-case user names on your system, the best way to proceed,
assuming you want case-independent handling of incoming email, is to set up
your first router to convert incoming local parts in your domains to the
correct case by means of a file lookup. For example:
correct_case:
driver = redirect
domains = +local_domains
data = ${lookup{$local_part}cdb\
{/etc/usercased.cdb}{$value}fail}\
@$domain
For this router, the local part is forced to lower case by the default action (
caseful_local_part is not set). The lower-cased local part is used to look up a
new local part in the correct case. If you then set caseful_local_part on any
subsequent routers which process your domains, they will operate on local parts
with the correct case in a case-sensitive manner.
44.20 Dots in local parts
-------------------------
RFC 2822 forbids empty components in local parts. That is, an unquoted local
part may not begin or end with a dot, nor have two consecutive dots in the
middle. However, it seems that many MTAs do not enforce this, so Exim permits
empty components for compatibility.
44.21 Rewriting addresses
-------------------------
Rewriting of sender and recipient addresses, and addresses in headers, can
happen automatically, or as the result of configuration options, as described
in chapter 31. The headers that may be affected by this are Bcc:, Cc:, From:,
Reply-To:, Sender:, and To:.
Automatic rewriting includes qualification, as mentioned above. The other case
in which it can happen is when an incomplete non-local domain is given. The
routing process may cause this to be expanded into the full domain name. For
example, a header such as
To: hare@teaparty
might get rewritten as
To: hare@teaparty.wonderland.fict.example
Rewriting as a result of routing is the one kind of message processing that
does not happen at input time, as it cannot be done until the address has been
routed.
Strictly, one should not do any deliveries of a message until all its addresses
have been routed, in case any of the headers get changed as a result of
routing. However, doing this in practice would hold up many deliveries for
unreasonable amounts of time, just because one address could not immediately be
routed. Exim therefore does not delay other deliveries when routing of one or
more addresses is deferred.
===============================================================================
45. SMTP PROCESSING
Exim supports a number of different ways of using the SMTP protocol, and its
LMTP variant, which is an interactive protocol for transferring messages into a
closed mail store application. This chapter contains details of how SMTP is
processed. For incoming mail, the following are available:
* SMTP over TCP/IP (Exim daemon or inetd);
* SMTP over the standard input and output (the -bs option);
* Batched SMTP on the standard input (the -bS option).
For mail delivery, the following are available:
* SMTP over TCP/IP (the smtp transport);
* LMTP over TCP/IP (the smtp transport with the protocol option set to
"lmtp");
* LMTP over a pipe to a process running in the local host (the lmtp
transport);
* Batched SMTP to a file or pipe (the appendfile and pipe transports with the
use_bsmtp option set).
Batched SMTP is the name for a process in which batches of messages are stored
in or read from files (or pipes), in a format in which SMTP commands are used
to contain the envelope information.
45.1 Outgoing SMTP and LMTP over TCP/IP
---------------------------------------
Outgoing SMTP and LMTP over TCP/IP is implemented by the smtp transport. The
protocol option selects which protocol is to be used, but the actual processing
is the same in both cases.
If, in response to its EHLO command, Exim is told that the SIZE parameter is
supported, it adds SIZE=<n> to each subsequent MAIL command. The value of <n>
is the message size plus the value of the size_addition option (default 1024)
to allow for additions to the message such as per-transport header lines, or
changes made in a transport filter. If size_addition is set negative, the use
of SIZE is suppressed.
If the remote server advertises support for PIPELINING, Exim uses the
pipelining extension to SMTP (RFC 2197) to reduce the number of TCP/IP packets
required for the transaction.
If the remote server advertises support for the STARTTLS command, and Exim was
built to support TLS encryption, it tries to start a TLS session unless the
server matches hosts_avoid_tls. See chapter 39 for more details.
If the remote server advertises support for the AUTH command, Exim scans the
authenticators configuration for any suitable client settings, as described in
chapter 33.
Responses from the remote host are supposed to be terminated by CR followed by
LF. However, there are known to be hosts that do not send CR characters, so in
order to be able to interwork with such hosts, Exim treats LF on its own as a
line terminator.
If a message contains a number of different addresses, all those with the same
characteristics (for example, the same envelope sender) that resolve to the
same set of hosts, in the same order, are sent in a single SMTP transaction,
even if they are for different domains, unless there are more than the setting
of the max_rcpts option in the smtp transport allows, in which case they are
split into groups containing no more than max_rcpts addresses each. If
remote_max_parallel is greater than one, such groups may be sent in parallel
sessions. The order of hosts with identical MX values is not significant when
checking whether addresses can be batched in this way.
When the smtp transport suffers a temporary failure that is not
message-related, Exim updates its transport-specific database, which contains
records indexed by host name that remember which messages are waiting for each
particular host. It also updates the retry database with new retry times.
Exim's retry hints are based on host name plus IP address, so if one address of
a multi-homed host is broken, it will soon be skipped most of the time. See the
next section for more detail about error handling.
When a message is successfully delivered over a TCP/IP SMTP connection, Exim
looks in the hints database for the transport to see if there are any queued
messages waiting for the host to which it is connected. If it finds one, it
creates a new Exim process using the -MC option (which can only be used by a
process running as root or the Exim user) and passes the TCP/IP socket to it so
that it can deliver another message using the same socket. The new process does
only those deliveries that are routed to the connected host, and may in turn
pass the socket on to a third process, and so on.
The connection_max_messages option of the smtp transport can be used to limit
the number of messages sent down a single TCP/IP connection.
The second and subsequent messages delivered down an existing connection are
identified in the main log by the addition of an asterisk after the closing
square bracket of the IP address.
45.2 Errors in outgoing SMTP
----------------------------
Three different kinds of error are recognized for outgoing SMTP: host errors,
message errors, and recipient errors.
Host errors
A host error is not associated with a particular message or with a
particular recipient of a message. The host errors are:
* Connection refused or timed out,
* Any error response code on connection,
* Any error response code to EHLO or HELO,
* Loss of connection at any time, except after ".",
* I/O errors at any time,
* Timeouts during the session, other than in response to MAIL, RCPT or
the "." at the end of the data.
For a host error, a permanent error response on connection, or in response
to EHLO, causes all addresses routed to the host to be failed. Any other
host error causes all addresses to be deferred, and retry data to be
created for the host. It is not tried again, for any message, until its
retry time arrives. If the current set of addresses are not all delivered
in this run (to some alternative host), the message is added to the list of
those waiting for this host, so if it is still undelivered when a
subsequent successful delivery is made to the host, it will be sent down
the same SMTP connection.
Message errors
A message error is associated with a particular message when sent to a
particular host, but not with a particular recipient of the message. The
message errors are:
* Any error response code to MAIL, DATA, or the "." that terminates the
data,
* Timeout after MAIL,
* Timeout or loss of connection after the "." that terminates the data. A
timeout after the DATA command itself is treated as a host error, as is
loss of connection at any other time.
For a message error, a permanent error response (5xx) causes all addresses
to be failed, and a delivery error report to be returned to the sender. A
temporary error response (4xx), or one of the timeouts, causes all
addresses to be deferred. Retry data is not created for the host, but
instead, a retry record for the combination of host plus message id is
created. The message is not added to the list of those waiting for this
host. This ensures that the failing message will not be sent to this host
again until the retry time arrives. However, other messages that are routed
to the host are not affected, so if it is some property of the message that
is causing the error, it will not stop the delivery of other mail.
If the remote host specified support for the SIZE parameter in its response
to EHLO, Exim adds SIZE=nnn to the MAIL command, so an over-large message
will cause a message error because the error arrives as a response to MAIL.
Recipient errors
A recipient error is associated with a particular recipient of a message.
The recipient errors are:
* Any error response to RCPT,
* Timeout after RCPT.
For a recipient error, a permanent error response (5xx) causes the
recipient address to be failed, and a bounce message to be returned to the
sender. A temporary error response (4xx) or a timeout causes the failing
address to be deferred, and routing retry data to be created for it. This
is used to delay processing of the address in subsequent queue runs, until
its routing retry time arrives. This applies to all messages, but because
it operates only in queue runs, one attempt will be made to deliver a new
message to the failing address before the delay starts to operate. This
ensures that, if the failure is really related to the message rather than
the recipient ("message too big for this recipient" is a possible example),
other messages have a chance of getting delivered. If a delivery to the
address does succeed, the retry information gets cleared, so all stuck
messages get tried again, and the retry clock is reset.
The message is not added to the list of those waiting for this host. Use of
the host for other messages is unaffected, and except in the case of a
timeout, other recipients are processed independently, and may be
successfully delivered in the current SMTP session. After a timeout it is
of course impossible to proceed with the session, so all addresses get
deferred. However, those other than the one that failed do not suffer any
subsequent retry delays. Therefore, if one recipient is causing trouble,
the others have a chance of getting through when a subsequent delivery
attempt occurs before the failing recipient's retry time.
In all cases, if there are other hosts (or IP addresses) available for the
current set of addresses (for example, from multiple MX records), they are
tried in this run for any undelivered addresses, subject of course to their own
retry data. In other words, recipient error retry data does not take effect
until the next delivery attempt.
Some hosts have been observed to give temporary error responses to every MAIL
command at certain times ("insufficient space" has been seen). It would be nice
if such circumstances could be recognized, and defer data for the host itself
created, but this is not possible within the current Exim design. What actually
happens is that retry data for every (host, message) combination is created.
The reason that timeouts after MAIL and RCPT are treated specially is that
these can sometimes arise as a result of the remote host's verification
procedures. Exim makes this assumption, and treats them as if a temporary error
response had been received. A timeout after "." is treated specially because it
is known that some broken implementations fail to recognize the end of the
message if the last character of the last line is a binary zero. Thus, it is
helpful to treat this case as a message error.
Timeouts at other times are treated as host errors, assuming a problem with the
host, or the connection to it. If a timeout after MAIL, RCPT, or "." is really
a connection problem, the assumption is that at the next try the timeout is
likely to occur at some other point in the dialogue, causing it then to be
treated as a host error.
There is experimental evidence that some MTAs drop the connection after the
terminating "." if they do not like the contents of the message for some
reason, in contravention of the RFC, which indicates that a 5xx response should
be given. That is why Exim treats this case as a message rather than a host
error, in order not to delay other messages to the same host.
45.3 Incoming SMTP messages over TCP/IP
---------------------------------------
Incoming SMTP messages can be accepted in one of two ways: by running a
listening daemon, or by using inetd. In the latter case, the entry in /etc/
inetd.conf should be like this:
smtp stream tcp nowait exim /opt/exim/bin/exim in.exim -bs
Exim distinguishes between this case and the case of a locally running user
agent using the -bs option by checking whether or not the standard input is a
socket. When it is, either the port must be privileged (less than 1024), or the
caller must be root or the Exim user. If any other user passes a socket with an
unprivileged port number, Exim prints a message on the standard error stream
and exits with an error code.
By default, Exim does not make a log entry when a remote host connects or
disconnects (either via the daemon or inetd), unless the disconnection is
unexpected. It can be made to write such log entries by setting the
smtp_connection log selector.
Commands from the remote host are supposed to be terminated by CR followed by
LF. However, there are known to be hosts that do not send CR characters. In
order to be able to interwork with such hosts, Exim treats LF on its own as a
line terminator. Furthermore, because common code is used for receiving
messages from all sources, a CR on its own is also interpreted as a line
terminator. However, the sequence "CR, dot, CR" does not terminate incoming
SMTP data.
One area that sometimes gives rise to problems concerns the EHLO or HELO
commands. Some clients send syntactically invalid versions of these commands,
which Exim rejects by default. (This is nothing to do with verifying the data
that is sent, so helo_verify_hosts is not relevant.) You can tell Exim not to
apply a syntax check by setting helo_accept_junk_hosts to match the broken
hosts that send invalid commands.
The amount of disk space available is checked whenever SIZE is received on a
MAIL command, independently of whether message_size_limit or check_spool_space
is configured, unless smtp_check_spool_space is set false. A temporary error is
given if there is not enough space. If check_spool_space is set, the check is
for that amount of space plus the value given with SIZE, that is, it checks
that the addition of the incoming message will not reduce the space below the
threshold.
When a message is successfully received, Exim includes the local message id in
its response to the final "." that terminates the data. If the remote host logs
this text it can help with tracing what has happened to a message.
The Exim daemon can limit the number of simultaneous incoming connections it is
prepared to handle (see the smtp_accept_max option). It can also limit the
number of simultaneous incoming connections from a single remote host (see the
smtp_accept_max_per_host option). Additional connection attempts are rejected
using the SMTP temporary error code 421.
The Exim daemon does not rely on the SIGCHLD signal to detect when a subprocess
has finished, as this can get lost at busy times. Instead, it looks for
completed subprocesses every time it wakes up. Provided there are other things
happening (new incoming calls, starts of queue runs), completed processes will
be noticed and tidied away. On very quiet systems you may sometimes see a
"defunct" Exim process hanging about. This is not a problem; it will be noticed
when the daemon next wakes up.
When running as a daemon, Exim can reserve some SMTP slots for specific hosts,
and can also be set up to reject SMTP calls from non-reserved hosts at times of
high system load - for details see the smtp_accept_reserve, smtp_load_reserve,
and smtp_reserve_hosts options. The load check applies in both the daemon and
inetd cases.
Exim normally starts a delivery process for each message received, though this
can be varied by means of the -odq command line option and the queue_only,
queue_only_file, and queue_only_load options. The number of simultaneously
running delivery processes started in this way from SMTP input can be limited
by the smtp_accept_queue and smtp_accept_queue_per_connection options. When
either limit is reached, subsequently received messages are just put on the
input queue without starting a delivery process.
The controls that involve counts of incoming SMTP calls (smtp_accept_max,
smtp_accept_queue, smtp_accept_reserve) are not available when Exim is started
up from the inetd daemon, because in that case each connection is handled by an
entirely independent Exim process. Control by load average is, however,
available with inetd.
Exim can be configured to verify addresses in incoming SMTP commands as they
are received. See chapter 40 for details. It can also be configured to rewrite
addresses at this time - before any syntax checking is done. See section 31.9.
Exim can also be configured to limit the rate at which a client host submits
MAIL and RCPT commands in a single SMTP session. See the smtp_ratelimit_hosts
option.
45.4 Unrecognized SMTP commands
-------------------------------
If Exim receives more than smtp_max_unknown_commands unrecognized SMTP commands
during a single SMTP connection, it drops the connection after sending the
error response to the last command. The default value for
smtp_max_unknown_commands is 3. This is a defence against some kinds of abuse
that subvert web servers into making connections to SMTP ports; in these
circumstances, a number of non-SMTP lines are sent first.
45.5 Syntax and protocol errors in SMTP commands
------------------------------------------------
A syntax error is detected if an SMTP command is recognized, but there is
something syntactically wrong with its data, for example, a malformed email
address in a RCPT command. Protocol errors include invalid command sequencing
such as RCPT before MAIL. If Exim receives more than smtp_max_synprot_errors
such commands during a single SMTP connection, it drops the connection after
sending the error response to the last command. The default value for
smtp_max_synprot_errors is 3. This is a defence against broken clients that
loop sending bad commands (yes, it has been seen).
45.6 Use of non-mail SMTP commands
----------------------------------
The "non-mail" SMTP commands are those other than MAIL, RCPT, and DATA. Exim
counts such commands, and drops the connection if there are too many of them in
a single SMTP session. This action catches some denial-of-service attempts and
things like repeated failing AUTHs, or a mad client looping sending EHLO. The
global option smtp_accept_max_nonmail defines what "too many" means. Its
default value is 10.
When a new message is expected, one occurrence of RSET is not counted. This
allows a client to send one RSET between messages (this is not necessary, but
some clients do it). Exim also allows one uncounted occurrence of HELO or EHLO,
and one occurrence of STARTTLS between messages. After starting up a TLS
session, another EHLO is expected, and so it too is not counted.
The first occurrence of AUTH in a connection, or immediately following STARTTLS
is also not counted. Otherwise, all commands other than MAIL, RCPT, DATA, and
QUIT are counted.
You can control which hosts are subject to the limit set by
smtp_accept_max_nonmail by setting smtp_accept_max_nonmail_hosts. The default
value is "*", which makes the limit apply to all hosts. This option means that
you can exclude any specific badly-behaved hosts that you have to live with.
45.7 The VRFY and EXPN commands
-------------------------------
When Exim receives a VRFY or EXPN command on a TCP/IP connection, it runs the
ACL specified by acl_smtp_vrfy or acl_smtp_expn (as appropriate) in order to
decide whether the command should be accepted or not. If no ACL is defined, the
command is rejected.
When VRFY is accepted, it runs exactly the same code as when Exim is called
with the -bv option.
When EXPN is accepted, a single-level expansion of the address is done. EXPN is
treated as an "address test" (similar to the -bt option) rather than a
verification (the -bv option). If an unqualified local part is given as the
argument to EXPN, it is qualified with qualify_domain. Rejections of VRFY and
EXPN commands are logged on the main and reject logs, and VRFY verification
failures are logged on the main log for consistency with RCPT failures.
45.8 The ETRN command
---------------------
RFC 1985 describes an SMTP command called ETRN that is designed to overcome the
security problems of the TURN command (which has fallen into disuse). When Exim
receives an ETRN command on a TCP/IP connection, it runs the ACL specified by
acl_smtp_etrn in order to decide whether the command should be accepted or not.
If no ACL is defined, the command is rejected.
The ETRN command is concerned with "releasing" messages that are awaiting
delivery to certain hosts. As Exim does not organize its message queue by host,
the only form of ETRN that is supported by default is the one where the text
starts with the "#" prefix, in which case the remainder of the text is specific
to the SMTP server. A valid ETRN command causes a run of Exim with the -R
option to happen, with the remainder of the ETRN text as its argument. For
example,
ETRN #brigadoon
runs the command
exim -R brigadoon
which causes a delivery attempt on all messages with undelivered addresses
containing the text "brigadoon". When smtp_etrn_serialize is set (the default),
Exim prevents the simultaneous execution of more than one queue run for the
same argument string as a result of an ETRN command. This stops a misbehaving
client from starting more than one queue runner at once.
Exim implements the serialization by means of a hints database in which a
record is written whenever a process is started by ETRN, and deleted when the
process completes. However, Exim does not keep the SMTP session waiting for the
ETRN process to complete. Once ETRN is accepted, the client is sent a "success"
return code. Obviously there is scope for hints records to get left lying
around if there is a system or program crash. To guard against this, Exim
ignores any records that are more than six hours old.
For more control over what ETRN does, the smtp_etrn_command option can used.
This specifies a command that is run whenever ETRN is received, whatever the
form of its argument. For example:
smtp_etrn_command = /etc/etrn_command $domain \
$sender_host_address
The string is split up into arguments which are independently expanded. The
expansion variable $domain is set to the argument of the ETRN command, and no
syntax checking is done on the contents of this argument. Exim does not wait
for the command to complete, so its status code is not checked. Exim runs under
its own uid and gid when receiving incoming SMTP, so it is not possible for it
to change them before running the command.
45.9 Incoming local SMTP
------------------------
Some user agents use SMTP to pass messages to their local MTA using the
standard input and output, as opposed to passing the envelope on the command
line and writing the message to the standard input. This is supported by the
-bs option. This form of SMTP is handled in the same way as incoming messages
over TCP/IP (including the use of ACLs), except that the envelope sender given
in a MAIL command is ignored unless the caller is trusted. In an ACL you can
detect this form of SMTP input by testing for an empty host identification. It
is common to have this as the first line in the ACL that runs for RCPT
commands:
accept hosts = :
This accepts SMTP messages from local processes without doing any other tests.
45.10 Outgoing batched SMTP
---------------------------
Both the appendfile and pipe transports can be used for handling batched SMTP.
Each has an option called use_bsmtp which causes messages to be output in BSMTP
format. No SMTP responses are possible for this form of delivery. All it is
doing is using SMTP commands as a way of transmitting the envelope along with
the message.
The message is written to the file or pipe preceded by the SMTP commands MAIL
and RCPT, and followed by a line containing a single dot. Lines in the message
that start with a dot have an extra dot added. The SMTP command HELO is not
normally used. If it is required, the message_prefix option can be used to
specify it.
Because appendfile and pipe are both local transports, they accept only one
recipient address at a time by default. However, you can arrange for them to
handle several addresses at once by setting the batch_max option. When this is
done for BSMTP, messages may contain multiple RCPT commands. See chapter 25 for
more details.
When one or more addresses are routed to a BSMTP transport by a router that
sets up a host list, the name of the first host on the list is available to the
transport in the variable $host. Here is an example of such a transport and
router:
begin routers
route_append:
driver = manualroute
transport = smtp_appendfile
route_list = domain.example batch.host.example
begin transports
smtp_appendfile:
driver = appendfile
directory = /var/bsmtp/$host
batch_max = 1000
use_bsmtp
user = exim
This causes messages addressed to domain.example to be written in BSMTP format
to /var/bsmtp/batch.host.example, with only a single copy of each message
(unless there are more than 1000 recipients).
45.11 Incoming batched SMTP
---------------------------
The -bS command line option causes Exim to accept one or more messages by
reading SMTP on the standard input, but to generate no responses. If the caller
is trusted, the senders in the MAIL commands are believed; otherwise the sender
is always the caller of Exim. Unqualified senders and receivers are not
rejected (there seems little point) but instead just get qualified. HELO and
EHLO act as RSET; VRFY, EXPN, ETRN and HELP, act as NOOP; QUIT quits.
No policy checking is done for BSMTP input. That is, no ACL is run at anytime.
In this respect it is like non-SMTP local input.
If an error is detected while reading a message, including a missing "." at the
end, Exim gives up immediately. It writes details of the error to the standard
output in a stylized way that the calling program should be able to make some
use of automatically, for example:
554 Unexpected end of file
Transaction started in line 10
Error detected in line 14
It writes a more verbose version, for human consumption, to the standard error
file, for example:
An error was detected while processing a file of BSMTP input.
The error message was:
501 '>' missing at end of address
The SMTP transaction started in line 10.
The error was detected in line 12.
The SMTP command at fault was:
rcpt to:<malformed@in.com.plete
1 previous message was successfully processed.
The rest of the batch was abandoned.
The return code from Exim is zero only if there were no errors. It is 1 if some
messages were accepted before an error was detected, and 2 if no messages were
accepted.
===============================================================================
46. CUSTOMIZING BOUNCE AND WARNING MESSAGES
When a message fails to be delivered, or remains on the queue for more than a
configured amount of time, Exim sends a message to the original sender, or to
an alternative configured address. The text of these messages is built into the
code of Exim, but it is possible to change it, either by adding a single
string, or by replacing each of the paragraphs by text supplied in a file.
The From: and To: header lines are automatically generated; you can cause a
Reply-To: line to be added by setting the errors_reply_to option. Exim also
adds the line
Auto-Submitted: auto-generated
to all warning and bounce messages,
46.1 Customizing bounce messages
--------------------------------
If bounce_message_text is set, its contents are included in the default message
immediately after "This message was created automatically by mail delivery
software." The string is not expanded. It is not used if bounce_message_file is
set.
When bounce_message_file is set, it must point to a template file for
constructing error messages. The file consists of a series of text items,
separated by lines consisting of exactly four asterisks. If the file cannot be
opened, default text is used and a message is written to the main and panic
logs. If any text item in the file is empty, default text is used for that
item.
Each item of text that is read from the file is expanded, and there are two
expansion variables which can be of use here: $bounce_recipient is set to the
recipient of an error message while it is being created, and
$bounce_return_size_limit contains the value of the return_size_limit option,
rounded to a whole number.
The items must appear in the file in the following order:
* The first item is included in the headers, and should include at least a
Subject: header. Exim does not check the syntax of these headers.
* The second item forms the start of the error message. After it, Exim lists
the failing addresses with their error messages.
* The third item is used to introduce any text from pipe transports that is
to be returned to the sender. It is omitted if there is no such text.
* The fourth item is used to introduce the copy of the message that is
returned as part of the error report.
* The fifth item is added after the fourth one if the returned message is
truncated because it is bigger than return_size_limit.
* The sixth item is added after the copy of the original message.
The default state (bounce_message_file unset) is equivalent to the following
file, in which the sixth item is empty. The Subject: and some other lines have
been split in order to fit them on the page:
Subject: Mail delivery failed
${if eq{$sender_address}{$bounce_recipient}
{: returning message to sender}}
****
This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.
A message ${if eq{$sender_address}{$bounce_recipient}
{that you sent }{sent by
<$sender_address>
}}could not be delivered to all of its recipients.
This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:
****
The following text was generated during the delivery attempt(s):
****
------ This is a copy of the message, including all the headers.
------
****
------ The body of the message is $message_size characters long;
only the first
------ $bounce_return_size_limit or so are included here.
****
46.2 Customizing warning messages
---------------------------------
The option warn_message_file can be pointed at a template file for use when
warnings about message delays are created. In this case there are only three
text sections:
* The first item is included in the headers, and should include at least a
Subject: header. Exim does not check the syntax of these headers.
* The second item forms the start of the warning message. After it, Exim
lists the delayed addresses.
* The third item then ends the message.
The default state is equivalent to the following file, except that some lines
have been split here, in order to fit them on the page:
Subject: Warning: message $message_exim_id delayed
$warn_message_delay
****
This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.
A message ${if eq{$sender_address}{$warn_message_recipients}
{that you sent }{sent by
<$sender_address>
}}has not been delivered to all of its recipients after
more than $warn_message_delay on the queue on $primary_hostname.
The message identifier is: $message_exim_id
The subject of the message is: $h_subject
The date of the message is: $h_date
The following address(es) have not yet been delivered:
****
No action is required on your part. Delivery attempts will
continue for some time, and this warning may be repeated at
intervals if the message remains undelivered. Eventually the
mail delivery software will give up, and when that happens,
the message will be returned to you.
However, in the default state the subject and date lines are omitted if no
appropriate headers exist. During the expansion of this file,
$warn_message_delay is set to the delay time in one of the forms "<n> minutes"
or "<n> hours", and $warn_message_recipients contains a list of recipients for
the warning message. There may be more than one if there are multiple addresses
with different errors_to settings on the routers that handled them.
===============================================================================
47. SOME COMMON CONFIGURATION SETTINGS
This chapter discusses some configuration settings that seem to be fairly
common. More examples and discussion can be found in the Exim book.
47.1 Sending mail to a smart host
---------------------------------
If you want to send all mail for non-local domains to a "smart host", you
should replace the default dnslookup router with a router which does the
routing explicitly:
send_to_smart_host:
driver = manualroute
route_list = !+local_domains smart.host.name
transport = remote_smtp
You can use the smart host's IP address instead of the name if you wish. If you
are using Exim only to submit messages to a smart host, and not for receiving
incoming messages, you can arrange for it to do the submission synchronously by
setting the mua_wrapper option (see chapter 48).
47.2 Using Exim to handle mailing lists
---------------------------------------
Exim can be used to run simple mailing lists, but for large and/or complicated
requirements, the use of additional specialized mailing list software such as
Majordomo or Mailman is recommended.
The redirect router can be used to handle mailing lists where each list is
maintained in a separate file, which can therefore be managed by an independent
manager. The domains router option can be used to run these lists in a separate
domain from normal mail. For example:
lists:
driver = redirect
domains = lists.example
file = /usr/lists/$local_part
forbid_pipe
forbid_file
errors_to = $local_part-request@lists.example
no_more
This router is skipped for domains other than lists.example. For addresses in
that domain, it looks for a file that matches the local part. If there is no
such file, the router declines, but because no_more is set, no subsequent
routers are tried, and so the whole delivery fails.
The forbid_pipe and forbid_file options prevent a local part from being
expanded into a file name or a pipe delivery, which is usually inappropriate in
a mailing list.
The errors_to option specifies that any delivery errors caused by addresses
taken from a mailing list are to be sent to the given address rather than the
original sender of the message. However, before acting on this, Exim verifies
the error address, and ignores it if verification fails.
For example, using the configuration above, mail sent to dicts@lists.example is
passed on to those addresses contained in /usr/lists/dicts, with error reports
directed to dicts-request@lists.example, provided that this address can be
verified. There could be a file called /usr/lists/dicts-request containing the
address(es) of this particular list's manager(s), but other approaches, such as
setting up an earlier router (possibly using the local_part_prefix or
local_part_suffix options) to handle addresses of the form owner-xxx or xxx-
request, are also possible.
47.3 Syntax errors in mailing lists
-----------------------------------
If an entry in redirection data contains a syntax error, Exim normally defers
delivery of the original address. That means that a syntax error in a mailing
list holds up all deliveries to the list. This may not be appropriate when a
list is being maintained automatically from data supplied by users, and the
addresses are not rigorously checked.
If the skip_syntax_errors option is set, the redirect router just skips entries
that fail to parse, noting the incident in the log. If in addition
syntax_errors_to is set to a verifiable address, a message is sent to it
whenever a broken address is skipped. It is usually appropriate to set
syntax_errors_to to the same address as errors_to.
47.4 Re-expansion of mailing lists
----------------------------------
Exim remembers every individual address to which a message has been delivered,
in order to avoid duplication, but it normally stores only the original
recipient addresses with a message. If all the deliveries to a mailing list
cannot be done at the first attempt, the mailing list is re-expanded when the
delivery is next tried. This means that alterations to the list are taken into
account at each delivery attempt, so addresses that have been added to the list
since the message arrived will therefore receive a copy of the message, even
though it pre-dates their subscription.
If this behaviour is felt to be undesirable, the one_time option can be set on
the redirect router. If this is done, any addresses generated by the router
that fail to deliver at the first attempt are added to the message as "top
level" addresses, and the parent address that generated them is marked
"delivered". Thus, expansion of the mailing list does not happen again at the
subsequent delivery attempts. The disadvantage of this is that if any of the
failing addresses are incorrect, correcting them in the file has no effect on
pre-existing messages.
The original top-level address is remembered with each of the generated
addresses, and is output in any log messages. However, any intermediate parent
addresses are not recorded. This makes a difference to the log only if the
all_parents selector is set, but for mailing lists there is normally only one
level of expansion anyway.
47.5 Closed mailing lists
-------------------------
The examples so far have assumed open mailing lists, to which anybody may send
mail. It is also possible to set up closed lists, where mail is accepted from
specified senders only. This is done by making use of the generic senders
option to restrict the router that handles the list.
The following example uses the same file as a list of recipients and as a list
of permitted senders. It requires three routers:
lists_request:
driver = redirect
domains = lists.example
local_part_suffix = -request
file = /usr/lists/$local_part$local_part_suffix
no_more
lists_post:
driver = redirect
domains = lists.example
senders = ${if exists {/usr/lists/$local_part}\
{lsearch;/usr/lists/$local_part}{*}}
file = /usr/lists/$local_part
forbid_pipe
forbid_file
errors_to = $local_part-request@lists.example
no_more
lists_closed:
driver = redirect
domains = lists.example
allow_fail
data = :fail: $local_part@lists.example is a closed mailing list
All three routers have the same domains setting, so for any other domains, they
are all skipped. The first router runs only if the local part ends in -request.
It handles messages to the list manager(s) by means of an open mailing list.
The second router runs only if the senders precondition is satisfied. It checks
for the existence of a list that corresponds to the local part, and then checks
that the sender is on the list by means of a linear search. It is necessary to
check for the existence of the file before trying to search it, because
otherwise Exim thinks there is a configuration error. If the file does not
exist, the expansion of senders is *, which matches all senders. This means
that the router runs, but because there is no list, declines, and no_more
ensures that no further routers are run. The address fails with an "unrouteable
address" error.
The third router runs only if the second router is skipped, which happens when
a mailing list exists, but the sender is not on it. This router forcibly fails
the address, giving a suitable error message.
47.6 Variable Envelope Return Paths (VERP)
------------------------------------------
Variable Envelope Return Paths - see http://cr.yp.to/proto/verp.txt - are a way
of helping mailing list administrators discover which subscription address is
the cause of a particular delivery failure. The idea is to encode the original
recipient address in the outgoing envelope sender address, so that if the
message is forwarded by another host and then subsequently bounces, the
original recipient can be extracted from the recipient address of the bounce.
Envelope sender addresses can be modified by Exim using two different
facilities: the errors_to option on a router (as shown in previous mailing list
examples), or the return_path option on a transport. The second of these is
effective only if the message is successfully delivered to another host; it is
not used for errors detected on the local host (see the description of
return_path in chapter 24). Here is an example of the use of return_path to
implement VERP on an smtp transport:
verp_smtp:
driver = smtp
max_rcpt = 1
return_path = \
${if match {$return_path}{^(.+?)-request@your.dom.example\$}\
{$1-request+$local_part=$domain@your.dom.example}fail}
This has the effect of rewriting the return path (envelope sender) on outgoing
SMTP messages, if the local part of the original return path ends in
"-request", and the domain is your.dom.example. The rewriting inserts the local
part and domain of the recipient into the return path. Suppose, for example,
that a message whose return path has been set to
somelist-request@your.dom.example is sent to subscriber@other.dom.example. In
the transport, the return path is rewritten as
somelist-request+subscriber=other.dom.example@your.dom.example
For this to work, you must tell Exim to send multiple copies of messages that
have more than one recipient, so that each copy has just one recipient. This is
achieved by setting max_rcpt to 1. Without this, a single copy of a message
might be sent to several different recipients in the same domain, in which case
$local_part is not available in the transport, because it is not unique.
Unless your host is doing nothing but mailing list deliveries, you should
probably use a separate transport for the VERP deliveries, so as not to use
extra resources in making one-per-recipient copies for other deliveries. This
can easily be done by expanding the transport option in the router:
dnslookup:
driver = dnslookup
domains = ! +local_domains
transport = \
${if match {$return_path}{^(.+?)-request@your.dom.example\$}\
{verp_smtp}{remote_smtp}}
no_more
If you want to change the return path using errors_to in a router instead of
using return_path in the transport, you need to set errors_to on all routers
that handle mailing list addresses. This will ensure that all delivery errors,
including those detected on the local host, are sent to the VERP address.
On a host that does no local deliveries and has no manual routing, only the
dnslookup router needs to be changed. A special transport is not needed for
SMTP deliveries. Every mailing list recipient has its own return path value,
and so Exim must hand them to the transport one at a time. Here is an example
of a dnslookup router that implements VERP:
verp_dnslookup:
driver = dnslookup
domains = ! +local_domains
transport = remote_smtp
errors_to = \
${if match {$return_path}{^(.+?)-request@your.dom.example\$}}
{$1-request+$local_part=$domain@your.dom.example}fail}
no_more
Before you start sending out messages with VERPed return paths, you must also
configure Exim to accept the bounce messages that come back to those paths.
Typically this is done by setting a local_part_suffix option for a router, and
using this to route the messages to wherever you want to handle them.
The overhead incurred in using VERP depends very much on the size of the
message, the number of recipient addresses that resolve to the same remote
host, and the speed of the connection over which the message is being sent. If
a lot of addresses resolve to the same host and the connection is slow, sending
a separate copy of the message for each address may take substantially longer
than sending a single copy with many recipients (for which VERP cannot be
used).
47.7 Virtual domains
--------------------
The phrase virtual domain is unfortunately used with two rather different
meanings:
* A domain for which there are no real mailboxes; all valid local parts are
aliases for other email addresses. Common examples are organizational
top-level domains and "vanity" domains.
* One of a number of independent domains that are all handled by the same
host, with mailboxes on that host, but where the mailbox owners do not
necessarily have login accounts on that host.
The first usage is probably more common, and does seem more "virtual" than the
second. This kind of domain can be handled in Exim with a straightforward
aliasing router. One approach is to create a separate alias file for each
virtual domain. Exim can test for the existence of the alias file to determine
whether the domain exists. The dsearch lookup type is useful here, leading to a
router of this form:
virtual:
driver = redirect
domains = dsearch;/etc/mail/virtual
data = ${lookup{$local_part}lsearch{/etc/mail/virtual/$domain}}
no_more
The domains option specifies that the router is to be skipped, unless there is
a file in the /etc/mail/virtual directory whose name is the same as the domain
that is being processed. When the router runs, it looks up the local part in
the file to find a new address (or list of addresses). The no_more setting
ensures that if the lookup fails (leading to data being an empty string), Exim
gives up on the address without trying any subsequent routers.
This one router can handle all the virtual domains because the alias file names
follow a fixed pattern. Permissions can be arranged so that appropriate people
can edit the different alias files. A successful aliasing operation results in
a new envelope recipient address, which is then routed from scratch.
The other kind of "virtual" domain can also be handled in a straightforward
way. One approach is to create a file for each domain containing a list of
valid local parts, and use it in a router like this:
my_domains:
driver = accept
domains = dsearch;/etc/mail/domains
local_parts = lsearch;/etc/mail/domains/$domain
transport = my_mailboxes
The address is accepted if there is a file for the domain, and the local part
can be found in the file. The domains option is used to check for the file's
existence because domains is tested before the local_parts option (see section
3.12). You cannot use require_files, because that option is tested after
local_parts. The transport is as follows:
my_mailboxes:
driver = appendfile
file = /var/mail/$domain/$local_part
user = mail
This uses a directory of mailboxes for each domain. The user setting is
required, to specify which uid is to be used for writing to the mailboxes.
The configuration shown here is just one example of how you might support this
requirement. There are many other ways this kind of configuration can be set
up, for example, by using a database instead of separate files to hold all the
information about the domains.
47.8 Multiple user mailboxes
----------------------------
Heavy email users often want to operate with multiple mailboxes, into which
incoming mail is automatically sorted. A popular way of handling this is to
allow users to use multiple sender addresses, so that replies can easily be
identified. Users are permitted to add prefixes or suffixes to their local
parts for this purpose. The wildcard facility of the generic router options
local_part_prefix and local_part_suffix can be used for this. For example,
consider this router:
userforward:
driver = redirect
check_local_user
file = $home/.forward
local_part_suffix = -*
local_part_suffix_optional
allow_filter
It runs a user's .forward file for all local parts of the form username-*.
Within the filter file the user can distinguish different cases by testing the
variable $local_part_suffix. For example:
if $local_part_suffix contains -special then
save /home/$local_part/Mail/special
endif
If the filter file does not exist, or does not deal with such addresses, they
fall through to subsequent routers, and, assuming no subsequent use of the
local_part_suffix option is made, they presumably fail. Thus, users have
control over which suffixes are valid.
Alternatively, a suffix can be used to trigger the use of a different .forward
file - which is the way a similar facility is implemented in another MTA:
userforward:
driver = redirect
check_local_user
file = $home/.forward$local_part_suffix
local_part_suffix = -*
local_part_suffix_optional
allow_filter
If there is no suffix, .forward is used; if the suffix is -special, for
example, .forward-special is used. Once again, if the appropriate file does not
exist, or does not deal with the address, it is passed on to subsequent
routers, which could, if required, look for an unqualified .forward file to use
as a default.
47.9 Simplified vacation processing
-----------------------------------
The traditional way of running the vacation program is for a user to set up a
pipe command in a .forward file (see section 22.6 for syntax details). This is
prone to error by inexperienced users. There are two features of Exim that can
be used to make this process simpler for users:
* A local part prefix such as "vacation-" can be specified on a router which
can cause the message to be delivered directly to the vacation program, or
alternatively can use Exim's autoreply transport. The contents of a user's
.forward file are then much simpler. For example:
spqr, vacation-spqr
* The require_files generic router option can be used to trigger a vacation
delivery by checking for the existence of a certain file in the user's home
directory. The unseen generic option should also be used, to ensure that
the original delivery also proceeds. In this case, all the user has to do
is to create a file called, say, .vacation, containing a vacation message.
Another advantage of both these methods is that they both work even when the
use of arbitrary pipes by users is locked out.
47.10 Taking copies of mail
---------------------------
Some installations have policies that require archive copies of all messages to
be made. A single copy of each message can easily be taken by an appropriate
command in a system filter, which could, for example, use a different file for
each day's messages.
There is also a shadow transport mechanism that can be used to take copies of
messages that are successfully delivered by local transports, one copy per
delivery. This could be used, inter alia, to implement automatic notification
of delivery by sites that insist on doing such things.
47.11 Intermittently connected hosts
------------------------------------
It has become quite common (because it is cheaper) for hosts to connect to the
Internet periodically rather than remain connected all the time. The normal
arrangement is that mail for such hosts accumulates on a system that is
permanently connected.
Exim was designed for use on permanently connected hosts, and so it is not
particularly well-suited to use in an intermittently connected environment.
Nevertheless there are some features that can be used.
47.12 Exim on the upstream server host
--------------------------------------
It is tempting to arrange for incoming mail for the intermittently connected
host to remain on Exim's queue until the client connects. However, this
approach does not scale very well. Two different kinds of waiting message are
being mixed up in the same queue - those that cannot be delivered because of
some temporary problem, and those that are waiting for their destination host
to connect. This makes it hard to manage the queue, as well as wasting
resources, because each queue runner scans the entire queue.
A better approach is to separate off those messages that are waiting for an
intermittently connected host. This can be done by delivering these messages
into local files in batch SMTP, "mailstore", or other envelope-preserving
format, from where they are transmitted by other software when their
destination connects. This makes it easy to collect all the mail for one host
in a single directory, and to apply local timeout rules on a per-message basis
if required.
On a very small scale, leaving the mail on Exim's queue can be made to work. If
you are doing this, you should configure Exim with a long retry period for the
intermittent host. For example:
cheshire.wonderland.fict.example * F,5d,24h
This stops a lot of failed delivery attempts from occurring, but Exim remembers
which messages it has queued up for that host. Once the intermittent host comes
online, forcing delivery of one message (either by using the -M or -R options,
or by using the ETRN SMTP command (see section 45.8) causes all the queued up
messages to be delivered, often down a single SMTP connection. While the host
remains connected, any new messages get delivered immediately.
If the connecting hosts do not have fixed IP addresses, that is, if a host is
issued with a different IP address each time it connects, Exim's retry
mechanisms on the holding host get confused, because the IP address is normally
used as part of the key string for holding retry information. This can be
avoided by unsetting retry_include_ip_address on the smtp transport. Since this
has disadvantages for permanently connected hosts, it is best to arrange a
separate transport for the intermittently connected ones.
47.13 Exim on the intermittently connected client host
------------------------------------------------------
The value of smtp_accept_queue_per_connection should probably be increased, or
even set to zero (that is, disabled) on the intermittently connected host, so
that all incoming messages down a single connection get delivered immediately.
Mail waiting to be sent from an intermittently connected host will probably not
have been routed, because without a connection DNS lookups are not possible.
This means that if a normal queue run is done at connection time, each message
is likely to be sent in a separate SMTP session. This can be avoided by
starting the queue run with a command line option beginning with -qq instead of
-q. In this case, the queue is scanned twice. In the first pass, routing is
done but no deliveries take place. The second pass is a normal queue run; since
all the messages have been previously routed, those destined for the same host
are likely to get sent as multiple deliveries in a single SMTP connection.
===============================================================================
48. USING EXIM AS A NON-QUEUEING CLIENT
On a personal computer, it is a common requirement for all email to be sent to
a "smart host". There are plenty of MUAs that can be configured to operate that
way, for all the popular operating systems. However, there are some MUAs for
Unix-like systems that cannot be so configured: they submit messages using the
command line interface of /usr/sbin/sendmail. Furthermore, utility programs
such as cron submit messages this way.
If the personal computer runs continuously, there is no problem, because it can
run a conventional MTA that handles delivery to the smart host, and deal with
any delays via its queueing mechanism. However, if the computer does not run
continuously or runs different operating systems at different times, queueing
email is not desirable.
There is therefore a requirement for something that can provide the /usr/sbin/
sendmail interface but deliver messages to a smart host without any queueing or
retrying facilities. Furthermore, the delivery to the smart host should be
synchronous, so that if it fails, the sending MUA is immediately informed. In
other words, we want something that extends an MUA that submits to a local MTA
via the command line so that it behaves like one that submits to a remote smart
host using TCP/SMTP.
There are a number of applications (for example, there is one called ssmtp)
that do this job. However, people have found them to be lacking in various
ways. For instance, you might want to allow aliasing and forwarding to be done
before sending a message to the smart host.
Exim already had the necessary infrastructure for doing this job. Just a few
tweaks were needed to make it behave as required, though it is somewhat of an
overkill to use a fully-featured MTA for this purpose.
There is a Boolean global option called mua_wrapper, defaulting false. Setting
mua_wrapper true causes Exim to run in a special mode where it assumes that it
is being used to "wrap" a command-line MUA in the manner just described. As
well as setting mua_wrapper, you also need to provide a compatible router and
transport configuration. Typically there will be just one router and one
transport, sending everything to a smart host.
When run in MUA wrapping mode, the behaviour of Exim changes in the following
ways:
* A daemon cannot be run, nor will Exim accept incoming messages from inetd.
In other words, the only way to submit messages is via the command line.
* Each message is synchronously delivered as soon as it is received (-odi is
assumed). All queueing options (queue_only, queue_smtp_domains, control in
an ACL, etc.) are quietly ignored. The Exim reception process does not
finish until the delivery attempt is complete. If the delivery is
successful, a zero return code is given.
* Address redirection is permitted, but the final routing for all addresses
must be to the same remote transport, and to the same list of hosts.
Furthermore, the return address (envelope sender) must be the same for all
recipients, as must any added or deleted header lines. In other words, it
must be possible to deliver the message in a single SMTP transaction,
however many recipients there are.
* If these conditions are not met, or if routing any address results in a
failure or defer status, or if Exim is unable to deliver all the recipients
successfully to one of the smart hosts, delivery of the entire message
fails.
* Because no queueing is allowed, all failures are treated as permanent;
there is no distinction between 4xx and 5xx SMTP response codes from the
smart host. Furthermore, because only a single yes/no response can be given
to the caller, it is not possible to deliver to some recipients and not
others. If there is an error (temporary or permanent) for any recipient,
all are failed.
* If more than one smart host is listed, Exim will try another host after a
connection failure or a timeout, in the normal way. However, if this kind
of failure happens for all the hosts, the delivery fails.
* When delivery fails, an error message is written to the standard error
stream (as well as to Exim's log), and Exim exits to the caller with a
return code value 1. The message is expunged from Exim's spool files. No
bounce messages are ever generated.
* No retry data is maintained, and any retry rules are ignored.
* A number of Exim options are overridden: deliver_drop_privilege is forced
true, max_rcpt in the smtp transport is forced to "unlimited",
remote_max_parallel is forced to one, and fallback hosts are ignored.
The overall effect is that Exim makes a single synchronous attempt to deliver
the message, failing if there is any kind of problem. Because no local
deliveries are done and no daemon can be run, Exim does not need root
privilege. It should be possible to run it setuid to exim instead of setuid to
root. See section 52.3 for a general discussion about the advantages and
disadvantages of running without root privilege.
===============================================================================
49. LOG FILES
Exim writes three different logs, referred to as the main log, the reject log,
and the panic log:
* The main log records the arrival of each message and each delivery in a
single line in each case. The format is as compact as possible, in an
attempt to keep down the size of log files. Two-character flag sequences
make it easy to pick out these lines. A number of other events are recorded
in the main log. Some of them are optional, in which case the log_selector
option controls whether they are included or not. A Perl script called
eximstats, which does simple analysis of main log files, is provided in the
Exim distribution (see section 50.7).
* The reject log records information from messages that are rejected as a
result of a configuration option (that is, for policy reasons). The first
line of each rejection is a copy of the line that is also written to the
main log. Then, if the message's header has been read at the time the log
is written, its contents are written to this log. Only the original header
lines are available; header lines added by ACLs are not logged. You can use
the reject log to check that your policy controls are working correctly; on
a busy host this may be easier than scanning the main log for rejection
messages. You can suppress the writing of the reject log by setting
write_rejectlog false.
* When certain serious errors occur, Exim writes entries to its panic log. If
the error is sufficiently disastrous, Exim bombs out afterwards. Panic log
entries are usually written to the main log as well, but can get lost amid
the mass of other entries. The panic log should be empty under normal
circumstances. It is therefore a good idea to check it (or to have a cron
script check it) regularly, in order to become aware of any problems. When
Exim cannot open its panic log, it tries as a last resort to write to the
system log (syslog). This is opened with LOG_PID+LOG_CONS and the facility
code of LOG_MAIL. The message itself is written at priority LOG_CRIT.
Every log line starts with a timestamp, in the format shown in the following
example. Note that many of the examples shown in this chapter are line-wrapped.
In the log file, this would be all on one line:
2001-09-16 16:09:47 SMTP connection from [127.0.0.1] closed
by QUIT
By default, the timestamps are in the local timezone. There are two ways of
changing this:
* You can set the timezone option to a different time zone; in particular, if
you set
timezone = UTC
the timestamps will be in UTC (aka GMT).
* If you set log_timezone true, the time zone is added to the timestamp, for
example:
2003-04-25 11:17:07 +0100 Start queue run: pid=12762
Exim does not include its process id in log lines by default, but you can
request that it does so by specifying the "pid" log selector (see section 49.15
). When this is set, the process id is output, in square brackets, immediately
after the time and date.
49.1 Where the logs are written
-------------------------------
The logs may be written to local files, or to syslog, or both. However, it
should be noted that many syslog implementations use UDP as a transport, and
are therefore unreliable in the sense that messages are not guaranteed to
arrive at the loghost, nor is the ordering of messages necessarily maintained.
It has also been reported that on large log files (tens of megabytes) you may
need to tweak syslog to prevent it syncing the file with each write - on Linux
this has been seen to make syslog take 90% plus of CPU time.
The destination for Exim's logs is configured by setting LOG_FILE_PATH in Local
/Makefile or by setting log_file_path in the run time configuration. This
latter string is expanded, so it can contain, for example, references to the
host name:
log_file_path = /var/log/$primary_hostname/exim_%slog
It is generally advisable, however, to set the string in Local/Makefile rather
than at run time, because then the setting is available right from the start of
Exim's execution. Otherwise, if there's something it wants to log before it has
read the configuration file (for example, an error in the configuration file)
it will not use the path you want, and may not be able to log at all.
The value of LOG_FILE_PATH or log_file_path is a colon-separated list,
currently limited to at most two items. This is one option where the facility
for changing a list separator may not be used. The list must always be
colon-separated. If an item in the list is "syslog" then syslog is used;
otherwise the item must either be an absolute path, containing "%s" at the
point where "main", "reject", or "panic" is to be inserted, or be empty,
implying the use of a default path.
When Exim encounters an empty item in the list, it searches the list defined by
LOG_FILE_PATH, and uses the first item it finds that is neither empty nor
"syslog". This means that an empty item in log_file_path can be used to mean
"use the path specified at build time". It no such item exists, log files are
written in the log subdirectory of the spool directory. This is equivalent to
the setting:
log_file_path = $spool_directory/log/%slog
If you do not specify anything at build time or run time, that is where the
logs are written.
A log file path may also contain "%D" if datestamped log file names are in use
- see section 49.3 below.
Here are some examples of possible settings:
LOG_FILE_PATH=syslog syslog only
LOG_FILE_PATH=:syslog syslog and default path
LOG_FILE_PATH=syslog : /usr/log/exim_%s syslog and specified path
LOG_FILE_PATH=/usr/log/exim_%s specified path only
If there are more than two paths in the list, the first is used and a panic
error is logged.
49.2 Logging to local files that are periodically "cycled"
----------------------------------------------------------
Some operating systems provide centralized and standardized methods for cycling
log files. For those that do not, a utility script called exicyclog is provided
(see section 50.6). This renames and compresses the main and reject logs each
time it is called. The maximum number of old logs to keep can be set. It is
suggested this script is run as a daily cron job.
An Exim delivery process opens the main log when it first needs to write to it,
and it keeps the file open in case subsequent entries are required - for
example, if a number of different deliveries are being done for the same
message. However, remote SMTP deliveries can take a long time, and this means
that the file may be kept open long after it is renamed if exicyclog or
something similar is being used to rename log files on a regular basis. To
ensure that a switch of log files is noticed as soon as possible, Exim calls
stat() on the main log's name before reusing an open file, and if the file does
not exist, or its inode has changed, the old file is closed and Exim tries to
open the main log from scratch. Thus, an old log file may remain open for quite
some time, but no Exim processes should write to it once it has been renamed.
49.3 Datestamped log files
--------------------------
Instead of cycling the main and reject log files by renaming them periodically,
some sites like to use files whose names contain a datestamp, for example,
mainlog-20031225. The datestamp is in the form yyyymmdd. Exim has support for
this way of working. It is enabled by setting the log_file_path option to a
path that includes "%D" at the point where the datestamp is required. For
example:
log_file_path = /var/spool/exim/log/%slog-%D
log_file_path = /var/log/exim-%s-%D.log
log_file_path = /var/spool/exim/log/%D-%slog
As before, "%s" is replaced by "main" or "reject"; the following are examples
of names generated by the above examples:
/var/spool/exim/log/mainlog-20021225
/var/log/exim-reject-20021225.log
/var/spool/exim/log/20021225-mainlog
When this form of log file is specified, Exim automatically switches to new
files at midnight. It does not make any attempt to compress old logs; you will
need to write your own script if you require this. You should not run exicyclog
with this form of logging.
The location of the panic log is also determined by log_file_path, but it is
not datestamped, because rotation of the panic log does not make sense. When
generating the name of the panic log, "%D" is removed from the string. In
addition, if it immediately follows a slash, a following non-alphanumeric
character is removed; otherwise a preceding non-alphanumeric character is
removed. Thus, the three examples above would give these panic log names:
/var/spool/exim/log/paniclog
/var/log/exim-panic.log
/var/spool/exim/log/paniclog
49.4 Logging to syslog
----------------------
The use of syslog does not change what Exim logs or the format of its messages,
except in one respect. If syslog_timestamp is set false, the timestamps on
Exim's log lines are omitted when these lines are sent to syslog. Apart from
that, the same strings are written to syslog as to log files. The syslog
"facility" is set to LOG_MAIL, and the program name to "exim" by default, but
you can change these by setting the syslog_facility and syslog_processname
options, respectively. If Exim was compiled with SYSLOG_LOG_PID set in Local/
Makefile (this is the default in src/EDITME), then, on systems that permit it
(all except ULTRIX), the LOG_PID flag is set so that the syslog() call adds the
pid as well as the time and host name to each line. The three log streams are
mapped onto syslog priorities as follows:
* mainlog is mapped to LOG_INFO
* rejectlog is mapped to LOG_NOTICE
* paniclog is mapped to LOG_ALERT
Many log lines are written to both mainlog and rejectlog, and some are written
to both mainlog and paniclog, so there will be duplicates if these are routed
by syslog to the same place. You can suppress this duplication by setting
syslog_duplication false.
Exim's log lines can sometimes be very long, and some of its rejectlog entries
contain multiple lines when headers are included. To cope with both these
cases, entries written to syslog are split into separate syslog() calls at each
internal newline, and also after a maximum of 870 data characters. (This allows
for a total syslog line length of 1024, when additions such as timestamps are
added.) If you are running a syslog replacement that can handle lines longer
than the 1024 characters allowed by RFC 3164, you should set
SYSLOG_LONG_LINES=yes
in Local/Makefile before building Exim. That stops Exim from splitting long
lines, but it still splits at internal newlines in reject log entries.
To make it easy to re-assemble split lines later, each component of a split
entry starts with a string of the form [<n>/<m>] or [<n>\<m>] where <n> is the
component number and <m> is the total number of components in the entry. The /
delimiter is used when the line was split because it was too long; if it was
split because of an internal newline, the \ delimiter is used. For example,
supposing the length limit to be 50 instead of 870, the following would be the
result of a typical rejection message to mainlog (LOG_INFO), each line in
addition being preceded by the time, host name, and pid as added by syslog:
[1/5] 2002-09-16 16:09:43 16RdAL-0006pc-00 rejected from
[2/5] [127.0.0.1] (ph10): syntax error in 'From' header
[3/5] when scanning for sender: missing or malformed lo
[4/5] cal part in "<>" (envelope sender is <ph10@cam.exa
[5/5] mple>)
The same error might cause the following lines to be written to "rejectlog"
(LOG_NOTICE):
[1/18] 2002-09-16 16:09:43 16RdAL-0006pc-00 rejected fro
[2/18] m [127.0.0.1] (ph10): syntax error in 'From' head
[3/18] er when scanning for sender: missing or malformed
[4/18] local part in "<>" (envelope sender is <ph10@cam
[5\18] .example>)
[6\18] Recipients: ph10@some.domain.cam.example
[7\18] P Received: from [127.0.0.1] (ident=ph10)
[8\18] by xxxxx.cam.example with smtp (Exim 4.00)
[9\18] id 16RdAL-0006pc-00
[10/18] for ph10@cam.example; Mon, 16 Sep 2002 16:
[11\18] 09:43 +0100
[12\18] F From: <>
[13\18] Subject: this is a test header
[18\18] X-something: this is another header
[15/18] I Message-Id: <E16RdAL-0006pc-00@xxxxx.cam.examp
[16\18] le>
[17\18] B Bcc:
[18/18] Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 16:09:43 +0100
Log lines that are neither too long nor contain newlines are written to syslog
without modification.
If only syslog is being used, the Exim monitor is unable to provide a log tail
display, unless syslog is routing mainlog to a file on the local host and the
environment variable EXIMON_LOG_FILE_PATH is set to tell the monitor where it
is.
49.5 Log line flags
-------------------
One line is written to the main log for each message received, and for each
successful, unsuccessful, and delayed delivery. These lines can readily be
picked out by the distinctive two-character flags that immediately follow the
timestamp. The flags are:
<= message arrival
=> normal message delivery
-> additional address in same delivery
*> delivery suppressed by -N
** delivery failed; address bounced
== delivery deferred; temporary problem
49.6 Logging message reception
------------------------------
The format of the single-line entry in the main log that is written for every
message received is shown in the basic example below, which is split over
several lines in order to fit it on the page:
2002-10-31 08:57:53 16ZCW1-0005MB-00 <= kryten@dwarf.fict.example
H=mailer.fict.example [192.168.123.123] U=exim
P=smtp S=5678 id=<incoming message id>
The address immediately following "<=" is the envelope sender address. A bounce
message is shown with the sender address "<>", and if it is locally generated,
this is followed by an item of the form
R=<message id>
which is a reference to the message that caused the bounce to be sent.
For messages from other hosts, the H and U fields identify the remote host and
record the RFC 1413 identity of the user that sent the message, if one was
received. The number given in square brackets is the IP address of the sending
host. If there is a single, unparenthesized host name in the H field, as above,
it has been verified to correspond to the IP address (see the host_lookup
option). If the name is in parentheses, it was the name quoted by the remote
host in the SMTP HELO or EHLO command, and has not been verified. If
verification yields a different name to that given for HELO or EHLO, the
verified name appears first, followed by the HELO or EHLO name in parentheses.
Misconfigured hosts (and mail forgers) sometimes put an IP address, with or
without brackets, in the HELO or EHLO command, leading to entries in the log
containing text like these examples:
H=(10.21.32.43) [192.168.8.34]
H=([10.21.32.43]) [192.168.8.34]
This can be confusing. Only the final address in square brackets can be relied
on.
For locally generated messages (that is, messages not received over TCP/IP),
the H field is omitted, and the U field contains the login name of the caller
of Exim.
For all messages, the P field specifies the protocol used to receive the
message. This is the value that is stored in $received_protocol. In the case of
incoming SMTP messages, the value indicates whether or not any SMTP extensions
(ESMTP), encryption, or authentication were used. If the SMTP session was
encrypted, there is an additional X field that records the cipher suite that
was used.
The protocol is set to "esmtpsa" or "esmtpa" for messages received from hosts
that have authenticated themselves using the SMTP AUTH command. The first value
is used when the SMTP connection was encrypted ("secure"). In this case there
is an additional item A= followed by the name of the authenticator that was
used. If an authenticated identification was set up by the authenticator's
server_set_id option, this is logged too, separated by a colon from the
authenticator name.
The id field records the existing message id, if present. The size of the
received message is given by the S field. When the message is delivered,
headers may be removed or added, so that the size of delivered copies of the
message may not correspond with this value (and indeed may be different to each
other).
The log_selector option can be used to request the logging of additional data
when a message is received. See section 49.15 below.
49.7 Logging deliveries
-----------------------
The format of the single-line entry in the main log that is written for every
delivery is shown in one of the examples below, for local and remote
deliveries, respectively. Each example has been split into two lines in order
to fit it on the page:
2002-10-31 08:59:13 16ZCW1-0005MB-00 => marv
<marv@hitch.fict.example> R=localuser T=local_delivery
2002-10-31 09:00:10 16ZCW1-0005MB-00 =>
monk@holistic.fict.example R=dnslookup T=remote_smtp
H=holistic.fict.example [192.168.234.234]
For ordinary local deliveries, the original address is given in angle brackets
after the final delivery address, which might be a pipe or a file. If
intermediate address(es) exist between the original and the final address, the
last of these is given in parentheses after the final address. The R and T
fields record the router and transport that were used to process the address.
If a shadow transport was run after a successful local delivery, the log line
for the successful delivery has an item added on the end, of the form
ST=<shadow transport name>
If the shadow transport did not succeed, the error message is put in
parentheses afterwards.
When more than one address is included in a single delivery (for example, two
SMTP RCPT commands in one transaction) the second and subsequent addresses are
flagged with "->" instead of "=>". When two or more messages are delivered down
a single SMTP connection, an asterisk follows the IP address in the log lines
for the second and subsequent messages.
The generation of a reply message by a filter file gets logged as a "delivery"
to the addressee, preceded by ">".
The log_selector option can be used to request the logging of additional data
when a message is delivered. See section 49.15 below.
49.8 Discarded deliveries
-------------------------
When a message is discarded as a result of the command "seen finish" being
obeyed in a filter file which generates no deliveries, a log entry of the form
2002-12-10 00:50:49 16auJc-0001UB-00 => discarded
<low.club@bridge.example> R=userforward
is written, to record why no deliveries are logged. When a message is discarded
because it is aliased to ":blackhole:" the log line is like this:
1999-03-02 09:44:33 10HmaX-0005vi-00 => :blackhole:
<hole@nowhere.example> R=blackhole_router
49.9 Deferred deliveries
------------------------
When a delivery is deferred, a line of the following form is logged:
2002-12-19 16:20:23 16aiQz-0002Q5-00 == marvin@endrest.example
R=dnslookup T=smtp defer (146): Connection refused
In the case of remote deliveries, the error is the one that was given for the
last IP address that was tried. Details of individual SMTP failures are also
written to the log, so the above line would be preceded by something like
2002-12-19 16:20:23 16aiQz-0002Q5-00 Failed to connect to
mail1.endrest.example [192.168.239.239]: Connection refused
When a deferred address is skipped because its retry time has not been reached,
a message is written to the log, but this can be suppressed by setting an
appropriate value in log_selector.
49.10 Delivery failures
-----------------------
If a delivery fails because an address cannot be routed, a line of the
following form is logged:
1995-12-19 16:20:23 0tRiQz-0002Q5-00 ** jim@trek99.example
<jim@trek99.example>: unknown mail domain
If a delivery fails at transport time, the router and transport are shown, and
the response from the remote host is included, as in this example:
2002-07-11 07:14:17 17SXDU-000189-00 ** ace400@pb.example
R=dnslookup T=remote_smtp: SMTP error from remote mailer
after pipelined RCPT TO:<ace400@pb.example>: host
pbmail3.py.example [192.168.63.111]: 553 5.3.0
<ace400@pb.example>...Addressee unknown
The word "pipelined" indicates that the SMTP PIPELINING extension was being
used. See hosts_avoid_esmtp in the smtp transport for a way of disabling
PIPELINING. The log lines for all forms of delivery failure are flagged with
"**".
49.11 Fake deliveries
---------------------
If a delivery does not actually take place because the -N option has been used
to suppress it, a normal delivery line is written to the log, except that "=>"
is replaced by "*>".
49.12 Completion
----------------
A line of the form
2002-10-31 09:00:11 16ZCW1-0005MB-00 Completed
is written to the main log when a message is about to be removed from the spool
at the end of its processing.
49.13 Summary of Fields in Log Lines
------------------------------------
A summary of the field identifiers that are used in log lines is shown in the
following table:
A authenticator name (and optional id)
C SMTP confirmation on delivery
command list for "no mail in SMTP session"
CV certificate verification status
D duration of "no mail in SMTP session"
DN distinguished name from peer certificate
DT on => lines: time taken for a delivery
F sender address (on delivery lines)
H host name and IP address
I local interface used
id message id for incoming message
P on <= lines: protocol used
on => and ** lines: return path
QT on => lines: time spent on queue so far
on "Completed" lines: time spent on queue
R on <= lines: reference for local bounce
on => ** and == lines: router name
S size of message
ST shadow transport name
T on <= lines: message subject (topic)
on => ** and == lines: transport name
U local user or RFC 1413 identity
X TLS cipher suite
49.14 Other log entries
-----------------------
Various other types of log entry are written from time to time. Most should be
self-explanatory. Among the more common are:
* retry time not reached An address previously suffered a temporary error
during routing or local delivery, and the time to retry has not yet
arrived. This message is not written to an individual message log file
unless it happens during the first delivery attempt.
* retry time not reached for any host An address previously suffered
temporary errors during remote delivery, and the retry time has not yet
arrived for any of the hosts to which it is routed.
* spool file locked An attempt to deliver a message cannot proceed because
some other Exim process is already working on the message. This can be
quite common if queue running processes are started at frequent intervals.
The exiwhat utility script can be used to find out what Exim processes are
doing.
* error ignored There are several circumstances that give rise to this
message:
1. Exim failed to deliver a bounce message whose age was greater than
ignore_bounce_errors_after. The bounce was discarded.
2. A filter file set up a delivery using the "noerror" option, and the
delivery failed. The delivery was discarded.
3. A delivery set up by a router configured with
errors_to = <>
failed. The delivery was discarded.
49.15 Reducing or increasing what is logged
-------------------------------------------
By setting the log_selector global option, you can disable some of Exim's
default logging, or you can request additional logging. The value of
log_selector is made up of names preceded by plus or minus characters. For
example:
log_selector = +arguments -retry_defer
The list of optional log items is in the following table, with the default
selection marked by asterisks:
*acl_warn_skipped skipped warn statement in ACL
address_rewrite address rewriting
all_parents all parents in => lines
arguments command line arguments
*connection_reject connection rejections
*delay_delivery immediate delivery delayed
deliver_time time taken to perform delivery
delivery_size add S=nnn to => lines
*dnslist_defer defers of DNS list (aka RBL) lookups
*etrn ETRN commands
*host_lookup_failed as it says
ident_timeout timeout for ident connection
incoming_interface incoming interface on <= lines
incoming_port incoming port on <= lines
*lost_incoming_connection as it says (includes timeouts)
outgoing_port add remote port to => lines
*queue_run start and end queue runs
queue_time time on queue for one recipient
queue_time_overall time on queue for whole message
pid Exim process id
received_recipients recipients on <= lines
received_sender sender on <= lines
*rejected_header header contents on reject log
*retry_defer "retry time not reached"
return_path_on_delivery put return path on => and ** lines
sender_on_delivery add sender to => lines
*sender_verify_fail sender verification failures
*size_reject rejection because too big
*skip_delivery delivery skipped in a queue run
smtp_confirmation SMTP confirmation on => lines
smtp_connection SMTP connections
smtp_incomplete_transaction incomplete SMTP transactions
smtp_no_mail session with no MAIL commands
smtp_protocol_error SMTP protocol errors
smtp_syntax_error SMTP syntax errors
subject contents of Subject: on <= lines
tls_certificate_verified certificate verification status
*tls_cipher TLS cipher suite on <= and => lines
tls_peerdn TLS peer DN on <= and => lines
unknown_in_list DNS lookup failed in list match
all all of the above
More details on each of these items follows:
* acl_warn_skipped: When an ACL warn statement is skipped because one of its
conditions cannot be evaluated, a log line to this effect is written if
this log selector is set.
* address_rewrite: This applies both to global rewrites and per-transport
rewrites, but not to rewrites in filters run as an unprivileged user
(because such users cannot access the log).
* all_parents: Normally only the original and final addresses are logged on
delivery lines; with this selector, intermediate parents are given in
parentheses between them.
* arguments: This causes Exim to write the arguments with which it was called
to the main log, preceded by the current working directory. This is a
debugging feature, added to make it easier to find out how certain MUAs
call /usr/sbin/sendmail. The logging does not happen if Exim has given up
root privilege because it was called with the -C or -D options. Arguments
that are empty or that contain white space are quoted. Non-printing
characters are shown as escape sequences. This facility cannot log
unrecognized arguments, because the arguments are checked before the
configuration file is read. The only way to log such cases is to interpose
a script such as util/logargs.sh between the caller and Exim.
* connection_reject: A log entry is written whenever an incoming SMTP
connection is rejected, for whatever reason.
* delay_delivery: A log entry is written whenever a delivery process is not
started for an incoming message because the load is too high or too many
messages were received on one connection. Logging does not occur if no
delivery process is started because queue_only is set or -odq was used.
* deliver_time: For each delivery, the amount of real time it has taken to
perform the actual delivery is logged as DT=<time>, for example, "DT=1s".
* delivery_size: For each delivery, the size of message delivered is added to
the "=>" line, tagged with S=.
* dnslist_defer: A log entry is written if an attempt to look up a host in a
DNS black list suffers a temporary error.
* etrn: Every valid ETRN command that is received is logged, before the ACL
is run to determine whether or not it is actually accepted. An invalid ETRN
command, or one received within a message transaction is not logged by this
selector (see smtp_syntax_error and smtp_protocol_error).
* host_lookup_failed: When a lookup of a host's IP addresses fails to find
any addresses, or when a lookup of an IP address fails to find a host name,
a log line is written. This logging does not apply to direct DNS lookups
when routing email addresses, but it does apply to "byname" lookups.
* ident_timeout: A log line is written whenever an attempt to connect to a
client's ident port times out.
* incoming_interface: The interface on which a message was received is added
to the "<=" line as an IP address in square brackets, tagged by I= and
followed by a colon and the port number. The local interface and port are
also added to other SMTP log lines, for example "SMTP connection from", and
to rejection lines.
* incoming_port: The remote port number from which a message was received is
added to log entries and Received: header lines, following the IP address
in square brackets, and separated from it by a colon. This is implemented
by changing the value that is put in the $sender_fullhost and
$sender_rcvhost variables. Recording the remote port number has become more
important with the widening use of NAT (see RFC 2505).
* lost_incoming_connection: A log line is written when an incoming SMTP
connection is unexpectedly dropped.
* outgoing_port: The remote port number is added to delivery log lines (those
containing => tags) following the IP address. This option is not included
in the default setting, because for most ordinary configurations, the
remote port number is always 25 (the SMTP port).
* pid: The current process id is added to every log line, in square brackets,
immediately after the time and date.
* queue_run: The start and end of every queue run are logged.
* queue_time: The amount of time the message has been in the queue on the
local host is logged as QT=<time> on delivery ("=>") lines, for example,
"QT=3m45s". The clock starts when Exim starts to receive the message, so it
includes reception time as well as the delivery time for the current
address. This means that it may be longer than the difference between the
arrival and delivery log line times, because the arrival log line is not
written until the message has been successfully received.
* queue_time_overall: The amount of time the message has been in the queue on
the local host is logged as QT=<time> on "Completed" lines, for example,
"QT=3m45s". The clock starts when Exim starts to receive the message, so it
includes reception time as well as the total delivery time.
* received_recipients: The recipients of a message are listed in the main log
as soon as the message is received. The list appears at the end of the log
line that is written when a message is received, preceded by the word
"for". The addresses are listed after they have been qualified, but before
any rewriting has taken place. Recipients that were discarded by an ACL for
MAIL or RCPT do not appear in the list.
* received_sender: The unrewritten original sender of a message is added to
the end of the log line that records the message's arrival, after the word
"from" (before the recipients if received_recipients is also set).
* rejected_header: If a message's header has been received at the time a
rejection is written to the reject log, the complete header is added to the
log. Header logging can be turned off individually for messages that are
rejected by the local_scan() function (see section 42.2).
* retry_defer: A log line is written if a delivery is deferred because a
retry time has not yet been reached. However, this "retry time not reached"
message is always omitted from individual message logs after the first
delivery attempt.
* return_path_on_delivery: The return path that is being transmitted with the
message is included in delivery and bounce lines, using the tag P=. This is
omitted if no delivery actually happens, for example, if routing fails, or
if delivery is to /dev/null or to ":blackhole:".
* sender_on_delivery: The message's sender address is added to every delivery
and bounce line, tagged by F= (for "from"). This is the original sender
that was received with the message; it is not necessarily the same as the
outgoing return path.
* sender_verify_fail: If this selector is unset, the separate log line that
gives details of a sender verification failure is not written. Log lines
for the rejection of SMTP commands contain just "sender verify failed", so
some detail is lost.
* size_reject: A log line is written whenever a message is rejected because
it is too big.
* skip_delivery: A log line is written whenever a message is skipped during a
queue run because it is frozen or because another process is already
delivering it. The message that is written is "spool file is locked".
* smtp_confirmation: The response to the final "." in the SMTP dialogue for
outgoing messages is added to delivery log lines in the form "C="<text>. A
number of MTAs (including Exim) return an identifying string in this
response.
* smtp_connection: A log line is written whenever an SMTP connection is
established or closed, unless the connection is from a host that matches
hosts_connection_nolog. (In contrast, lost_incoming_connection applies only
when the closure is unexpected.) This applies to connections from local
processes that use -bs as well as to TCP/IP connections. If a connection is
dropped in the middle of a message, a log line is always written, whether
or not this selector is set, but otherwise nothing is written at the start
and end of connections unless this selector is enabled.
For TCP/IP connections to an Exim daemon, the current number of connections
is included in the log message for each new connection, but note that the
count is reset if the daemon is restarted. Also, because connections are
closed (and the closure is logged) in subprocesses, the count may not
include connections that have been closed but whose termination the daemon
has not yet noticed. Thus, while it is possible to match up the opening and
closing of connections in the log, the value of the logged counts may not
be entirely accurate.
* smtp_incomplete_transaction: When a mail transaction is aborted by RSET,
QUIT, loss of connection, or otherwise, the incident is logged, and the
message sender plus any accepted recipients are included in the log line.
This can provide evidence of dictionary attacks.
* smtp_no_mail: A line is written to the main log whenever an accepted SMTP
connection terminates without having issued a MAIL command. This includes
both the case when the connection is dropped, and the case when QUIT is
used. It does not include cases where the connection is rejected right at
the start (by an ACL, or because there are too many connections, or
whatever). These cases already have their own log lines.
The log line that is written contains the identity of the client in the
usual way, followed by D= and a time, which records the duration of the
connection. If the connection was authenticated, this fact is logged
exactly as it is for an incoming message, with an A= item. If the
connection was encrypted, CV=, DN=, and X= items may appear as they do for
an incoming message, controlled by the same logging options.
Finally, if any SMTP commands were issued during the connection, a C= item
is added to the line, listing the commands that were used. For example,
C=EHLO,QUIT
shows that the client issued QUIT straight after EHLO. If there were fewer
than 20 commands, they are all listed. If there were more than 20 commands,
the last 20 are listed, preceded by "...". However, with the default
setting of 10 for smtp_accep_max_nonmail, the connection will in any case
have been aborted before 20 non-mail commands are processed.
* smtp_protocol_error: A log line is written for every SMTP protocol error
encountered. Exim does not have perfect detection of all protocol errors
because of transmission delays and the use of pipelining. If PIPELINING has
been advertised to a client, an Exim server assumes that the client will
use it, and therefore it does not count "expected" errors (for example,
RCPT received after rejecting MAIL) as protocol errors.
* smtp_syntax_error: A log line is written for every SMTP syntax error
encountered. An unrecognized command is treated as a syntax error. For an
external connection, the host identity is given; for an internal connection
using -bs the sender identification (normally the calling user) is given.
* subject: The subject of the message is added to the arrival log line,
preceded by "T=" (T for "topic", since S is already used for "size"). Any
MIME "words" in the subject are decoded. The print_topbitchars option
specifies whether characters with values greater than 127 should be logged
unchanged, or whether they should be rendered as escape sequences.
* tls_certificate_verified: An extra item is added to <= and => log lines
when TLS is in use. The item is "CV=yes" if the peer's certificate was
verified, and "CV=no" if not.
* tls_cipher: When a message is sent or received over an encrypted
connection, the cipher suite used is added to the log line, preceded by X=.
* tls_peerdn: When a message is sent or received over an encrypted
connection, and a certificate is supplied by the remote host, the peer DN
is added to the log line, preceded by DN=.
* unknown_in_list: This setting causes a log entry to be written when the
result of a list match is failure because a DNS lookup failed.
49.16 Message log
-----------------
In addition to the general log files, Exim writes a log file for each message
that it handles. The names of these per-message logs are the message ids, and
they are kept in the msglog sub-directory of the spool directory. Each message
log contains copies of the log lines that apply to the message. This makes it
easier to inspect the status of an individual message without having to search
the main log. A message log is deleted when processing of the message is
complete, unless preserve_message_logs is set, but this should be used only
with great care because they can fill up your disk very quickly.
On a heavily loaded system, it may be desirable to disable the use of
per-message logs, in order to reduce disk I/O. This can be done by setting the
message_logs option false.
===============================================================================
50. EXIM UTILITIES
A number of utility scripts and programs are supplied with Exim and are
described in this chapter. There is also the Exim Monitor, which is covered in
the next chapter. The utilities described here are:
50.1 exiwhat list what Exim processes are doing
50.2 exiqgrep grep the queue
50.3 exiqsumm summarize the queue
50.4 exigrep search the main log
50.5 exipick select messages on various criteria
50.6 exicyclog cycle (rotate) log files
50.7 eximstats extract statistics from the log
50.8 exim_checkaccess check address acceptance from given IP
50.9 exim_dbmbuild build a DBM file
50.10 exinext extract retry information
50.11 exim_dumpdb dump a hints database
50.11 exim_tidydb clean up a hints database
50.11 exim_fixdb patch a hints database
50.15 exim_lock lock a mailbox file
Another utility that might be of use to sites with many MTAs is Tom Kistner's
exilog. It provides log visualizations across multiple Exim servers. See http:/
/duncanthrax.net/exilog/ for details.
50.1 Finding out what Exim processes are doing (exiwhat)
--------------------------------------------------------
On operating systems that can restart a system call after receiving a signal
(most modern OS), an Exim process responds to the SIGUSR1 signal by writing a
line describing what it is doing to the file exim-process.info in the Exim
spool directory. The exiwhat script sends the signal to all Exim processes it
can find, having first emptied the file. It then waits for one second to allow
the Exim processes to react before displaying the results. In order to run
exiwhat successfully you have to have sufficient privilege to send the signal
to the Exim processes, so it is normally run as root.
Warning: This is not an efficient process. It is intended for occasional use by
system administrators. It is not sensible, for example, to set up a script that
sends SIGUSR1 signals to Exim processes at short intervals.
Unfortunately, the ps command that exiwhat uses to find Exim processes varies
in different operating systems. Not only are different options used, but the
format of the output is different. For this reason, there are some system
configuration options that configure exactly how exiwhat works. If it doesn't
seem to be working for you, check the following compile-time options:
EXIWHAT_PS_CMD the command for running ps
EXIWHAT_PS_ARG the argument for ps
EXIWHAT_EGREP_ARG the argument for egrep to select from ps output
EXIWHAT_KILL_ARG the argument for the kill command
An example of typical output from exiwhat is
164 daemon: -q1h, listening on port 25
10483 running queue: waiting for 0tAycK-0002ij-00 (10492)
10492 delivering 0tAycK-0002ij-00 to mail.ref.example
[10.19.42.42] (editor@ref.example)
10592 handling incoming call from [192.168.243.242]
10628 accepting a local non-SMTP message
The first number in the output line is the process number. The third line has
been split here, in order to fit it on the page.
50.2 Selective queue listing (exiqgrep)
---------------------------------------
This utility is a Perl script contributed by Matt Hubbard. It runs
exim -bpu
to obtain a queue listing with undelivered recipients only, and then greps the
output to select messages that match given criteria. The following selection
options are available:
-f <regex>
Match the sender address. The field that is tested is enclosed in angle
brackets, so you can test for bounce messages with
exiqgrep -f '^<>$'
-r <regex>
Match a recipient address. The field that is tested is not enclosed in
angle brackets.
-s <regex>
Match against the size field.
-y <seconds>
Match messages that are younger than the given time.
-o <seconds>
Match messages that are older than the given time.
-z
Match only frozen messages.
-x
Match only non-frozen messages.
The following options control the format of the output:
-c
Display only the count of matching messages.
-l
Long format - display the full message information as output by Exim. This
is the default.
-i
Display message ids only.
-b
Brief format - one line per message.
-R
Display messages in reverse order.
There is one more option, -h, which outputs a list of options.
50.3 Summarizing the queue (exiqsumm)
-------------------------------------
The exiqsumm utility is a Perl script which reads the output of "exim -bp" and
produces a summary of the messages on the queue. Thus, you use it by running a
command such as
exim -bp | exiqsumm
The output consists of one line for each domain that has messages waiting for
it, as in the following example:
3 2322 74m 66m msn.com.example
Each line lists the number of pending deliveries for a domain, their total
volume, and the length of time that the oldest and the newest messages have
been waiting. Note that the number of pending deliveries is greater than the
number of messages when messages have more than one recipient.
A summary line is output at the end. By default the output is sorted on the
domain name, but exiqsumm has the options -a and -c, which cause the output to
be sorted by oldest message and by count of messages, respectively. There are
also three options that split the messages for each domain into two or more
subcounts: -b separates bounce messages, -f separates frozen messages, and -s
separates messages according to their sender.
The output of exim -bp contains the original addresses in the message, so this
also applies to the output from exiqsumm. No domains from addresses generated
by aliasing or forwarding are included (unless the one_time option of the
redirect router has been used to convert them into "top level" addresses).
50.4 Extracting specific information from the log (exigrep)
-----------------------------------------------------------
The exigrep utility is a Perl script that searches one or more main log files
for entries that match a given pattern. When it finds a match, it extracts all
the log entries for the relevant message, not just those that match the
pattern. Thus, exigrep can extract complete log entries for a given message, or
all mail for a given user, or for a given host, for example. The input files
can be in Exim log format or syslog format. If a matching log line is not
associated with a specific message, it is included in exigrep's output without
any additional lines. The usage is:
exigrep [-t<n>] [-I] [-l] [-v] <pattern> [<log file>] ...
If no log file names are given on the command line, the standard input is read.
The -t argument specifies a number of seconds. It adds an additional condition
for message selection. Messages that are complete are shown only if they spent
more than <n> seconds on the queue.
By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matching. The -I option makes it
case-sensitive. This may give a performance improvement when searching large
log files. Without -I, the Perl pattern matches use Perl's "/i" option; with -I
they do not. In both cases it is possible to change the case sensitivity within
the pattern by using "(?i)" or "(?-i)".
The -l option means "literal", that is, treat all characters in the pattern as
standing for themselves. Otherwise the pattern must be a Perl regular
expression.
The -v option inverts the matching condition. That is, a line is selected if it
does not match the pattern.
If the location of a zcat command is known from the definition of ZCAT_COMMAND
in Local/Makefile, exigrep automatically passes any file whose name ends in
COMPRESS_SUFFIX through zcat as it searches it.
50.5 Selecting messages by various criteria (exipick)
-----------------------------------------------------
John Jetmore's exipick utility is included in the Exim distribution. It lists
messages from the queue according to a variety of criteria. For details of
exipick's facilities, visit the web page at http://www.exim.org/eximwiki/
ToolExipickManPage or run exipick with the --help option.
50.6 Cycling log files (exicyclog)
----------------------------------
The exicyclog script can be used to cycle (rotate) mainlog and rejectlog files.
This is not necessary if only syslog is being used, or if you are using log
files with datestamps in their names (see section 49.3). Some operating systems
have their own standard mechanisms for log cycling, and these can be used
instead of exicyclog if preferred. There are two command line options for
exicyclog:
* -k <count> specifies the number of log files to keep, overriding the
default that is set when Exim is built. The default default is 10.
* -l <path> specifies the log file path, in the same format as Exim's
log_file_path option (for example, "/var/log/exim_%slog"), again overriding
the script's default, which is to find the setting from Exim's
configuration.
Each time exicyclog is run the file names get "shuffled down" by one. If the
main log file name is mainlog (the default) then when exicyclog is run mainlog
becomes mainlog.01, the previous mainlog.01 becomes mainlog.02 and so on, up to
the limit that is set in the script or by the -k option. Log files whose
numbers exceed the limit are discarded. Reject logs are handled similarly.
If the limit is greater than 99, the script uses 3-digit numbers such as
mainlog.001, mainlog.002, etc. If you change from a number less than 99 to one
that is greater, or vice versa, you will have to fix the names of any existing
log files.
If no mainlog file exists, the script does nothing. Files that "drop off" the
end are deleted. All files with numbers greater than 01 are compressed, using a
compression command which is configured by the COMPRESS_COMMAND setting in
Local/Makefile. It is usual to run exicyclog daily from a root crontab entry of
the form
1 0 * * * su exim -c /usr/exim/bin/exicyclog
assuming you have used the name "exim" for the Exim user. You can run exicyclog
as root if you wish, but there is no need.
50.7 Mail statistics (eximstats)
--------------------------------
A Perl script called eximstats is provided for extracting statistical
information from log files. The output is either plain text, or HTML. Exim log
files are also supported by the Lire system produced by the LogReport
Foundation http://www.logreport.org.
The eximstats script has been hacked about quite a bit over time. The latest
version is the result of some extensive revision by Steve Campbell. A lot of
information is given by default, but there are options for suppressing various
parts of it. Following any options, the arguments to the script are a list of
files, which should be main log files. For example:
eximstats -nr /var/spool/exim/log/mainlog.01
By default, eximstats extracts information about the number and volume of
messages received from or delivered to various hosts. The information is sorted
both by message count and by volume, and the top fifty hosts in each category
are listed on the standard output. Similar information, based on email
addresses or domains instead of hosts can be requested by means of various
options. For messages delivered and received locally, similar statistics are
also produced per user.
The output also includes total counts and statistics about delivery errors, and
histograms showing the number of messages received and deliveries made in each
hour of the day. A delivery with more than one address in its envelope (for
example, an SMTP transaction with more than one RCPT command) is counted as a
single delivery by eximstats.
Though normally more deliveries than receipts are reported (as messages may
have multiple recipients), it is possible for eximstats to report more messages
received than delivered, even though the queue is empty at the start and end of
the period in question. If an incoming message contains no valid recipients, no
deliveries are recorded for it. A bounce message is handled as an entirely
separate message.
eximstats always outputs a grand total summary giving the volume and number of
messages received and deliveries made, and the number of hosts involved in each
case. It also outputs the number of messages that were delayed (that is, not
completely delivered at the first attempt), and the number that had at least
one address that failed.
The remainder of the output is in sections that can be independently disabled
or modified by various options. It consists of a summary of deliveries by
transport, histograms of messages received and delivered per time interval
(default per hour), information about the time messages spent on the queue, a
list of relayed messages, lists of the top fifty sending hosts, local senders,
destination hosts, and destination local users by count and by volume, and a
list of delivery errors that occurred.
The relay information lists messages that were actually relayed, that is, they
came from a remote host and were directly delivered to some other remote host,
without being processed (for example, for aliasing or forwarding) locally.
There are quite a few options for eximstats to control exactly what it outputs.
These are documented in the Perl script itself, and can be extracted by running
the command perldoc on the script. For example:
perldoc /usr/exim/bin/eximstats
50.8 Checking access policy (exim_checkaccess)
----------------------------------------------
The -bh command line argument allows you to run a fake SMTP session with
debugging output, in order to check what Exim is doing when it is applying
policy controls to incoming SMTP mail. However, not everybody is sufficiently
familiar with the SMTP protocol to be able to make full use of -bh, and
sometimes you just want to answer the question "Does this address have access?"
without bothering with any further details.
The exim_checkaccess utility is a "packaged" version of -bh. It takes two
arguments, an IP address and an email address:
exim_checkaccess 10.9.8.7 A.User@a.domain.example
The utility runs a call to Exim with the -bh option, to test whether the given
email address would be accepted in a RCPT command in a TCP/IP connection from
the host with the given IP address. The output of the utility is either the
word "accepted", or the SMTP error response, for example:
Rejected:
550 Relay not permitted
When running this test, the utility uses "<>" as the envelope sender address
for the MAIL command, but you can change this by providing additional options.
These are passed directly to the Exim command. For example, to specify that the
test is to be run with the sender address himself@there.example you can use:
exim_checkaccess 10.9.8.7 A.User@a.domain.example \
-f himself@there.example
Note that these additional Exim command line items must be given after the two
mandatory arguments.
Because the exim_checkaccess uses -bh, it does not perform callouts while
running its checks. You can run checks that include callouts by using -bhc, but
this is not yet available in a "packaged" form.
50.9 Making DBM files (exim_dbmbuild)
-------------------------------------
The exim_dbmbuild program reads an input file containing keys and data in the
format used by the lsearch lookup (see section 9.3). It writes a DBM file using
the lower-cased alias names as keys and the remainder of the information as
data. The lower-casing can be prevented by calling the program with the -nolc
option.
A terminating zero is included as part of the key string. This is expected by
the dbm lookup type. However, if the option -nozero is given, exim_dbmbuild
creates files without terminating zeroes in either the key strings or the data
strings. The dbmnz lookup type can be used with such files.
The program requires two arguments: the name of the input file (which can be a
single hyphen to indicate the standard input), and the name of the output file.
It creates the output under a temporary name, and then renames it if all went
well.
If the native DB interface is in use (USE_DB is set in a compile-time
configuration file - this is common in free versions of Unix) the two file
names must be different, because in this mode the Berkeley DB functions create
a single output file using exactly the name given. For example,
exim_dbmbuild /etc/aliases /etc/aliases.db
reads the system alias file and creates a DBM version of it in /etc/aliases.db.
In systems that use the ndbm routines (mostly proprietary versions of Unix),
two files are used, with the suffixes .dir and .pag. In this environment, the
suffixes are added to the second argument of exim_dbmbuild, so it can be the
same as the first. This is also the case when the Berkeley functions are used
in compatibility mode (though this is not recommended), because in that case it
adds a .db suffix to the file name.
If a duplicate key is encountered, the program outputs a warning, and when it
finishes, its return code is 1 rather than zero, unless the -noduperr option is
used. By default, only the first of a set of duplicates is used - this makes it
compatible with lsearch lookups. There is an option -lastdup which causes it to
use the data for the last duplicate instead. There is also an option -nowarn,
which stops it listing duplicate keys to stderr. For other errors, where it
doesn't actually make a new file, the return code is 2.
50.10 Finding individual retry times (exinext)
----------------------------------------------
A utility called exinext (mostly a Perl script) provides the ability to fish
specific information out of the retry database. Given a mail domain (or a
complete address), it looks up the hosts for that domain, and outputs any retry
information for the hosts or for the domain. At present, the retry information
is obtained by running exim_dumpdb (see below) and post-processing the output.
For example:
$ exinext piglet@milne.fict.example
kanga.milne.example:192.168.8.1 error 146: Connection refused
first failed: 21-Feb-1996 14:57:34
last tried: 21-Feb-1996 14:57:34
next try at: 21-Feb-1996 15:02:34
roo.milne.example:192.168.8.3 error 146: Connection refused
first failed: 20-Jan-1996 13:12:08
last tried: 21-Feb-1996 11:42:03
next try at: 21-Feb-1996 19:42:03
past final cutoff time
You can also give exinext a local part, without a domain, and it will give any
retry information for that local part in your default domain. A message id can
be used to obtain retry information pertaining to a specific message. This
exists only when an attempt to deliver a message to a remote host suffers a
message-specific error (see section 45.2). exinext is not particularly
efficient, but then it is not expected to be run very often.
The exinext utility calls Exim to find out information such as the location of
the spool directory. The utility has -C and -D options, which are passed on to
the exim commands. The first specifies an alternate Exim configuration file,
and the second sets macros for use within the configuration file. These
features are mainly to help in testing, but might also be useful in
environments where more than one configuration file is in use.
50.11 Hints database maintenance
--------------------------------
Three utility programs are provided for maintaining the DBM files that Exim
uses to contain its delivery hint information. Each program requires two
arguments. The first specifies the name of Exim's spool directory, and the
second is the name of the database it is to operate on. These are as follows:
* retry: the database of retry information
* wait-<transport name>: databases of information about messages waiting for
remote hosts
* callout: the callout cache
* ratelimit: the data for implementing the ratelimit ACL condition
* misc: other hints data
The misc database is used for
* Serializing ETRN runs (when smtp_etrn_serialize is set)
* Serializing delivery to a specific host (when serialize_hosts is set in an
smtp transport)
50.12 exim_dumpdb
-----------------
The entire contents of a database are written to the standard output by the
exim_dumpdb program, which has no options or arguments other than the spool and
database names. For example, to dump the retry database:
exim_dumpdb /var/spool/exim retry
Two lines of output are produced for each entry:
T:mail.ref.example:192.168.242.242 146 77 Connection refused
31-Oct-1995 12:00:12 02-Nov-1995 12:21:39 02-Nov-1995 20:21:39 *
The first item on the first line is the key of the record. It starts with one
of the letters R, or T, depending on whether it refers to a routing or
transport retry. For a local delivery, the next part is the local address; for
a remote delivery it is the name of the remote host, followed by its failing IP
address (unless retry_include_ip_address is set false on the smtp transport).
If the remote port is not the standard one (port 25), it is added to the IP
address. Then there follows an error code, an additional error code, and a
textual description of the error.
The three times on the second line are the time of first failure, the time of
the last delivery attempt, and the computed time for the next attempt. The line
ends with an asterisk if the cutoff time for the last retry rule has been
exceeded.
Each output line from exim_dumpdb for the wait-xxx databases consists of a host
name followed by a list of ids for messages that are or were waiting to be
delivered to that host. If there are a very large number for any one host,
continuation records, with a sequence number added to the host name, may be
seen. The data in these records is often out of date, because a message may be
routed to several alternative hosts, and Exim makes no effort to keep
cross-references.
50.13 exim_tidydb
-----------------
The exim_tidydb utility program is used to tidy up the contents of a hints
database. If run with no options, it removes all records that are more than 30
days old. The age is calculated from the date and time that the record was last
updated. Note that, in the case of the retry database, it is not the time since
the first delivery failure. Information about a host that has been down for
more than 30 days will remain in the database, provided that the record is
updated sufficiently often.
The cutoff date can be altered by means of the -t option, which must be
followed by a time. For example, to remove all records older than a week from
the retry database:
exim_tidydb -t 7d /var/spool/exim retry
Both the wait-xxx and retry databases contain items that involve message ids.
In the former these appear as data in records keyed by host - they were
messages that were waiting for that host - and in the latter they are the keys
for retry information for messages that have suffered certain types of error.
When exim_tidydb is run, a check is made to ensure that message ids in database
records are those of messages that are still on the queue. Message ids for
messages that no longer exist are removed from wait-xxx records, and if this
leaves any records empty, they are deleted. For the retry database, records
whose keys are non-existent message ids are removed. The exim_tidydb utility
outputs comments on the standard output whenever it removes information from
the database.
Certain records are automatically removed by Exim when they are no longer
needed, but others are not. For example, if all the MX hosts for a domain are
down, a retry record is created for each one. If the primary MX host comes back
first, its record is removed when Exim successfully delivers to it, but the
records for the others remain because Exim has not tried to use those hosts.
It is important, therefore, to run exim_tidydb periodically on all the hints
databases. You should do this at a quiet time of day, because it requires a
database to be locked (and therefore inaccessible to Exim) while it does its
work. Removing records from a DBM file does not normally make the file smaller,
but all the common DBM libraries are able to re-use the space that is released.
After an initial phase of increasing in size, the databases normally reach a
point at which they no longer get any bigger, as long as they are regularly
tidied.
Warning: If you never run exim_tidydb, the space used by the hints databases is
likely to keep on increasing.
50.14 exim_fixdb
----------------
The exim_fixdb program is a utility for interactively modifying databases. Its
main use is for testing Exim, but it might also be occasionally useful for
getting round problems in a live system. It has no options, and its interface
is somewhat crude. On entry, it prompts for input with a right angle-bracket. A
key of a database record can then be entered, and the data for that record is
displayed.
If "d" is typed at the next prompt, the entire record is deleted. For all
except the retry database, that is the only operation that can be carried out.
For the retry database, each field is output preceded by a number, and data for
individual fields can be changed by typing the field number followed by new
data, for example:
> 4 951102:1000
resets the time of the next delivery attempt. Time values are given as a
sequence of digit pairs for year, month, day, hour, and minute. Colons can be
used as optional separators.
50.15 Mailbox maintenance (exim_lock)
-------------------------------------
The exim_lock utility locks a mailbox file using the same algorithm as Exim.
For a discussion of locking issues, see section 26.3. Exim_lock can be used to
prevent any modification of a mailbox by Exim or a user agent while
investigating a problem. The utility requires the name of the file as its first
argument. If the locking is successful, the second argument is run as a command
(using C's system() function); if there is no second argument, the value of the
SHELL environment variable is used; if this is unset or empty, /bin/sh is run.
When the command finishes, the mailbox is unlocked and the utility ends. The
following options are available:
-fcntl
Use fcntl() locking on the open mailbox.
-flock
Use flock() locking on the open mailbox, provided the operating system
supports it.
-interval
This must be followed by a number, which is a number of seconds; it sets
the interval to sleep between retries (default 3).
-lockfile
Create a lock file before opening the mailbox.
-mbx
Lock the mailbox using MBX rules.
-q
Suppress verification output.
-retries
This must be followed by a number; it sets the number of times to try to
get the lock (default 10).
-restore_time
This option causes exim_lock to restore the modified and read times to the
locked file before exiting. This allows you to access a locked mailbox (for
example, to take a backup copy) without disturbing the times that the user
subsequently sees.
-timeout
This must be followed by a number, which is a number of seconds; it sets a
timeout to be used with a blocking fcntl() lock. If it is not set (the
default), a non-blocking call is used.
-v
Generate verbose output.
If none of -fcntl, -flock, -lockfile or -mbx are given, the default is to
create a lock file and also to use fcntl() locking on the mailbox, which is the
same as Exim's default. The use of -flock or -fcntl requires that the file be
writeable; the use of -lockfile requires that the directory containing the file
be writeable. Locking by lock file does not last for ever; Exim assumes that a
lock file is expired if it is more than 30 minutes old.
The -mbx option can be used with either or both of -fcntl or -flock. It assumes
-fcntl by default. MBX locking causes a shared lock to be taken out on the open
mailbox, and an exclusive lock on the file /tmp/.n.m where n and m are the
device number and inode number of the mailbox file. When the locking is
released, if an exclusive lock can be obtained for the mailbox, the file in /
tmp is deleted.
The default output contains verification of the locking that takes place. The
-v option causes some additional information to be given. The -q option
suppresses all output except error messages.
A command such as
exim_lock /var/spool/mail/spqr
runs an interactive shell while the file is locked, whereas
exim_lock -q /var/spool/mail/spqr <<End
<some commands>
End
runs a specific non-interactive sequence of commands while the file is locked,
suppressing all verification output. A single command can be run by a command
such as
exim_lock -q /var/spool/mail/spqr \
"cp /var/spool/mail/spqr /some/where"
Note that if a command is supplied, it must be entirely contained within the
second argument - hence the quotes.
===============================================================================
51. THE EXIM MONITOR
The Exim monitor is an application which displays in an X window information
about the state of Exim's queue and what Exim is doing. An admin user can
perform certain operations on messages from this GUI interface; however all
such facilities are also available from the command line, and indeed, the
monitor itself makes use of the command line to perform any actions requested.
51.1 Running the monitor
------------------------
The monitor is started by running the script called eximon. This is a shell
script that sets up a number of environment variables, and then runs the binary
called eximon.bin. The default appearance of the monitor window can be changed
by editing the Local/eximon.conf file created by editing exim_monitor/EDITME.
Comments in that file describe what the various parameters are for.
The parameters that get built into the eximon script can be overridden for a
particular invocation by setting up environment variables of the same names,
preceded by "EXIMON_". For example, a shell command such as
EXIMON_LOG_DEPTH=400 eximon
(in a Bourne-compatible shell) runs eximon with an overriding setting of the
LOG_DEPTH parameter. If EXIMON_LOG_FILE_PATH is set in the environment, it
overrides the Exim log file configuration. This makes it possible to have
eximon tailing log data that is written to syslog, provided that MAIL.INFO
syslog messages are routed to a file on the local host.
X resources can be used to change the appearance of the window in the normal
way. For example, a resource setting of the form
Eximon*background: gray94
changes the colour of the background to light grey rather than white. The
stripcharts are drawn with both the data lines and the reference lines in
black. This means that the reference lines are not visible when on top of the
data. However, their colour can be changed by setting a resource called
"highlight" (an odd name, but that's what the Athena stripchart widget uses).
For example, if your X server is running Unix, you could set up lighter
reference lines in the stripcharts by obeying
xrdb -merge <<End
Eximon*highlight: gray
End
In order to see the contents of messages on the queue, and to operate on them,
eximon must either be run as root or by an admin user.
The monitor's window is divided into three parts. The first contains one or
more stripcharts and two action buttons, the second contains a "tail" of the
main log file, and the third is a display of the queue of messages awaiting
delivery, with two more action buttons. The following sections describe these
different parts of the display.
51.2 The stripcharts
--------------------
The first stripchart is always a count of messages on the queue. Its name can
be configured by setting QUEUE_STRIPCHART_NAME in the Local/eximon.conf file.
The remaining stripcharts are defined in the configuration script by regular
expression matches on log file entries, making it possible to display, for
example, counts of messages delivered to certain hosts or using certain
transports. The supplied defaults display counts of received and delivered
messages, and of local and SMTP deliveries. The default period between
stripchart updates is one minute; this can be adjusted by a parameter in the
Local/eximon.conf file.
The stripchart displays rescale themselves automatically as the value they are
displaying changes. There are always 10 horizontal lines in each chart; the
title string indicates the value of each division when it is greater than one.
For example, "x2" means that each division represents a value of 2.
It is also possible to have a stripchart which shows the percentage fullness of
a particular disk partition, which is useful when local deliveries are confined
to a single partition.
This relies on the availability of the statvfs() function or equivalent in the
operating system. Most, but not all versions of Unix that support Exim have
this. For this particular stripchart, the top of the chart always represents
100%, and the scale is given as "x10%". This chart is configured by setting
SIZE_STRIPCHART and (optionally) SIZE_STRIPCHART_NAME in the Local/eximon.conf
file.
51.3 Main action buttons
------------------------
Below the stripcharts there is an action button for quitting the monitor. Next
to this is another button marked "Size". They are placed here so that shrinking
the window to its default minimum size leaves just the queue count stripchart
and these two buttons visible. Pressing the "Size" button causes the window to
expand to its maximum size, unless it is already at the maximum, in which case
it is reduced to its minimum.
When expanding to the maximum, if the window cannot be fully seen where it
currently is, it is moved back to where it was the last time it was at full
size. When it is expanding from its minimum size, the old position is
remembered, and next time it is reduced to the minimum it is moved back there.
The idea is that you can keep a reduced window just showing one or two
stripcharts at a convenient place on your screen, easily expand it to show the
full window when required, and just as easily put it back to what it was. The
idea is copied from what the twm window manager does for its f.fullzoom action.
The minimum size of the window can be changed by setting the MIN_HEIGHT and
MIN_WIDTH values in Local/eximon.conf.
Normally, the monitor starts up with the window at its full size, but it can be
built so that it starts up with the window at its smallest size, by setting
START_SMALL=yes in Local/eximon.conf.
51.4 The log display
--------------------
The second section of the window is an area in which a display of the tail of
the main log is maintained. To save space on the screen, the timestamp on each
log line is shortened by removing the date and, if log_timezone is set, the
timezone. The log tail is not available when the only destination for logging
data is syslog, unless the syslog lines are routed to a local file whose name
is passed to eximon via the EXIMON_LOG_FILE_PATH environment variable.
The log sub-window has a scroll bar at its lefthand side which can be used to
move back to look at earlier text, and the up and down arrow keys also have a
scrolling effect. The amount of log that is kept depends on the setting of
LOG_BUFFER in Local/eximon.conf, which specifies the amount of memory to use.
When this is full, the earlier 50% of data is discarded - this is much more
efficient than throwing it away line by line. The sub-window also has a
horizontal scroll bar for accessing the ends of long log lines. This is the
only means of horizontal scrolling; the right and left arrow keys are not
available. Text can be cut from this part of the window using the mouse in the
normal way. The size of this subwindow is controlled by parameters in the
configuration file Local/eximon.conf.
Searches of the text in the log window can be carried out by means of the ^R
and ^S keystrokes, which default to a reverse and a forward search,
respectively. The search covers only the text that is displayed in the window.
It cannot go further back up the log.
The point from which the search starts is indicated by a caret marker. This is
normally at the end of the text in the window, but can be positioned explicitly
by pointing and clicking with the left mouse button, and is moved automatically
by a successful search. If new text arrives in the window when it is scrolled
back, the caret remains where it is, but if the window is not scrolled back,
the caret is moved to the end of the new text.
Pressing ^R or ^S pops up a window into which the search text can be typed.
There are buttons for selecting forward or reverse searching, for carrying out
the search, and for cancelling. If the "Search" button is pressed, the search
happens and the window remains so that further searches can be done. If the
"Return" key is pressed, a single search is done and the window is closed. If ^
C is typed the search is cancelled.
The searching facility is implemented using the facilities of the Athena text
widget. By default this pops up a window containing both "search" and "replace"
options. In order to suppress the unwanted "replace" portion for eximon, a
modified version of the TextPop widget is distributed with Exim. However, the
linkers in BSDI and HP-UX seem unable to handle an externally provided version
of TextPop when the remaining parts of the text widget come from the standard
libraries. The compile-time option EXIMON_TEXTPOP can be unset to cut out the
modified TextPop, making it possible to build Eximon on these systems, at the
expense of having unwanted items in the search popup window.
51.5 The queue display
----------------------
The bottom section of the monitor window contains a list of all messages that
are on the queue, which includes those currently being received or delivered,
as well as those awaiting delivery. The size of this subwindow is controlled by
parameters in the configuration file Local/eximon.conf, and the frequency at
which it is updated is controlled by another parameter in the same file - the
default is 5 minutes, since queue scans can be quite expensive. However, there
is an "Update" action button just above the display which can be used to force
an update of the queue display at any time.
When a host is down for some time, a lot of pending mail can build up for it,
and this can make it hard to deal with other messages on the queue. To help
with this situation there is a button next to "Update" called "Hide". If
pressed, a dialogue box called "Hide addresses ending with" is put up. If you
type anything in here and press "Return", the text is added to a chain of such
texts, and if every undelivered address in a message matches at least one of
the texts, the message is not displayed.
If there is an address that does not match any of the texts, all the addresses
are displayed as normal. The matching happens on the ends of addresses so, for
example, cam.ac.uk specifies all addresses in Cambridge, while
xxx@foo.com.example specifies just one specific address. When any hiding has
been set up, a button called "Unhide" is displayed. If pressed, it cancels all
hiding. Also, to ensure that hidden messages do not get forgotten, a hide
request is automatically cancelled after one hour.
While the dialogue box is displayed, you can't press any buttons or do anything
else to the monitor window. For this reason, if you want to cut text from the
queue display to use in the dialogue box, you have to do the cutting before
pressing the "Hide" button.
The queue display contains, for each unhidden queued message, the length of
time it has been on the queue, the size of the message, the message id, the
message sender, and the first undelivered recipient, all on one line. If it is
a bounce message, the sender is shown as "<>". If there is more than one
recipient to which the message has not yet been delivered, subsequent ones are
listed on additional lines, up to a maximum configured number, following which
an ellipsis is displayed. Recipients that have already received the message are
not shown.
If a message is frozen, an asterisk is displayed at the left-hand side.
The queue display has a vertical scroll bar, and can also be scrolled by means
of the arrow keys. Text can be cut from it using the mouse in the normal way.
The text searching facilities, as described above for the log window, are also
available, but the caret is always moved to the end of the text when the queue
display is updated.
51.6 The queue menu
-------------------
If the shift key is held down and the left button is clicked when the mouse
pointer is over the text for any message, an action menu pops up, and the first
line of the queue display for the message is highlighted. This does not affect
any selected text.
If you want to use some other event for popping up the menu, you can set the
MENU_EVENT parameter in Local/eximon.conf to change the default, or set
EXIMON_MENU_EVENT in the environment before starting the monitor. The value set
in this parameter is a standard X event description. For example, to run eximon
using ctrl rather than shift you could use
EXIMON_MENU_EVENT='Ctrl<Btn1Down>' eximon
The title of the menu is the message id, and it contains entries which act as
follows:
* message log: The contents of the message log for the message are displayed
in a new text window.
* headers: Information from the spool file that contains the envelope
information and headers is displayed in a new text window. See chapter 53
for a description of the format of spool files.
* body: The contents of the spool file containing the body of the message are
displayed in a new text window. There is a default limit of 20,000 bytes to
the amount of data displayed. This can be changed by setting the BODY_MAX
option at compile time, or the EXIMON_BODY_MAX option at run time.
* deliver message: A call to Exim is made using the -M option to request
delivery of the message. This causes an automatic thaw if the message is
frozen. The -v option is also set, and the output from Exim is displayed in
a new text window. The delivery is run in a separate process, to avoid
holding up the monitor while the delivery proceeds.
* freeze message: A call to Exim is made using the -Mf option to request that
the message be frozen.
* thaw message: A call to Exim is made using the -Mt option to request that
the message be thawed.
* give up on msg: A call to Exim is made using the -Mg option to request that
Exim gives up trying to deliver the message. A bounce message is generated
for any remaining undelivered addresses.
* remove message: A call to Exim is made using the -Mrm option to request
that the message be deleted from the system without generating a bounce
message.
* add recipient: A dialog box is displayed into which a recipient address can
be typed. If the address is not qualified and the QUALIFY_DOMAIN parameter
is set in Local/eximon.conf, the address is qualified with that domain.
Otherwise it must be entered as a fully qualified address. Pressing RETURN
causes a call to Exim to be made using the -Mar option to request that an
additional recipient be added to the message, unless the entry box is
empty, in which case no action is taken.
* mark delivered: A dialog box is displayed into which a recipient address
can be typed. If the address is not qualified and the QUALIFY_DOMAIN
parameter is set in Local/eximon.conf, the address is qualified with that
domain. Otherwise it must be entered as a fully qualified address. Pressing
RETURN causes a call to Exim to be made using the -Mmd option to mark the
given recipient address as already delivered, unless the entry box is
empty, in which case no action is taken.
* mark all delivered: A call to Exim is made using the -Mmad option to mark
all recipient addresses as already delivered.
* edit sender: A dialog box is displayed initialized with the current
sender's address. Pressing RETURN causes a call to Exim to be made using
the -Mes option to replace the sender address, unless the entry box is
empty, in which case no action is taken. If you want to set an empty sender
(as in bounce messages), you must specify it as "<>". Otherwise, if the
address is not qualified and the QUALIFY_DOMAIN parameter is set in Local/
eximon.conf, the address is qualified with that domain.
When a delivery is forced, a window showing the -v output is displayed. In
other cases when a call to Exim is made, if there is any output from Exim (in
particular, if the command fails) a window containing the command and the
output is displayed. Otherwise, the results of the action are normally apparent
from the log and queue displays. However, if you set ACTION_OUTPUT=yes in Local
/eximon.conf, a window showing the Exim command is always opened, even if no
output is generated.
The queue display is automatically updated for actions such as freezing and
thawing, unless ACTION_QUEUE_UPDATE=no has been set in Local/eximon.conf. In
this case the "Update" button has to be used to force an update of the display
after one of these actions.
In any text window that is displayed as result of a menu action, the normal
cut-and-paste facility is available, and searching can be carried out using ^R
and ^S, as described above for the log tail window.
===============================================================================
52. SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
This chapter discusses a number of issues concerned with security, some of
which are also covered in other parts of this manual.
For reasons that this author does not understand, some people have promoted
Exim as a "particularly secure" mailer. Perhaps it is because of the existence
of this chapter in the documentation. However, the intent of the chapter is
simply to describe the way Exim works in relation to certain security concerns,
not to make any specific claims about the effectiveness of its security as
compared with other MTAs.
What follows is a description of the way Exim is supposed to be. Best efforts
have been made to try to ensure that the code agrees with the theory, but an
absence of bugs can never be guaranteed. Any that are reported will get fixed
as soon as possible.
52.1 Building a more "hardened" Exim
------------------------------------
There are a number of build-time options that can be set in Local/Makefile to
create Exim binaries that are "harder" to attack, in particular by a rogue Exim
administrator who does not have the root password, or by someone who has
penetrated the Exim (but not the root) account. These options are as follows:
* ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX can be set to a string that is required to match the
start of any file names used with the -C option. When it is set, these file
names are also not allowed to contain the sequence "/../". (However, if the
value of the -C option is identical to the value of CONFIGURE_FILE in Local
/Makefile, Exim ignores -C and proceeds as usual.) There is no default
setting for ALT_CONFIG_PREFIX.
If the permitted configuration files are confined to a directory to which
only root has access, this guards against someone who has broken into the
Exim account from running a privileged Exim with an arbitrary configuration
file, and using it to break into other accounts.
* If ALT_CONFIG_ROOT_ONLY is defined, root privilege is retained for -C and
-D only if the caller of Exim is root. Without it, the Exim user may also
use -C and -D and retain privilege. Setting this option locks out the
possibility of testing a configuration using -C right through message
reception and delivery, even if the caller is root. The reception works,
but by that time, Exim is running as the Exim user, so when it re-execs to
regain privilege for the delivery, the use of -C causes privilege to be
lost. However, root can test reception and delivery using two separate
commands. ALT_CONFIG_ROOT_ONLY is not set by default.
* If DISABLE_D_OPTION is defined, the use of the -D command line option is
disabled.
* FIXED_NEVER_USERS can be set to a colon-separated list of users that are
never to be used for any deliveries. This is like the never_users runtime
option, but it cannot be overridden; the runtime option adds additional
users to the list. The default setting is "root"; this prevents a non-root
user who is permitted to modify the runtime file from using Exim as a way
to get root.
52.2 Root privilege
-------------------
The Exim binary is normally setuid to root, which means that it gains root
privilege (runs as root) when it starts execution. In some special cases (for
example, when the daemon is not in use and there are no local deliveries), it
may be possible to run Exim setuid to some user other than root. This is
discussed in the next section. However, in most installations, root privilege
is required for two things:
* To set up a socket connected to the standard SMTP port (25) when
initialising the listening daemon. If Exim is run from inetd, this
privileged action is not required.
* To be able to change uid and gid in order to read users' .forward files and
perform local deliveries as the receiving user or as specified in the
configuration.
It is not necessary to be root to do any of the other things Exim does, such as
receiving messages and delivering them externally over SMTP, and it is
obviously more secure if Exim does not run as root except when necessary. For
this reason, a user and group for Exim to use must be defined in Local/Makefile
. These are known as "the Exim user" and "the Exim group". Their values can be
changed by the run time configuration, though this is not recommended. Often a
user called exim is used, but some sites use mail or another user name
altogether.
Exim uses setuid() whenever it gives up root privilege. This is a permanent
abdication; the process cannot regain root afterwards. Prior to release 4.00,
seteuid() was used in some circumstances, but this is no longer the case.
After a new Exim process has interpreted its command line options, it changes
uid and gid in the following cases:
* If the -C option is used to specify an alternate configuration file, or if
the -D option is used to define macro values for the configuration, and the
calling process is not running as root or the Exim user, the uid and gid
are changed to those of the calling process. However, if
ALT_CONFIG_ROOT_ONLY is defined in Local/Makefile, only root callers may
use -C and -D without losing privilege, and if DISABLE_D_OPTION is set, the
-D option may not be used at all.
* If the expansion test option (-be) or one of the filter testing options (
-bf or -bF) are used, the uid and gid are changed to those of the calling
process.
* If the process is not a daemon process or a queue runner process or a
delivery process or a process for testing address routing (started with -bt
), the uid and gid are changed to the Exim user and group. This means that
Exim always runs under its own uid and gid when receiving messages. This
also applies when testing address verification (the -bv option) and testing
incoming message policy controls (the -bh option).
* For a daemon, queue runner, delivery, or address testing process, the uid
remains as root at this stage, but the gid is changed to the Exim group.
The processes that initially retain root privilege behave as follows:
* A daemon process changes the gid to the Exim group and the uid to the Exim
user after setting up one or more listening sockets. The initgroups()
function is called, so that if the Exim user is in any additional groups,
they will be used during message reception.
* A queue runner process retains root privilege throughout its execution. Its
job is to fork a controlled sequence of delivery processes.
* A delivery process retains root privilege throughout most of its execution,
but any actual deliveries (that is, the transports themselves) are run in
subprocesses which always change to a non-root uid and gid. For local
deliveries this is typically the uid and gid of the owner of the mailbox;
for remote deliveries, the Exim uid and gid are used. Once all the delivery
subprocesses have been run, a delivery process changes to the Exim uid and
gid while doing post-delivery tidying up such as updating the retry
database and generating bounce and warning messages.
While the recipient addresses in a message are being routed, the delivery
process runs as root. However, if a user's filter file has to be processed,
this is done in a subprocess that runs under the individual user's uid and
gid. A system filter is run as root unless system_filter_user is set.
* A process that is testing addresses (the -bt option) runs as root so that
the routing is done in the same environment as a message delivery.
52.3 Running Exim without privilege
-----------------------------------
Some installations like to run Exim in an unprivileged state for more of its
operation, for added security. Support for this mode of operation is provided
by the global option deliver_drop_privilege. When this is set, the uid and gid
are changed to the Exim user and group at the start of a delivery process (and
also queue runner and address testing processes). This means that address
routing is no longer run as root, and the deliveries themselves cannot change
to any other uid.
Leaving the binary setuid to root, but setting deliver_drop_privilege means
that the daemon can still be started in the usual way, and it can respond
correctly to SIGHUP because the re-invocation regains root privilege.
An alternative approach is to make Exim setuid to the Exim user and also setgid
to the Exim group. If you do this, the daemon must be started from a root
process. (Calling Exim from a root process makes it behave in the way it does
when it is setuid root.) However, the daemon cannot restart itself after a
SIGHUP signal because it cannot regain privilege.
It is still useful to set deliver_drop_privilege in this case, because it stops
Exim from trying to re-invoke itself to do a delivery after a message has been
received. Such a re-invocation is a waste of resources because it has no
effect.
If restarting the daemon is not an issue (for example, if mua_wrapper is set,
or inetd is being used instead of a daemon), having the binary setuid to the
Exim user seems a clean approach, but there is one complication:
In this style of operation, Exim is running with the real uid and gid set to
those of the calling process, and the effective uid/gid set to Exim's values.
Ideally, any association with the calling process' uid/gid should be dropped,
that is, the real uid/gid should be reset to the effective values so as to
discard any privileges that the caller may have. While some operating systems
have a function that permits this action for a non-root effective uid, quite a
number of them do not. Because of this lack of standardization, Exim does not
address this problem at this time.
For this reason, the recommended approach for "mostly unprivileged" running is
to keep the Exim binary setuid to root, and to set deliver_drop_privilege. This
also has the advantage of allowing a daemon to be used in the most
straightforward way.
If you configure Exim not to run delivery processes as root, there are a number
of restrictions on what you can do:
* You can deliver only as the Exim user/group. You should explicitly use the
user and group options to override routers or local transports that
normally deliver as the recipient. This makes sure that configurations that
work in this mode function the same way in normal mode. Any implicit or
explicit specification of another user causes an error.
* Use of .forward files is severely restricted, such that it is usually not
worthwhile to include them in the configuration.
* Users who wish to use .forward would have to make their home directory and
the file itself accessible to the Exim user. Pipe and append-to-file
entries, and their equivalents in Exim filters, cannot be used. While they
could be enabled in the Exim user's name, that would be insecure and not
very useful.
* Unless the local user mailboxes are all owned by the Exim user (possible in
some POP3 or IMAP-only environments):
1. They must be owned by the Exim group and be writeable by that group.
This implies you must set mode in the appendfile configuration, as well
as the mode of the mailbox files themselves.
2. You must set no_check_owner, since most or all of the files will not be
owned by the Exim user.
3. You must set file_must_exist, because Exim cannot set the owner
correctly on a newly created mailbox when unprivileged. This also
implies that new mailboxes need to be created manually.
These restrictions severely restrict what can be done in local deliveries.
However, there are no restrictions on remote deliveries. If you are running a
gateway host that does no local deliveries, setting deliver_drop_privilege
gives more security at essentially no cost.
If you are using the mua_wrapper facility (see chapter 48),
deliver_drop_privilege is forced to be true.
52.4 Delivering to local files
------------------------------
Full details of the checks applied by appendfile before it writes to a file are
given in chapter 26.
52.5 IPv4 source routing
------------------------
Many operating systems suppress IP source-routed packets in the kernel, but
some cannot be made to do this, so Exim does its own check. It logs incoming
IPv4 source-routed TCP calls, and then drops them. Things are all different in
IPv6. No special checking is currently done.
52.6 The VRFY, EXPN, and ETRN commands in SMTP
----------------------------------------------
Support for these SMTP commands is disabled by default. If required, they can
be enabled by defining suitable ACLs.
52.7 Privileged users
---------------------
Exim recognizes two sets of users with special privileges. Trusted users are
able to submit new messages to Exim locally, but supply their own sender
addresses and information about a sending host. For other users submitting
local messages, Exim sets up the sender address from the uid, and doesn't
permit a remote host to be specified.
However, an untrusted user is permitted to use the -f command line option in
the special form -f <> to indicate that a delivery failure for the message
should not cause an error report. This affects the message's envelope, but it
does not affect the Sender: header. Untrusted users may also be permitted to
use specific forms of address with the -f option by setting the
untrusted_set_sender option.
Trusted users are used to run processes that receive mail messages from some
other mail domain and pass them on to Exim for delivery either locally, or over
the Internet. Exim trusts a caller that is running as root, as the Exim user,
as any user listed in the trusted_users configuration option, or under any
group listed in the trusted_groups option.
Admin users are permitted to do things to the messages on Exim's queue. They
can freeze or thaw messages, cause them to be returned to their senders, remove
them entirely, or modify them in various ways. In addition, admin users can run
the Exim monitor and see all the information it is capable of providing, which
includes the contents of files on the spool.
By default, the use of the -M and -q options to cause Exim to attempt delivery
of messages on its queue is restricted to admin users. This restriction can be
relaxed by setting the no_prod_requires_admin option. Similarly, the use of -bp
(and its variants) to list the contents of the queue is also restricted to
admin users. This restriction can be relaxed by setting
no_queue_list_requires_admin.
Exim recognizes an admin user if the calling process is running as root or as
the Exim user or if any of the groups associated with the calling process is
the Exim group. It is not necessary actually to be running under the Exim
group. However, if admin users who are not root or the Exim user are to access
the contents of files on the spool via the Exim monitor (which runs
unprivileged), Exim must be built to allow group read access to its spool
files.
52.8 Spool files
----------------
Exim's spool directory and everything it contains is owned by the Exim user and
set to the Exim group. The mode for spool files is defined in the Local/
Makefile configuration file, and defaults to 0640. This means that any user who
is a member of the Exim group can access these files.
52.9 Use of argv[0]
-------------------
Exim examines the last component of argv[0], and if it matches one of a set of
specific strings, Exim assumes certain options. For example, calling Exim with
the last component of argv[0] set to "rsmtp" is exactly equivalent to calling
it with the option -bS. There are no security implications in this.
52.10 Use of %f formatting
--------------------------
The only use made of "%f" by Exim is in formatting load average values. These
are actually stored in integer variables as 1000 times the load average.
Consequently, their range is limited and so therefore is the length of the
converted output.
52.11 Embedded Exim path
------------------------
Exim uses its own path name, which is embedded in the code, only when it needs
to re-exec in order to regain root privilege. Therefore, it is not root when it
does so. If some bug allowed the path to get overwritten, it would lead to an
arbitrary program's being run as exim, not as root.
52.12 Use of sprintf()
----------------------
A large number of occurrences of "sprintf" in the code are actually calls to
string_sprintf(), a function that returns the result in malloc'd store. The
intermediate formatting is done into a large fixed buffer by a function that
runs through the format string itself, and checks the length of each conversion
before performing it, thus preventing buffer overruns.
The remaining uses of sprintf() happen in controlled circumstances where the
output buffer is known to be sufficiently long to contain the converted string.
52.13 Use of debug_printf() and log_write()
-------------------------------------------
Arbitrary strings are passed to both these functions, but they do their
formatting by calling the function string_vformat(), which runs through the
format string itself, and checks the length of each conversion.
52.14 Use of strcat() and strcpy()
----------------------------------
These are used only in cases where the output buffer is known to be large
enough to hold the result.
===============================================================================
53. FORMAT OF SPOOL FILES
A message on Exim's queue consists of two files, whose names are the message id
followed by -D and -H, respectively. The data portion of the message is kept in
the -D file on its own. The message's envelope, status, and headers are all
kept in the -H file, whose format is described in this chapter. Each of these
two files contains the final component of its own name as its first line. This
is insurance against disk crashes where the directory is lost but the files
themselves are recoverable.
Some people are tempted into editing -D files in order to modify messages. You
need to be extremely careful if you do this; it is not recommended and you are
on your own if you do it. Here are some of the pitfalls:
* You must ensure that Exim does not try to deliver the message while you are
fiddling with it. The safest way is to take out a write lock on the -D
file, which is what Exim itself does, using fcntl(). If you update the file
in place, the lock will be retained. If you write a new file and rename it,
the lock will be lost at the instant of rename.
* If you change the number of lines in the file, the value of $body_linecount
, which is stored in the -H file, will be incorrect. At present, this value
is not used by Exim, but there is no guarantee that this will always be the
case.
* If the message is in MIME format, you must take care not to break it.
* If the message is cryptographically signed, any change will invalidate the
signature.
All in all, modifying -D files is fraught with danger.
Files whose names end with -J may also be seen in the input directory (or its
subdirectories when split_spool_directory is set). These are journal files,
used to record addresses to which the message has been delivered during the
course of a delivery attempt. If there are still undelivered recipients at the
end, the -H file is updated, and the -J file is deleted. If, however, there is
some kind of crash (for example, a power outage) before this happens, the -J
file remains in existence. When Exim next processes the message, it notices the
-J file and uses it to update the -H file before starting the next delivery
attempt.
53.1 Format of the -H file
--------------------------
The second line of the -H file contains the login name for the uid of the
process that called Exim to read the message, followed by the numerical uid and
gid. For a locally generated message, this is normally the user who sent the
message. For a message received over TCP/IP via the daemon, it is normally the
Exim user.
The third line of the file contains the address of the message's sender as
transmitted in the envelope, contained in angle brackets. The sender address is
empty for bounce messages. For incoming SMTP mail, the sender address is given
in the MAIL command. For locally generated mail, the sender address is created
by Exim from the login name of the current user and the configured
qualify_domain. However, this can be overridden by the -f option or a leading
"From " line if the caller is trusted, or if the supplied address is "<>" or an
address that matches untrusted_set_senders.
The fourth line contains two numbers. The first is the time that the message
was received, in the conventional Unix form - the number of seconds since the
start of the epoch. The second number is a count of the number of messages
warning of delayed delivery that have been sent to the sender.
There follow a number of lines starting with a hyphen. These can appear in any
order, and are omitted when not relevant:
-acl <number> <length>
This item is obsolete, and is not generated from Exim release 4.61 onwards;
-aclc and -aclm are used instead. However, -acl is still recognized, to
provide backward compatibility. In the old format, a line of this form is
present for every ACL variable that is not empty. The number identifies the
variable; the acl_cx variables are numbered 0-9 and the acl_mx variables
are numbered 10-19. The length is the length of the data string for the
variable. The string itself starts at the beginning of the next line, and
is followed by a newline character. It may contain internal newlines.
-aclc <rest-of-name> <length>
A line of this form is present for every ACL connection variable that is
defined. Note that there is a space between -aclc and the rest of the name.
The length is the length of the data string for the variable. The string
itself starts at the beginning of the next line, and is followed by a
newline character. It may contain internal newlines.
-aclm <rest-of-name> <length>
A line of this form is present for every ACL message variable that is
defined. Note that there is a space between -aclm and the rest of the name.
The length is the length of the data string for the variable. The string
itself starts at the beginning of the next line, and is followed by a
newline character. It may contain internal newlines.
-active_hostname <hostname>
This is present if, when the message was received over SMTP, the value of
$smtp_active_hostname was different to the value of $primary_hostname.
-allow_unqualified_recipient
This is present if unqualified recipient addresses are permitted in header
lines (to stop such addresses from being qualified if rewriting occurs at
transport time). Local messages that were input using -bnq and remote
messages from hosts that match recipient_unqualified_hosts set this flag.
-allow_unqualified_sender
This is present if unqualified sender addresses are permitted in header
lines (to stop such addresses from being qualified if rewriting occurs at
transport time). Local messages that were input using -bnq and remote
messages from hosts that match sender_unqualified_hosts set this flag.
-auth_id <text>
The id information for a message received on an authenticated SMTP
connection - the value of the $authenticated_id variable.
-auth_sender <address>
The address of an authenticated sender - the value of the
$authenticated_sender variable.
-body_linecount <number>
This records the number of lines in the body of the message, and is always
present.
-body_zerocount <number>
This records the number of binary zero bytes in the body of the message,
and is present if the number is greater than zero.
-deliver_firsttime
This is written when a new message is first added to the spool. When the
spool file is updated after a deferral, it is omitted.
-frozen <time>
The message is frozen, and the freezing happened at <time>.
-helo_name <text>
This records the host name as specified by a remote host in a HELO or EHLO
command.
-host_address <address>.<port>
This records the IP address of the host from which the message was received
and the remote port number that was used. It is omitted for locally
generated messages.
-host_auth <text>
If the message was received on an authenticated SMTP connection, this
records the name of the authenticator - the value of the
$sender_host_authenticated variable.
-host_lookup_failed
This is present if an attempt to look up the sending host's name from its
IP address failed. It corresponds to the $host_lookup_failed variable.
-host_name <text>
This records the name of the remote host from which the message was
received, if the host name was looked up from the IP address when the
message was being received. It is not present if no reverse lookup was
done.
-ident <text>
For locally submitted messages, this records the login of the originating
user, unless it was a trusted user and the -oMt option was used to specify
an ident value. For messages received over TCP/IP, this records the ident
string supplied by the remote host, if any.
-interface_address <address>.<port>
This records the IP address of the local interface and the port number
through which a message was received from a remote host. It is omitted for
locally generated messages.
-local
The message is from a local sender.
-localerror
The message is a locally-generated bounce message.
-local_scan <string>
This records the data string that was returned by the local_scan() function
when the message was received - the value of the $local_scan_data variable.
It is omitted if no data was returned.
-manual_thaw
The message was frozen but has been thawed manually, that is, by an
explicit Exim command rather than via the auto-thaw process.
-N
A testing delivery process was started using the -N option to suppress any
actual deliveries, but delivery was deferred. At any further delivery
attempts, -N is assumed.
-received_protocol
This records the value of the $received_protocol variable, which contains
the name of the protocol by which the message was received.
-sender_set_untrusted
The envelope sender of this message was set by an untrusted local caller
(used to ensure that the caller is displayed in queue listings).
-spam_score_int <number>
If a message was scanned by SpamAssassin, this is present. It records the
value of $spam_score_int.
-tls_certificate_verified
A TLS certificate was received from the client that sent this message, and
the certificate was verified by the server.
-tls_cipher <cipher name>
When the message was received over an encrypted connection, this records
the name of the cipher suite that was used.
-tls_peerdn <peer DN>
When the message was received over an encrypted connection, and a
certificate was received from the client, this records the Distinguished
Name from that certificate.
Following the options there is a list of those addresses to which the message
is not to be delivered. This set of addresses is initialized from the command
line when the -t option is used and extract_addresses_remove_arguments is set;
otherwise it starts out empty. Whenever a successful delivery is made, the
address is added to this set. The addresses are kept internally as a balanced
binary tree, and it is a representation of that tree which is written to the
spool file. If an address is expanded via an alias or forward file, the
original address is added to the tree when deliveries to all its child
addresses are complete.
If the tree is empty, there is a single line in the spool file containing just
the text "XX". Otherwise, each line consists of two letters, which are either Y
or N, followed by an address. The address is the value for the node of the
tree, and the letters indicate whether the node has a left branch and/or a
right branch attached to it, respectively. If branches exist, they immediately
follow. Here is an example of a three-node tree:
YY darcy@austen.fict.example
NN alice@wonderland.fict.example
NN editor@thesaurus.ref.example
After the non-recipients tree, there is a list of the message's recipients.
This is a simple list, preceded by a count. It includes all the original
recipients of the message, including those to whom the message has already been
delivered. In the simplest case, the list contains one address per line. For
example:
4
editor@thesaurus.ref.example
darcy@austen.fict.example
rdo@foundation
alice@wonderland.fict.example
However, when a child address has been added to the top-level addresses as a
result of the use of the one_time option on a redirect router, each line is of
the following form:
<top-level address> <errors_to address> <length>,<parent number>#<flag bits>
The 01 flag bit indicates the presence of the three other fields that follow
the top-level address. Other bits may be used in future to support additional
fields. The <parent number> is the offset in the recipients list of the
original parent of the "one time" address. The first two fields are the
envelope sender that is associated with this address and its length. If the
length is zero, there is no special envelope sender (there are then two space
characters in the line). A non-empty field can arise from a redirect router
that has an errors_to setting.
A blank line separates the envelope and status information from the headers
which follow. A header may occupy several lines of the file, and to save effort
when reading it in, each header is preceded by a number and an identifying
character. The number is the number of characters in the header, including any
embedded newlines and the terminating newline. The character is one of the
following:
<blank> header in which Exim has no special interest
"B" Bcc: header
"C" Cc: header
"F" From: header
"I" Message-id: header
"P" Received: header - P for "postmark"
"R" Reply-To: header
"S" Sender: header
"T" To: header
"*" replaced or deleted header
Deleted or replaced (rewritten) headers remain in the spool file for debugging
purposes. They are not transmitted when the message is delivered. Here is a
typical set of headers:
111P Received: by hobbit.fict.example with local (Exim 4.00)
id 14y9EI-00026G-00; Fri, 11 May 2001 10:28:59 +0100
049 Message-Id: <E14y9EI-00026G-00@hobbit.fict.example>
038* X-rewrote-sender: bb@hobbit.fict.example
042* From: Bilbo Baggins <bb@hobbit.fict.example>
049F From: Bilbo Baggins <B.Baggins@hobbit.fict.example>
099* To: alice@wonderland.fict.example, rdo@foundation,
darcy@austen.fict.example, editor@thesaurus.ref.example
104T To: alice@wonderland.fict.example, rdo@foundation.example,
darcy@austen.fict.example, editor@thesaurus.ref.example
038 Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 10:28:59 +0100
The asterisked headers indicate that the envelope sender, From: header, and To:
header have been rewritten, the last one because routing expanded the
unqualified domain foundation.
===============================================================================
54. ADDING NEW DRIVERS OR LOOKUP TYPES
The following actions have to be taken in order to add a new router, transport,
authenticator, or lookup type to Exim:
1. Choose a name for the driver or lookup type that does not conflict with any
existing name; I will use "newdriver" in what follows.
2. Add to src/EDITME the line:
<type>_NEWDRIVER=yes
where <type> is ROUTER, TRANSPORT, AUTH, or LOOKUP. If the code is not to
be included in the binary by default, comment this line out. You should
also add any relevant comments about the driver or lookup type.
3. Add to src/config.h.defaults the line:
#define <type>_NEWDRIVER
4. Edit src/drtables.c, adding conditional code to pull in the private header
and create a table entry as is done for all the other drivers and lookup
types.
5. Edit Makefile in the appropriate sub-directory (src/routers, src/transports
, src/auths, or src/lookups); add a line for the new driver or lookup type
and add it to the definition of OBJ.
6. Create newdriver.h and newdriver.c in the appropriate sub-directory of src.
7. Edit scripts/MakeLinks and add commands to link the .h and .c files as for
other drivers and lookups.
Then all you need to do is write the code! A good way to start is to make a
proforma by copying an existing module of the same type, globally changing all
occurrences of the name, and cutting out most of the code. Note that any
options you create must be listed in alphabetical order, because the tables are
searched using a binary chop procedure.
There is a README file in each of the sub-directories of src describing the
interface that is expected.