3 <TITLE>Exim FAQ</TITLE>
5 <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#00005A">
8 This is the FAQ for the Exim Mail Transfer Agent. Thanks to the many
9 people who provided the original information. This file would be amazingly
10 cluttered if I tried to list them all. Suggestions for corrections,
11 improvements, and additions are welcome.
15 This version of the FAQ applies to Exim 3.20 and later releases. The syntax of
16 some of the options was altered and tidied up at release 3.00. Some of the
17 examples quoted here will not work with earlier releases.
21 References of the form Cnnn and Fnnn are to the sample configuration and filter
22 files that can be found in the separately distributed directory called
23 <B>config.samples.</B> The primary location is
27 <A HREF="ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/email/exim/exim3/config.samples.tar.gz">ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/email/exim/exim3/config.samples.tar.gz</A>
28 <A HREF="ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/email/exim/exim3/config.samples.tar.bz2">ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/email/exim/exim3/config.samples.tar.bz2</A></PRE>
30 There are brief descriptions of these files at the end of this document.
33 The FAQ is divided into the following sections:
34 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC1">Debugging</A>,
35 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC49">Building exim</A>,
36 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC64">Mailbox locking</A>,
37 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC67">Routing</A>,
38 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC94">Directing</A>,
39 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC141">Delivery</A>,
40 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC182">UUCP</A>,
41 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC186">Performance</A>,
42 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC191">Policy controls</A>,
43 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC232">Majordomo</A>,
44 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC238">Rewriting addresses</A>,
45 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC246">Headers</A>,
46 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC252">Fetchmail</A>,
47 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC256">Perl</A>,
48 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC259">Dial-up</A>,
49 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC264">Modifying message bodies</A>,
50 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC267">Millennium</A>,
51 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC269">Miscellaneous</A>,
52 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC321">HP-UX</A>,
53 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC323">BSDI</A>,
54 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC325">IRIX</A>,
55 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC328">Linux</A>,
56 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC337">Sun systems</A>,
57 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC347">Cookbook</A>, and
58 <A HREF="FAQ.html#TOC372">List of sample configurations</A>.
60 Philip Hazel <B><B><ph10@cus.cam.ac.uk</B>></B><BR>
61 Last update: 23-April-2001<BR>
65 <A NAME="TOC1" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC1">0. DEBUGGING</A>
67 <LI><A NAME="TOC2" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC2">Q0001</A>: Exim is crashing. What is wrong?
68 <LI><A NAME="TOC3" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC3">Q0002</A>: Exim is not working. What is wrong? How can I check what it is doing?
69 <LI><A NAME="TOC4" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC4">Q0003</A>: What does the error "Child process of <TT>address_pipe</TT> transport returned
70 69 from command <I>xxx</I>" mean?
71 <LI><A NAME="TOC5" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC5">Q0004</A>: My virtual domain setup isn't working. How can I debug it?
72 <LI><A NAME="TOC6" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC6">Q0005</A>: Why is Exim giving "421 Unexpected log failure, please try later" when
73 receiving an SMTP message with a large number of recipients?
74 <LI><A NAME="TOC7" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC7">Q0006</A>: Why is Exim not rejecting incoming messages addressed to non-existent
76 <LI><A NAME="TOC8" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC8">Q0007</A>: I've put an entry for <B>*.my.domain</B> in a DBM lookup file, but it isn't
78 <LI><A NAME="TOC9" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC9">Q0008</A>: I've put the entry <B><B>*@domain.com</B></B> in a lookup database, but it isn't
79 working. The expansion I'm using is:
80 <LI><A NAME="TOC10" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC10">Q0009</A>: Is there a way to print recognized local domains?
81 <LI><A NAME="TOC11" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC11">Q0010</A>: If I run <B>"./exim</B> <B>-d9</B> <B>-bt</B> <B>user@domain</B>" all seems well, but when I send a
82 message from my User Agent, it does not arrive at its destination.
83 <LI><A NAME="TOC12" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC12">Q0011</A>: I am getting this message in mainlog every so often: "no immediate
84 delivery: too many connections (19, max 0)". What am I missing?
85 <LI><A NAME="TOC13" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC13">Q0012</A>: What does "no immediate delivery: too many messages received in one SMTP
87 <LI><A NAME="TOC14" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC14">Q0013</A>: Exim puts "for <address>" in the Received: headers of some, but not all,
88 messages. Is this a bug?
89 <LI><A NAME="TOC15" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC15">Q0014</A>: Instead of <TT>exim_dbmbuild</TT>, I'm using a homegrown program to build DBM
90 (or cdb) files, but Exim doesn't seem to be able to use them.
91 <LI><A NAME="TOC16" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC16">Q0015</A>: Exim is unable to route to any remote domains. It doesn't seen to be
92 able to access the DNS.
93 <LI><A NAME="TOC17" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC17">Q0016</A>: I'm using ETRN to run a script that checks things and doesn't always
94 end up running "exim <B><B>-R".</B></B> However, after it has run once, subsequent
95 attempts fail with "458 Already processing".
96 <LI><A NAME="TOC18" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC18">Q0017</A>: What does the error message "transport <TT>system_aliases</TT>: cannot find
97 transport driver "<B>aliasfile</B>" in line 92" mean?
98 <LI><A NAME="TOC19" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC19">Q0018</A>: Exim is timing out after receiving and responding to the DATA command
99 from one particular host, and yet the client host also claims to be
100 timing out. This seems to affect only certain messages.
101 <LI><A NAME="TOC20" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC20">Q0019</A>: What does the message "Socket bind() to port 25 for address (any)
102 failed: address already in use" mean?
103 <LI><A NAME="TOC21" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC21">Q0020</A>: I've set <TT>headers_check_syntax</TT>, but this causes Exim to complain about
104 headers like "To: Work: Jim <B><jims@email</B>>, Home: Bob <B><bobs@email</B>>" which
105 look all right to me. Is this a bug?
106 <LI><A NAME="TOC22" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC22">Q0021</A>: Whenever Exim tries to deliver a specific message to a particular
107 server, it fails, giving the error "Remote end closed connection after
108 data" or "Broken pipe" or a timeout. What's going on?
109 <LI><A NAME="TOC23" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC23">Q0022</A>: Why do messages not get delivered down the same connection when I do
110 something like: exim <B>-v</B> <B>-R</B> <B>@aol.com</B> ? For other domains, I do this and
111 I see the appropriate "waiting for passed connections to get used"
113 <LI><A NAME="TOC24" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC24">Q0023</A>: What does the error "SEGV while reading ... from dbm file: record
114 assumed not to exist" mean?
115 <LI><A NAME="TOC25" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC25">Q0024</A>: There seems to be a problem in the string expansion code: it doesn't
116 recognize references to headers such as <B><B>${h_to}.</B></B>
117 <LI><A NAME="TOC26" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC26">Q0025</A>: Exim is timing out after sending the a message's data to one particular
118 host, and yet the remote host also claims to be timing out. This seems
119 to affect only certain messages.
120 <LI><A NAME="TOC27" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC27">Q0026</A>: When the Exim daemon forks a copy of itself to handle an incoming SMTP
121 request, the forked copy seems to go around in circles for a
122 significant (up to 5 minutes, so far) amount of time before deciding to
124 <LI><A NAME="TOC28" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC28">Q0027</A>: What does "failed to create child process to send failure message" mean?
125 This is a busy mail server with <TT>smtp_accept_max</TT> set to 500, but this
126 problem started to occur at about 300 incoming connections.
127 <LI><A NAME="TOC29" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC29">Q0028</A>: What does "<message filter> transporting defer (-1): No transport set
128 by director" in a log line mean?
129 <LI><A NAME="TOC30" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC30">Q0029</A>: Why is Exim refusing to relay, saying "failed to find host name from IP
130 address" when I have the sender's IP address in <TT>host_accept_relay</TT>? My
131 configuration contains this:
132 <LI><A NAME="TOC31" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC31">Q0030</A>: When I run "exim <B>-bd</B> <B>-q10m"</B> I get "PANIC LOG: exec of exim <B>-q</B> failed".
133 <LI><A NAME="TOC32" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC32">Q0031</A>: Why do connections to my machine's SMTP port take a long time to respond
134 with the banner, when connections to other ports respond instantly?
135 <LI><A NAME="TOC33" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC33">Q0032</A>: I can't seem to get a pipe command to run when I include a <B>${if</B>
136 expansion in it. This fails:
137 <LI><A NAME="TOC34" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC34">Q0033</A>: I'm trying to get Exim to connect an alias to a pipe, but it always
138 gives error code 69, with the comment "(could mean service or program
140 <LI><A NAME="TOC35" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC35">Q0034</A>: I'm having a problem with an Exim RPM.
141 <LI><A NAME="TOC36" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC36">Q0035</A>: What does the error "Spool file is locked" mean?
142 <LI><A NAME="TOC37" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC37">Q0036</A>: Exim is reporting IP addresses as 0.0.0.0 or 255.255.255.255 instead of
143 their correct values. What's going on?
144 <LI><A NAME="TOC38" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC38">Q0037</A>: I can't seem to figure out why PAM support doesn't work correctly.
145 <LI><A NAME="TOC39" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC39">Q0038</A>: I'm trying to use a query-style lookup for hosts that are allowed to
146 relay, but it is giving really weird errors.
147 <LI><A NAME="TOC40" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC40">Q0039</A>: Exim is rejecting calls from hosts that have more than one IP address,
148 for no apparent reason.
149 <LI><A NAME="TOC41" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC41">Q0040</A>: Exim is failing to find the MySQL library, even though is it present
150 within <B><B>$LD_LIBRARY_PATH.</B></B> I'm getting this error:
151 <LI><A NAME="TOC42" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC42">Q0041</A>: I have a collection of Exim processes that have been around for days,
152 and are apparently stuck while trying to deliver to remote hosts. This
153 is causing the messages they are handling to get stuck.
154 <LI><A NAME="TOC43" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC43">Q0042</A>: I have a message in the spool which couldn't be delivered because of a
155 timeout from the remote smtp server. When I try to deliver this message
156 in eximon, I get "Spool file is locked". How can I deliver the message?
157 <LI><A NAME="TOC44" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC44">Q0043</A>: What does the error "lookup of host <B>"xx<EM>.xx</EM><EM>.xx</EM>"</B> failed in <I>yyy</I>y router"
158 mean? Any suggestions to stop this these sort of errors from being
159 frozen would be muchly appreciated.
160 <LI><A NAME="TOC45" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC45">Q0044</A>: My filter isn't working. How can I test it?
161 <LI><A NAME="TOC46" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC46">Q0045</A>: Exim works fine on one host, but when I copied the binary to another
162 identical host, it stopped working (it could not resolve DNS names).
163 <LI><A NAME="TOC47" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC47">Q0046</A>: Once in a while, a user will send a message and immediatly get a
164 response back "No Transport Provider" If they choose "Send Again",
165 sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
166 <LI><A NAME="TOC48" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC48">Q0047</A>: I set <TT>host_accept_relay</TT> to do a lookup in a file of IP addresses, but it
170 <A NAME="TOC49" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC49">1. BUILDING EXIM</A>
172 <LI><A NAME="TOC50" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC50">Q0101</A>: I get the error "conflicting types" when Exim is building the libident
174 <LI><A NAME="TOC51" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC51">Q0102</A>: When I ran <B>make</B> I got the error "undefined reference to <TT>dbopen</TT>".
175 <LI><A NAME="TOC52" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC52">Q0103</A>: I can't get Exim to compile with Berkeley DB version 2.x.
176 <LI><A NAME="TOC53" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC53">Q0104</A>: I'm getting an "undefined symbol" error for <TT>hosts_ctl</TT> when I try to
177 build Exim. (On some systems this error is "undefined reference to
179 <LI><A NAME="TOC54" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC54">Q0105</A>: I'm about to upgrade to a new Exim release. Do I need to ensure the
180 spool is empty, or take any other special action?
181 <LI><A NAME="TOC55" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC55">Q0106</A>: What does the error "<B>install-info</B>: command not found" mean?
182 <LI><A NAME="TOC56" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC56">Q0107</A>: Exim doesn't seem to be recognizing my operating system type correctly,
183 and so is failing to build.
184 <LI><A NAME="TOC57" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC57">Q0108</A>: I am getting an error "`exim' undeclared here" when I compile, in the
185 <B>globals.c</B> module.
186 <LI><A NAME="TOC58" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC58">Q0109</A>: Exim fails to build, complaining about the absence of the "killpg"
188 <LI><A NAME="TOC59" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC59">Q0110</A>: I'm getting an unresolved symbol <TT>ldap_is_ldap_url</TT> when trying to build
190 <LI><A NAME="TOC60" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC60">Q0111</A>: I'm getting an unresolved symbol <TT>mysql_close</TT> when trying to build Exim.
191 <LI><A NAME="TOC61" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC61">Q0112</A>: I'm trying to build Exim with PAM support. I have included <B>-lpam</B> in
192 <TT>EXTRALIBS</TT>, but I'm still getting a linking error:
193 <LI><A NAME="TOC62" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC62">Q0113</A>: I'm getting the error <B>"db.h:</B> No such file or directory" when I try to
195 <LI><A NAME="TOC63" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC63">Q0114</A>: I'm getting the error "/usr/bin/ld: cannot find <B>-ldb1"</B> when I try to
199 <A NAME="TOC64" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC64">2. MAILBOX LOCKING</A>
201 <LI><A NAME="TOC65" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC65">Q0201</A>: Why do I get the error "Permission denied: creating lock file hitching
202 post" when Exim tries to do a local delivery?
203 <LI><A NAME="TOC66" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC66">Q0202</A>: I am experiencing mailbox locking problems with Sun's <B>mailtool</B> used
207 <A NAME="TOC67" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC67">3. ROUTING</A>
209 <LI><A NAME="TOC68" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC68">Q0301</A>: What do "lowest numbered MX record points to local host" and "remote
210 host address is the local host" mean?
211 <LI><A NAME="TOC69" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC69">Q0302</A>: How do I configure Exim to send all non-local mail to a gateway host?
212 <LI><A NAME="TOC70" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC70">Q0303</A>: How do I configure Exim to send all non-local mail to a central server
213 if it cannot be immediately delivered by my host? I don't want to have
214 queued mail waiting on my host.
215 <LI><A NAME="TOC71" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC71">Q0304</A>: How can I arrange for messages submitted by (for example) Majordomo to
217 <LI><A NAME="TOC72" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC72">Q0305</A>: How do I arrange for all incoming email for <B><B>*@some.domain</B></B> to go into one
218 pop3 mail account? The customer doesn't want to add a list of specific
219 local parts to the system.
220 <LI><A NAME="TOC73" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC73">Q0306</A>: The <TT>route_list</TT> setting
221 <TT>^foo$:^bar$ $domain byname</TT> in a <B>domainlist</B>
222 router does not work.
223 <LI><A NAME="TOC74" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC74">Q0307</A>: I'm getting "permission denied" when Exim attempts to check a
224 <TT>require_files</TT> option.
225 <LI><A NAME="TOC75" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC75">Q0308</A>: I have a domain for which some local parts must be delivered locally,
226 but the remainder are to be treated like any other remote addresses.
227 <LI><A NAME="TOC76" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC76">Q0309</A>: For certain domains, I don't want Exim to use MX records. Instead, I
228 want it just to look up the hosts' A records. I tried using a negative
229 entry in <TT>mx_domains</TT> in the smtp router, but it didn't work.
230 <LI><A NAME="TOC77" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC77">Q0310</A>: How can I configure Exim on a firewall machine so that if mail arrives
231 addressed to a domain whose MX points to the firewall, it is forwarded
232 to the internal mail server, without having to have a list of all the
234 <LI><A NAME="TOC78" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC78">Q0311</A>: How can I arrange that messages larger than some limit are handled by
236 <LI><A NAME="TOC79" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC79">Q0312</A>: If a DNS lookup returns no MX records why doesn't Exim just bin the
238 <LI><A NAME="TOC80" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC80">Q0313</A>: When a DNS lookup for MX records fails to complete, why doesn't Exim
239 send the messsage to the host defined by the A record?
240 <LI><A NAME="TOC81" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC81">Q0314</A>: Can you specify a list of domains to explicitly reject?
241 <LI><A NAME="TOC82" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC82">Q0315</A>: Is it possible to use a conditional expression for the host item in a
242 <TT>route_list</TT> for the <B>domainlist</B> router? I tried the following, but it
244 <LI><A NAME="TOC83" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC83">Q0316</A>: I send all external mail to a smart host, but this means that bad
245 addresses also get passed to the smart host. Can I avoid this?
246 <LI><A NAME="TOC84" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC84">Q0317</A>: I have a dial-up machine, and I use the <TT>queue_smtp</TT> option so that remote
247 mail only goes out when I do a queue run. However, any email I send with
248 an address <B><B><anything>@aol.com</B></B> is returned within about 15 mins saying
249 'retry time exceeded', and all addresses are affected.
250 <LI><A NAME="TOC85" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC85">Q0318</A>: How can I route mail for user <B>X@local</B> to a smarthost if X doesn't exist
252 <LI><A NAME="TOC86" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC86">Q0319</A>: How can I arrange to do my own qualification of non-fully-qualified
253 domains, and then pass them on to the next router?
254 <LI><A NAME="TOC87" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC87">Q0320</A>: Every system has a "nobody" account under which httpd etc run. I would
255 like to know how to restrict mail which comes from that account to users
257 <LI><A NAME="TOC88" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC88">Q0321</A>: I have a really annoying intermittent problem where attempts to mail to
258 valid sites are rejected with "unknown mail domain". This only happens a
259 few times a day and there is no particular pattern to the sites it
260 rejects. If I try to lookup the same domain a few minutes later then it
262 <LI><A NAME="TOC89" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC89">Q0322</A>: I'd like route all mail with unresolved addresses to a relay machine.
263 <LI><A NAME="TOC90" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC90">Q0323</A>: I would like to forward all incoming email for a particular domain to
264 another machine via SMTP. Whereabouts would I configure that?
265 <LI><A NAME="TOC91" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC91">Q0324</A>: Why does Exim say "all relevant MX records point to non-existent hosts"
266 when MX records point to IP addresses?
267 <LI><A NAME="TOC92" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC92">Q0325</A>: How can I arrange for mail on my local network to be delivered directly
268 to the relevant hosts, but all other mail to be sent to my ISP's mail
269 server? The local hosts are all DNS-registered and behave like normal
271 <LI><A NAME="TOC93" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC93">Q0326</A>: What I'd like to do is have alternative smarthosts, where the one to be
272 used is determined by which ISP I'm connected to.
275 <A NAME="TOC94" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC94">4. DIRECTING</A>
277 <LI><A NAME="TOC95" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC95">Q0401</A>: I need to have any mail for <B>virt.dom.ain</B> that <EM>doesn't</EM> match one of the
278 aliases in <B><B>/usr/lib/aliases.virt</B></B> delivered to a particular address, for
279 example, <B><B>postmaster@virt.dom.ain.</B></B>
280 <LI><A NAME="TOC96" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC96">Q0402</A>: How do I configure Exim to send all messages to a central server?
281 <LI><A NAME="TOC97" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC97">Q0403</A>: How do I configure Exim to send messages for unknown local users to a
283 <LI><A NAME="TOC98" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC98">Q0404</A>: How can I arrange for messages submitted by (for example) Majordomo to
284 be handled specially?
285 <LI><A NAME="TOC99" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC99">Q0405</A>: On a host that accepts mail for several domains, do I have to use fully
286 qualified names in <B>/etc/aliases</B> or do I have to set up an alias file for
288 <LI><A NAME="TOC100" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC100">Q0406</A>: Some of my users are using the <B>.forward</B> to pipe to a shell command which
289 appends to the user's INBOX. How can I forbid this?
290 <LI><A NAME="TOC101" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC101">Q0407</A>: How can I arrange for a default value when using a query-style lookup
291 such as LDAP or NIS+ to handle aliases?
292 <LI><A NAME="TOC102" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC102">Q0408</A>: If I don't fully qualify the addresses in a virtual domain's alias file
293 then mail to aliases which also match the local domain get delivered to
295 <LI><A NAME="TOC103" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC103">Q0409</A>: We've got users who chmod their home to 750, and home is NFS-mounted
296 without root privilege, so Exim cannot access <B>~user/.forward.</B>
297 <LI><A NAME="TOC104" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC104">Q0410</A>: I'm getting "permission denied" when Exim tries to check a for the
298 existence of a user's <B>.procmailrc</B> file using <TT>require_files</TT>.
299 <LI><A NAME="TOC105" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC105">Q0411</A>: How can I deliver mail into different directories for each virtual
300 domain, doing user lookups not against <B>/etc/passwd</B> but against
301 <B><B>/etc/passwd.domain</B>?</B>
302 <LI><A NAME="TOC106" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC106">Q0412</A>: I want mail for <EM>any</EM> local part at certain virtual domains to go
303 to a single address for each domain.
304 <LI><A NAME="TOC107" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC107">Q0413</A>: How can I make Exim look in the alias NIS map instead of <B>/etc/aliases</B>?
305 <LI><A NAME="TOC108" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC108">Q0414</A>: What does the error message "error in forward file (filtering not
306 enabled): missing or malformed local part ..." mean?
307 <LI><A NAME="TOC109" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC109">Q0415</A>: Exim isn't recognizing certain forms of local address.
308 <LI><A NAME="TOC110" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC110">Q0416</A>: I have a domain for which some local parts must be delivered locally,
309 but the remainder are to be treated like any other remote addresses.
310 <LI><A NAME="TOC111" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC111">Q0417</A>: What I really need is the ability to obtain the result of a pipe
311 command so that I can filter externally and redirect internally. Is
313 <LI><A NAME="TOC112" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC112">Q0418</A>: When I set a suffix on one of my directors, it doesn't get stripped when
314 checking the <TT>local_parts</TT> option. Why is this?
315 <LI><A NAME="TOC113" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC113">Q0419</A>: Why will Exim deliver a message locally to any username that is longer
316 than 8 characters as long as the first 8 characters match one of the
318 <LI><A NAME="TOC114" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC114">Q0420</A>: Why am I seeing the error "bad mode (100664) for <B><B>/home/test/.forward</B></B>
319 (userforward director)"? I've looked through the documentation but can't
320 see anything to suggest that exim has to do anything other than read the
321 <B>.forward</B> file.
322 <LI><A NAME="TOC115" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC115">Q0421</A>: How can I arrange that messages larger than some limit are handled by
324 <LI><A NAME="TOC116" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC116">Q0422</A>: When a user's <B>.forward</B> file is syntactially invalid, Exim defers
325 delivery of all messages to that user, which sometimes include the
326 user's own test messages. Can it be told to ignore the <B>.forward</B> file
327 and/or inform the user of the error?
328 <LI><A NAME="TOC117" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC117">Q0423</A>: I have some users on my system with upper case letters in their login
329 names, but these are not recognized.
330 <LI><A NAME="TOC118" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC118">Q0424</A>: I have unset <TT>locally_caseless</TT> because my users have upper case letters
331 in their login names, but incoming mail now has to use the correct case.
332 Can I relax this somehow?
333 <LI><A NAME="TOC119" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC119">Q0425</A>: I want to look up local users in an SQL database instead of looking in
335 <LI><A NAME="TOC120" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC120">Q0426</A>: Is it possible for Exim to use a SQL database like MySQL for its lists
336 of virtual domains and explicit aliases?
337 <LI><A NAME="TOC121" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC121">Q0427</A>: Can I use my existing alias files and forward files as well as procmail
338 and effectively drop in exim in place of Sendmail ?
339 <LI><A NAME="TOC122" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC122">Q0428</A>: How can I route mail for user <B>X@local</B> to a smarthost if X doesn't exist
341 <LI><A NAME="TOC123" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC123">Q0429</A>: What is quickest way to set up Exim so any message sent to a non-
342 existing user would bounce back with a different message, based
343 on the name of non-existing user?
344 <LI><A NAME="TOC124" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC124">Q0430</A>: I am building some largish mailing lists with Majordomo, and was
345 wondering if it worth leaving the actually list expansion to the
346 <B>aliasfile</B> :include: mechanism or should I consider using the <B>forwardfile</B>
347 transport? Is there any real difference in terms of facilities and/or
348 performance, and are the expansions basically the same code anyway?
349 <LI><A NAME="TOC125" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC125">Q0431</A>: What do I need to do to make Exim handle <B>/usr/ucb/vacation</B> processing
350 automatically, so that people could just create a .<B>vacation.msg</B> file in
351 their home directory and not have to edit their <B>.forward</B> file?
352 <LI><A NAME="TOC126" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC126">Q0432</A>: I want to use a default entry in my alias file, but it picks up the
353 local parts that the aliases generate. For example, if the alias file
355 <LI><A NAME="TOC127" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC127">Q0433</A>: I have some obsolete domains which people have been warned not to use
356 any more. How can I arrange to delete any mail that is sent to them?
357 <LI><A NAME="TOC128" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC128">Q0434</A>: How can I arrange that mail addressed to <B><B>anything@something.mydomain.com</B></B>
358 gets delivered to <B><B>something@mydomain.com</B>?</B>
359 <LI><A NAME="TOC129" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC129">Q0435</A>: I can't get a regular expression to work in this <TT>local_parts</TT> option on
361 <LI><A NAME="TOC130" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC130">Q0436</A>: How can I arrange for all addresses in a group of domains <B>*.example.com</B>
362 to share the same alias file? I have a number of such groups.
363 <LI><A NAME="TOC131" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC131">Q0437</A>: When Exim tries to read <B><B>/usr/lib/majordomo/lists/lists.aliases</B></B> it is
364 giving "Permission denied", but that file is world-readable!
365 <LI><A NAME="TOC132" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC132">Q0438</A>: Some of our users have no home directories; the field in the password
366 file contains <B>/no/home/dir</B>. This causes the error "failed to stat
367 <B>/no/home/dir</B> (No such file or directory)" when Exim tries to look for a
368 <B>.forward</B> file, and the delivery is deferred.
369 <LI><A NAME="TOC133" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC133">Q0439</A>: How can I disable Exim's de-duplication features? I want it to do two
370 deliveries if two different aliases expand to the same address.
371 <LI><A NAME="TOC134" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC134">Q0440</A>: I set up an <B>aliasfile</B> director using MySQL, but it doesn't use the new
372 addresses. This it my director:
373 <LI><A NAME="TOC135" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC135">Q0441</A>: I received a message with a Subject: line that contained a non-printing
374 character (a carriage return). This messed up my filter file. Is there a
376 <LI><A NAME="TOC136" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC136">Q0442</A>: My users' mailboxes are distributed between several servers according to
377 the first letter of the user name. All the servers receive incoming mail
378 at random. I would like to have the same configuration file for all the
379 servers, which does local delivery for the mailboxes it holds, and sends
380 other addresses to the correct other server. Is this possible?
381 <LI><A NAME="TOC137" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC137">Q0443</A>: I want to search for '$' in the subject line, but I can't seem to get
382 the syntax. The obvious choice, '\$' doesn't work. Any help?
383 <LI><A NAME="TOC138" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC138">Q0444</A>: One of the things I want to set up is for <B>anything@onedomain</B> to forward
384 to <B><B>anything@anotherdomain.</B></B> I tried adding <B>$local_part@anotherdomain</B> to
385 my aliases but it did not expand - it sent it to that literal address.
386 <LI><A NAME="TOC139" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC139">Q0445</A>: How can I have an address looked up in two different alias files, and
387 delivered to all the addresses that are found?
388 <LI><A NAME="TOC140" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC140">Q0446</A>: I've converted from Sendmail, and I notice that Exim doesn't make use
389 of the "owner-" entries in my alias file to change the sender address in
390 outgoing messages to a mailing list.
393 <A NAME="TOC141" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC141">5. DELIVERY</A>
395 <LI><A NAME="TOC142" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC142">Q0501</A>: What does the error "Neither the <I>xxx</I> director nor the <I>yyy</I> transport set
396 a uid for local delivery of..." mean?
397 <LI><A NAME="TOC143" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC143">Q0502</A>: Exim won't deliver to a host with no MX record.
398 <LI><A NAME="TOC144" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC144">Q0503</A>: How should Exim be configured when it is acting as a temporary storage
399 system for a domain on a dial-up host?
400 <LI><A NAME="TOC145" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC145">Q0504</A>: I would like to deliver mail addressed to a given domain normally, but
401 also to generate a message to the envelope sender.
402 <LI><A NAME="TOC146" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC146">Q0505</A>: Exim keeps crashing with segmentation errors (signal 11 or 139) during
403 delivery. This seems to happen when it is about to contact a remote
404 host or when a delivery is deferred.
405 <LI><A NAME="TOC147" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC147">Q0506</A>: Whenever Exim tries to do a local delivery, it gives a permission denied
406 error for the <B>.forward</B> file, like this:
407 <LI><A NAME="TOC148" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC148">Q0507</A>: I have installed Exim, but now I can't mail to root any more. Why is
409 <LI><A NAME="TOC149" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC149">Q0508</A>: How can I stop undeliverable bounce messages (e.g. to routeable, but
410 undeliverable, spammer senders) from clogging up the queue for days?
411 <LI><A NAME="TOC150" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC150">Q0509</A>: How can mails that are being routed through directors other than
412 localuser be delivered under the uid of the recipient?
413 <LI><A NAME="TOC151" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC151">Q0510</A>: I want to use MMDF-style mailboxes. How can I get Exim to append the
414 ctrl-A characters that separate indvidual emails?
415 <LI><A NAME="TOC152" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC152">Q0511</A>: I have an ISDN connection and would like a way of running the queue
416 automatically when it is up.
417 <LI><A NAME="TOC153" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC153">Q0512</A>: If a user's mailbox is over quota, is there a way for me to set it up so
418 that the mail bounces to the sender and is NOT stored in the mail queue?
419 <LI><A NAME="TOC154" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC154">Q0513</A>: I'm using tmail to do local deliveries, but when I turned on the
420 <TT>use_crlf</TT> option on the pipe transport (tmail prefers \r\n terminations)
421 message bodies started to vanish.
422 <LI><A NAME="TOC155" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC155">Q0514</A>: What does the message "Unable to get root to set uid and gid
423 for local delivery to <I>xxx</I>: uid=<I>yyy</I> euid=<I>zzz</I>" mean?
424 <LI><A NAME="TOC156" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC156">Q0515</A>: I upgraded to 2.04 and now my Envelope-To: header for my virtual domains
425 is gone. Any idea how to get it back?
426 <LI><A NAME="TOC157" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC157">Q0516</A>: The Exim log records the arrival of a message, and then "Completed",
427 without logging any deliveries. What's going on?
428 <LI><A NAME="TOC158" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC158">Q0517</A>: When I activate "return receipt" for example in Netscape Mailbox
429 sending options, then I get an error message from Exim... something
430 like "not supported". Can I activate delivery confirmations?
431 <LI><A NAME="TOC159" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC159">Q0518</A>: When I dial up to collect mail from my ISP, only the first 10 messages
432 get delivered immediately; the remainder just sit on the queue until a
433 queue runner process finds them.
434 <LI><A NAME="TOC160" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC160">Q0519</A>: My ISP's mail server is rejecting bounce messages from Exim, complaining
435 that they have no sender. The SMTP trace does indeed show that the
436 sender address is "<>". Why is the Sender on the bounce message empty?
437 <LI><A NAME="TOC161" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC161">Q0520</A>: What does the message "retry time not reached [for any host]" on the log
438 mean? Why won't Exim try to deliver the message?
439 <LI><A NAME="TOC162" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC162">Q0521</A>: RFC 1985 specifies that the SMTP command "ETRN <B>host.domain"</B> causes all
440 mail queued for that host, no matter what domain it's for, to be
441 dequeued. Why doesn't Exim support this?
442 <LI><A NAME="TOC163" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC163">Q0522</A>: If email has been deferred to a member on a local mailing list
443 (implemented through forward files), and one of our ETRN clients is on
444 this mailing list, the <B>-R</B> won't "flush" the mailing list message for
446 <LI><A NAME="TOC164" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC164">Q0523</A>: Exim seems to be sending the same message twice, according to the log,
447 although there is a difference in capitalization of the local part of
449 <LI><A NAME="TOC165" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC165">Q0524</A>: How can I force the next retry time for a host to be now?
450 <LI><A NAME="TOC166" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC166">Q0525</A>: I set up "|/bin/grep Subject|/usr/bin/smbclient <B>-M</B> <netbiosname>" as an
451 alias but it doesn't work.
452 <LI><A NAME="TOC167" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC167">Q0526</A>: Why does the pipe transport add a line starting with ">From" to
454 <LI><A NAME="TOC168" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC168">Q0527</A>: I have set <TT>fallback_hosts</TT> on my smtp transport, but after the error
455 <B><B>"sem@chat.ru</B></B> cannot be resolved at this time" Exim isn't using them.
456 <LI><A NAME="TOC169" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC169">Q0528</A>: After the holidays my ISP has always hundreds of e-mails waiting for me.
457 These are forced down Exim's throat in one go. Exim spawns a lot of
458 kids, but is there some limit to the number of processes it creates?
459 <LI><A NAME="TOC170" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC170">Q0529</A>: When a message in the queue got to 12h old, Exim wrote 'retry timeout
460 exceeded' and removed <EM>all</EM> messages in the queue to this host - even
461 recent messages. How I can avoid this behaviour? I only want to remove
462 messages that have exceeded the maximum retry time.
463 <LI><A NAME="TOC171" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC171">Q0530</A>: Can Exim add a Content-Length: header to messages it delivers?
464 <LI><A NAME="TOC172" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC172">Q0531</A>: Exim seems to be trying to deliver a message every 10 minutes, though
465 the retry rules specify longer times after a while, because it is
466 writing a log entry every time, like this:
467 <LI><A NAME="TOC173" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC173">Q0532</A>: I am trying to set exim up to have a automatic failover if it sees that
468 the system that it is sending all mail to is down.
469 <LI><A NAME="TOC174" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC174">Q0533</A>: I can't get Exim to deliver over NFS. I get the error "fcntl() failed:
470 No locks available", though the lock daemon is running on the NFS server
471 and other hosts are able to access it.
472 <LI><A NAME="TOC175" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC175">Q0534</A>: Why does Exim bounce messages without even attempting delivery, giving
473 the error "retry time not reached for any host after a long failure
475 <LI><A NAME="TOC176" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC176">Q0535</A>: My <B>.forward</B> file is "|/usr/bin/procmail <B>-f-"</B> and mail gets delivered,
476 but there was a bounce to the sender, sending him the output of procmail.
477 How can I prevent this?
478 <LI><A NAME="TOC177" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC177">Q0536</A>: Can I write an ordinary file when I running a perl script as a transport
479 filter for <TT>remote_smtp</TT> and <TT>address_pipe</TT> transports?
480 <LI><A NAME="TOC178" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC178">Q0537</A>: I have some mails on my queues that are sticking around longer than
481 the retry time indicates they should. They are all getting frozen
482 because some remote admin has set their MX record to 127.0.0.1.
483 <LI><A NAME="TOC179" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC179">Q0538</A>: My <B>/var/spool/mail</B> has grown drastically. Is there any possibility of
484 using two files in <B>exim.cfg</B> ?
485 <LI><A NAME="TOC180" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC180">Q0539</A>: Sendmail has a program called smrsh that restricts what binaries
486 can be run from sendmail aliases. Is there someting like this in Exim ?
487 <LI><A NAME="TOC181" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC181">Q0540</A>: I wish to have large emails go out one at a time.
490 <A NAME="TOC182" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC182">6. UUCP</A>
492 <LI><A NAME="TOC183" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC183">Q0601</A>: The MX records for some UUCP domains point to my local host. How do I
493 get it to pass the messages on to UUCP?
494 <LI><A NAME="TOC184" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC184">Q0602</A>: How can I get Exim to handle "bang path" addresses?
495 <LI><A NAME="TOC185" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC185">Q0603</A>: We see something strange on our system in regards to mail comming in via
496 rmail from a UUCP link. The sender is being set to mailmaster instead of
497 the real sender, and a Sender: header is being added to the message.
500 <A NAME="TOC186" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC186">7. PERFORMANCE</A>
502 <LI><A NAME="TOC187" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC187">Q0701</A>: I'm running a large mail server. Should I set <TT>split_spool_directory</TT> to
504 <LI><A NAME="TOC188" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC188">Q0702</A>: How well does Exim scale?
505 <LI><A NAME="TOC189" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC189">Q0703</A>: We have a large password file. Can Exim use alternative lookups during
506 delivery to speed things up?
507 <LI><A NAME="TOC190" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC190">Q0704</A>: I just wondered if it might be helpful to put the hints database on a
508 RAM disk during regular operation. Did anybody try that yet?
511 <A NAME="TOC191" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC191">8. POLICY CONTROLS</A>
513 <LI><A NAME="TOC192" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC192">Q0801</A>: How do I block unwanted messages from outside my host?
514 <LI><A NAME="TOC193" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC193">Q0802</A>: I don't want to block spam entirely; how can I inspect each message
515 before deciding whether to deliver it or not?
516 <LI><A NAME="TOC194" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC194">Q0803</A>: How can I test that my spam blocks are working?
517 <LI><A NAME="TOC195" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC195">Q0804</A>: How can I test that Exim is correctly configured to use the Realtime
519 <LI><A NAME="TOC196" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC196">Q0805</A>: How can I use <B>tcpwrappers</B> in conjunction with Exim?
520 <LI><A NAME="TOC197" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC197">Q0806</A>: How can I get POP-auth-before-relay support in Exim?
521 <LI><A NAME="TOC198" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC198">Q0807</A>: I have one or two cases where my machine correctly rejects messages, but
522 the remote machine is quite persistent, and keeps trying over and over.
523 <LI><A NAME="TOC199" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC199">Q0808</A>: I am seeing the error "no valid sender in message headers: return path
524 is <>" in the reject log. Isn't <> a valid return path for error
526 <LI><A NAME="TOC200" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC200">Q0809</A>: Let's say that we want to run a mail server that does not care if you
527 have proper reverse DNS. If you include <TT>host_reject</TT> lines in your
528 config file, Exim will always reject connections from such hosts. How
530 <LI><A NAME="TOC201" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC201">Q0810</A>: Is there a way to prevent lookups in the RBL for local hosts?
531 <LI><A NAME="TOC202" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC202">Q0811</A>: How can I set up the <TT>sender_reject</TT> option in my config file so I can
532 reject mail by matching regular expressions?
533 <LI><A NAME="TOC203" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC203">Q0812</A>: Normally <TT>sender_reject_recipients</TT> works fine, but addresses that have
534 some uppercase letters in them seem to come through.
535 <LI><A NAME="TOC204" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC204">Q0813</A>: I want to accept some sender addresses, even though they do not verify.
536 There doesn't seem to be an option for verification exceptions, so how
538 <LI><A NAME="TOC205" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC205">Q0814</A>: We are being plagued by forged mail coming from a number of different
539 hosts and sender addresses. The guy however leaves a fingerprint. The
540 first received line always contains 'Received: from baby'. What is the
541 best suggested way for eliminiating him from our systems?
542 <LI><A NAME="TOC206" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC206">Q0815</A>: I have set <TT>host_accept_relay</TT>, but my host still refuses to relay from
544 <LI><A NAME="TOC207" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC207">Q0816</A>: How can I run customized verification checks on incoming addresses?
545 <LI><A NAME="TOC208" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC208">Q0817</A>: Does Exim apply RBL checks to error messages, those with an envelope
546 sender of "<>" ?
547 <LI><A NAME="TOC209" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC209">Q0818</A>: I want to be able to set up a list, similar to <TT>sender_reject_recipients</TT>,
548 but with a user-defined message. I believe I have to use a director for
550 <LI><A NAME="TOC210" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC210">Q0819</A>: I want to reject certain sender-recipient combinations, with a specific
551 message for each such combination.
552 <LI><A NAME="TOC211" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC211">Q0820</A>: Will Exim allow me to create a file of regexs and match incoming
553 external email to the list - and if a match is found file the offending
554 message into a special location? Also is it possible to make exim only
555 filter parts of an incoming email - e.g. ignore large MIME attachments
556 for example and only process text/plain?
557 <LI><A NAME="TOC212" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC212">Q0821</A>: I've hacked sendmail to make an ioctl call at the time of the SMTP RCPT
558 command, to check if a user has exceeded their email quota. If they have
559 I issue a temporary failure and a message - can I do this with Exim?
560 <LI><A NAME="TOC213" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC213">Q0822</A>: I'm looking for a rule to reject special unknown recipients.
561 <LI><A NAME="TOC214" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC214">Q0823</A>: I'd like to pass all messages through a virus-scanning system before
562 delivery. Can Exim do this?
563 <LI><A NAME="TOC215" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC215">Q0824</A>: How can I accomplish this: a message sent from any host must either be
564 sending to a domain in a list (a dbm file) or the sender's address
565 domain must be in the list.
566 <LI><A NAME="TOC216" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC216">Q0825</A>: I've set <TT>relay_domains</TT> and <TT>sender_address_relay</TT>, but if <B>user@mydomain</B>
567 tries sending to an arbitrary domain, Exim rejects it.
568 <LI><A NAME="TOC217" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC217">Q0826</A>: I set <TT>sender_reject_recipients</TT>, but Exim is not rejecting those
570 <LI><A NAME="TOC218" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC218">Q0827</A>: I can't find an option to deny "RCPT TO:" addresses.
571 <LI><A NAME="TOC219" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC219">Q0828</A>: My problem is that Exim replaces <B>$local_part</B> with an empty string in the
572 system filtering. What's wrong or what did I miss?
573 <LI><A NAME="TOC220" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC220">Q0829</A>: Using <B>$recipients</B> in a system filter gives me another problem: how can
574 I do a string lookup if <B>$recipients</B> is a list of addresses?
575 <LI><A NAME="TOC221" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC221">Q0830</A>: Is there a way to configure Exim to reject mail to a certain local host?
576 <LI><A NAME="TOC222" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC222">Q0831</A>: Exim sometimes rejects messages with bad senders after the DATA and
577 sometimes after the MAIL command. What is the difference?
578 <LI><A NAME="TOC223" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC223">Q0832</A>: How can I get Exim to remove attachments from messages?
579 <LI><A NAME="TOC224" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC224">Q0833</A>: I ran a relay test against my host and it failed with an address
580 containing a %, though I don't have <TT>percent_hack_domains</TT> set. Is Exim
581 broken? This is what the tester said:
582 <LI><A NAME="TOC225" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC225">Q0834</A>: How can I arrange for each user to have a file listing the only sender
583 addresses from which she will accept mail? I want to do this so my
584 family members don't get any spam (or other inappropriate mail).
585 <LI><A NAME="TOC226" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC226">Q0835</A>: I have the POP-auth-before-relay support in, but I see that Exim still
586 does an RBL lookup before checking the POP authorisation file. How can I
587 prevent it doing an RBL check if the caller is authorized by virtue of a
588 recent POP authentication?
589 <LI><A NAME="TOC227" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC227">Q0836</A>: When using Nessus on a system that runs exim, a number of security
590 issues are raised. Nessus complains that exim answers to EXPN and/or
591 VRFY; sometimes it even complains that exim allows relaying.
592 <LI><A NAME="TOC228" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC228">Q0837</A>: Could anyone points me to right rules to prevent sending/receiving
593 messages to/for domains which have one MX to localhost or only have
595 <LI><A NAME="TOC229" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC229">Q0838</A>: How can I lock out domains that do not have any MX records?
596 <LI><A NAME="TOC230" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC230">Q0839</A>: I would like to have a per-user limit for the maximum size of messages
598 <LI><A NAME="TOC231" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC231">Q0840</A>: I have set up a DBM (or cdb, or lsearch, or MySQL or whatever) file
599 containing a list of IP addresses for the hosts I want to allow to
600 relay, but when I set <TT>host_accept_relay</TT> to do a lookup on that data, it
604 <A NAME="TOC232" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC232">9. MAJORDOMO</A>
606 <LI><A NAME="TOC233" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC233">Q0901</A>: How do I set up Majordomo to work with Exim?
607 <LI><A NAME="TOC234" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC234">Q0902</A>: I have set <B>$mailer</B> in <B>majordomo.cf,</B> but it still isn't setting the
608 sender correctly in the messages it sends.
609 <LI><A NAME="TOC235" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC235">Q0903</A>: I'm trying to set up majordomo, but I'm getting a "wrong mode" error
610 when I try to send it mail. The panic log entry reads:
611 <LI><A NAME="TOC236" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC236">Q0904</A>: I'm getting return code 9 from <B><B>/home/majordomo/majordomo-1.94.4/wrapper</B></B>
612 when it is passed a message from Exim.
613 <LI><A NAME="TOC237" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC237">Q0905</A>: Exim is complaining about an invalid command line when Majordomo tries
614 to send it a message for delivery.
617 <A NAME="TOC238" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC238">10. REWRITING ADDRESSES</A>
619 <LI><A NAME="TOC239" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC239">Q1001</A>: How can I get Exim to strip the hostname from the sender's address?
620 <LI><A NAME="TOC240" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC240">Q1002</A>: I have Exim configured to remove the hostname portion of the domain on
621 outgoing mail, and yet the hostname is present when the mail gets
623 <LI><A NAME="TOC241" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC241">Q1003</A>: I want to rewrite local addresses in mail that goes to the outside
624 world, but not for messages that remain within the local intranet.
625 <LI><A NAME="TOC242" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC242">Q1004</A>: I'm using this rewriting rule to change login names into "friendly"
626 names, but if mail comes in for an upper case login name, it doesn't
628 <LI><A NAME="TOC243" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC243">Q1005</A>: Is it possible to completely fail a message if the rewrite rules fail?
629 <LI><A NAME="TOC244" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC244">Q1006</A>: I'm using <B>$domain</B> as the key for a lookup in a rewriting rule, but its
630 contents are not being lowercased. Aren't domains supposed to be handled
632 <LI><A NAME="TOC245" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC245">Q1007</A>: I want to rewrite local sender addresses depending on the domain of the
636 <A NAME="TOC246" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC246">11. HEADERS</A>
638 <LI><A NAME="TOC247" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC247">Q1101</A>: I would like add some custom headers to selected outgoing mail based on
639 a specific domain and the subject line.
640 <LI><A NAME="TOC248" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC248">Q1102</A>: Is it possible to have Exim add a header to only certain <TT>local_parts</TT> of
642 <LI><A NAME="TOC249" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC249">Q1103</A>: How can I remove some part of the Received: header?
643 <LI><A NAME="TOC250" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC250">Q1104</A>: How I can insert the PGP header line using exim filters?
644 <LI><A NAME="TOC251" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC251">Q1105</A>: I know I can use a system filter to replace certain headers in messages,
645 but how can I add text to existing headers? I want to add [SPAM] to
646 the subject line of messages that appear to be spam.
649 <A NAME="TOC252" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC252">12. FETCHMAIL</A>
651 <LI><A NAME="TOC253" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC253">Q1201</A>: When I run fetchmail, I get the error "SMTP listener doesn't like
652 recipient address <B><I>xxx</I>@localhost</B>".
653 <LI><A NAME="TOC254" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC254">Q1202</A>: Fetchmail is passing on bounce messages to Exim with the sender address
654 set to <B><B><@some.domain</B>></B> which causes Exim to complain, because there is no
656 <LI><A NAME="TOC255" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC255">Q1203</A>: I'm currently using Exim with fetchmail and I'd like to use the RBL on
657 Exim, but will it work? Do I need to configure fetchmail any particular
658 way? As far as Exim knows, all mail is coming from 127.0.01. Will it
659 check the source address against RBL? Or will it check the From: header?
662 <A NAME="TOC256" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC256">13. PERL</A>
664 <LI><A NAME="TOC257" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC257">Q1301</A>: Exim built with Perl support exits with the error message <B>"./exim:</B> can't
665 load library <B>'libperl.so'".</B>
666 <LI><A NAME="TOC258" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC258">Q1302</A>: Exim built with Perl support exits with several error messages of the
667 form "undefined reference to `PL_stack_sp'".
670 <A NAME="TOC259" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC259">14. DIAL-UP</A>
672 <LI><A NAME="TOC260" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC260">Q1401</A>: How can I arrange for mail to other hosts on my local network to be
673 delivered when I'm not connected to the Internet?
674 <LI><A NAME="TOC261" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC261">Q1402</A>: I have a dial-up machine, and I use the <TT>queue_smtp_domains</TT> option so
675 that remote mail only goes out when I do a queue run. However, any email
676 I send with an address <B><B><anything>@aol.com</B></B> is returned within about 15
677 minutes saying 'retry time exceeded', and all addresses are affected.
678 <LI><A NAME="TOC262" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC262">Q1403</A>: How should Exim be configured when it is acting as a temporary storage
679 system for a domain on a dial-up host?
680 <LI><A NAME="TOC263" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC263">Q1404</A>: I have <TT>queue_remote_domains</TT> or <TT>queue_smtp_domains</TT> set, and use <B>-qf</B> to
681 force delivery of waiting mail when I dial in. How can I arrange for any
682 new messages that arrive while I'm connected to be delivered immediately?
685 <A NAME="TOC264" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC264">15. MODIFYING MESSAGE BODIES</A>
687 <LI><A NAME="TOC265" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC265">Q1501</A>: How can I add a disclaimer or an advertisement to a message?
688 <LI><A NAME="TOC266" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC266">Q1502</A>: How can I remove attachments from messages?
691 <A NAME="TOC267" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC267">20. MILLENNIUM</A>
693 <LI><A NAME="TOC268" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC268">Q2000</A>: Are there any Y2K issues with Exim?
696 <A NAME="TOC269" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC269">50. MISCELLANEOUS</A>
698 <LI><A NAME="TOC270" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC270">Q5001</A>: What does the error "Unable to get interface configuration: 22 Invalid
700 <LI><A NAME="TOC271" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC271">Q5002</A>: How can I arrange to allow a limited set of users to perform a limited
701 set of Exim administration functions? I don't want to put them all in
703 <LI><A NAME="TOC272" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC272">Q5003</A>: How can I test for a message's size being greater or less than a given
704 value in an expansion string?
705 <LI><A NAME="TOC273" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC273">Q5004</A>: I want to "tail" the Exim log, but I have a number of other logs I also
706 want to "tail", and the number of tailing windows is getting to be a
708 <LI><A NAME="TOC274" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC274">Q5005</A>: I would like to have Exim log information written to syslog.
709 <LI><A NAME="TOC275" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC275">Q5006</A>: What does the error "Failed to create spool file" mean?
710 <LI><A NAME="TOC276" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC276">Q5007</A>: Exim keeps crashing with segmentation errors (signal 11 or 139).
711 <LI><A NAME="TOC277" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC277">Q5008</A>: Exim's databases keep getting corrupted.
712 <LI><A NAME="TOC278" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC278">Q5009</A>: I've been using an autoreply director to try and mimic a bounce message,
713 but I can't get it to have an envelope from of <>.
714 <LI><A NAME="TOC279" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC279">Q5010</A>: I see entries in the log that mention two different IP addresses for the
715 same connection. Why is this? For example:
716 <LI><A NAME="TOC280" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC280">Q5011</A>: How can I persuade Exim to accept ETRN commands without the leading
718 <LI><A NAME="TOC281" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC281">Q5012</A>: I've recently noticed that emails I send with a Bcc: line are being
719 delivered to their final destination with the Bcc: line still present.
720 <LI><A NAME="TOC282" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC282">Q5013</A>: I used gv <B>v3.5.8</B> (ghostview) to try printing <B>spec.ps.</B> After every
721 printed page, the printer ejects a blank sheet. Is this something to do
722 with using "letter" rather than A4 paper?
723 <LI><A NAME="TOC283" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC283">Q5014</A>: I would like to have a separate queue per domain for hosts which dial
724 in to collect their mail.
725 <LI><A NAME="TOC284" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC284">Q5015</A>: A short time after I start Exim I see a <defunct> zombie process. What
727 <LI><A NAME="TOC285" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC285">Q5016</A>: On a reboot, or a restart of the mail system, I see the message "Mailer
728 daemons: exim abandoned: unknown, malformed, or incomplete option
729 <B>-bz</B> sendmail". What does this mean?
730 <LI><A NAME="TOC286" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC286">Q5017</A>: I would like to restrict e-mail usage for some users to the local
731 machine, ideally on a group basis.
732 <LI><A NAME="TOC287" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC287">Q5018</A>: Whenever exim restarts it takes up to 3-5 minutes to start responding on
733 the SMTP port. Why is this?
734 <LI><A NAME="TOC288" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC288">Q5019</A>: Why aren't there any man pages for Exim? I don't always carry my printed
736 <LI><A NAME="TOC289" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC289">Q5020</A>: When I send a message using the <B>-t</B> command line option, Exim sends only
737 to the addresses within the message, not to those on the command line.
738 <LI><A NAME="TOC290" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC290">Q5021</A>: If I set up, for example,
739 <TT>local_domains = *customer.com</TT>, then it matches
740 <B>"customer.com"</B> and <B>"abc.customer.com"</B> as required, but it also matches
741 <B>"noncustomer.com",</B> which is wrong. How can I get round this?
742 <LI><A NAME="TOC291" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC291">Q5022</A>: I want to match all local domains of the form <B>*.oyoy.org</B> but want a few
743 exceptions. For instance I don't want <B>foo.oyoy.org</B> or <B>bar.oyoy.org</B> to be
744 treated as local. What is the best way to do this?
745 <LI><A NAME="TOC292" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC292">Q5023</A>: I can't seem to find a pre-built version of Exim anywhere. The machine
746 is a Sparc 5 running Solaris 2.6.
747 <LI><A NAME="TOC293" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC293">Q5024</A>: Is there a Windows NT version of Exim available?
748 <LI><A NAME="TOC294" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC294">Q5025</A>: Does Exim support Delivery Status Notificaion (DSN), Message Status
749 Notification (MSN), or any other form of delivery acknowledgement?
750 <LI><A NAME="TOC295" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC295">Q5026</A>: What does "Exim" stand for?
751 <LI><A NAME="TOC296" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC296">Q5027</A>: What does the log message "no immediate delivery: more than 10 messages
752 received in one connection" mean?
753 <LI><A NAME="TOC297" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC297">Q5028</A>: Although I haven't set <TT>check_spool_space</TT>, Exim is still checking the
754 amount of space on the spool for incoming SMTP messages that use the
755 SIZE option. Can I suppress this?
756 <LI><A NAME="TOC298" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC298">Q5029</A>: I just noticed log entries that start off "<= <>". Am I correct in
757 assuming that the "<>" indicates that the envelope did not contain any
759 <LI><A NAME="TOC299" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC299">Q5030</A>: I've received a message which does not have my address in the To:
760 line. It is a spam message with the same address in both the From: and
761 the To: headers. How can this happen, and why doesn't Exim reject it?
762 <LI><A NAME="TOC300" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC300">Q5031</A>: Can (or will) Exim ever handle a message delivery purely in memory,
763 that is, it is handled without it ever hitting the disc?
764 <LI><A NAME="TOC301" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC301">Q5032</A>: If I am using dbm files for data that Exim reads, can I rebuild them
765 on the fly, or do I need to restart Exim every time I make a change?
766 <LI><A NAME="TOC302" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC302">Q5033</A>: What are the main differences between using an Exim filter and using
768 <LI><A NAME="TOC303" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC303">Q5034</A>: I need an option that is the opposite of <B>-bpa,</B> that is, a listing of
769 those addresses generated from a top-level address that have not yet
771 <LI><A NAME="TOC304" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC304">Q5035</A>: I am getting complaints from a customer who uses my EXIM server for
772 relaying that they are being blocked with a "Too many connections"
774 <LI><A NAME="TOC305" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC305">Q5036</A>: When I try "exim <B>-bf"</B> to test a system filter, I received the following
775 error message: "Filter error: unavailable filtering command "fail" near
776 line 8 of filter file".
777 <LI><A NAME="TOC306" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC306">Q5037</A>: How can I make Exim receive incoming mail, queue it, but NOT attempt to
778 deliver it? I want to be in this state while moving some mailboxes.
779 <LI><A NAME="TOC307" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC307">Q5038</A>: What does the rejection message "reject all recipients: 3 times bad
781 <LI><A NAME="TOC308" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC308">Q5039</A>: The menu in Eximon isn't working. It displays, but I can't select
783 <LI><A NAME="TOC309" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC309">Q5040</A>: What does "ridiculously long message header" in an error report mean?
784 <LI><A NAME="TOC310" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC310">Q5041</A>: What does Exim use for POP as a default? Do I have to install anything
786 <LI><A NAME="TOC311" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC311">Q5042</A>: I see that Exim doesn't support SSL. Can it be made to work with stunnel?
787 <LI><A NAME="TOC312" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC312">Q5043</A>: Is there an easy way of removing all queued messages at once in a safe
789 <LI><A NAME="TOC313" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC313">Q5044</A>: What is the best way to provide backup MX for clients?
790 <LI><A NAME="TOC314" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC314">Q5045</A>: Why does Exim do "ident" callbacks by default? Isn't this just a waste
791 of resources? I've been told this is an ancient way of authentication.
793 <LI><A NAME="TOC315" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC315">Q5046</A>: I often have the problem that a message gets stuck in the mailq and I
794 want it to be bounced to a certain address.
795 <LI><A NAME="TOC316" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC316">Q5047</A>: What precautions should I take when editing <B>exim.conf?</B>
796 <LI><A NAME="TOC317" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC317">Q5048</A>: Is exim able to use RFC 2645, On-demand Mail Relay (ODMR)?
797 <LI><A NAME="TOC318" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC318">Q5049</A>: I want to send every bounced mail that is received by my server, as
798 "headers-only" to the sysadmin. How can I do this?
799 <LI><A NAME="TOC319" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC319">Q5050</A>: What POP3 daemon should I use with Exim? I want something with
800 configurable authentication mechanisms.
801 <LI><A NAME="TOC320" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC320">Q5051</A>: Is there any way I can send bounces to the postmaster, and nobody else?
802 Basically, I want to recieve them, and I don't want the reply/from
803 person to get them. If I think they need it I will forward it myself.
806 <A NAME="TOC321" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC321">93. HP-UX</A>
808 <LI><A NAME="TOC322" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC322">Q9301</A>: I'm trying to compile on an HP machine and I don't have gcc there. So I
809 put <TT>CC=cc</TT> in the <B>Local/Makefile</B>, but I got this error:
812 <A NAME="TOC323" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC323">94. BSDI</A>
814 <LI><A NAME="TOC324" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC324">Q9401</A>: On BSDI 4.0, Exim built with Perl support exits with the error message
817 <A NAME="TOC325" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC325">95. IRIX</A>
819 <LI><A NAME="TOC326" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC326">Q9501</A>: I'm running IRIX 6.2 with a number of alias IP addresses set up, but
820 Exim doesn't seem to recognize them as local addresses.
821 <LI><A NAME="TOC327" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC327">Q9502</A>: The IP addresses for incoming calls are all being given as
822 255.255.255.255 or 0.0.0.0.
825 <A NAME="TOC328" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC328">96. LINUX</A>
827 <LI><A NAME="TOC329" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC329">Q9601</A>: Exim is mysteriously crashing, usually when forking to send a delivery
829 <LI><A NAME="TOC330" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC330">Q9602</A>: Exim has created a directory called <B>build-Linux-libc5-i386</B> but is
830 trying to reference <B>build-Linux-libc5-i386-linux</B> while building.
831 <LI><A NAME="TOC331" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC331">Q9603</A>: I want to use logrotate which is standard with <B>RH5.2</B> Linux to rotate
832 my mail logs. Anyone worked out the logrotate config file that will
834 <LI><A NAME="TOC332" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC332">Q9604</A>: I'm seeing the message "<B>inetd</B>[334]: imap/tcp server failing (looping),
835 service terminated" on a RedHat 5.2 system, causing imap connections to
836 be refused. The imapd in use is Washington Uni vers 12.250. Could this
837 be anything to do with Exim?
838 <LI><A NAME="TOC333" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC333">Q9605</A>: I get the "too many open files" error especially when a lot of messages
839 land for majordomo at the same time.
840 <LI><A NAME="TOC334" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC334">Q9606</A>: I'm having a problem with an Exim RPM.
841 <LI><A NAME="TOC335" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC335">Q9607</A>: I installed debian 2.2 linux on a small 325mb 486 laptop. When I try
842 to test the Mail program, I get the following error: "Failed to open
843 configuration file <B><B>/etc/exim.conf</B>".</B>
844 <LI><A NAME="TOC336" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC336">Q9608</A>: I'm getting the error <B>"db.h:</B> No such file or directory" when I try to
845 build Exim under RedHat 7.0.
848 <A NAME="TOC337" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC337">97. SUN SYSTEMS</A>
850 <LI><A NAME="TOC338" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC338">Q9701</A>: Exim builds fine with gcc on SunOS 4 but crashes inside <B>sscanf()</B>.
851 <LI><A NAME="TOC339" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC339">Q9702</A>: How can I get rid of spurious ^M characters in messages sent from
853 <LI><A NAME="TOC340" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC340">Q9703</A>: On SunOS 4 Exim crashes when looking up domains in the DNS that have
854 more than 10 A records.
855 <LI><A NAME="TOC341" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC341">Q9704</A>: The menu in Eximon isn't working on my Sun system.
856 <LI><A NAME="TOC342" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC342">Q9705</A>: I am experiencing mailbox locking problems with Sun's <B>mailtool</B> used
858 <LI><A NAME="TOC343" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC343">Q9706</A>: Exim has been crashing on my Solaris x86 system, apparently while
859 running DBM functions.
860 <LI><A NAME="TOC344" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC344">Q9707</A>: The exiwhat utility isn't working for me on a Solaris 2 system.
861 <LI><A NAME="TOC345" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC345">Q9708</A>: How do I stop Sun's <B>dtcm</B> from hanging?
862 <LI><A NAME="TOC346" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC346">Q9709</A>: I want Exim to use only the resolver (i.e. ignore <B>/etc/hosts</B>), but don't
863 want to alter the <B>nsswitch.conf</B> file in Solaris 2.
866 <A NAME="TOC347" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC347">98. COOKBOOK</A>
868 <LI><A NAME="TOC348" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC348">Q9801</A>: How do I configure Exim as part of TPC <B>(<A HREF="http://www.tpc.int">http://www.tpc.int</A>)?</B>
869 <LI><A NAME="TOC349" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC349">Q9802</A>: How do I configure Exim so that it sends mail to the outside world only
870 from a restricted list of our local users?
871 <LI><A NAME="TOC350" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC350">Q9803</A>: How do I configure Exim to run with SmartList?
872 <LI><A NAME="TOC351" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC351">Q9804</A>: How do I configure Exim to minic PP's "tripnote" facility?
873 <LI><A NAME="TOC352" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC352">Q9805</A>: How do I configure Exim to handle local parts with extensions?
874 <LI><A NAME="TOC353" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC353">Q9806</A>: How do I configure Exim so that only a restricted list of users can
875 receive mail from external domains?
876 <LI><A NAME="TOC354" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC354">Q9807</A>: I have <B><B>someuser@mydomain.com</B></B> that I only want certain users to be able
877 to mail to. How do I accomplish this?
878 <LI><A NAME="TOC355" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC355">Q9808</A>: A site for which I provide secondary MX is down for some time. Is there
879 a way to run the queue for that destination separately from the main
881 <LI><A NAME="TOC356" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC356">Q9809</A>: How do I implement VERP (Variable Envelope Return Paths) in Exim?
882 <LI><A NAME="TOC357" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC357">Q9810</A>: I'd like to make a copy of all outgoing messages to a local mailbox. Is
883 there a solution for this using an Exim filter?
884 <LI><A NAME="TOC358" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC358">Q9811</A>: I want to make a copy of outgoing messages to a specific file for each
885 user in a specific directory, using a "save" command in a system filter.
886 How can I arrange for Exim to write to these files under the correct
888 <LI><A NAME="TOC359" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC359">Q9812</A>: How can I keep an archive of all mail for some specific local email
890 <LI><A NAME="TOC360" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC360">Q9813</A>: How can I configure Exim to provide a vacation message when there are
891 no local users on my mail hub?
892 <LI><A NAME="TOC361" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC361">Q9814</A>: We want to be able to temporarily lock out a user by disabling the
893 password and moving the home directory to another place. How can we
894 arrange to reject mail for users in this state?
895 <LI><A NAME="TOC362" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC362">Q9815</A>: I need an alias, say "fakeaddress" that should receive a message,
896 strip all reply-to: headers present, substitute another one pointing to
897 "otheraddress" and forward a message to "realaddress".
898 <LI><A NAME="TOC363" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC363">Q9816</A>: How can I set up Exim to work with Listar?
899 <LI><A NAME="TOC364" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC364">Q9817</A>: I need to take copies of all incoming and outgoing mail for certain
900 users. For each user there may be a different monitoring address.
901 <LI><A NAME="TOC365" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC365">Q9818</A>: How can I add a disclaimer to the end of every message?
902 <LI><A NAME="TOC366" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC366">Q9819</A>: I would like to append a simple advertisement text to all outgoing
904 <LI><A NAME="TOC367" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC367">Q9820</A>: How can I configure Exim so that all mails adressed to
905 <B><B>something@username.domain.net</B></B> get delivered to <B>/var/spool/mail/username</B>?
906 <LI><A NAME="TOC368" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC368">Q9821</A>: How do I get exim not to add a Sender: header to locally originated
908 <LI><A NAME="TOC369" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC369">Q9822</A>: How can I get Exim to work with mailman?
909 <LI><A NAME="TOC370" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC370">Q9823</A>: Is there any way to have messages sent to a specific local address
910 delayed by - say - 24 hours?
911 <LI><A NAME="TOC371" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC371">Q9824</A>: I have a mailing list exploder on one host, and three other hosts where
912 I want to do the actual deliveries from. How can I get Exim to split
913 a message into groups of recipients between the three hosts?
916 <A NAME="TOC372" HREF="FAQ.html#SEC372">99. LIST OF SAMPLE CONFIGURATIONS</A>
919 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC1" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC1">0. DEBUGGING
922 <A NAME="SEC2" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC2">Q0001</A>: Exim is crashing. What is wrong?
926 A0001: Exim should never crash. The author is always keen to know about
927 crashes, so that they can be diagnosed and fixed. However, before you
928 start sending email, please check that you are running the latest
929 release of Exim, in case the problem has already been fixed. The
930 techniques described below can also be useful in trying to pin down
931 exactly which circumstances caused the crash and what Exim was trying to
932 do at the time. If the crash is reproducable (by a particular message,
933 say) keep a copy of that message. If there is a core file (in Exim's
934 spool directory), see if you can get any information from it.
938 One thing that has caused crashes in the past has been incorrectly
939 installed DB libraries. In particular, if you are running any version of
940 Berkeley db, it is best to set <TT>USE_DB=yes</TT> in <B>Local/Makefile</B> before
941 building Exim. This then avoids the use of the "ndbm compatibility
942 interface" via the <B>ndbm.h</B> include file, which has been found to be
943 incorrect on some systems. If you have already built Exim, you can just
944 edit <B>Local/Makefile</B> and run <B>make</B> again to rebuild. Before restarting
945 Exim, delete any existing database files in the <B>spool/db</B> directory.
948 <A NAME="SEC3" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC3">Q0002</A>: Exim is not working. What is wrong? How can I check what it is doing?
952 A0002: Exactly how is it not working? Check the more specific questions in the
953 other sections of this FAQ. Some general techniques for debugging are:
957 1. Look for information in Exim's log files. These are in the "log"
958 directory in Exim's spool directory, unless you have configured a
959 different path for them. Serious operational problems are reported
964 2. If the problem involves the delivery of one or more messages, try
965 forcing a delivery with the <B>-d</B> option, to cause Exim to output
966 debugging information. For example:
970 exim -d -M 0z6CXU-0005RR-00</PRE>
972 On its own, <B>-d</B> produces a small amount of information. Following it
973 with a number increases the amount given: <B>-d9</B> gives the maximum
974 amount of general information; <B>-d10</B> gives in addition details of the
975 interpretation of filter files, and <B>-d11</B> or higher also turns on the
976 debugging option for DNS lookups. The output is written to the
977 standard error stream.
981 3. If the problem involves incoming SMTP mail, try using the <B>-bh</B> option
982 to simulate an incoming connection from a specific host, for example:
986 exim -bh 10.9.8.7</PRE>
988 This goes through the motions of an SMTP session, without actually
989 accepting a message. Information about various policy checks is
990 output. You will need to know how to pretend to be an SMTP client.
994 4. If the problem involves lack of recognition or incorrect handling
995 of local addresses, try using the <B>-bt</B> option with debugging turned
996 on, to see how Exim is handling the address. For example,
1000 exim -d2 -bt z6abc</PRE>
1002 will show you how it would handle the local part "z6abc". Increase
1003 the debug level to <B>-d9</B> for more information.
1006 <A NAME="SEC4" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC4">Q0003</A>: What does the error "Child process of <TT>address_pipe</TT> transport returned
1007 69 from command <I>xxx</I>" mean?
1011 A0003: The most common meaning of exit code 69 is "unavailable", and this often
1012 means that when Exim tried to exec the command <I>xxx</I>, it failed. One
1013 cause of this might be incorrect permissions on the file containing the
1015 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC34">Q0033</A>.
1018 <A NAME="SEC5" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC5">Q0004</A>: My virtual domain setup isn't working. How can I debug it?
1022 A0004: You can use an exim command with <B>-d</B> (or <B>-d2,</B> <B>-d3</B> ... <B>-d9)</B> to get it to
1023 show you how it is processing addresses. You don't actually need to send
1024 a message; use the <B>-bt</B> option like this:
1028 exim -d2 -bt localpart@virtualhost</PRE>
1030 This will show you which directors it is using. If the problem appears
1031 to be with the expansion of an option setting, you can use the
1032 <TT>debug_print</TT> option on a director (or router) to get Exim to output the
1033 expanded string values as it goes along.
1036 <A NAME="SEC6" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC6">Q0005</A>: Why is Exim giving "421 Unexpected log failure, please try later" when
1037 receiving an SMTP message with a large number of recipients?
1041 A0005: You are verifying recipients, and your configuration is one that does a
1042 different lookup of some sort for each recipient. Exim keeps lookup
1043 files open, in case there are several lookups in the same file. Versions
1044 of Exim prior to 2.10 did not limit the number of open files used for
1045 this purpose, and your operating system's maximum per process has been
1046 reached. Exim is trying to log the failure to open a file, but cannot
1047 open the log file, for the same reason. If upgrading Exim is not
1048 immediately possible, you might be able to increase your operating
1049 system's maximum number of open files per process.
1052 <A NAME="SEC7" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC7">Q0006</A>: Why is Exim not rejecting incoming messages addressed to non-existent
1057 A0006: Have you remembered to set <TT>receiver_verify</TT>? It is not the default.
1060 <A NAME="SEC8" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC8">Q0007</A>: I've put an entry for <B>*.my.domain</B> in a DBM lookup file, but it isn't
1065 A0007: You need to request "partial matching" by setting the search type to
1066 "partial-dbm" in order for this to work.
1069 <A NAME="SEC9" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC9">Q0008</A>: I've put the entry <B><B>*@domain.com</B></B> in a lookup database, but it isn't
1070 working. The expansion I'm using is:
1074 ${lookup{${lc:$sender_address}}dbm{/the/file} ...</PRE>
1076 A0008: As no sender address will ever be <B><B>*@domain.com</B></B> this will indeed have
1077 no effect as it stands. You need to tell Exim if you want it to look for
1078 defaults after the normal lookup has failed. In this case, change the
1079 search type from "dbm" to "dbm*@". See the section on "Default values in
1080 single-key lookups" in the chapter entitled "File and database lookups".
1083 <A NAME="SEC10" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC10">Q0009</A>: Is there a way to print recognized local domains?
1087 A0009: If you run "exim <B>-bP</B> <TT>local_domains</TT>" it will output the string that is
1088 set, but it won't print the contents of any files that are referenced.
1091 <A NAME="SEC11" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC11">Q0010</A>: If I run <B>"./exim</B> <B>-d9</B> <B>-bt</B> <B>user@domain</B>" all seems well, but when I send a
1092 message from my User Agent, it does not arrive at its destination.
1096 A0010: Try sending a message directly to Exim by typing this:
1100 exim -d9 user@domain
1101 <some message, could be empty>
1104 If the message gets delivered to a remote host, but never arrives at its
1105 final destination, then the problem is at the remote host. If, however,
1106 the message gets through correctly, then the problem may be between your
1107 User Agent and Exim. Try setting Exim's <TT>log_arguments</TT> option, to see
1108 with which arguments the UA is calling Exim.
1111 <A NAME="SEC12" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC12">Q0011</A>: I am getting this message in mainlog every so often: "no immediate
1112 delivery: too many connections (19, max 0)". What am I missing?
1116 A0011: A current release of Exim. :-) The message you are getting is the wrong
1117 message. What it should be saying is "too many messages received in one
1118 SMTP connection" (see next question). This bug was fixed in release
1122 <A NAME="SEC13" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC13">Q0012</A>: What does "no immediate delivery: too many messages received in one SMTP
1127 A0012: An SMTP client may send any number of messages down a single SMTP
1128 connection to a server. Initially, an Exim server starts up a delivery
1129 process as soon as a message is received. However, in order not to start
1130 up too many processes when lots of messages are arriving (typically
1131 after a period of downtime), it stops doing immediate delivery after a
1132 certain number of messages have arrived down the same connection. The
1133 threshold is set by <TT>smtp_accept_queue_per_connection</TT>, and the default
1134 value is 10. On large systems, the value should be increased. If you are
1135 running a dial-in host and expecting to get all your mail down a single
1136 SMTP connection, then you can disable the limit altogether by setting
1140 <A NAME="SEC14" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC14">Q0013</A>: Exim puts "for <address>" in the Received: headers of some, but not all,
1141 messages. Is this a bug?
1145 A0013: No. It is deliberate. Exim inserts a "for" phrase only if the incoming
1146 message has precisely one recipient. If there is more than one
1147 recipient, nothing is inserted. The reason for this is that not all
1148 recipients appear in the To: or Cc: headers, and it is considered a
1149 breach of privacy to expose such recipients to the others. A common
1150 case is when a message has come from a mailing list.
1153 <A NAME="SEC15" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC15">Q0014</A>: Instead of <TT>exim_dbmbuild</TT>, I'm using a homegrown program to build DBM
1154 (or cdb) files, but Exim doesn't seem to be able to use them.
1158 A0014: Exim expects there to be a binary zero value on the end of each key used
1159 in a DBM file if you use the "dbm" lookup type, but not for the "dbmnz"
1160 lookup type or for the keys of a cdb file. Check that you haven't
1161 slipped up in this regard.
1164 <A NAME="SEC16" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC16">Q0015</A>: Exim is unable to route to any remote domains. It doesn't seen to be
1165 able to access the DNS.
1169 A0015: Try running "exim <B>-d11</B> <B>-bt</B> <remote address>". The <B>-d11</B> will make it show
1170 the resolver queries it is building and the results of its DNS queries.
1171 If it appears unable to contact any nameservers, check the contents and
1172 permissions of <B><B>/etc/resolv.conf</B>.</B>
1175 <A NAME="SEC17" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC17">Q0016</A>: I'm using ETRN to run a script that checks things and doesn't always
1176 end up running "exim <B><B>-R".</B></B> However, after it has run once, subsequent
1177 attempts fail with "458 Already processing".
1181 A0016: Set <TT>no_smtp_etrn_serialize</TT>.
1184 <A NAME="SEC18" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC18">Q0017</A>: What does the error message "transport <TT>system_aliases</TT>: cannot find
1185 transport driver "<B>aliasfile</B>" in line 92" mean?
1189 A0017: "<B>aliasfile</B>" is a director, not a transport. You have put a configuration
1190 for a director into the transports section of the configuration file.
1193 <A NAME="SEC19" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC19">Q0018</A>: Exim is timing out after receiving and responding to the DATA command
1194 from one particular host, and yet the client host also claims to be
1195 timing out. This seems to affect only certain messages.
1199 A0018: (A) This problem has been seen with a network that was dropping all
1200 packets over a certain size, which mean that the first part of the SMTP
1201 transaction worked, but when the body of a large message started
1202 flowing, the main data bits never got through the network. See also
1204 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC22">Q0021</A>.
1208 (B) This can also happen if a machine has a broken TCP stack and won't
1209 reassemble fragmented datagrams.
1213 (C) A very few ISDN lines have been seen which failed when certain data
1214 patterns were sent through them, and replacing the routers at both end
1215 of the link did not fix things. One of them was triggered by more than 4
1216 X's in a row in the data.
1219 <A NAME="SEC20" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC20">Q0019</A>: What does the message "Socket bind() to port 25 for address (any)
1220 failed: address already in use" mean?
1224 A0019: You are trying to run an Exim daemon when there is one already running -
1225 or maybe some other MTA is running, or perhaps you have an SMTP line in
1226 <B><B>/etc/inetd.conf</B></B> which is causing <B>inetd</B> to listen on port 25.
1229 <A NAME="SEC21" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC21">Q0020</A>: I've set <TT>headers_check_syntax</TT>, but this causes Exim to complain about
1230 headers like "To: Work: Jim <B><jims@email</B>>, Home: Bob <B><bobs@email</B>>" which
1231 look all right to me. Is this a bug?
1235 A0020: No. Header lines such as From:, To:, <B>etc.,</B> which contain addresses, are
1236 structured, and have to be in a specific format which is defined in RFC
1237 822. Unquoted colons are not allowed in the "phrase" part of an email
1238 address (they are OK in other headers such as Subject:). The correct
1239 form for that header is
1243 To: "Work: Jim" <jims@email>, "Home: Bob" <bobs@email></PRE>
1245 You will sometimes see unquoted colons in To: and Cc: headers, but only
1246 in connection with name lists (called "groups"), for example:
1250 To: My friends: X <x@y.x>, Y <y@w.z>;,
1251 My enemies: A <a@b.c>, B <b@c.d>;</PRE>
1253 Each list must be terminated by a semicolon, as shown.
1256 <A NAME="SEC22" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC22">Q0021</A>: Whenever Exim tries to deliver a specific message to a particular
1257 server, it fails, giving the error "Remote end closed connection after
1258 data" or "Broken pipe" or a timeout. What's going on?
1262 A0021: "Broken pipe" is the error you get on some OS when the far end just
1263 drops the connection. The alternative is "connection reset by peer".
1267 (A) There are some firewalls that fall over on \0 characters in the
1268 mail. Have a look, e.g. with hexdump <B>-c</B> mymail | tail to see if your
1269 mail contains any binary zero characters.
1273 (B) There are broken SMTP servers around that just drop the connection
1274 after the data has been sent if they don't like the message for some
1275 reason (e.g. it is too big) instead of sending a 5xx error code. Have
1276 you tried sending a small message to the same address?
1280 It has been reported that some releases of Novell servers running NIMS
1281 are unable to handle lines longer than 1024 characters, and just close
1282 the connection. This is an example of this behaviour.
1286 (C) If the problem occurs right at the start of the mail, then it could
1287 be a network problem with mishandling of large packets. Many emails are
1288 small and thus appear to propagate correctly, but big emails will
1289 generate big IP datagrams.
1293 There have been problems when something in the middle of the network
1294 mishandles large packets due to IP tunnelling. In a tunnelled link, your
1295 IP datagrams gets wrapped in a larger datagram and sent over a network.
1296 This is how virtual private networks (VPNs), and some ISP transit
1297 circuits work. Since the datagrams going over the tunnel require a
1298 larger packet size, the tunnel needs a bigger maximum transfer unit
1299 (MTU) in the network handling the tunnelled packets. However, MTUs
1300 are often fixed, so the tunnel will try to fragment the packets.
1304 If the systems outside the tunnel are using MTU path discovery, (most
1305 Sun Sparc Solaris machines do by default), and set the DF (don't
1306 fragment) bit because they don't send packets larger than their <EM>local</EM>
1307 MTU, then ICMP control messages will be sent by the routers at the
1308 ends of the tunnel to tell them to reduce their MTU, since the tunnel
1309 can't fragment the data, and has to throw it away. If this mechanism
1310 stops working, e.g. a firewall blocks ICMP, then your host never
1311 knows it has hit the maximum path MTU, but it has received no ACK on
1312 the packet either, so it continues to resend the same packet and the
1313 connection stalls, eventually timing out.
1317 You can test the link using pings of large packets and see what works:
1321 ping -s host 2048</PRE>
1323 Try reducing the MTU on the sending host:
1327 ifconfig le0 mtu 1300</PRE>
1329 Alternatively, you can reduce the size of the buffer Exim uses for SMTP
1330 output by putting something like
1334 DELIVER_OUT_BUFFER_SIZE=512</PRE>
1336 in your <B>Local/Makefile</B> and rebuilding Exim (the default is 8192).
1339 <A NAME="SEC23" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC23">Q0022</A>: Why do messages not get delivered down the same connection when I do
1340 something like: exim <B>-v</B> <B>-R</B> <B>@aol.com</B> ? For other domains, I do this and
1341 I see the appropriate "waiting for passed connections to get used"
1346 A0022: Recall that Exim does not keep separate queues for each domain, but
1347 operates in a distributed fashion. Messages get into its "waiting for
1348 host x" hints database only when a delivery has been tried, and has had
1349 a temporary error. Here are some possibilities:
1353 (1) The messages to <B>aol.com</B> got put in your queue, but no previous
1354 delivery attempt occured before you did the <B><B>-R.</B></B> This might have been
1355 because of your settings of <TT>queue_only_load</TT>, <TT>smtp_accept_queue</TT>, or any
1356 other option that caused no immediate delivery attempt on arrival. If
1357 this is the case, you can try using <B>-qqR</B> instead of <B><B>-R.</B></B>
1361 (2) You have set <TT>batch_max</TT> on the smtp transport, and that limit was
1362 reached. This would show as a sequence of n messages down one
1363 connection, then another n down a new connection, etc.
1367 (3) Exim tried to pass on the SMTP connection to another message, but
1368 that message was in the process of being delivered to <B>aol.com</B> by some
1369 other process (typically, a normal queue runner). This will break the
1370 sequence, though the other delivery should pass its connection on to
1371 other messages if there are any.
1375 (4) The folk at <B>aol.com</B> changed the MX records so the host names have
1376 changed - or a new host has been added. I don't know how likely this is.
1380 (5) Exim is not performing as it should in this regard, for some reason.
1381 Next time you have mail queued up for <B>aol.com,</B> try running
1385 exim_dumpdb /var/spool/exim wait-remote_smtp</PRE>
1387 to see if those messages are listed among those waiting for the relevant
1388 <B>aol.com</B> hosts.
1391 <A NAME="SEC24" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC24">Q0023</A>: What does the error "SEGV while reading ... from dbm file: record
1392 assumed not to exist" mean?
1396 A0023: A crash is occuring when Exim calls your DBM library in order to read a
1397 record from one of its hints files. This kind of problem can be related
1398 to incorrectly installed DBM libraries. If you are using Slackware 3.6,
1399 the problem is that libgdbm is incorrectly installed on that system, and
1400 you will need to re-install it from source.
1403 <A NAME="SEC25" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC25">Q0024</A>: There seems to be a problem in the string expansion code: it doesn't
1404 recognize references to headers such as <B><B>${h_to}.</B></B>
1408 A0024: The only valid syntax for header references is (for example) <B>$h_to:</B>
1409 because header names are permitted by RFC 822 to contain a very wide
1410 range of characters. A colon (or white space) is required as the
1414 <A NAME="SEC26" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC26">Q0025</A>: Exim is timing out after sending the a message's data to one particular
1415 host, and yet the remote host also claims to be timing out. This seems
1416 to affect only certain messages.
1421 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC19">Q0018</A>.
1424 <A NAME="SEC27" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC27">Q0026</A>: When the Exim daemon forks a copy of itself to handle an incoming SMTP
1425 request, the forked copy seems to go around in circles for a
1426 significant (up to 5 minutes, so far) amount of time before deciding to
1431 A0026: These kinds of delay are usually caused by some kind of network problem
1432 that affects outgoing calls made by Exim at the start of an incoming
1433 message. Configuration options that cause outgoing calls are:
1437 (1) <TT>rfc1413_query_hosts</TT> and <TT>rfc1413_query_timeout</TT> (for ident calls);
1438 firewalls sometimes block ident calls, which can lead to this
1443 (2) <TT>rbl_domains</TT> and <TT>rbl_hosts</TT>.
1447 (3) <TT>host_lookup</TT> and any other options that require the remote host's
1448 name to be looked up from its IP address.
1452 (4) <TT>sender_verify_hosts_callback</TT> and <TT>sender_verify_callback_domains</TT>.
1456 You can use the <B>-bh</B> option to get more information about what is
1457 happening at the start of a connection.
1460 <A NAME="SEC28" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC28">Q0027</A>: What does "failed to create child process to send failure message" mean?
1461 This is a busy mail server with <TT>smtp_accept_max</TT> set to 500, but this
1462 problem started to occur at about 300 incoming connections.
1466 A0027: Some message delivery failed, and when Exim wanted to send a bounce
1467 message, it was unable to create a process in which to do so. Probably
1468 the limit on the maximum number of simultaneously active processes has
1469 been reached. Most OS have some means of increasing this limit, and in
1470 some operating systems there is also a limit per uid which can be
1474 <A NAME="SEC29" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC29">Q0028</A>: What does "<message filter> transporting defer (-1): No transport set
1475 by director" in a log line mean?
1479 A0028: Your system filter contains a "save" command, but you have not set
1480 <TT>message_filter_file_transport</TT>.
1483 <A NAME="SEC30" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC30">Q0029</A>: Why is Exim refusing to relay, saying "failed to find host name from IP
1484 address" when I have the sender's IP address in <TT>host_accept_relay</TT>? My
1485 configuration contains this:
1489 host_accept_relay = "lsearch;/etc/mail/relaydomains:192.168.96.0/24"</PRE>
1491 A0029: When checking <TT>host_accept_relay</TT>, the items are tested in left-to-right
1492 order. The first item in your list is a lookup on the incoming host's
1493 name, so Exim has to determine the name from the incoming IP address in
1494 order to perform the test. If it can't find the host name, it can't do
1495 the check, so it gives up. The solution is to put all explicit IP
1496 addresses first in the list. You would have discovered what was going
1497 on if you had run a test such as
1501 exim -bh 192.168.96.131</PRE>
1502 <A NAME="SEC31" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC31">Q0030</A>: When I run "exim <B>-bd</B> <B>-q10m"</B> I get "PANIC LOG: exec of exim <B>-q</B> failed".
1506 A0030: This probably means that Exim doesn't know its own path so it can't
1507 re-exec itself to do the first queue run. Check the output of
1511 exim -bP exim_path</PRE>
1512 <A NAME="SEC32" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC32">Q0031</A>: Why do connections to my machine's SMTP port take a long time to respond
1513 with the banner, when connections to other ports respond instantly?
1518 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC27">Q0026</A>.
1521 <A NAME="SEC33" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC33">Q0032</A>: I can't seem to get a pipe command to run when I include a <B>${if</B>
1522 expansion in it. This fails:
1526 command = "perl -T /usr/local/rt/bin/rtmux.pl \
1527 rt-mailgate helpdesk \
1528 ${if eq {$local_part}{rt} {correspond}{action}}"</PRE>
1530 A0032: You need some internal quoting in there. Exim expands each individual
1531 argument separately. Because you have (necessarily) got spaces in your
1532 <B>${if</B> item, you have to quote that argument. Try
1536 command = "perl -T /usr/local/rt/bin/rtmux.pl \
1537 rt-mailgate helpdesk \
1538 \"${if eq {$local_part}{rt} {correspond}{action}}\""</PRE>
1539 <A NAME="SEC34" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC34">Q0033</A>: I'm trying to get Exim to connect an alias to a pipe, but it always
1540 gives error code 69, with the comment "(could mean service or program
1545 A0033: If your alias entry looks like this:
1549 alias: |"/some/command some parameters"</PRE>
1551 change it to look like this:
1555 alias: "|/some/command some parameters"</PRE>
1556 <A NAME="SEC35" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC35">Q0034</A>: I'm having a problem with an Exim RPM.
1561 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC334">Q9606</A>.
1564 <A NAME="SEC36" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC36">Q0035</A>: What does the error "Spool file is locked" mean?
1568 A0035: This is not an error[*]. All it means is that when an Exim delivery
1569 process (probably started by a queue runner process) looked at a message
1570 in order to start delivering it, it found that another Exim process was
1571 already busy delivering it. On a busy system this is quite a common
1572 occurrence. If you set <TT>log_level</TT> less than 5, these messages are omitted
1577 [*] The only time when this message might indicate a problem is if it is
1578 repeated for the same message for a very long time - say more than a few
1579 hours. That would suggest that the process that is delivering the
1580 message has somehow got stuck.
1583 <A NAME="SEC37" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC37">Q0036</A>: Exim is reporting IP addresses as 0.0.0.0 or 255.255.255.255 instead of
1584 their correct values. What's going on?
1588 A0036: You are using a version of Exim built with gcc on an IRIX box.
1590 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC327">Q9502</A>.
1593 <A NAME="SEC38" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC38">Q0037</A>: I can't seem to figure out why PAM support doesn't work correctly.
1597 A0037: There is a problem using PAM on Linux with shadow passwords when the
1598 calling program is not running as root. Exim is normally running as the
1599 Exim user when authenticating a remote host. I don't know of an easy
1603 <A NAME="SEC39" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC39">Q0038</A>: I'm trying to use a query-style lookup for hosts that are allowed to
1604 relay, but it is giving really weird errors.
1608 A0038: Does your query contain a colon character? Remember that
1609 <TT>host_accept_relay</TT> operates on a colon-separated list, so you need to
1610 double any colons in the query. This applies even if the query is
1614 <A NAME="SEC40" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC40">Q0039</A>: Exim is rejecting calls from hosts that have more than one IP address,
1615 for no apparent reason.
1619 A0039: You are using Solaris 7 or earlier, and have "nis dns files" in
1620 <B><B>/etc/nsswitch.conf</B>.</B> Change this to "dns nis files" to avoid hitting Sun
1621 bug 1154236 (a bad interaction between NIS and the DNS).
1624 <A NAME="SEC41" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC41">Q0040</A>: Exim is failing to find the MySQL library, even though is it present
1625 within <B><B>$LD_LIBRARY_PATH.</B></B> I'm getting this error:
1629 /usr/local/bin/exim: fatal: libmysqlclient.so.6: open failed:
1630 No such file or directory</PRE>
1632 A0040: Exim is suid, and LD_LIBRARY_PATH is ignored for suid binaries on a
1633 Solaris (and other?) systems. What you should be doing is adding
1634 <B>-R/local/lib/mysql</B> to the same place in the compilation that you added
1635 <B><B>-L/local/lib/mysql.</B></B> This lets the binary know where to look without
1636 needing a path variable.
1639 <A NAME="SEC42" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC42">Q0041</A>: I have a collection of Exim processes that have been around for days,
1640 and are apparently stuck while trying to deliver to remote hosts. This
1641 is causing the messages they are handling to get stuck.
1645 A0041: There appears to be a problem in the connect() function in some
1646 operating systems, such that it does not time out as it should. Setting
1647 <TT>connect_timeout</TT> in the smtp transport causes Exim to apply its own
1648 timeout, and this seems to overcome this problem. In Exim 3.15 the
1649 default was changed from zero (rely on system's timeout) to 5 minutes,
1650 which is the value recommended in the RFCs.
1653 <A NAME="SEC43" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC43">Q0042</A>: I have a message in the spool which couldn't be delivered because of a
1654 timeout from the remote smtp server. When I try to deliver this message
1655 in eximon, I get "Spool file is locked". How can I deliver the message?
1659 A0042: Find the Exim proccess that is stuck, and kill it. You may be able to
1660 use exiwhat to do this, but if it is stuck in connect() it may not
1661 respond, and you will have to identify it some other way. Now read
1663 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC42">Q0041</A> about why this might have happened.
1667 If you have a suitable debugger on your system, you may be able to find
1668 out more information before killing the process. For example, if you
1669 have gdb you can connect it to the process by running this command as
1674 gdb exim <process-id></PRE>
1676 At the gdb prompt, give the "bt" (backtrace) command, to display the
1677 stack contents. This should tell you the name of the function in which
1678 the process is stuck. If this is connect(), then you do have the
1679 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC42">Q0041</A>
1683 <A NAME="SEC44" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC44">Q0043</A>: What does the error "lookup of host <B>"xx<EM>.xx</EM><EM>.xx</EM>"</B> failed in <I>yyy</I>y router"
1684 mean? Any suggestions to stop this these sort of errors from being
1685 frozen would be muchly appreciated.
1689 A0043: You configured a <B>domainlist</B> router to send the message to <B>xx<EM>.xx</EM><EM>.xx</EM>.</B> When
1690 it tried to look up the IP address for that host, the lookup failed
1691 with a permanent error. As this is a manual routing, this is a
1692 considered to be a serious error which the postmaster needs to know
1693 about (maybe you have a typo in your file), and there is little point
1694 in keeping on trying. So it freezes the message.
1698 1. Don't set up routes to non-existent hosts.
1702 2. If you must set up routes to non-existent hosts, and don't want
1703 freezing, set the <TT>host_find_failed</TT> option on the router to do something
1707 <A NAME="SEC45" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC45">Q0044</A>: My filter isn't working. How can I test it?
1711 A0044: Use the <B>-bf</B> option (-bF for a system filter) to test the basic operation
1712 of your filter. If you also turn on debugging at level 10 (-d10) it will
1713 output information as the filter runs.
1716 <A NAME="SEC46" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC46">Q0045</A>: Exim works fine on one host, but when I copied the binary to another
1717 identical host, it stopped working (it could not resolve DNS names).
1721 A0045: Is the new host running exactly the same operating system? Most
1722 importantly, are the versions of the dynamically loaded libraries
1723 (files with names like <B>libsocket.so.1)</B> the same on both systems? If not,
1724 that is probably the cause of the problem. Either arrange for the
1725 libraries to be the same, or rebuild Exim from source on the new host.
1728 <A NAME="SEC47" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC47">Q0046</A>: Once in a while, a user will send a message and immediatly get a
1729 response back "No Transport Provider" If they choose "Send Again",
1730 sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
1734 A0046: This problem has been seen on Debian Linux 2.1 systems. The best advice
1735 seems to be to upgrade your server to a later Debian release and a later
1736 Exim release, and maybe also upgrade the hardware.
1739 <A NAME="SEC48" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC48">Q0047</A>: I set <TT>host_accept_relay</TT> to do a lookup in a file of IP addresses, but it
1744 A0047: Did you remember to put `net-' at the start of the the search type? If
1745 you set something like this:
1749 host_accept_relay = lsearch;/some/file</PRE>
1751 it searches the file for the host <EM>name</EM>. You need to set
1755 host_accept_relay = net-lsearch;/some/file</PRE>
1757 to make it use the IP address as the key to the lookup.
1760 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC49" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC49">1. BUILDING EXIM
1763 <A NAME="SEC50" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC50">Q0101</A>: I get the error "conflicting types" when Exim is building the libident
1768 A0101: The problem is that libident assumes "struct timeval" refers to
1769 <TT>DST_NONE</TT>, and so it tries to avoid using this structure when <TT>DST_NONE</TT>
1770 isn't defined. Unfortunately it doesn't make this change everywhere it
1771 should, and so it blows up. The problem has been seen on NetBSD and
1772 some versions of the Linux C library. An easy, albeit not particularly
1773 neat, fix is to add <B><TT>-DDST_NONE</TT></B> to <TT>LIBIDENTCFLAGS</TT> for systems that are
1774 afflicted like this - there's not a lot else you can do without
1775 modifying libident. The value of <TT>DST_NONE</TT> is never used, so defining it
1776 to be empty should be harmless.
1779 <A NAME="SEC51" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC51">Q0102</A>: When I ran <B>make</B> I got the error "undefined reference to <TT>dbopen</TT>".
1787 (A) This means you (or the default configuration for your operating
1788 system) have configured Exim to use Berkeley DB version 1<B><EM>.xx</EM></B>
1789 and it has not been given access to the DB library (where <TT>dbopen</TT>
1790 should be found). You may need something like <TT>DBMLIB=-ldb</TT> in
1791 <B>Local/Makefile</B>. Berkeley DB is one of several alternative DBM
1792 libraries that Exim can make use of. For a discussion of DBM issues,
1793 see the file <B>doc/dbm.discuss.txt</B> in the Exim distribution.
1797 (B) You are running on a version of Linux which has a problem in its
1798 libraries. This effect isn't fully understood. It has been seen with
1799 the libraries used in Caldera OpenLinux Base 1.1.
1802 <A NAME="SEC52" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC52">Q0103</A>: I can't get Exim to compile with Berkeley DB version 2.x.
1806 A0103: Have you set <TT>USE_DB=yes</TT> in <B>Local/Makefile</B>? This causes Exim to use the
1807 native interface to the DBM library instead of the compatibility
1808 interface, which needs a header called <B>ndbm.h</B> that may not exist on your
1812 <A NAME="SEC53" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC53">Q0104</A>: I'm getting an "undefined symbol" error for <TT>hosts_ctl</TT> when I try to
1813 build Exim. (On some systems this error is "undefined reference to
1818 A0104: You should either remove the definition of USE_TCP_WRAPPERS or add
1819 <B>-lwrap</B> to your <TT>EXTRALIBS</TT> setting in <B>Local/Makefile</B>.
1822 <A NAME="SEC54" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC54">Q0105</A>: I'm about to upgrade to a new Exim release. Do I need to ensure the
1823 spool is empty, or take any other special action?
1827 A0105: If you are changing to release 3.00 or later from a release prior to
1828 3.00, you will probably need to make changes to the runtime
1829 configuration file. See <B>README.UPDATING</B> for details. Otherwise, you
1830 do not need to take special action. New releases are made backwards
1831 compatible with old spool files and "hints" databases so that upgrading
1832 can be done on a running system. All that should be necessary is to
1833 install a new binary and then HUP the daemon if you are running one.
1836 <A NAME="SEC55" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC55">Q0106</A>: What does the error "<B>install-info</B>: command not found" mean?
1840 A0106: You have set INFO_DIRECTORY in your <B>Local/Makefile</B>, and Exim is trying
1841 to install the Texinfo documentation, but cannot find the command called
1842 <B>install-info</B>. If you have a version of Texinfo prior to 3.9, you
1843 should upgrade. Otherwise, check your installation of Texinfo to see why
1844 the <B>install-info</B> command is not available.
1847 <A NAME="SEC56" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC56">Q0107</A>: Exim doesn't seem to be recognizing my operating system type correctly,
1848 and so is failing to build.
1852 A0107: Run the command "scripts/os-type <B><B>-generic".</B></B> The output should be one of
1853 the known OS types, and should correspond to your operating system. You
1854 can see which OS are supported by obeying "ls OS/Makefile-*" and looking
1855 at the file name suffixes.
1859 If there is a discrepancy, it means that the script is failing to
1860 interpret the output from the "uname" command correctly, or that the
1861 output is wrong. Meanwhile, you can build Exim by obeying
1865 EXIM_OSTYPE=xxxx make</PRE>
1867 instead of just <B>make</B>, provided you are running a Bourne-compatible
1868 shell, or otherwise by setting EXIM_OSTYPE correctly in your
1869 environment. It is probably best to start again from a clean
1870 distribution, to avoid any wreckage left over from the failed attempt.
1873 <A NAME="SEC57" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC57">Q0108</A>: I am getting an error "`exim' undeclared here" when I compile, in the
1874 <B>globals.c</B> module.
1878 A0108: You have set EXIM_UID = exim in your <B>Local/Makefile</B>. Unfortunately,
1879 named uids are not permitted here; you must give a numerical uid.
1880 However, in the runtime configure file names are permitted.
1883 <A NAME="SEC58" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC58">Q0109</A>: Exim fails to build, complaining about the absence of the "killpg"
1888 A0109: This function should be present in all modern flavours of Unix. If you
1889 are using an older version, you should be able to get round the problem
1894 #define killpg(pgid,sig) kill(-(pgid),sig)</PRE>
1896 into the file called <B>OS/os.h<I>-xx</I>x,</B> where <I>xxx</I> identifies your operating
1897 system, and is the output of the command "scripts/os-type <B><B>-generic".</B></B>
1900 <A NAME="SEC59" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC59">Q0110</A>: I'm getting an unresolved symbol <TT>ldap_is_ldap_url</TT> when trying to build
1905 A0110: You must have specified <TT>LOOKUP_LDAP=yes</TT> in the configuration. Have you
1906 remembered to set <B>-lldap</B> somewhere (e.g. in LOOKUP_LIBS)? You need that
1907 in order to get the LDAP library scanned when linking.
1910 <A NAME="SEC60" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC60">Q0111</A>: I'm getting an unresolved symbol <TT>mysql_close</TT> when trying to build Exim.
1914 A0111: You must have specified <TT>LOOKUP_MYSQL=yes</TT> in the configuration. Have you
1915 remembered to set <B>-lmysqlclient</B> somewhere (e.g. in LOOKUP_LIBS)? You
1916 need that in order to get the MySQL library scanned when linking.
1919 <A NAME="SEC61" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC61">Q0112</A>: I'm trying to build Exim with PAM support. I have included <B>-lpam</B> in
1920 <TT>EXTRALIBS</TT>, but I'm still getting a linking error:
1924 /lib/libpam.so: undefined reference to `dlerror'
1925 /lib/libpam.so: undefined reference to `dlclose'
1926 /lib/libpam.so: undefined reference to `dlopen'
1927 /lib/libpam.so: undefined reference to `dlsym'</PRE>
1929 A0112: Add <B>-ldl</B> to <TT>EXTRALIBS</TT>. In some systems these dynamic loading functions
1930 are in their own library.
1933 <A NAME="SEC62" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC62">Q0113</A>: I'm getting the error <B>"db.h:</B> No such file or directory" when I try to
1938 A0113: This problem has been seen with RedHat 7.0, but could also happen in
1939 other environments. If your system is using the DB3 DBM library, you
1940 need to install the DB3 development package in order to build Exim.
1941 The package is called something like <B>db3-devel-3.1.14-16.i386.rpm</B> for
1942 Linux systems, but you should check which version of DB3 you have
1946 <A NAME="SEC63" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC63">Q0114</A>: I'm getting the error "/usr/bin/ld: cannot find <B>-ldb1"</B> when I try to
1951 A0114: This is probably the same problem as
1952 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC62">Q0113</A>.
1955 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC64" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC64">2. MAILBOX LOCKING
1958 <A NAME="SEC65" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC65">Q0201</A>: Why do I get the error "Permission denied: creating lock file hitching
1959 post" when Exim tries to do a local delivery?
1963 A0201: Your configuration specifies that local mailboxes are all held in
1964 single directory, via configuration lines like these (taken from the
1965 default configuration):
1971 file = /var/mail/$local_part</PRE>
1973 and the permissions on the directory probably look like this:
1977 drwxrwxr-x 3 root mail 512 Jul 9 13:48 /var/mail/</PRE>
1979 Using the default configuration, Exim runs as the local user when doing
1980 a local delivery, and it uses a lock file to prevent any other process
1981 from updating the mailbox while it is writing to it. With those
1982 permissions the delivery process, running as the user, is unable to
1983 create a lock file in the <B>/var/mail</B> directory. There are two solutions
1988 (A) Set the "write" and "sticky bit" permissions on the directory, so
1989 that it looks like this:
1993 drwxrwxrwt 3 root mail 512 Jul 9 13:48 /var/mail/</PRE>
1995 The "w" allows any user to create new files in the directory, but
1996 the "t" bit means that only the creator of a file is able to remove
1997 it. This is the same setting as is normally used with the <B>/tmp</B>
2002 (B) Arrange to run the <TT>local_delivery</TT> transport under a specific group
2003 by changing the configuration to read
2009 file = /var/mail/${local_part}
2012 The delivery process still runs under the user's uid, but with the
2013 group set to "mail". The group permission on the directory allows
2014 the process to create and remove the lock file.
2018 The choice between (A) and (B) is up to the administrator. If the
2019 second solution is used, users can empty their mailboxes by updating
2020 them, but cannot delete them.
2024 If your problem involves mail to root, see also
2025 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC148">Q0507</A>.
2028 <A NAME="SEC66" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC66">Q0202</A>: I am experiencing mailbox locking problems with Sun's <B>mailtool</B> used
2034 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC342">A9705</A> in the Sun-specific section below.
2037 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC67" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC67">3. ROUTING
2040 <A NAME="SEC68" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC68">Q0301</A>: What do "lowest numbered MX record points to local host" and "remote
2041 host address is the local host" mean?
2045 A0301: They mean exactly what they say. Exim has tried to route a domain that
2046 it thinks is not local, and when it looked it up in the DNS, either the
2047 lowest numbered MX record pointed at the local host, or there were no
2048 MX records, and the address record for the domain pointed to an IP
2049 address that belongs to the local host.
2053 (A) If the domain is meant to be handled as a local domain, then there
2054 is a problem with the setting of the <TT>local_domains</TT> configuration
2055 option. If you have not set this, then only the name of the local
2056 host is treated as a local domain. If, for example, your host is
2057 called <B>myhost.mydomain.com</B> and you want it to handle mail for the
2058 domain <B>mydomain.com</B> as well as for its own name, you must set
2062 local_domains = myhost.mydomain.com:mydomain.com</PRE>
2064 or, if you want to be more general, you could use
2068 local_domains = *.mydomain.com:mydomain.com</PRE>
2070 If you have a large number of individual local domains, you should
2071 investigate storing them in a file and setting <TT>local_domains</TT> to do a
2076 All the domains in <TT>local_domains</TT> are treated as synonymous by
2077 default. If you want to specify different handling for different
2078 domains, you can either use <TT>domains</TT> options, to restrict certain
2079 directors to certain domains, or use the <B>$domain</B> expansion variable
2080 in director options to vary the value according to the domain, for
2081 example, setting the name of an alias file to <B>/etc/aliases/$domain</B>.
2085 (B) If the domain is one for which the local host is providing a
2086 forwarding service (called "mail hubbing"), possibly as part of a
2087 firewall, then you need to set up a router to tell Exim where to
2088 send messages addressed to this domain, since the DNS directs them
2089 to the local host. The routers section of your configuration file
2090 should look something like this:
2096 transport = remote_smtp
2097 route_list = see discussion below</PRE>
2101 transport = remote_smtp</PRE>
2103 Note that the <B>domainlist</B> router must come first so that it can pick
2104 off a hubbed host before it gets to the <B>lookuphost</B> router. The
2105 contents of the <TT>route_list</TT> option depend on how many hosts you are
2106 hubbing for, and how their names are related to the domain name.
2107 Suppose the local host is a firewall, and all the domains in
2108 <B>*.foo.bar</B> have MX records pointing to it, and each domain
2109 corresponds to a host of the same name. Then the setting could be
2113 route_list = "*.foo.bar $domain byname"</PRE>
2115 If there isn't a convenient relationship between the domain names
2116 and the host names, then you either have to list each domain
2117 separately, or use a lookup expansion to look up the host from the
2118 domain, or put the routing information in a file and use the
2119 <TT>route_file</TT> option.
2123 (C) If neither (A) nor (B) is the case, then the lowest numbered MX
2124 record or the address record for the domain should not be pointing
2125 to your host. You should arrange to get the DNS mended.
2129 There has been a rash of instances of domains being deliberately set
2130 up with MX records pointing to "localhost", which causes this
2131 behaviour. By default, Exim defers delivery and freezes the message.
2132 You can change what Exim does by setting the generic "self" option
2133 on the router, for example, to make it bounce such domains. If you
2134 are running a release later than 3.16, you can use the option
2135 called <TT>ignore_target_hosts</TT> instead, to get it to pretend such hosts
2139 <A NAME="SEC69" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC69">Q0302</A>: How do I configure Exim to send all non-local mail to a gateway host?
2143 A0302: Replace the <B>lookuphost</B> router in the default configuration with the
2150 transport = remote_smtp
2151 route_list = * gate.way.host byname</PRE>
2153 This uses gethostbyname() to find the gateway's IP address. You could
2154 alternatively have "bydns" to do a DNS lookup with MX handling, in which
2155 case <B>"gate.way.host"</B> is really being treated as a mail domain name
2156 rather than a host name. If there are several hosts you can send to,
2157 you can specify them as a colon-separated list. See also
2158 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC92">Q0325</A> and
2159 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC96">Q0402</A>.
2162 <A NAME="SEC70" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC70">Q0303</A>: How do I configure Exim to send all non-local mail to a central server
2163 if it cannot be immediately delivered by my host? I don't want to have
2164 queued mail waiting on my host.
2168 A0303: Add to the <TT>remote_smtp</TT> transport the following:
2172 fallback_hosts = central.server.name(s)</PRE>
2174 If there are several names, they must be separated by colons.
2177 <A NAME="SEC71" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC71">Q0304</A>: How can I arrange for messages submitted by (for example) Majordomo to
2178 be routed specially?
2183 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC98">A0404</A>.
2186 <A NAME="SEC72" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC72">Q0305</A>: How do I arrange for all incoming email for <B><B>*@some.domain</B></B> to go into one
2187 pop3 mail account? The customer doesn't want to add a list of specific
2188 local parts to the system.
2192 A0305: Set up a special transport that writes to the mailbox like this:
2204 The file will be written as the user "exim". Then arrange to route all
2205 mail for that domain to that transport, with a router like this:
2211 transport = special_transport
2212 route_list = some.domain</PRE>
2214 Alternatively, you could make <B>some.domain</B> a local domain, and use a
2215 <B>smartuser</B> director instead.
2218 <A NAME="SEC73" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC73">Q0306</A>: The <TT>route_list</TT> setting
2219 <TT>^foo$:^bar$ $domain byname</TT> in a <B>domainlist</B>
2220 router does not work.
2224 A0306: The first thing in a <TT>route_list</TT> item is a single pattern, not a list of
2225 patterns. You need to write that as
2226 <TT>^(foo|bar)$ $domain byname</TT>.
2227 Alternatively, you could use several items and write
2231 route_list = "foo $domain byname; bar $domain byname"</PRE>
2233 Note the semicolon separator. This is because the second thing in each
2234 item <EM>can</EM> be a list - of hosts.
2237 <A NAME="SEC74" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC74">Q0307</A>: I'm getting "permission denied" when Exim attempts to check a
2238 <TT>require_files</TT> option.
2243 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC104">A0410</A> below.
2246 <A NAME="SEC75" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC75">Q0308</A>: I have a domain for which some local parts must be delivered locally,
2247 but the remainder are to be treated like any other remote addresses.
2251 A0308: The way to do this is not to include the domain in <TT>local_domains</TT>, so
2252 that addresses initially get passed to the routers. The first router
2253 should be definied like this:
2259 local_parts = whatever...
2260 domains = whatever...
2261 route_list = * localhost byname
2264 That will pick off those addresses with matching local parts and
2265 domains, and hand them to the directors, because of the <TT>self = local</TT>
2266 setting. Any other addresses will fall through to the other routers and
2267 be handled as normal remote addresses.
2270 <A NAME="SEC76" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC76">Q0309</A>: For certain domains, I don't want Exim to use MX records. Instead, I
2271 want it just to look up the hosts' A records. I tried using a negative
2272 entry in <TT>mx_domains</TT> in the smtp router, but it didn't work.
2276 A0309: The <TT>mx_domains</TT> option specifies domains for which there <EM>must</EM> be an MX
2277 record (an A record isn't good enough). Consequently, a negative item in
2278 it doesn't do what you want - any domain matching is is not required to
2279 have an MX record, but it doesn't stop Exim from using MX records for
2280 any that do have them. You can achieve what you want using either a
2281 <B>lookuphost</B> or a <B>domainlist</B> router:
2285 (A) Using <B>lookuphost</B>:
2291 transport = remote_smtp
2292 domains = list:of:domains:you:want:to:do:this:for
2295 (B) Using <B>domainlist</B>:
2301 transport = remote_smtp
2302 domains = list:of:domains:you:want:to:do:this:for
2303 route_list = * * byname</PRE>
2305 If the list of domains is actually a lookup in a file, you can dispense
2306 with <TT>domains</TT> in the <B>domainlist</B> case, and put the lookup into the
2307 <TT>route_list</TT> option.
2310 <A NAME="SEC77" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC77">Q0310</A>: How can I configure Exim on a firewall machine so that if mail arrives
2311 addressed to a domain whose MX points to the firewall, it is forwarded
2312 to the internal mail server, without having to have a list of all the
2317 A0310: As your first router, have the standard <B>lookuphost</B> router from the
2318 default configuration, with the added options
2325 This will handle all domains whose lowest numbered MX records do <EM>not</EM>
2326 point to your host. Because of the <TT>no_more</TT> setting, if it encounters
2327 an unknown domain, routing will fail. However, if it hits a domain whose
2328 lowest numbered MX points to your host, the "self" option comes into
2329 play, and overrides <TT>no_more</TT>. The "pass" setting causes it to pass
2330 the address on to the next router. (The default causes it to generate an
2335 As your second (and last) router, set up a <B>domainlist</B> router that sends
2336 everything to your internal mail server. That is, use an option of the
2341 route_list = * internal.server byname</PRE>
2342 <A NAME="SEC78" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC78">Q0311</A>: How can I arrange that messages larger than some limit are handled by
2347 A0311: If you are using Exim 2.10 or greater, you can use a <TT>condition</TT> option
2348 on the router of the form
2352 condition = ${if >{$message_size}{100K}{yes}{no}}</PRE>
2354 Earlier versions of Exim do not have numerical comparison operators,
2355 though you can use tricks like
2359 condition = ${if eq {${substr_5:$message_size}}{}{no}{yes}}</PRE>
2360 <A NAME="SEC79" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC79">Q0312</A>: If a DNS lookup returns no MX records why doesn't Exim just bin the
2365 A0312: If a DNS lookup returns no MXs, Exim looks for an A record, in
2366 accordance with the rules that are defined in the RFCs. If you want to
2367 break the rules, you can set <TT>mx_domains</TT> in the <B>lookuphost</B> router, but
2368 you will cut yourself off from those sites (and there still seem to be
2369 plenty) who do not set up MX records.
2372 <A NAME="SEC80" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC80">Q0313</A>: When a DNS lookup for MX records fails to complete, why doesn't Exim
2373 send the messsage to the host defined by the A record?
2377 A0313: The RFCs are quite clear on this. Only if it is known that there are no
2378 MX records is an MTA allowed to make use of the A record. When an MX
2379 lookup fails to complete, Exim does not know whether there are any MX
2380 records or not. There seem to be some nameservers (or some
2381 configurations of some nameservers) that give a "server fail" error when
2382 asked for a non-existent MX record. Exim uses standard resolver calls,
2383 which unfortunately do not distinguish between this case and a timeout,
2384 so all Exim can do is try again later.
2387 <A NAME="SEC81" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC81">Q0314</A>: Can you specify a list of domains to explicitly reject?
2391 A0314: Use a router like this:
2398 domains = list:of:domains:to:reject
2399 route_list = * localhost byname</PRE>
2400 <A NAME="SEC82" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC82">Q0315</A>: Is it possible to use a conditional expression for the host item in a
2401 <TT>route_list</TT> for the <B>domainlist</B> router? I tried the following, but it
2406 route_list = * ${if match{$header_from:}{.*\\.usa\\.net\\$} \
2407 {<smarthost1>}{<smarthost2>} bydns_a</PRE>
2409 A0315: The problem is that the second item in the <TT>route_list</TT> contains white
2410 space, which means that it gets terminated prematurely. To avoid this,
2411 you must put the second item in quotes:
2415 route_list = * "${if match{$header_from:}{.*\\.usa\\.net\\$} \
2416 {<smarthost1>}{<smarthost2>}}" bydns_a</PRE>
2417 <A NAME="SEC83" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC83">Q0316</A>: I send all external mail to a smart host, but this means that bad
2418 addresses also get passed to the smart host. Can I avoid this?
2422 A0316: If you are receiving the mail via SMTP, then you can use verification to
2423 weed out the bad addresses. Set <TT>no_verify</TT> on the router which sends
2424 everything to your smart host, and insert a new router with <TT>verify_only</TT>
2425 that does general routing using DNS lookups (e.g. the default <B>lookuphost</B>
2426 router), or any other verification you want. Then set <TT>receiver_verify</TT>
2427 so that addresses are accepted only if they verify successfully.
2430 <A NAME="SEC84" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC84">Q0317</A>: I have a dial-up machine, and I use the <TT>queue_smtp</TT> option so that remote
2431 mail only goes out when I do a queue run. However, any email I send with
2432 an address <B><B><anything>@aol.com</B></B> is returned within about 15 mins saying
2433 'retry time exceeded', and all addresses are affected.
2438 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC260">Q1401</A>.
2441 <A NAME="SEC85" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC85">Q0318</A>: How can I route mail for user <B>X@local</B> to a smarthost if X doesn't exist
2447 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC122">A0428</A>.
2450 <A NAME="SEC86" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC86">Q0319</A>: How can I arrange to do my own qualification of non-fully-qualified
2451 domains, and then pass them on to the next router?
2455 A0319: If you have some list of domains that you want to qualify, you can do
2456 this using a <B>domainlist</B> router. For example,
2462 route_list = *.a.b $domain.c.com</PRE>
2464 adds <B>".c.com"</B> to any domain that matches <B>"*.a.b".</B> In the absence of any
2465 options in the route item, the new domain is passed to the next router.
2469 If you want to do this in conjunction with a <B>lookuphost</B> router, the
2470 <TT>widen_domains</TT> option of that router may be another way of achieving what
2474 <A NAME="SEC87" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC87">Q0320</A>: Every system has a "nobody" account under which httpd etc run. I would
2475 like to know how to restrict mail which comes from that account to users
2480 A0320: Set up a router with <B><B>senders=nobody@your.domain</B></B> which routes all
2481 mail to a local transport that delivers it to <B>/dev/null</B> (or to a pipe
2482 that bounces with an error message, or whatever). That would catch all
2483 mail to non-local domains.
2486 <A NAME="SEC88" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC88">Q0321</A>: I have a really annoying intermittent problem where attempts to mail to
2487 valid sites are rejected with "unknown mail domain". This only happens a
2488 few times a day and there is no particular pattern to the sites it
2489 rejects. If I try to lookup the same domain a few minutes later then it
2494 A0321: (A) Have you linked Exim against the newest DNS resolver library that
2495 comes with Bind? If you are using SunOS4 that may be your problem, as
2496 the resolver that comes with that OS is known to be buggy and to give
2497 intermittent false negatives.
2501 (B) Effects like this are sometimes seen if a domain's nameservers get
2502 out of step with each other.
2505 <A NAME="SEC89" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC89">Q0322</A>: I'd like route all mail with unresolved addresses to a relay machine.
2509 A0322: Set <TT>pass_on_timeout</TT> on your <B>lookuphost</B> router, and add below it a
2510 <B>domainlist</B> router that routes everything to the relay.
2513 <A NAME="SEC90" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC90">Q0323</A>: I would like to forward all incoming email for a particular domain to
2514 another machine via SMTP. Whereabouts would I configure that?
2518 A0323: First, do not list the domain in <TT>local_domains</TT>. Instead, list it in
2519 <TT>relay_domains</TT>. Then, if the domain's lowest numbered MX record points to
2520 your host, set up a <B>domainlist</B> router before your normal <B>lookuphost</B>
2521 router, in order to route the domain to the specific host.
2524 <A NAME="SEC91" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC91">Q0324</A>: Why does Exim say "all relevant MX records point to non-existent hosts"
2525 when MX records point to IP addresses?
2529 A0324: MX records cannot point to IP addresses. They are defined to point to
2530 host names, so Exim always interprets them that way. (An IP address is a
2531 syntactically valid host name.) The DNS for the domain you are having
2532 problems with is misconfigured.
2536 However, it appears that more and more DNS zones are breaking the rules
2537 and putting IP addresses on the RHS of MX records. Exim follows the
2538 rules and rejects this, but other MTAs do support it, so <TT>allow_mx_to_ip</TT>
2539 was regretfully added at release 3.14 to permit this heinous activity.
2542 <A NAME="SEC92" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC92">Q0325</A>: How can I arrange for mail on my local network to be delivered directly
2543 to the relevant hosts, but all other mail to be sent to my ISP's mail
2544 server? The local hosts are all DNS-registered and behave like normal
2549 A0325: Set up a first router to pick off all the domains for your local
2550 network. There are several ways you might do this. For example
2556 transport = remote_smtp
2557 domains = lsearch;/etc/local_domains.list</PRE>
2559 This does a perfectly conventional DNS routing operation, but only for
2560 your local domains. Follow this with a "smarthost" router:
2566 transport = remote_smtp
2567 route_list = * mail.isp.net bydns_a</PRE>
2569 This sends anything else to the smart host.
2572 <A NAME="SEC93" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC93">Q0326</A>: What I'd like to do is have alternative smarthosts, where the one to be
2573 used is determined by which ISP I'm connected to.
2577 A0326: The simplest way to do this is to use a lookup in a <B>domainlist</B> router.
2584 transport = remote_smtp
2585 route_list = * ${lookup{smart}lsearch{/etc/smarthost}{$value}} byname</PRE>
2587 where you arrange for the name (or IP address) of the relevant smart
2588 host to be placed in <B>/etc/smarthost</B> when you connect, in the form
2592 smart: smart.host.name.or.ip</PRE>
2594 By keeping the data out of the main configuration file, you avoid having
2595 to HUP the daemon when it changes.
2598 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC94" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC94">4. DIRECTING
2601 <A NAME="SEC95" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC95">Q0401</A>: I need to have any mail for <B>virt.dom.ain</B> that <EM>doesn't</EM> match one of the
2602 aliases in <B><B>/usr/lib/aliases.virt</B></B> delivered to a particular address, for
2603 example, <B><B>postmaster@virt.dom.ain.</B></B>
2607 A0401: Adding an asterisk to a search type causes Exim to look up "*" when the
2608 normal lookup fails. So if your director is something like this:
2614 domains = virt.dom.ain
2615 file = /usr/lib/aliases.virt
2616 search_type = lsearch
2619 you should change "lsearch" to "lsearch*", and put this in the alias
2624 *: postmaster@virt.dom.ain</PRE>
2626 This solution has the feature that if there are several unknown
2627 addresses in the same message, only one copy gets sent to the
2628 postmaster, because of Exim's normal de-duplication rules.
2632 You can get separate deliveries for each unknown address only if you can
2633 direct them to a specific transport, by using a <B>smartuser</B> director like
2640 domains = virt.dom.ain
2641 file = /usr/lib/aliases.virt
2642 search_type = lsearch</PRE>
2646 domains = virt.dom.ain
2647 transport = special_delivery
2648 new_address = postmaster@virt.dom.ain
2651 If an address in the virtual domain is not matched by the normal alias
2652 lookup, then it gets picked up by the <B>smartuser</B> and passed to the
2653 transport with a new address. There is no checking for duplicates, so
2654 if there is more than one address that passes through this mechanism,
2655 multiple copies get delivered. In order to distinguish them, the
2656 <TT>envelope_to_add</TT> option can be set on the transport, to cause the
2657 insertion of an Envelope-To: header containing the original recipient
2661 <A NAME="SEC96" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC96">Q0402</A>: How do I configure Exim to send all messages to a central server?
2665 A0402: This implies that you are not doing any local deliveries at all. Set
2669 local_domains =</PRE>
2671 in the configuration file. This specifies that there are no local
2672 domains (by default your host name is set up as a local domain). Then
2673 all addresses are non-local -
2674 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC69">A0302</A> tells you how to deal with them.
2677 <A NAME="SEC97" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC97">Q0403</A>: How do I configure Exim to send messages for unknown local users to a
2682 A0403: At the end of the directors section of the configuration, insert the
2689 transport = unknown_transport</PRE>
2691 You should add <TT>no_verify</TT> to this if you are verifying addresses;
2692 without it, all local parts will verify as valid in the local domain.
2693 Then somewhere in the transports section of the configuration insert
2699 hosts = server.host.name</PRE>
2701 A colon-separated list of hosts may be given. They are tried in order.
2702 By default, the IP address of any host is found by looking in the DNS
2703 and doing MX processing (so really it is a domain list rather than a
2704 host list). If you don't want MX processing, set the "gethostbyname"
2711 hosts = server.host.name
2714 This calls the gethostbyname() function to find IP addresses. Depending
2715 on your operating system and configuration, this usually consults
2716 <B>/etc/hosts</B> and possibly other sources of information, as well as, or
2717 instead of, the DNS.
2721 If you want to change the recipient address when doing this, you can use
2722 the <TT>new_address</TT> option on the <B>smartuser</B> director. For example, if the
2723 address is <B><B>user@foo.bar.com</B></B> and the setting is
2727 new_address = $local_part@bar.com</PRE>
2729 The message is sent to the server with the envelope recipient changed to
2730 <B><B>user@bar.com.</B></B> However, this does not make any changes to the message's
2734 <A NAME="SEC98" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC98">Q0404</A>: How can I arrange for messages submitted by (for example) Majordomo to
2735 be handled specially?
2739 A0404: You can use the <TT>condition</TT> option on a director or router, with a
2744 condition = ${if and {{eq {$sender_host_address}{}} \
2745 {eq {$sender_ident}{majordom}}} {yes}{no}}</PRE>
2747 This first tests for a locally-submitted message, by ensuring there is
2748 no sending host address, and then it checks the identity of the user
2749 that ran the submitting process.
2752 <A NAME="SEC99" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC99">Q0405</A>: On a host that accepts mail for several domains, do I have to use fully
2753 qualified names in <B>/etc/aliases</B> or do I have to set up an alias file for
2758 A0405: You can do it either way. If you use a single file, you must set
2759 <TT>include_domain</TT> on the <B>aliasfile</B> director. If you use a separate file
2760 for each domain you can use a single director with an option such as
2764 file = /etc/aliases/$domain</PRE>
2766 (as in C007), or you can have several different directors, each one with
2770 domains = domain1:domain2:...</PRE>
2772 so that each one processes certain domains only. That way you could have
2773 several domains sharing an alias file. All of this assumes that you want
2774 have different aliases for each domain. If all the domain names are in
2775 effect just synonyms, you don't need to do anything other than ensure
2776 they all match something in <TT>local_domains</TT>.
2779 <A NAME="SEC100" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC100">Q0406</A>: Some of my users are using the <B>.forward</B> to pipe to a shell command which
2780 appends to the user's INBOX. How can I forbid this?
2784 A0406: If you allow your users to run shells in pipes, you cannot control which
2785 commands they run or which files they write to. However, you should point
2786 out to them that writing to an INBOX by arbitrary commands is not
2787 interlocked with the MTA and MUAs, and is liable to mess up the contents
2792 If a user simply wants to choose a specific file for the delivery of
2793 messages, this can be done by putting a file name in a <B>.forward</B> file
2794 rather than using a pipe, or by using the "save" command in an Exim
2799 You can set <TT>forbid_pipe</TT> on the <B>forwardfile</B> director, but that will
2800 prevent them from running any pipe commands at all. Alternatively, you
2801 can restrict which commands they may run in their pipes by setting the
2802 <TT>allow_commands</TT> and/or <TT>restrict_to_path</TT> options in the <TT>address_pipe</TT>
2806 <A NAME="SEC101" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC101">Q0407</A>: How can I arrange for a default value when using a query-style lookup
2807 such as LDAP or NIS+ to handle aliases?
2811 A0407: Using the queries option for the <B>aliasfile</B> driver should do what you
2812 want. You can supply a second query which gets obeyed when the first
2813 query fails. For example,
2818 ldap:://x.y.z/l=yvr?aliasaddress?sub?(&(mail=$local_part@$domain)):\
2819 ldap:://x.y.z/l=yvr?aliasaddress?sub?(&(mail=default@$domain))"</PRE>
2820 <A NAME="SEC102" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC102">Q0408</A>: If I don't fully qualify the addresses in a virtual domain's alias file
2821 then mail to aliases which also match the local domain get delivered to
2826 For example, if the alias file for <B>foobar.com</B> is
2830 foo: joe@some.place.com
2831 postmaster: foo</PRE>
2833 then mail sent to <B><B>postmaster@foobar.com</B></B> is not delivered to
2834 <B><B>joe@some.place.com</B></B> but instead goes to <B><B>foo@localdomain.com.</B></B>
2838 A0408: Set the <TT>qualify_preserve_domain</TT> option on the <B>aliasfile</B> director.
2841 <A NAME="SEC103" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC103">Q0409</A>: We've got users who chmod their home to 750, and home is NFS-mounted
2842 without root privilege, so Exim cannot access <B>~user/.forward.</B>
2846 A0409: Set the seteuid option on the <B>forwardfile</B> director so that Exim
2847 "becomes" the user before trying to read the file. However, if your
2848 operating system does not support the seteuid() function, you cannot do
2849 this. In that circumstance, if you cannot persuade your users to make
2850 their <B>.forward</B> files world readable, you can set the <TT>ignore_eacces</TT>
2851 option, which causes Exim to ignore unreadable files.
2854 <A NAME="SEC104" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC104">Q0410</A>: I'm getting "permission denied" when Exim tries to check a for the
2855 existence of a user's <B>.procmailrc</B> file using <TT>require_files</TT>.
2859 A0410: Exim is running under its own uid (or root if there isn't an Exim uid)
2860 when it checks <TT>require_files</TT>. You can cause it to change to a specific
2861 uid by putting an item not containing any / characters at the start of
2862 the <TT>require_files</TT> list. In this case you probably want a director along
2869 require_files = $local_part:$home/.procmailrc
2870 transport = procmail_pipe</PRE>
2871 <A NAME="SEC105" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC105">Q0411</A>: How can I deliver mail into different directories for each virtual
2872 domain, doing user lookups not against <B>/etc/passwd</B> but against
2873 <B><B>/etc/passwd.domain</B>?</B>
2877 A0411: See configuration sample C009.
2880 <A NAME="SEC106" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC106">Q0412</A>: I want mail for <EM>any</EM> local part at certain virtual domains to go
2881 to a single address for each domain.
2885 A0412: One way to to this is
2891 domains = lsearch;/etc/virtual
2892 new_address = ${lookup{$domain}lsearch{/etc/virtual}{$value}fail}</PRE>
2894 The <B>/etc/virtual</B> file contains a list of domains and the addresses to
2895 which their mail should be sent. For example:
2899 domain1: postmaster@some.where.else
2900 domain2: joe@xyz.plc
2903 If the number of domains is large, using a DBM or cdb file would be more
2907 <A NAME="SEC107" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC107">Q0413</A>: How can I make Exim look in the alias NIS map instead of <B>/etc/aliases</B>?
2911 A0413: The default configuration does not use NIS (many hosts don't run it).
2912 You should change the <TT>system_aliases</TT> director to
2919 search_type = nis</PRE>
2921 If you want to use <B>/etc/aliases</B> as well as NIS, put this director (with
2922 a different name) before or after the default one, depending on which
2923 data source you want to take precedence.
2926 <A NAME="SEC108" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC108">Q0414</A>: What does the error message "error in forward file (filtering not
2927 enabled): missing or malformed local part ..." mean?
2931 A0414: If you are trying to use an Exim filter, you have forgotten to enable
2932 the facility, which is disabled by default. In the <B>forwardfile</B> director
2933 (in the Exim configuration file) you need to set
2939 to allow a <B>.forward</B> file to be used as an Exim filter. If you are not
2940 trying to use an Exim filter, then you have put a malformed address in
2941 the <B>.forward</B> file.
2944 <A NAME="SEC109" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC109">Q0415</A>: Exim isn't recognizing certain forms of local address.
2948 A0415: (A) Try using the <B>-bt</B> option with debugging turned on, to see how Exim
2949 is handling the addresses. For example,
2953 exim -d2 -bt z6abc</PRE>
2955 will show you how it would handle the local part "z6abc". Increase the
2956 debug level to <B>-d9</B> for more information.
2960 (B) If the local user names contain capital letters, that is probably
2961 the cause of your problem. Setting up such user names is a bad idea.
2962 By default, everything is lowercased before the final delivery for the
2963 sake of alias matching and user name matching, because people who type
2964 email addresses often get the case wrong. You can stop this by setting
2968 locally_caseless = false</PRE>
2970 but then incoming addresses are recognized only in the correct case.
2972 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC118">Q0424</A> for a way round this.
2975 <A NAME="SEC110" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC110">Q0416</A>: I have a domain for which some local parts must be delivered locally,
2976 but the remainder are to be treated like any other remote addresses.
2981 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC75">A0308</A>.
2984 <A NAME="SEC111" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC111">Q0417</A>: What I really need is the ability to obtain the result of a pipe
2985 command so that I can filter externally and redirect internally. Is
2990 A0417: This is not possible. The result of a pipe command is not available to
2991 a filter, because it doesn't run any deliveries while filtering. It just
2992 sets up deliveries. They all happen later. If you want to run pipes
2993 and examine their results, you need to set up a single delivery to a
2994 delivery agent such as procmail which provides this kind of facility.
2997 <A NAME="SEC112" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC112">Q0418</A>: When I set a suffix on one of my directors, it doesn't get stripped when
2998 checking the <TT>local_parts</TT> option. Why is this?
3002 A0418: The test on local parts and domains is done early on, and only if they
3003 match is supplementary processing such as prefix and suffix recognition
3004 done. There is a section of the manual called "Skipping directors" which
3005 gives details. If you want to ignore a prefix or suffix in the initial
3006 test of the local part, you can do so by replacing <TT>local_parts</TT> with a
3007 setting of the <TT>condition</TT> option. For example, suppose you wanted to
3008 look up the basic local part in a file, and run the director if it is
3013 condition = ${if lookup{\
3014 ${if match{$local_part}{^(.*)-request}{$1}{$local_part}}\
3015 }lsearch{/some/file}{yes}}</PRE>
3017 The key that is looked up is the second line, which uses a regular
3018 expression to strip "-request" from the local part if it is present.
3021 <A NAME="SEC113" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC113">Q0419</A>: Why will Exim deliver a message locally to any username that is longer
3022 than 8 characters as long as the first 8 characters match one of the
3027 A0419: The problem is in your operating system. Exim just calls the getpwnam()
3028 function to test a local part for being a local login name. It does not
3029 presume to guess the maximum length of user name for the underlying
3030 operating system. Many operating systems correctly reject names that are
3031 longer than the maximum length; yours is apparently deficient in this
3032 regard. To cope with such systems, Exim has an option called
3033 <TT>max_user_name_length</TT> which you can set to the maximum allowed length.
3036 <A NAME="SEC114" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC114">Q0420</A>: Why am I seeing the error "bad mode (100664) for <B><B>/home/test/.forward</B></B>
3037 (userforward director)"? I've looked through the documentation but can't
3038 see anything to suggest that exim has to do anything other than read the
3039 <B>.forward</B> file.
3043 A0420: For security, Exim checks for mode bits that shouldn't be set, by
3044 default 022. You can change this by setting the "modemask" option of the
3045 <B>forwardfile</B> director.
3048 <A NAME="SEC115" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC115">Q0421</A>: How can I arrange that messages larger than some limit are handled by
3054 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC78">A0311</A>.
3057 <A NAME="SEC116" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC116">Q0422</A>: When a user's <B>.forward</B> file is syntactially invalid, Exim defers
3058 delivery of all messages to that user, which sometimes include the
3059 user's own test messages. Can it be told to ignore the <B>.forward</B> file
3060 and/or inform the user of the error?
3064 A0422: Setting <TT>skip_syntax_errors</TT> on the <B>forwardfile</B> director causes syntax
3065 errors to be skipped. When dealing with users' <B>.forward</B> files it is best
3066 to combine this with a setting of <TT>syntax_errors_to</TT> in order to send
3067 a message about the error to the user. However, to avoid an infinite
3068 cascade of messages, you have to be able to send to an address that
3069 bypasses <B>.forward</B> file processing. This can be done by including a
3070 director like this one
3076 transport = local_delivery
3077 prefix = real-</PRE>
3079 <EM>before</EM> the <B>forwardfile</B> director. This will do an ordinary local
3080 delivery without <B>.forward</B> processing, if the local part is prefixed by
3081 "real-". You can then set something like the following options on the
3082 <B>forwardfile</B> director:
3087 syntax_errors_to = real-$local_part@$domain
3088 syntax_errors_text = "\
3089 This is an automatically generated message. An error has been \
3090 found\nin your .forward file. Details of the error are reported \
3091 below. While\nthis error persists, messages addressed to you will \
3092 get delivered into\nyour normal mailbox and you will receive a \
3093 copy of this message for\neach one."</PRE>
3095 A final tidying setting to go with this is a rewriting rule that changes
3096 "real-username" into just "username" in the headers of the message:
3100 ^real-([^@]+)@your\.dom\.ain$ $1@your.dom.ain h</PRE>
3102 This means that users won't ever see the "real-" prefix, unless they
3103 look at the Envelope-To header.
3106 <A NAME="SEC117" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC117">Q0423</A>: I have some users on my system with upper case letters in their login
3107 names, but these are not recognized.
3112 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC118">A0424</A>.
3115 <A NAME="SEC118" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC118">Q0424</A>: I have unset <TT>locally_caseless</TT> because my users have upper case letters
3116 in their login names, but incoming mail now has to use the correct case.
3117 Can I relax this somehow?
3121 A0424: If you really have to live with caseful user names but want incoming
3122 local parts to be caseless, then you have to maintain a file, indexed by
3123 the lower case forms, that gives the correct case for each login, like
3134 and at the start of your directors, put one like this:
3140 new_address = ${lookup{${lc:$local_part}}lsearch{/the/file}\
3141 {$value@$domain}fail}</PRE>
3143 For efficiency, you should also set the <TT>new_director</TT> option to cause
3144 processing of the changed address to begin at the next director. If you
3145 are otherwise using the default configuration, then the setting would be
3149 new_director = system_aliases</PRE>
3151 If there are lots of users, then a DBM or cdb file would be more
3152 efficient than lsearch. If you are handling several domains, then you
3153 will have to extend this configuration to cope appropriately.
3156 <A NAME="SEC119" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC119">Q0425</A>: I want to look up local users in an SQL database instead of looking in
3161 A0425: From release 3.03, Exim contains support for calling MySQL, and from
3162 release 3.14 there is support for PostgreSQL.
3166 You must consider what will happen if your database is down. All local
3167 mail delivery will be delayed until it comes up again. Whether this
3168 matters is of course something for you to decide. If the database is
3169 down a lot and it does matter, then consider some scheme of extracting
3170 a list of users from the database at regular intervals, and getting Exim
3171 to work off that. This is also likely to be more efficient.
3174 <A NAME="SEC120" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC120">Q0426</A>: Is it possible for Exim to use a SQL database like MySQL for its lists
3175 of virtual domains and explicit aliases?
3180 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC119">A0425</A>.
3183 <A NAME="SEC121" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC121">Q0427</A>: Can I use my existing alias files and forward files as well as procmail
3184 and effectively drop in exim in place of Sendmail ?
3188 A0427: Yes, as long as your alias/forward files don't assume that pipes are
3189 going to run under a shell. If they do, you either have to change them,
3190 or configure Exim to use a shell (which it doesn't by default).
3193 <A NAME="SEC122" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC122">Q0428</A>: How can I route mail for user <B>X@local</B> to a smarthost if X doesn't exist
3198 A0428: This is the same question as
3199 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC96">Q0402</A>. The duplication is a bug in the FAQ.
3202 <A NAME="SEC123" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC123">Q0429</A>: What is quickest way to set up Exim so any message sent to a non-
3203 existing user would bounce back with a different message, based
3204 on the name of non-existing user?
3208 A0429: See the example in the section of the manual entitled "System-wide
3209 automatic processing".
3212 <A NAME="SEC124" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC124">Q0430</A>: I am building some largish mailing lists with Majordomo, and was
3213 wondering if it worth leaving the actually list expansion to the
3214 <B>aliasfile</B> :include: mechanism or should I consider using the <B>forwardfile</B>
3215 transport? Is there any real difference in terms of facilities and/or
3216 performance, and are the expansions basically the same code anyway?
3220 A0430: The code that pulls out individual addresses from a list is the same in
3221 both cases, so it's really just a matter of which is the most convenient
3225 <A NAME="SEC125" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC125">Q0431</A>: What do I need to do to make Exim handle <B>/usr/ucb/vacation</B> processing
3226 automatically, so that people could just create a .<B>vacation.msg</B> file in
3227 their home directory and not have to edit their <B>.forward</B> file?
3231 A0431: Add a new director like this, immediately before the normal localuser
3238 require_files = .vacation.msg
3239 transport = vacation_transport
3242 and a matching new transport like this:
3248 command = "/usr/ucb/vacation \"$local_part\""</PRE>
3250 However, some versions of <B>/usr/ucb/vacation</B> do not work properly unless
3251 the DBM file(s) it uses are created in advance - it won't create them
3252 itself. You also need a way of removing them when the vacation is over.
3256 Another possibility is to use a fixed filter file which is run whenever
3257 .<B>vacation.msg</B> exists, for example:
3262 driver = forwardfile
3264 require_files = $home/.vacation.msg
3265 file = /some/central/filter
3268 The filter file should use the "if personal" check before sending mail,
3269 to avoid generating automatic responses to mailing lists. If sending a
3270 message is all that it does, this doesn't count as a "significant"
3271 delivery, so the message goes on to be delivered as normal.
3275 Yet another possibility is to make use of Exim's autoreply transport.
3279 <A NAME="SEC126" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC126">Q0432</A>: I want to use a default entry in my alias file, but it picks up the
3280 local parts that the aliases generate. For example, if the alias file
3285 luke.skywalker: luke
3289 then messages addressed to <B>luke.skywalker</B> end up at postmaster.
3293 A0432: (A) If you know for certain that no alias in your alias file ever
3294 generates another alias that is in the same file, then the most
3295 efficient solution is to put
3299 new_director = name-of-following-director</PRE>
3301 in your <B>aliasfile</B> director. This stops Exim from processing the
3302 generated names as aliases the second time.
3306 (B) If you can't give that guarantee, then you have to put dummy entries
3307 in the alias file for all your local parts, for example:
3313 (C) Another possibility is to put the <B>aliasfile</B> director for these
3314 aliases <EM>after</EM> the localuser director, so that local parts get picked
3315 off first. You will need to have two <B>aliasfile</B> directors if there are
3316 some local parts (e.g. root) which you do want to handle as aliases
3317 rather than local users.
3320 <A NAME="SEC127" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC127">Q0433</A>: I have some obsolete domains which people have been warned not to use
3321 any more. How can I arrange to delete any mail that is sent to them?
3325 A0433: If you are using release 3.10 or later, you can use a <B>smartuser</B> director
3331 domains = lsearch;/etc/exim/obsolete.domains
3332 new_address = :blackhole:</PRE>
3334 If you want to make any exceptions, for example, for mail to postmaster
3335 at those domains, you can add the line
3339 local_parts = !postmaster</PRE>
3341 If you are using an earlier release of Exim, you have to set up an alias
3342 file in order to use :blackhole:
3347 domains = lsearch;/etc/exim/obsolete.domains
3348 file = /blackhole/all
3349 search_type = lsearch*</PRE>
3351 with the file containing
3355 *: :blackhole:</PRE>
3357 and possibly a postmaster alias if you want.
3360 <A NAME="SEC128" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC128">Q0434</A>: How can I arrange that mail addressed to <B><B>anything@something.mydomain.com</B></B>
3361 gets delivered to <B><B>something@mydomain.com</B>?</B>
3365 A0434: Ensure that all the relevant domains are local, by setting
3369 local_domains = mydomain.com : *.mydomain.com</PRE>
3371 Then set up a <B>smartuser</B> director like this:
3377 new_address = ${if match{$domain}{^(.+)\\.mydomain.com\$}\
3378 {$1@mydomain.com}fail}</PRE>
3379 <A NAME="SEC129" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC129">Q0435</A>: I can't get a regular expression to work in this <TT>local_parts</TT> option on
3380 one of my directors:
3384 local_parts = ^0740\d{6}</PRE>
3386 A0435: The <TT>local_parts</TT> option is expanded before use, so that you can, for
3387 example, make it dependent on the domain. Therefore, you need to write
3391 local_parts = ^0740\\d{6}</PRE>
3393 so as to preserve the backslash.
3396 <A NAME="SEC130" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC130">Q0436</A>: How can I arrange for all addresses in a group of domains <B>*.example.com</B>
3397 to share the same alias file? I have a number of such groups.
3401 A0436: For a single group you could just hardwire the file name into a director
3406 domains = *.example.com</PRE>
3408 set, to restrict it to the relevant domains. For a number of such groups
3409 you can create a file containing the domains, like this:
3413 *.example1.com example1.com
3414 *.example2.com example2.com
3417 Arrange that the domains are treated as local by setting
3421 local_domains = partial-lsearch;/that/file</PRE>
3423 Then create a director like this
3429 domains = partial-lsearch;/that/file
3430 file = /etc/aliases.d/$domain_data
3431 search_type = lsearch*</PRE>
3433 The variable <B>$domain_data</B> contains the data that was looked up when the
3434 <TT>domains</TT> option was matched, i.e. <B>"example1.com",</B> <B>"example2.com",</B> etc.
3438 <A NAME="SEC131" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC131">Q0437</A>: When Exim tries to read <B><B>/usr/lib/majordomo/lists/lists.aliases</B></B> it is
3439 giving "Permission denied", but that file is world-readable!
3443 A0437: Check the permissions on the superior directories.
3446 <A NAME="SEC132" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC132">Q0438</A>: Some of our users have no home directories; the field in the password
3447 file contains <B>/no/home/dir</B>. This causes the error "failed to stat
3448 <B>/no/home/dir</B> (No such file or directory)" when Exim tries to look for a
3449 <B>.forward</B> file, and the delivery is deferred.
3453 A0438: With the default configuration, you are asking Exim to check for a
3454 <B>.forward</B> file in the user's home directory. It looks up the home
3455 directory and tries to stat() it before looking for <B>.forward</B>. This is so
3456 that it can will notice a missing NFS home directory, and not treat it
3457 as if the <B>.forward</B> file did not exist. This stat() is failing when the
3458 home directory doesn't exist. What you should do is pick off these
3459 special cases before looking for <B>.forward</B> files for normal users. Place
3460 the following director before the userforward director:
3464 no_home_directory_users:
3466 transport = local_delivery
3467 match_directory = /no/home/dir
3468 current_directory = /</PRE>
3469 <A NAME="SEC133" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC133">Q0439</A>: How can I disable Exim's de-duplication features? I want it to do two
3470 deliveries if two different aliases expand to the same address.
3474 A0439: This is not possible. Duplication has other ramifications other than
3475 just (in)convenience. Consider:
3479 . Message is addressed to A and to B.
3483 . Both A and B are aliased to C.
3487 . Without de-duplication, two deliveries to C are scheduled.
3491 . One delivery happens, Exim records that it has delivered the message
3496 . The next delivery fails (C's mailbox is over quota, say).
3500 Next time round, Exim wants to know if it has already delivered to C or
3501 not, before scheduling a new delivery. Has it? Obviously, if duplicate
3502 deliveries are supported, it has to remember not only that it has
3503 delivered to C but also the "history" of how that delivery happened - in
3504 effect an ancestry list back to the original envelope address. This it
3505 does not do, and changing it to work in that way would be a lot of work
3510 The best way to get duplicate deliveries if you want them is not to use
3511 <B>aliasfile</B>, but to use <B>smartuser</B> with a transport, e.g.
3515 alias_with_duplicates:
3517 transport = local_delivery_for_duplicates
3518 new_address = ${lookup {$local_part} lsearch ..... etc</PRE>
3520 This goes straight to the transport without generating a new address
3521 that is considered for de-duplication or re-aliasing. In effect, it is
3522 just re-writing the address on the way to the transport. You will need
3523 to specify the user under which to run the delivery, either on the
3524 transport or on the director.
3527 <A NAME="SEC134" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC134">Q0440</A>: I set up an <B>aliasfile</B> director using MySQL, but it doesn't use the new
3528 addresses. This it my director:
3532 mysql_system_aliases:
3535 query = "select userid from domain_table where \
3536 aliasid='$local_part' and domain='$domain'"
3537 transport = local_delivery</PRE>
3539 A0440: The setting of "transport" is your problem. Aliasfile operates entirely
3540 differently if you give it a transport. It just verifies the incoming
3541 address by doing the query, then sends it to the transport. Take away
3542 the transport setting, and it will do normal aliasing, that is, turn one
3543 address into another which is independently processed.
3546 <A NAME="SEC135" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC135">Q0441</A>: I received a message with a Subject: line that contained a non-printing
3547 character (a carriage return). This messed up my filter file. Is there a
3548 way to get round it?
3552 A0441: Instead of <B>$h_subject:</B> use <B>${escape:$h_subject:}</B>
3555 <A NAME="SEC136" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC136">Q0442</A>: My users' mailboxes are distributed between several servers according to
3556 the first letter of the user name. All the servers receive incoming mail
3557 at random. I would like to have the same configuration file for all the
3558 servers, which does local delivery for the mailboxes it holds, and sends
3559 other addresses to the correct other server. Is this possible?
3563 A0442: It is easiest if you arrange for all the users to have password entries
3564 on all the servers. This means that non-existent users can be detected
3565 at the first server they reach. Set up a file containing a mapping from
3566 the first letter of the user names to the servers where their mailboxes
3567 are held. For example:
3576 Replace the normal localuser director with these two directors:
3582 transport = local_delivery
3583 condition = ${if eq{$primary_hostname}\
3584 {${lookup {${substr_0_1:$local_part}}\
3585 lsearch{/etc/mapfile} {$value}}}{yes}{no}}</PRE>
3589 transport = send_to_correct_host</PRE>
3591 The first director succeeds only if the local part is a local user whose
3592 mailbox is listed as being on the current host. The second server runs
3593 for all other local users, directing the addresses to this transport:
3597 send_to_correct_host:
3599 hosts = ${lookup {${substr_0_1:$local_part}}lsearch{/etc/mapfile}\
3602 Local parts that are not the names of local users are declined by both
3603 directors, and so they fail.
3606 <A NAME="SEC137" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC137">Q0443</A>: I want to search for '$' in the subject line, but I can't seem to get
3607 the syntax. The obvious choice, '\$' doesn't work. Any help?
3611 A0443: Try one of these:
3615 if $h_subject: contains \$ then ...
3616 if $h_subject: contains "\\$" then ...</PRE>
3617 <A NAME="SEC138" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC138">Q0444</A>: One of the things I want to set up is for <B>anything@onedomain</B> to forward
3618 to <B><B>anything@anotherdomain.</B></B> I tried adding <B>$local_part@anotherdomain</B> to
3619 my aliases but it did not expand - it sent it to that literal address.
3623 A0444: If you want to do it that way, you can make it expand by setting
3624 the "expand" option on the <B>aliasfile</B> director. Another approach is to
3625 use a <B>smartuser</B> director like this:
3632 new_address = $local_part@anotherdomain</PRE>
3634 <TT>new_address</TT> can, of course, be more complicated, involving lookups etc.
3635 if you have lots of different cases.
3638 <A NAME="SEC139" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC139">Q0445</A>: How can I have an address looked up in two different alias files, and
3639 delivered to all the addresses that are found?
3643 A0445: It is tempting to use the "unseen" option for this (see
3644 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC145">Q0504</A> for an
3645 example of the use of "unseen"). You would have two directors, the first
3646 of which has "unseen" set, so that the address is always passed on to
3647 the next director, even if the first one accepts it.
3651 However, there is a problem with this approach. If an address is found
3652 in the first director (with unseen set) but not in the second one, it
3653 will get delivered but will also (under most normal setups) generate an
3654 "unknown user" bounce as well.
3658 If you want an incoming address to be "properly" delivered to
3659 two different "child" addresses (or lists), "unseen" is not really the
3660 right way to do it. You don't really need two different directors. You
3661 can use a <B>smartuser</B> director with an option something like this:
3665 new_address = ${lookup{$local_part}lsearch{/etc/aliases1}\
3666 {$value${lookup{$local_part}lsearch{/etc/aliases2}{,$value}}}\
3667 {${lookup{$local_part}lsearch{/etc/aliases2}{$value}fail}}}\</PRE>
3669 If the first lookup succeeds, the result is its data, followed by the
3670 data from the second lookup, if any, separated by a comma. If the first
3671 lookup fails, the result is the data from the third lookup (which also
3672 looks in the second file), but if this also fails, the entire expansion
3673 is forced to fail, thereby causing the director to decline.
3676 <A NAME="SEC140" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC140">Q0446</A>: I've converted from Sendmail, and I notice that Exim doesn't make use
3677 of the "owner-" entries in my alias file to change the sender address in
3678 outgoing messages to a mailing list.
3682 A0446: If you have an alias file with entries like this:
3686 somelist: a@b, c@d, ...
3687 owner-somelist: postmaster</PRE>
3689 Sendmail assumes that the second entry specifies a new sender address
3690 for the first. Exim does not make this assumption. However, you can make
3691 it take the same action, by adding
3695 errors_to = owner-$local_part@whatever.domain</PRE>
3697 to the configuration for your <B>aliasfile</B> director. This is fail-safe,
3698 because Exim verifies a new sender address before using it. Thus, the
3699 change of sender address occurs only when the owner entry exists.
3702 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC141" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC141">5. DELIVERY
3705 <A NAME="SEC142" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC142">Q0501</A>: What does the error "Neither the <I>xxx</I> director nor the <I>yyy</I> transport set
3706 a uid for local delivery of..." mean?
3710 A0501: Whenever Exim does a local delivery, it runs a process under a specific
3711 user and group id (uid and gid). For deliveries into mailboxes, and to
3712 pipes and files set up by <B>.forward</B>ing, it normally picks up the uid/gid
3713 of the receiving user. However, if an address is directed to a pipe or a
3714 file by some other means, such an entry in the system alias file of the
3719 majordomo: |/local/mail/majordomo ...</PRE>
3721 then Exim has to be told what uid/gid to use for the delivery. This can
3722 be done either on the director that handled the address, or on the
3723 transport that actually does the delivery. If a pipe is going to run a
3724 setuid program, then it doesn't matter what uid Exim starts it out with,
3725 and so the most straightforward thing is to put
3731 on either the director or the transport. A setting on the transport
3732 overrides a setting on the director, so if the same transport is being
3733 used with several directors, you should set the user on it only if you
3734 want the same uid to be used in all cases.
3738 In the default configuration, the transports used for file and pipe
3739 deliveries are the ones called <TT>address_file</TT> and <TT>address_pipe</TT>. You
3740 can specify different transports by setting, for example,
3744 pipe_transport = special_pipe_transport</PRE>
3746 on the <B>aliasfile</B> director. Then you can set up <TT>special_pipe_transport</TT>
3750 special_pipe_transport:
3754 which will be used only for pipe deliveries from that one director.
3755 What you put for the ???? is up to you, and depends on the particular
3759 <A NAME="SEC143" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC143">Q0502</A>: Exim won't deliver to a host with no MX record.
3763 A0502: (A) Are you sure there really is no MX record? Sometimes a typo results
3764 in a malformed MX record in the zone file, in which case some nameservers
3765 give a SERVFAIL error rather than NXDOMAIN. Exim has to treat this as
3766 a temporary error, so it can't go on to look for an A record. You can
3767 check for this state using one of the DNS interrogation commands, such
3768 as "nslookup", "host", or "dig".
3772 (B) Is there a wildcard MX record for <EM>your</EM> domain? Is the
3773 <TT>search_parents</TT> option on in your <B>lookuphost</B> router? (Prior to Exim
3774 version 1.80 this was the default; it was changed because of this
3775 problem.) If the answer to both these questions is "yes", then that is
3776 the cause of the problem. When the DNS resolver fails to find the MX
3777 record, it tries adding on your domain if <TT>search_parents</TT> is true, and
3778 thereby finds your wildcard MX record. For example:
3782 . There is a wildcard MX record for <B>*.a.b.c.</B>
3786 . There is a host called <B>x.y.z</B> that has an A record and no MX record.
3790 . Somebody on a machine <B>m.a.b.c</B> domain tries to mail to <B><B>user@x.y.z.</B></B>
3794 . Exim calls the DNS to look for an MX record for <B>x.y.z.</B>
3798 . The DNS doesn't find any MX record. Because <TT>search_parents</TT> is true,
3799 it then tries searching the current host's parent domain, so it
3800 looks for <B>x.y.z.a.b.c</B> and picks up the wildcard MX record.
3804 Setting <TT>search_parents</TT> false makes this case work while retaining the
3805 wildcard MX record. However, anybody on the machine <B>m.a.b.c</B> who mails to
3806 <B><B>user@n.a</B></B> (expecting it to go to <B><B>user@n.a.b.c</B>)</B> now has a problem. The
3807 <TT>widen_domains</TT> option of the <B>lookuphost</B> router may be helpful in this
3811 <A NAME="SEC144" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC144">Q0503</A>: How should Exim be configured when it is acting as a temporary storage
3812 system for a domain on a dial-up host?
3817 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC262">Q1403</A>,
3818 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC162">Q0521</A>, and
3819 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC283">Q5014</A>.
3822 <A NAME="SEC145" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC145">Q0504</A>: I would like to deliver mail addressed to a given domain normally, but
3823 also to generate a message to the envelope sender.
3827 A0504: If the domain is a local one, you can do this with an "unseen" <B>smartuser</B>
3828 director and an autoreply transport, along the following lines:
3835 file = /usr/local/mail/warning.txt
3837 from = postmaster@your.domain
3838 to = $sender_address
3840 subject = Re: Your mail to $local_part@$domain</PRE>
3845 domains = <domains you want to do this for>
3846 condition = ${if eq{$sender_address}{}{no}{yes}}
3847 transport = warning_t
3851 Note the use of the <TT>condition</TT> option to avoid attempting to send a
3852 message when there is no sender (that is, when the incoming message is a
3853 delivery error report). You can of course extend this to include other
3854 conditions. If you want to log the sending of messages, you can add
3858 log = /some/file</PRE>
3860 to the transport and also make use of the "once" option if you want to
3861 send only one message to each sender.
3864 <A NAME="SEC146" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC146">Q0505</A>: Exim keeps crashing with segmentation errors (signal 11 or 139) during
3865 delivery. This seems to happen when it is about to contact a remote
3866 host or when a delivery is deferred.
3870 A0505: This could be a problem with Exim's databases. Check that your DBM
3871 library is correctly installed. In particular, if you have installed a
3872 second DBM library onto a system that already had one, check that its
3873 version of <B>ndbm.h</B> is being seen first. For example, if the new version
3874 is in <B>/usr/local/include</B>, check that there isn't another version in
3875 <B>/usr/include</B>. If you are using Berkeley db, you can set <TT>USE_DB=yes</TT> in
3876 your <B>Local/Makefile</B> to avoid using <B>ndbm.h</B> altogether. This is
3877 particularly relevant for version 2 of Berkeley db, because no <B>ndbm.h</B>
3878 file is distributed with it.
3881 <A NAME="SEC147" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC147">Q0506</A>: Whenever Exim tries to do a local delivery, it gives a permission denied
3882 error for the <B>.forward</B> file, like this:
3886 1998-08-10 16:55:32 0z5y2W-0000B8-00 == xxxx@yyy.zzz <xxxx@yyy.zz>
3887 D=userforward defer (-1): failed to open /home/xxxx/.forward
3888 (userforward director): Permission denied (euid=1234 egid=101)</PRE>
3890 A0506: Have you remembered to make Exim setuid root?
3893 <A NAME="SEC148" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC148">Q0507</A>: I have installed Exim, but now I can't mail to root any more. Why is
3898 A0507: Most people set up root as an alias for the manager of the machine. If
3899 you haven't done this, Exim will attempt to deliver to root as if it
3900 were a normal user. This isn't really a good idea because the delivery
3901 process would run as root. Exim has a trigger guard in the option
3905 never_users = root</PRE>
3907 in the default configuration file. This prevents it from running as root
3908 when doing any local deliveries. If you really want to run local
3909 deliveries as root, remove this line, but it would be better to create
3910 an alias for root instead.
3913 <A NAME="SEC149" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC149">Q0508</A>: How can I stop undeliverable bounce messages (e.g. to routeable, but
3914 undeliverable, spammer senders) from clogging up the queue for days?
3918 A0508: Set <TT>ignore_errmsg_errors</TT> to drop them immediately, or set <TT>ignore_errmsg_</TT>
3919 <TT>errors_after</TT> to specify a (short) time to keep them for. I use 12h so
3920 that I notice them, but they go away relatively quickly.
3923 <A NAME="SEC150" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC150">Q0509</A>: How can mails that are being routed through directors other than
3924 localuser be delivered under the uid of the recipient?
3929 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC142">A0501</A> contains background information on this. If you are using, say, an
3930 alias file to direct messages to specific mailboxes, then you can use
3931 the "user" option on either the <B>aliasfile</B> director or the appendfile
3932 transport to set the uid. What you put in the setting depends on how
3933 the required uid is to be found. It could be looked up in a file or
3934 computed somehow from the local part, for example.
3937 <A NAME="SEC151" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC151">Q0510</A>: I want to use MMDF-style mailboxes. How can I get Exim to append the
3938 ctrl-A characters that separate indvidual emails?
3942 A0510: Set the suffix option in the appendfile transport. In fact, for MMDF
3943 mailboxes you need a prefix as well as a suffix to get it working right,
3944 so your transport should contain these settings:
3948 prefix = "\1\1\1\1\n"
3949 suffix = "\1\1\1\1\n"</PRE>
3951 Also, you need to change the <TT>check_string</TT> and <TT>escape_string</TT> settings so
3952 that the escaping happens for lines in the message that happen to begin
3953 with the MMDF prefix or suffix string, rather than "From" (the default):
3957 check_string = "\1\1\1\1\n"
3958 escape_string = "\1\1\1\1 \n"</PRE>
3960 Adding a space to the line is sufficient to prevent it being taken as a
3964 <A NAME="SEC152" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC152">Q0511</A>: I have an ISDN connection and would like a way of running the queue
3965 automatically when it is up.
3969 A0511: The following shell commands test for the interface being up and then
3974 ifconfig ppp0 | fgrep UP >/dev/null
3975 if [ $? -eq 0 ] ; then exim -q ; fi</PRE>
3977 You could put these commands into a script which runs them at regular
3978 intervals. You might want to use <B>-qq</B> instead of <B><B>-q.</B></B>
3982 With Linux, the script <B>/etc/ppp/ip-up</B> is run after a ISDN connection
3983 or a more general PPP connection has been established. If you are using
3984 Linux, you could put the call to exim in that script.
3987 <A NAME="SEC153" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC153">Q0512</A>: If a user's mailbox is over quota, is there a way for me to set it up so
3988 that the mail bounces to the sender and is NOT stored in the mail queue?
3992 A0512: In the retry section of the configuration, put
3996 *@your.dom.ain quota</PRE>
3998 That is, provide no retry timings for over quota errors. They will then
3999 bounce immediately. Alternatively, you can set up retries for a short
4000 time only, or use something like this:
4004 *@your.dom.ain quota_7d
4005 *@your.dom.ain quota F,2h,15m; F,3d,1h</PRE>
4007 which bounces immediately if the user's mailbox hasn't been read for 7
4008 days, but otherwise tries for up to 3 days after the first quota
4012 <A NAME="SEC154" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC154">Q0513</A>: I'm using tmail to do local deliveries, but when I turned on the
4013 <TT>use_crlf</TT> option on the pipe transport (tmail prefers \r\n terminations)
4014 message bodies started to vanish.
4018 A0513: You need to unset the prefix option, or change it so that its default
4019 \n terminator becomes \r\n. For example, the transport could be:
4025 command = /usr/local/bin/tmail $local_part
4027 current_directory = /
4031 The reason for this is as follows: tmail uses the line terminator on
4032 the first line it sees to determine whether lines are terminated by
4033 \r\n or \n. If the latter, it moans to stderr and changes subsequent
4034 \n terminators to \r\n. The default setting of the prefix option is
4035 "From ...\n", and this is unaffected by the <TT>use_crlf</TT> option. If you
4036 don't change this, tmail sees the first line terminated by \n and
4037 prepends \r to the \n terminator on all subsequent lines. However, if
4038 <TT>use_crlf</TT> is set, Exim makes all other lines \r\n terminated leading to
4039 doubled \r\r\n lines and corrupt mbx mailboxes.
4042 <A NAME="SEC155" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC155">Q0514</A>: What does the message "Unable to get root to set uid and gid
4043 for local delivery to <I>xxx</I>: uid=<I>yyy</I> euid=<I>zzz</I>" mean?
4047 A0514: Have you remembered to make Exim setuid root? It needs root privilege if
4048 it is to do any local deliveries, because it does them "as the user".
4051 <A NAME="SEC156" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC156">Q0515</A>: I upgraded to 2.04 and now my Envelope-To: header for my virtual domains
4052 is gone. Any idea how to get it back?
4056 A0515: Read paragraph 1 of the 1.92 information in <B>README.UPDATING.</B> Add
4057 <TT>envelope_to_add</TT> to your transports for your virtual domains. You may
4058 also want to set <TT>return_path_add</TT> and <TT>delivery_date_add</TT>.
4061 <A NAME="SEC157" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC157">Q0516</A>: The Exim log records the arrival of a message, and then "Completed",
4062 without logging any deliveries. What's going on?
4066 A0516: This is unlikely in current versions of Exim, because more logging
4067 has been added. In versions before 2.053, one scenario is that the
4068 message was addressed to some user who has set up an Exim filter
4069 containing the command "seen finish", which discards a message without
4070 doing any deliveries. (In current versions of Exim this is logged as
4071 "discarded".) More information can be obtained by setting
4075 log_received_recipients</PRE>
4077 so that next time you can see to whom it is addressed. Another
4078 possibility, prior to version 2.053, was that the message was injected
4079 using the <B>-t</B> option, but all the addresses in the message were also on
4080 the command line. See
4081 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC289">A5020</A> for more detail. Current versions of Exim
4082 generate a bounce message in this case.
4085 <A NAME="SEC158" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC158">Q0517</A>: When I activate "return receipt" for example in Netscape Mailbox
4086 sending options, then I get an error message from Exim... something
4087 like "not supported". Can I activate delivery confirmations?
4091 A0517: Exim does not support any kind of delivery notification.
4095 (A) You can configure it to recognize headers such as
4096 "Return-receipt-to:" if you wish.
4100 (B) Some people want MSN (message status notification). Such services
4101 are implemented in MUAs, and don't impact on the MTA at all.
4105 (C) I investigated the RFCs which describe the DSN (delivery status
4106 notification) system, and there is even a bit of code in there (excluded
4107 by #ifdef) for handling some of the data. However, I was unable to
4108 specify any sensible way of actually doing anything with the data. There
4109 were comments on the mailing list at the time; many people, including
4110 me, conclude that DSN is in practice unworkable. The killer problem is
4111 with forwarding and aliasing. Do you propagate the DSN data with the
4112 generated addresses? Do you send back a "reached end of the DSN world"
4113 or "expanded" message? Do you do this differently for different kinds of
4114 aliasing/forwarding? For a user who has a <B>.forward</B> file with a single
4115 address in, this might seem easy - just propagate the data. But what if
4116 there are several forwardings? If you propagate the DSN data, the sender
4117 may get back several DSN messages - and should the sender really know
4118 about the detail of the receiver's forwarding arrangements? There isn't
4119 really any way to distinguish between a <B>.forward</B> file that is forwarding
4120 and one that is a mini mailing list. And so on, and so on. There are so
4121 many questions that don't have obvious answers.
4124 <A NAME="SEC159" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC159">Q0518</A>: When I dial up to collect mail from my ISP, only the first 10 messages
4125 get delivered immediately; the remainder just sit on the queue until a
4126 queue runner process finds them.
4130 A0518: Your ISP is delivering all the messages in a single SMTP session. Exim
4131 limits the number of immediate delivery processes it will create as a
4132 result of a single SMTP connection, in order to avoid creating a zillion
4133 processes on systems that can have many incoming connections. In your
4134 situation, you should probably set <TT>smtp_accept_queue_per_connection</TT> to
4135 some number larger than 10.
4138 <A NAME="SEC160" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC160">Q0519</A>: My ISP's mail server is rejecting bounce messages from Exim, complaining
4139 that they have no sender. The SMTP trace does indeed show that the
4140 sender address is "<>". Why is the Sender on the bounce message empty?
4144 A0519: Because the RFCs say it must be. Your ISP is at fault. Send them this
4145 extract from RFC 1123 section 5.3.3 ("Reliable Mail Receipt"):
4149 If there is a delivery failure after acceptance of a message,
4150 the receiver-SMTP MUST formulate and mail a notification
4151 message. This notification MUST be sent using a null ("<>")
4152 reverse path in the envelope; see Section 3.6 of RFC-821. The
4153 recipient of this notification SHOULD be the address from the
4154 envelope return path (or the Return-Path: line). However, if
4155 this address is null ("<>"), the receiver-SMTP MUST NOT send a
4156 notification. If the address is an explicit source route, it
4157 SHOULD be stripped down to its final hop.
4160 <A NAME="SEC161" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC161">Q0520</A>: What does the message "retry time not reached [for any host]" on the log
4161 mean? Why won't Exim try to deliver the message?
4165 A0520: That is not an error. It means exactly what it says. A previous attempt
4166 to deliver to that address failed with a temporary error, and Exim
4167 computed the earliest time at which to try again. This can apply to
4168 local as well as to remote deliveries. For remote deliveries, each host
4169 (if there are several) has its own retry time.
4173 If you are running on a dial-up host, the rest of this answer probably
4174 does not apply to you. Go and read
4175 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC263">Q1404</A> instead. If your host is
4176 permanently online, read on...
4180 Some MTAs have a retrying schedule for each message. Exim does not work
4181 like this. Retry timing is normally host-based for remote domains and
4182 address-based for local domains. (There are some exceptions for certain
4183 kinds of remote failure - see "Errors in outgoing SMTP" in the manual.)
4187 If a new message arrives for a failing address and the retry time has
4188 not yet arrived, Exim will log "retry time not reached" and leave the
4189 message on the queue, without attempting delivery. Similarly, if a queue
4190 runner notices the message before the time to retry has arrived, it
4191 writes the same log entry. When the retry time has past, Exim attempts
4192 delivery at the next queue run. If you want to know when that will be,
4193 run the exinext utility on the address, for example:
4197 exinext user@some.domain</PRE>
4199 You can suppress these messages on the log by setting <TT>log_level</TT> to a
4200 value that is less than 5. You can force a delivery attempt on a
4201 specific message (overriding the retry time) by means of the <B>-M</B> option:
4205 exim -M 10hCET-0000Bf-00</PRE>
4207 If you want to do this for the entire queue, use the <B>-qf</B> option. See
4209 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC174">Q0533</A>.
4212 <A NAME="SEC162" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC162">Q0521</A>: RFC 1985 specifies that the SMTP command "ETRN <B>host.domain"</B> causes all
4213 mail queued for that host, no matter what domain it's for, to be
4214 dequeued. Why doesn't Exim support this?
4218 A0521: Exim does not keep queues of mail for specific destinations. It just
4219 keeps one pool of undelivered messages. What is more, once you start a
4220 delivery of a message, it tries to deliver to <EM>all</EM> the addresses in the
4221 message, not just the one you may be interested in. (Of course, this
4222 doesn't usually do any harm.)
4226 The only way it could be done within Exim would be, for <EM>every</EM> message
4227 on the queue, to go through the motions of routing each undelivered
4228 address and see if that resulted in a delivery to the host of interest.
4229 This could be extremely expensive (e.g. 1,000 messages on the queue,
4230 only 1 for the given host).
4234 The bottom line is that Exim just wasn't designed for this kind of
4235 operation, that is, holding messages for intermittently connected hosts.
4236 The queueing arrangements are designed for handling delivery problems
4237 that are not expected to be common.
4241 A better way to do this is to implement the required queues separately.
4242 After all, keeping such mail on an "active" queue (where Exim will keep
4243 trying to deliver) is silly. If there is a lot of mail for these hosts,
4244 it also masks genuine delivery problems when you inspect the queue.
4248 Large ISPs who provide this kind of functionality do not usually leave
4249 waiting mail on the MTA's queue. Instead, they get it delivered into
4250 per-host directories, one message per file, in one of the special
4251 formats (BSMTP, maildir, or mailstore) and when an ETRN arrives, it
4252 kicks off some completely different program that establishes an SMTP
4253 connection to the host and shovels the waiting mail down it. That seems
4254 to me to be a much neater way of doing this. It means you can easily add
4255 additional functionality such as archiving or throwing away uncollected
4260 One program that has this functionality is "ssmtp", which can be
4261 found in <B><A HREF="ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/mail/mta/.">ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/mail/mta/.</A></B>
4262 Alternatively, sample configuration C037 demonstrates an elegant way of
4263 using Exim itself to deliver the saved messages when the client issues
4267 <A NAME="SEC163" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC163">Q0522</A>: If email has been deferred to a member on a local mailing list
4268 (implemented through forward files), and one of our ETRN clients is on
4269 this mailing list, the <B>-R</B> won't "flush" the mailing list message for
4274 A0522: That is because <B>-R</B> matches only original recipient addresses, not those
4275 produced as a result of expansion, because these are not (by default)
4276 preserved from delivery to delivery. You can get round this by setting
4277 <TT>one_time</TT> on the <B>forwardfile</B> director, but you are not allowed to have
4278 expansions to pipes or files on directors that have <TT>one_time</TT> set.
4279 Therefore, you will have to have a separate director for mailing lists
4280 (with <TT>one_time</TT> set) to the one used for normal forward files that might
4281 specify pipe or file deliveries. However, the problem will then still be
4282 present for any user who sets up a <B>.forward</B> file to redirect to any of
4283 the ETRN domains. See the last 3 paragraphs of
4284 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC162">A0521</A> for a discussion of
4285 an alternative approach.
4288 <A NAME="SEC164" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC164">Q0523</A>: Exim seems to be sending the same message twice, according to the log,
4289 although there is a difference in capitalization of the local part of
4294 A0523: That is correct. The RFCs are explicit in stating that capitalization
4295 matters for local parts. For remote domains, Exim is not entitled to
4296 assume case independence of local parts. I know, it is utterly silly,
4297 and it causes a lot of grief, but that's what the rules say. Here is a
4298 quote from the draft of the forthcoming revision to RFC 821:
4302 ... a command verb, an argument value other than a mailbox
4303 local-part, and free form text MAY be encoded in upper case,
4304 lower case, or any mixture of upper and lower case with no impact
4305 on its meaning. This is NOT true of a mailbox local-part. The
4306 local-part of a mailbox MUST BE treated as case sensitive.
4307 Therefore, SMTP implementations MUST take care to preserve the
4308 case of mailbox local-parts. Mailbox domains are not case
4309 sensitive. However, exploiting the case sensitivity of mailbox
4310 local-parts impedes interoperability and is discouraged.
4313 <A NAME="SEC165" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC165">Q0524</A>: How can I force the next retry time for a host to be now?
4317 A0524: (A) You can force a particular message to be delivered with the <B>-M</B>
4318 command line option. If it succeeds, the retry data will get cleared. If
4319 the host is past the cutoff time, so that messages are bouncing
4320 immediately without trying a delivery, you can use <B>-odq</B> to put a message
4321 on the queue without a delivery attempt, and then use <B>-M</B> on it.
4325 (B) You can change the retry time with the <TT>exim_fixdb</TT> utility, but its
4326 interface is very clumsy.
4329 <A NAME="SEC166" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC166">Q0525</A>: I set up "|/bin/grep Subject|/usr/bin/smbclient <B>-M</B> <netbiosname>" as an
4330 alias but it doesn't work.
4334 A0525: That is a shell command line. Exim does not run pipe commands under a
4335 shell by default (for added security - and it saves a process). You
4340 "|/bin/sh -c '/bin/grep Subject|/usr/bin/smbclient -M <netbiosname>'"</PRE>
4341 <A NAME="SEC167" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC167">Q0526</A>: Why does the pipe transport add a line starting with ">From" to
4346 A0526: Actually, it adds a line starting with "From", because that is the
4347 default of the "prefix" option (/usr/ucb/vacation needs it, and that is
4348 the most common use of piping). If you don't want it, change the setting
4352 <A NAME="SEC168" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC168">Q0527</A>: I have set <TT>fallback_hosts</TT> on my smtp transport, but after the error
4353 <B><B>"sem@chat.ru</B></B> cannot be resolved at this time" Exim isn't using them.
4357 A0527: <TT>fallback_hosts</TT> only works if an attempt at delivery to the original
4358 host(s) fails. In this case, Exim couldn't even resolve the domain
4359 <B>chat.ru</B> to discover what the original hosts were, so it never got as far
4360 as the transport. However, see
4361 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC89">Q0322</A> for a possible solution.
4364 <A NAME="SEC169" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC169">Q0528</A>: After the holidays my ISP has always hundreds of e-mails waiting for me.
4365 These are forced down Exim's throat in one go. Exim spawns a lot of
4366 kids, but is there some limit to the number of processes it creates?
4370 A0528: Unless you have changed <TT>smtp_accept_queue_per_connection</TT> (introduced at
4371 release 2.03) it should only spawn that many processes per connection
4372 (default 10). Your ISP may be making many connections, of course. That
4373 is limited by <TT>smtp_accept_max</TT>.
4376 <A NAME="SEC170" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC170">Q0529</A>: When a message in the queue got to 12h old, Exim wrote 'retry timeout
4377 exceeded' and removed <EM>all</EM> messages in the queue to this host - even
4378 recent messages. How I can avoid this behaviour? I only want to remove
4379 messages that have exceeded the maximum retry time.
4383 A0529: Exim's retrying is host-based rather than message-based. The philosophy
4384 is that if a host has been down for a very long time, there is no point
4385 in keeping messages hanging around. However, you might like to check
4386 out <TT>delay_after_cutoff</TT> in the smtp transport. It doesn't do what you
4387 want, but it might help.
4390 <A NAME="SEC171" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC171">Q0530</A>: Can Exim add a Content-Length: header to messages it delivers?
4394 A0530: You could include something like
4398 headers_remove = "content-length"
4399 headers_add = "Content-Length: $message_body_size"</PRE>
4401 to the appendfile transport. However, the use of Content-Length: can
4402 cause several problems, and is not recommended unless you really know
4403 what you are doing. There is a discussion of the problems in
4407 <B><A HREF="http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/2.0/relnotes/demo/content-length.html">http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/2.0/relnotes/demo/content-length.html</A></B>
4410 <A NAME="SEC172" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC172">Q0531</A>: Exim seems to be trying to deliver a message every 10 minutes, though
4411 the retry rules specify longer times after a while, because it is
4412 writing a log entry every time, like this:
4416 1999-08-26 14:51:19 11IVsE-000MuP-00 == example@example.com T=smtp defer
4417 (-34): some host address lookups failed and retry time not reached for
4418 other hosts or connection limit reached</PRE>
4420 A0531: It is <EM>looking</EM> at the message every 10 minutes, but it isn't actually
4421 trying to deliver. It's looking up <B>example.com</B> in the DNS and finding
4426 example.com. MX 10 example-com.isp.example.com.
4427 example.com. MX 0 mail.example.com.
4428 mail.example.com. A 202.77.183.45
4429 A lookup for example-com.isp.example.com. yielded NXDOMAIN</PRE>
4431 The last line means that there is no address (A) record in the DNS for
4432 <B>example-com.isp.example.com.</B> That accounts for "some host address
4433 lookups failed", but the retry time for <B>mail.example.com</B> hasn't been
4434 reached, which accounts for "retry time not reached for other hosts".
4437 <A NAME="SEC173" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC173">Q0532</A>: I am trying to set exim up to have a automatic failover if it sees that
4438 the system that it is sending all mail to is down.
4442 A0532: Add to the <TT>remote_smtp</TT> transport the following:
4446 fallback_hosts = failover.server.name(s)</PRE>
4448 If there are several names, they must be separated by colons.
4451 <A NAME="SEC174" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC174">Q0533</A>: I can't get Exim to deliver over NFS. I get the error "fcntl() failed:
4452 No locks available", though the lock daemon is running on the NFS server
4453 and other hosts are able to access it.
4457 A0533: Check that you have lockd running on the NFS <EM>client</EM>. This is not
4458 always running by default on some systems (Red Hat is believed to be one
4462 <A NAME="SEC175" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC175">Q0534</A>: Why does Exim bounce messages without even attempting delivery, giving
4463 the error "retry time not reached for any host after a long failure
4468 A0534: This message means that all hosts to which the message could be sent
4469 have been failing for so long that the end of the retry period
4470 (typically 4 or 5 days) has been reached. In this situation, Exim still
4471 computes a next time to retry, but any messages that arrive in the
4472 meantime are bounced straight away. You can alter this behaviour by
4473 unsetting the <TT>delay_after_cutoff</TT> option on the smtp transport. Then Exim
4474 will try most messages for those hosts once before giving up.
4477 <A NAME="SEC176" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC176">Q0535</A>: My <B>.forward</B> file is "|/usr/bin/procmail <B>-f-"</B> and mail gets delivered,
4478 but there was a bounce to the sender, sending him the output of procmail.
4479 How can I prevent this?
4483 A0535: Exim's default configuration is set up like this:
4491 The <TT>return_output</TT> option requests that <EM>any</EM> output that the pipe
4492 produces be returned to the sender. That is the safest default. If you
4493 don't want this, you can either remove the option altogether, or change
4494 it to <TT>return_fail_output</TT>, to return output only if the command fails.
4495 Note that this will affect all pipes that users run, not just your
4496 procmail one. It might be better to arrange for procmail not to produce
4497 any output when it succeeds.
4500 <A NAME="SEC177" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC177">Q0536</A>: Can I write an ordinary file when I running a perl script as a transport
4501 filter for <TT>remote_smtp</TT> and <TT>address_pipe</TT> transports?
4505 A0536: Yes, provided the file is writeable by the Exim user. However, if two
4506 messages are being delivered at once, their data will get mixed up in
4507 the file unless you implement your own locking scheme. If all you want
4508 to do is to take a copy of the message, another approach that avoids
4509 the locking problem is to use a system filter to set up an "unseen"
4510 delivery to a file. If you only want the message's headers, you can
4511 set <TT>message_filter_file_transport</TT> to point to a special appendfile
4512 transport that has <TT>headers_only</TT> set.
4515 <A NAME="SEC178" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC178">Q0537</A>: I have some mails on my queues that are sticking around longer than
4516 the retry time indicates they should. They are all getting frozen
4517 because some remote admin has set their MX record to 127.0.0.1.
4521 A0537: The admin in question is an idiot. Exim will always freeze such messages
4522 because they are apparently routed to the local host. There are two
4523 router options that can help you deal with them.
4533 on the router which handles the domain - in a simple configuration this
4534 will be the <B>lookuphost</B> router. This will cause the relevant addresses to
4535 bounce, instead of freezing the message.
4539 (2) If you are running Exim 3.20 or later, you can set
4543 ignore_target_hosts = 127.0.0.1</PRE>
4545 on the router instead. This causes Exim to completely ignore any hosts
4546 with that IP address.
4549 <A NAME="SEC179" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC179">Q0538</A>: My <B>/var/spool/mail</B> has grown drastically. Is there any possibility of
4550 using two files in <B>exim.cfg</B> ?
4554 A0538: You can use an expansion string to split mailboxes between two
4555 directories. For example,
4559 file = /var/spool/mail${nhash_2:$local_part}/$local_part</PRE>
4561 which does a hash on the local part, producing either 0 or 1, thereby
4562 using mail0 or mail1. But remember, the MUAs that read these mailboxes
4563 also have to know where they are.
4566 <A NAME="SEC180" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC180">Q0539</A>: Sendmail has a program called smrsh that restricts what binaries
4567 can be run from sendmail aliases. Is there someting like this in Exim ?
4571 A0539: Check out the <TT>allow_commands</TT> option in the pipe transport.
4574 <A NAME="SEC181" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC181">Q0540</A>: I wish to have large emails go out one at a time.
4578 A0540: One possibility is to set up a router that defers all large messages,
4579 except in queue runs. Since queue runners deliver just one
4580 message at a time, if you limited the number of simultaneous queue
4581 runners to 1, you would get the effect you wanted. A suitable router
4586 defer_if_large_unless_queue_run:
4589 condition = ${if or{{queue_running}{<{$message_size}{200K}}}{no}{yes}}
4590 route_list = * 127.0.0.1 byname</PRE>
4592 Of course, this would always delay any large message until the next
4593 queue runner, but if you run them fairly regularly, this shouldn't be a
4594 huge problem. (May even be desirable!)
4597 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC182" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC182">6. UUCP
4600 <A NAME="SEC183" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC183">Q0601</A>: The MX records for some UUCP domains point to my local host. How do I
4601 get it to pass the messages on to UUCP?
4605 A0601: There are several possibilities. One straightforward way is to set up
4606 a <B>domainlist</B> router which matches the UUCP domains and routes to a
4607 suitable transport. Sample configuration C003 is such a configuration,
4608 while C004 shows another way to do it, by defining the domains as local
4609 and using a <B>smartuser</B> director.
4613 If <EM>all</EM> the domains whose MX records point to the local host are either
4614 local domains or UUCP domains, you can do without the <B>domainlist</B> router
4615 altogether, by making use of the "self" option. This means that only the
4616 DNS has to be updated when a UUCP domain is added or removed.
4620 For example, this router routes to remote hosts over SMTP using a DNS
4621 lookup with default options, and fails for unknown domains (because of
4622 the <TT>no_more</TT> setting), but if the MX for a domain points at the local
4623 host, Exim continues on to the next router (self = <TT>fail_soft</TT> overrides
4632 self = fail_soft</PRE>
4634 The next router can just send everything to a suitable UUCP transport:
4640 transport = uux_transport
4641 route_list = "* $domain"</PRE>
4643 This assumes that the transport can determine the UUCP host name from
4647 <A NAME="SEC184" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC184">Q0602</A>: How can I get Exim to handle "bang path" addresses?
4651 A0602: In general, you can't (Exim is an Internet mailer and recognizes only
4652 RFC 822 addresses) but some restricted kinds of bang path can be dealt
4653 with by appropriate rewriting - but please note the warning below.
4657 Exim treats a bang path address as an unqualified local part, and so
4658 will qualify it with your domain. A rule such as
4662 ^([^!]+)!(.+)@your\.domain$ $2@$1</PRE>
4664 turns <B><B>a!b@your.domain</B></B> into <B><B>b@a.</B></B> You can also use a repeating rule to
4665 turn multi-component paths into the "percent hack" notation with a rule
4670 ^([^!]+)!([^@%]+)(.+)$ $2%$1$3 R</PRE>
4672 which turns <B>a!b@c</B> into <B>b%a@c</B> and <B>a!b!c@d</B> first into <B>b!c%a@d</B> and then,
4673 because of the R flag, into <B><B>c%b%a@d.</B></B> The R flag causes repetition up to
4678 See also sample configuration C002, which contains some more
4679 sophisticated rewriting rules.
4683 WARNING: If you install a general rewriting rule like the above, you are
4684 opening yourself up to the possibility of unwanted relaying. A host that
4685 is not permitted to relay through your system could send a message with
4686 an SMTP command line such as
4690 RCPT TO:<victim-host!victim-user@your.domain></PRE>
4692 and this would be accepted because it is addressed to your domain.
4693 However, the rewriting then converts the address, and the message does
4694 in fact get relayed. One way round this, if all your bang path messages
4695 are passed to Exim via SMTP, is to use the "S" rewriting flag. This
4696 applies a rewriting rule to incoming SMTP addresses as soon as they are
4697 received, before checking for qualification, relaying, etc. So a rule
4702 ^([^!]+)!(.+)$ $2@$1 S</PRE>
4704 rewrites simple two-component bang paths before the result is checked
4705 for relaying. However, this does not rewrite addresses in the headers of
4709 <A NAME="SEC185" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC185">Q0603</A>: We see something strange on our system in regards to mail comming in via
4710 rmail from a UUCP link. The sender is being set to mailmaster instead of
4711 the real sender, and a Sender: header is being added to the message.
4715 A0603: If mailmaster is the user that is running rmail, you need to include
4716 that user in the <TT>trusted_users</TT> configuration option. Only trusted users
4717 are permitted to specify senders when mail is passed to Exim via the
4721 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC186" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC186">7. PERFORMANCE
4724 <A NAME="SEC187" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC187">Q0701</A>: I'm running a large mail server. Should I set <TT>split_spool_directory</TT> to
4725 improve performance?
4729 A0701: There doesn't seem to be any significant performance hit using a flat
4730 queue on Solaris systems, so there is no need to do this for them. On
4731 the other hand, there is a known performance problem on Linux filing
4732 systems, where <TT>split_spool_directory</TT> can make a significant difference.
4733 ???? Other operating systems ????
4736 <A NAME="SEC188" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC188">Q0702</A>: How well does Exim scale?
4740 A0702: Although the author did not specifically set out to write a high-
4741 performance MTA, Exim does seem to be fairly efficient. The biggest
4742 server at the University of Cambridge (a large Sun box) goes over
4743 100,000 deliveries per day on busy days (it has over 20,000 users).
4744 There was a report of a mailing list exploder that sometimes handles
4745 over 100,000 deliveries a day on a big Linux box, the record being
4746 177,000 deliveries (791MB in total). Up to 13,000 deliveries an hour
4751 These are quotes from some Exim users:
4755 "... Canada's largest internet provider, uses Exim on all of our mail
4756 machines, and we're absolutely delighted with it. It brought life back
4757 into one of our machines plagued with backlogs and high load averages.
4758 Here's just an example of how much email our largest mail server
4759 (quad SS1000) is seeing ... " [230,911 deliveries in a day: 4,475MB]
4763 "... Exim has to ... do gethostbyname()s and RBL lookups on all of the
4764 incoming mail servers, and he runs from <B>inetd</B> (TCP Wrappers connected).
4765 All the same, it seems to me that he runs as fast as lightning on our
4766 SCO 5.0.4 box (1 Pentium 166) - far faster than MMDF which I (and many
4767 customers) had before."
4771 "On a PII 400 with 128M of RAM running Linux 2.2.5, I have achieved
4772 36656 messages per hour (outgoing unique messages and recipients). For
4773 about a 5 minute period, I was able to achieve an average of 30 messages
4774 per second (that would be 108000 m/hour)! We are using: (options that
4780 split_spool_directory
4783 remote_max_parallel 1</PRE>
4785 We have a cron job hat runs every five minutes that spawns 5 exim <B>-q</B> if
4786 there are less that 120 exim processes currently running. We found
4787 that by "manually" controlling the concurrency of exim <B>-q</B> processes
4788 contending for the spool for <TT>remote_smtp</TT> delivery that we gained
4789 considerable performance <B>--</B> 10000 m/hour."
4792 <A NAME="SEC189" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC189">Q0703</A>: We have a large password file. Can Exim use alternative lookups during
4793 delivery to speed things up?
4797 A0703: Yes. You don't have to use the password file at all. See sample
4798 configuration C009 for some suggestions. (It shows lsearch lookups, but
4799 these could equally be DBM or cdb or NIS or LDAP lookups.)
4803 If you are using FreeBSD, this problem should not arise, because it
4804 automatically uses an indexed password file. In some other operating
4805 systems you can arrange for this to happen too. On Linux, for example,
4806 all you need to do is
4813 and put "db" before "files" in any <B><B>/etc/nsswitch.conf</B></B> lines you want to
4817 <A NAME="SEC190" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC190">Q0704</A>: I just wondered if it might be helpful to put the hints database on a
4818 RAM disk during regular operation. Did anybody try that yet?
4822 A0704: A user reported thus: I have found that this works GREAT under Solaris.
4823 Make a RAM disk partition and keep everything in the "db" directory on
4824 it. However, when I try the same thing on Linux, I don't see the same
4825 boost. I think that Linux's file buffer cache works about the same.
4826 Plus, this leave more room for processes to run.
4829 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC191" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC191">8. POLICY CONTROLS
4832 <A NAME="SEC192" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC192">Q0801</A>: How do I block unwanted messages from outside my host?
4836 A0801: There are several different options that can be used to block incoming
4837 SMTP messages according to different criteria. The following are the
4842 (A) Set <TT>sender_verify</TT>; this causes rejection of any message whose
4843 envelope sender cannot be successfully routed. This is mainly a
4844 check on the existence of remote domains, though it the domain is a
4845 local one, the local part also gets checked. Unfortunately, error
4846 mesages do not have envelope sender addresses, so cannot be checked
4847 in this way. See the <TT>headers_sender_verify</TT> options for ways of
4848 checking header addresses.
4852 (B) If you want to block all mail from specific hosts or IP networks,
4853 set <TT>host_reject_recipients</TT>. The <TT>_recipients</TT> form of the option is
4854 more likely to prevent the remote hosts from keeping on trying. For
4859 host_reject_recipients = 209.12.111.0/24</PRE>
4861 If you have many such blocks, they can be put in a file which is
4862 named in the option. If you have a mixture of IP addresses and names
4863 in your list, it is best to put the addresses first, because they
4864 can be checked without the need for a DNS lookup.
4868 (C) If you want to block mail from specific envelope sender addresses,
4869 one convenient way is to organize a file of local parts indexed by
4870 domain names, for example
4874 x.y.z creditrepair:^betterlovelife[0-9]+$:...
4877 This would block <B><B>creditrepair@x.y.z</B>,</B> any local part starting with
4878 <B>betterlovelife</B> and ending with digits in the <B>x.y.z</B> domain, and
4879 all addresses in the <B>p.q.r</B> domain. You refer to the file in the Exim
4880 configuration as follows:
4884 sender_reject_recipients = @@lsearch*;/name/of/the/file</PRE>
4886 If the file is big, you can convert it into a DBM or cdb file and
4887 use a faster lookup method. The asterisk on the end of the search
4888 type causes a lookup for "*" if the domain is not found; that is, it
4889 permits a default list of local parts that are blocked at any
4890 domain that is not specifically listed. If you use this, you
4891 probably also want to end each local part list with ">*" (except
4892 those that consist of "*"). This causes Exim to check the default
4893 list of local parts if none of the specific ones for a domain are
4894 matched. So, the file above could become
4898 * yourfriend:a.friend:...
4899 x.y.z creditrepair:^betterlovelife[0-9]+$:>*
4902 If you are using an lsearch file, putting the * entry first saves a
4907 (D) If you want to allow mail to postmaster through the blocks, you can
4912 recipients_reject_except = postmaster@your.domain</PRE>
4914 This overrides any of the policy controls that cause rejection by
4918 <A NAME="SEC193" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC193">Q0802</A>: I don't want to block spam entirely; how can I inspect each message
4919 before deciding whether to deliver it or not?
4923 A0802: This can be done by using a system filter. See the sample configuration
4927 <A NAME="SEC194" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC194">Q0803</A>: How can I test that my spam blocks are working?
4931 A0803: The <B>-bh</B> option allows you to run a testing SMTP session as if from a
4932 given IP address. For example,
4936 exim -bh 192.203.178.39</PRE>
4938 In addition to the normal SMTP replies, it outputs commentary about
4939 which tests have succeeded or failed.
4942 <A NAME="SEC195" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC195">Q0804</A>: How can I test that Exim is correctly configured to use the Realtime
4943 Blocking List (RBL)?
4947 A0804: The <B>-bh</B> option allows you to run a testing SMTP session as if from a
4948 given address. You need to know a blocked IP address with which to test.
4949 Such a testing address is kindly provided by Russell Nelson:
4953 linux.crynwr.com [192.203.178.39]</PRE>
4955 You can also send mail to <B><B>nelson@linux.crynwr.com</B></B> from the server
4956 whose RBL block you are testing. The robot that receives that email
4957 will attempt to send a piece of test email in reply. If your RBL block
4958 didn't work, you get a message to that effect. Regardless of whether the
4959 RBL block succeeds or not it emails you the results of the SMTP
4960 conversation from a host that is not on the RBL, so you can see how your
4961 server looks from the view of someone on the RBL.
4964 <A NAME="SEC196" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC196">Q0805</A>: How can I use <B>tcpwrappers</B> in conjunction with Exim?
4968 A0805: Exim's own control facilities can do all that <B>tcpwrappers</B> can do.
4969 However, if you are already using <B>tcpwrappers</B> for other things it might
4970 be convenient to include Exim controls in the same place.
4974 First of all, ensure that Exim is built to call the <B>tcpwrappers</B> library,
4975 by including <TT>USE_TCPWRAPPERS=yes</TT> in <B>Local/Makefile</B>. You also need to
4976 ensure that the header file <B>tcpd.h</B> is available at compile time, and the
4977 <B>libwrap.a</B> library is available at link time, typically by including it in
4978 <TT>EXTRALIBS</TT>. You may need to copy these two files from the <B>tcpwrappers</B>
4979 build directory to, for example, <B>/usr/local/include</B> and <B>/usr/local/lib</B>,
4980 respectively. Then you could reference them by
4984 CFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include
4985 EXTRALIBS=-L/usr/local/lib -lwrap</PRE>
4987 in <B>Local/Makefile</B>. There are two ways to make use of the functionality,
4988 depending on how you have <B>tcpwrappers</B> set up. If you have it set up to
4989 use only one file, you ought to have something like:
4993 /etc/hosts.allow:</PRE>
4995 exim : <client_list> : <allow_or_deny></PRE>
5001 exim : LOCAL 192.168.0. .friendly.domain special.host : ALLOW
5002 exim : ALL : DENY</PRE>
5004 This allows connections from local hosts (chiefly `localhost'), from
5005 the subnet 192.168.0.0/24, from all hosts in <B>*.friendly.domain,</B> and
5006 from a specific host called <B>special.host.</B> All other connections are
5007 denied. If you have <B>tcpwrappers</B> set up to use two files, use the
5012 /etc/hosts.allow:</PRE>
5014 exim : <client_list></PRE>
5016 /etc/hosts.deny:</PRE>
5018 exim : <client_list></PRE>
5020 Read the <TT>hosts_access(5)</TT> man page for more ways of specifying clients,
5021 including ports, <B>etc.,</B> and on logging connections.
5024 <A NAME="SEC197" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC197">Q0806</A>: How can I get POP-auth-before-relay support in Exim?
5028 A0806: See <B><A HREF="http://cc.ysu.edu/~doug/exim-pop.tar.Z">http://cc.ysu.edu/~doug/exim-pop.tar.Z</A></B> which has some scripts for
5029 this, courtesy of Doug S <B><B><doug@cc.ysu.edu</B>>.</B> See also
5030 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC226">Q0835</A>.
5033 <A NAME="SEC198" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC198">Q0807</A>: I have one or two cases where my machine correctly rejects messages, but
5034 the remote machine is quite persistent, and keeps trying over and over.
5038 A0807: It is an unfortunate fact that a number of SMTP clients, in violation of
5039 the SMTP RFC, do not treat a permanent error code that is given after
5040 the MAIL FROM command or the DATA portion of the transaction as a
5041 permanent error. Consequently they keep resending the message. Failing
5042 checks on a message's headers (the <TT>headers_</TT>... options) necessarily
5043 result in an error code after the data has been received.
5046 <A NAME="SEC199" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC199">Q0808</A>: I am seeing the error "no valid sender in message headers: return path
5047 is <>" in the reject log. Isn't <> a valid return path for error
5052 A0808: It is indeed valid. The complaint here is about the contents of the
5053 message's headers, not the return path. This message has been reworded
5054 in later versions of Exim. You must have set the <TT>headers_sender_verify</TT>
5055 option. Check the From:, Reply-to: and Sender: headers that were logged
5056 with the error. You can use Exim's <B>-bv</B> option to find out why
5057 verification of those addresses failed.
5060 <A NAME="SEC200" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC200">Q0809</A>: Let's say that we want to run a mail server that does not care if you
5061 have proper reverse DNS. If you include <TT>host_reject</TT> lines in your
5062 config file, Exim will always reject connections from such hosts. How
5063 can this be avoided?
5067 A0809: This is true only if you have wild-carded host names in <TT>host_reject</TT>.
5068 For complete host names, Exim uses a DNS forward lookup to obtain an IP
5069 address to compare. If you are using wild cards of any sort, put
5070 <TT>+allow_unknown</TT> as an item in your host list, for example:
5074 host_reject = +allow_unknown : *.def.zz : *.stu.yy</PRE>
5076 This will allow any host without reverse DNS to bypass the checks. Note
5077 that it means that the owner of <B>abc.def.zz</B> (for example) can trivially
5078 get round your block simply by deleting the PTR record for <B>abc.def.zz.</B>
5079 If you use +warn_unknown instead of <TT>+allow_unknown</TT>, the action is the
5080 same, but every time the exception is invoked, it is logged.
5083 <A NAME="SEC201" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC201">Q0810</A>: Is there a way to prevent lookups in the RBL for local hosts?
5087 A0810: Check out the <TT>rbl_hosts</TT> option.
5090 <A NAME="SEC202" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC202">Q0811</A>: How can I set up the <TT>sender_reject</TT> option in my config file so I can
5091 reject mail by matching regular expressions?
5095 A0811: You must either put the regular expressions directly in the option
5096 setting, or in a file that is referenced by a plain file name, or use
5097 an @@ type of search. If the regular expressions match the domain as
5098 well as the local part, then the first two approaches are the only
5099 possible ones. For example:
5103 sender_reject_recipients = ^.*\.spam\.com$ : ^.*@[0-9]+\.com$</PRE>
5109 sender_reject_recipients = /some/file</PRE>
5111 Each line of the file is treated as if it were an entry in the list, and
5112 must begin with ^ if it is a regular expression. No keys are involved
5113 because this is not a lookup,
5117 If you are using version 2.10 or later, the first of those regular
5118 expressions can be rewritten to execute much more efficiently by
5119 using lookbehinds and once-only subpatterns:
5123 sender_reject_recipients = ^(?>.*$)(?<=\.spam\.com)</PRE>
5125 See the manual section entitled "Address lists" for a description of the
5126 @@ type of split domain/local part lookup. See also
5127 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC192">Q0801</A>.
5130 <A NAME="SEC203" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC203">Q0812</A>: Normally <TT>sender_reject_recipients</TT> works fine, but addresses that have
5131 some uppercase letters in them seem to come through.
5135 A0812: This should no longer be the case from release 3.00 onwards. Although
5136 host and domain names are case-insensitive, the RFCs about mail specify
5137 that local parts are case sensitive. When earlier versions of Exim
5138 looked up a sender address in <TT>sender_reject_recipients</TT>, they did so
5139 using the caseful form, in order to be compliant with the mail RFCs.
5140 (In principle, <B>user@domain</B> and <B>USER@domain</B> might be different
5141 people. Silly, I know, but that's the rule. It has caused a lot of
5142 grief.) However, RFC 2305 (Anti-Spam Recommendations for SMTP MTAs)
5143 recommends that address checking in blocking lists should be done
5144 caselessly, so Exim now does this by default.
5147 <A NAME="SEC204" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC204">Q0813</A>: I want to accept some sender addresses, even though they do not verify.
5148 There doesn't seem to be an option for verification exceptions, so how
5153 A0813: Set up a special director or router to ensure that those addresses do
5154 verify, using <TT>verify_only</TT> and <TT>verify_sender</TT> so that it is not used
5155 during delivery or recipient verification. For example, here is a router
5156 which verifies the address <B><B>root@somedomain.com</B>:</B>
5164 domains = some.domain.com
5166 route_list = *</PRE>
5167 <A NAME="SEC205" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC205">Q0814</A>: We are being plagued by forged mail coming from a number of different
5168 hosts and sender addresses. The guy however leaves a fingerprint. The
5169 first received line always contains 'Received: from baby'. What is the
5170 best suggested way for eliminiating him from our systems?
5174 A0814: You cannot, unfortunately, prevent the message from getting into your
5175 system, because the message has to be read before you can inspect the
5176 Received: header. The best you can do is to install a system filter
5177 which junks any message containing such a header. Thus the sender still
5178 wastes bandwidth and your resources in transporting the message to you,
5179 but you just throw it away. A simple system filter that does this is
5184 if $h_Received: contains "from baby" then seen finish endif</PRE>
5185 <A NAME="SEC206" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC206">Q0815</A>: I have set <TT>host_accept_relay</TT>, but my host still refuses to relay from
5190 A0815: (A) Did you remember to HUP or restart the Exim daemon after changing
5191 the configuration? You can get information as to what options Exim
5192 is checking by using the <B>-bh</B> option to test how it would handle mail
5193 from a specific host.
5197 (B) Have you used any wild-card host names in <TT>host_accept_relay</TT>? <B>E.g:</B>
5201 host_accept_relay = *.aaa.bbb</PRE>
5203 If so, the problem may be that the relevant hosts do not have
5204 reverse DNS entries for their IP addresses. In order to match a wild
5205 card name, Exim has to look up the calling host's name from its IP
5206 address, and if it cannot do so, it takes a hard line by default.
5207 Exim processes lists from left to right, and so will attempt a
5208 reverse DNS lookup at the first wild-carded entry it reaches. If you
5209 have IP addresses in your list, it is best to put them first for
5210 this reason. Suppose you had
5214 host_accept_relay = *.x.y : 10.9.8.7</PRE>
5216 Then when the host 10.9.8.7 connects, a reverse lookup will still
5217 be done, because the first check is against <B>*.x.y.</B> If the lookup
5218 fails, relaying is rejected. However, if the list were in the
5219 opposite order, the IP check would succeed, and no DNS lookup would
5221 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC200">Q0809</A>.
5224 <A NAME="SEC207" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC207">Q0816</A>: How can I run customized verification checks on incoming addresses?
5228 A0816: If you can implement your checks in Perl, then you can use Exim's
5229 facility for running an embedded Perl interpreter. For example, if you
5230 want to run special checks on local addresses, you could install this as
5231 your first director:
5237 condition = ${perl{verify}{$local_part}{$domain}}
5240 If you want this to be the only means of verification, you can set
5241 <TT>no_verify</TT> on all the other directors. Otherwise, if this director fails
5242 to verify, the address gets passed on to those that follow.
5246 The <TT>verify_sender</TT> and <TT>verify_recipient</TT> options can be used to restrict
5247 the director to sender or recipient verification only, and if necessary
5248 you could have two different directors, one for senders and one for
5253 If the result of the expansion of <TT>condition</TT> is not "no", "false" or
5254 "0", then address verification succeeds, because the director itself
5255 matches any address. The expansion of <TT>condition</TT> causes the Perl
5256 subroutine called "verify" to be run, with two arguments, the local part
5257 and the domain. The subroutine must be provided in Perl code that is
5258 referenced by the <TT>perl_startup</TT> option. See the chapter on embedded Perl
5263 Remote addresses can be handled in a similar way by using a <B>domainlist</B>
5264 router that matches all domains. See also
5265 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC204">Q0813</A>.
5269 Starting up a Perl interpreter is not cheap. On a busy system you should
5270 first make sure that there isn't some way of using Exim's own facilities
5271 for doing what you want before going down this road.
5274 <A NAME="SEC208" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC208">Q0817</A>: Does Exim apply RBL checks to error messages, those with an envelope
5275 sender of "<>" ?
5279 A0817: Yes, it does, because the RBL check happens immediately on connection,
5280 before any commands are passed, and so therefore before it even knows
5281 that the envelope sender is "<>".
5284 <A NAME="SEC209" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC209">Q0818</A>: I want to be able to set up a list, similar to <TT>sender_reject_recipients</TT>,
5285 but with a user-defined message. I believe I have to use a director for
5290 A0818: You can do this using the <TT>prohibition_message</TT> mechanism (see the section
5291 entitled "Customizing prohibition messages" in the manual). This avoids
5292 having to use a director, and therefore doesn't require you to let the
5293 message into your host at all. Use something like this:
5297 prohibition_message = "\
5298 ${if eq {$prohibition_reason}{sender_reject_recipients}\
5299 {${lookup{$sender_address}lsearch{/some/file}{$value}}}{}}"</PRE>
5301 This example looks up a message that is specific to the sender, but you
5302 can of course tailor the message any way you like. Vertical bar is
5303 treated as a line separator in prohibition texts.
5306 <A NAME="SEC210" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC210">Q0819</A>: I want to reject certain sender-recipient combinations, with a specific
5307 message for each such combination.
5311 A0819: That needs a special director, using the "senders" option to predicate
5312 it on the sender, and a file of recipients to fail for each sender.
5313 Something like this:
5319 senders = sender@domain.com : *@otherdomain.com
5320 file = /blocked/${lc:$sender_address}
5321 search_type = lsearch</PRE>
5323 with the files containing lines like
5327 recipient: :fail: message</PRE>
5329 If you are handling multiple local domains, you may want to set
5330 <TT>include_domain</TT> so you can specify fully qualified addresses in the
5331 files. If the files get big, an indexed search type such as DBM or cdb
5336 If you want to block an entire domain from a specific sender, you could
5343 senders = dislikedsender@wherever
5345 search_type = lsearch*</PRE>
5347 with the file containing
5351 *: :fail: message</PRE>
5353 The message text supplied after :fail: is restricted to a single line.
5354 If you want to send several paragraphs of message, instead of using
5355 :fail: you could use the <B>aliasfile</B> to pipe the message off so some
5356 script which generates a long message and then gives a non-zero return
5357 code so that the message gets returned to the sender.
5361 In all of these cases you are in trouble if the sender address is bad,
5362 because the bounce message you generate will get stuck.
5365 <A NAME="SEC211" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC211">Q0820</A>: Will Exim allow me to create a file of regexs and match incoming
5366 external email to the list - and if a match is found file the offending
5367 message into a special location? Also is it possible to make exim only
5368 filter parts of an incoming email - e.g. ignore large MIME attachments
5369 for example and only process text/plain?
5373 A0820: You can do some of this in a system filter. For example:
5377 if $message_body matches <...some complicated regex...> or
5378 $message_body matches <...some other regex...> or
5379 $header_from: matches <...regex...> or
5382 save /some/special/file
5385 or instead of "save" you could have "deliver" (to some address) or
5386 "pipe" (to some script).
5390 There isn't any mechanism for ignoring attachments, but <B>$message_body</B>
5391 only looks at the first n bytes of the body, where n defaults to 500 but
5396 A more expensive alternative would be to run a Perl subroutine using the
5397 embedded Perl mechanism. If you passed over the message id, the Perl
5398 code could read the message files on the spool and implement any
5399 algorithm it liked for deciding what should be done.
5402 <A NAME="SEC212" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC212">Q0821</A>: I've hacked sendmail to make an ioctl call at the time of the SMTP RCPT
5403 command, to check if a user has exceeded their email quota. If they have
5404 I issue a temporary failure and a message - can I do this with Exim?
5408 A0821: This could be done by arranging for a quota check to happen during the
5409 verification of the address after RCPT, but without hacking Exim you
5410 would have to use the embedded Perl facility to get it to run a Perl
5411 script to do the test.
5415 If the reason you want to do this is to avoid having messages for over-
5416 quota users sitting on your spool for many days, there is an
5417 alternative. In Exim you can set up special retry rules for quota
5418 excession (what we use is "if mailbox not read for 7 days, bounce
5419 immediately, otherwise try every hour for one day, then bounce").
5422 <A NAME="SEC213" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC213">Q0822</A>: I'm looking for a rule to reject special unknown recipients.
5426 A0822: If the messages in question are coming in via SMTP, you can turn on
5427 <TT>receiver_verify</TT> (if you haven't already) and arrange for these addresses
5428 not to verify. For example, if they are not in your local domains, you
5429 could use a router like this:
5433 verify_check_specials:
5436 ${if eq {$local_part@$domain}{account@host.domain}{yes}{no}}"
5439 route_list = *</PRE>
5441 where of course you can extend the <TT>condition</TT> setting to use regular
5442 expressions, file lookups, Perl calls, or anything else that is
5443 available. The failure of the verification causes an error return to the
5444 SMTP RCPT command, so the messages never get into your system. For
5445 addresses in your local domains you could use a <B>smartuser</B> director in a
5446 similar fashion, but you could also use an alias file with :fail:
5451 If you are receiving such messages from the local host, then they are
5452 already in the system, and have to be failed locally as part of the
5453 delivery process. The :fail: mechanism is the simplest for local
5454 addresses. For remote addresses, one possibility would be to use a
5455 router with a <TT>condition</TT> setting to send such messages to an autoreply
5456 transport that sends back an error message to the sender. See also
5458 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC217">Q0826</A>.
5461 <A NAME="SEC214" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC214">Q0823</A>: I'd like to pass all messages through a virus-scanning system before
5462 delivery. Can Exim do this?
5466 A0823: One way of achieving this is to deliver all messages via a pipe to a
5467 checking program that resubmits them for delivery in some private way
5468 that can be checked (e.g. on a specific SMTP port, or IP address). One
5469 possibility is to use the "received protocol" field that can be set
5470 for locally submitted mail via the <B>-oMr</B> command line option. This
5471 director sends all messages that are not from the local host and whose
5472 received protocol is not "scanned-ok" to the <TT>virus_scan</TT> transport:
5478 transport = virus_scan
5479 condition = "${if or {{eq {$received_protocol}{scanned-ok}} \
5480 {eq {$sender_host_address}{127.0.0.1}}}\
5483 A similar router could be used if you want to scan messages for remote
5484 addresses. One problem is that this approach scans the message for each
5485 recipient, not just once per message.
5489 The <TT>virus_scan</TT> transport should be set up to pipe the message to a
5490 suitable checking program or script which runs as a trusted user. This
5491 can then re-submit the message to Exim, using <B>-oMr</B> to set the received
5492 protocol to "scanned-ok", and the <B>-f</B> option to set the correct envelope
5493 sender address. WARNING: If you forget to make the resubmitting process
5494 run as a trusted user, the received protocol does not get set, and you
5495 are likely to generate a loop.
5498 <A NAME="SEC215" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC215">Q0824</A>: How can I accomplish this: a message sent from any host must either be
5499 sending to a domain in a list (a dbm file) or the sender's address
5500 domain must be in the list.
5504 A0824: First of all, set
5508 relay_domains = dbm;/the/dbm/file</PRE>
5510 This allows relaying from any host, provided that the recipient address
5511 matches one of the domains in the list. Then set
5515 host_accept_relay = *
5516 sender_address_relay = dbm;/the/dbm/file</PRE>
5518 This allows relaying from any host (because of the *) to any arbitrary
5519 domain, provided that the sender's address matches a domain in the list.
5523 WARNING: This setting makes it possible for your host to be used as an
5524 open relay by those unscrupulous enough to forge sender addresses. Your
5525 host may end up on one of the open relay blocking lists as a result.
5528 <A NAME="SEC216" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC216">Q0825</A>: I've set <TT>relay_domains</TT> and <TT>sender_address_relay</TT>, but if <B>user@mydomain</B>
5529 tries sending to an arbitrary domain, Exim rejects it.
5533 A0825: The safest way to control relaying arbitrary domains is by host, not
5534 by sender address. If you are able to specify the hosts which your users
5535 use, then set <TT>host_accept_relay</TT> to match them. You can then remove the
5536 setting of <TT>sender_address_relay</TT>, unless you also want to limit relaying
5537 to specific senders.
5541 If you want to permit relaying from specific senders on arbitrary hosts,
5542 you can set <TT>relay_match_host_or_sender</TT>. This requires that only one of
5543 the host or sender address be recognized, instead of both of them.
5547 WARNING: This setting makes it possible for your host to be used as an
5548 open relay by those unscrupulous enough to forge sender addresses. Your
5549 host may end up on one of the open relay blocking lists as a result.
5552 <A NAME="SEC217" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC217">Q0826</A>: I set <TT>sender_reject_recipients</TT>, but Exim is not rejecting those
5557 A0826: You have misunderstood the option. A setting like that rejects <EM>all</EM> the
5558 recipients of an incoming message with that <EM>sender</EM>. To reject a
5559 specific recipient in your own domain you can set up an alias like this:
5563 reject-me: :fail: mail for reject-me is not acceptable</PRE>
5565 If you want to reject a recipient that is not in a local domain, one
5566 approach is to set up a router to send the address to your directors,
5567 and then use an alias file to generate a :fail: message as above.
5568 Alternatively, you can use the verification mechanism: see
5569 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC213">Q0822</A>.
5572 <A NAME="SEC218" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC218">Q0827</A>: I can't find an option to deny "RCPT TO:" addresses.
5576 A0827: Denying RCPT TO addresses is the job of verifying. You can set up
5577 directors and routers that are run only when verifying and not when
5578 delivering. This gives you a great deal of flexibility. See
5579 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC213">Q0822</A>.
5582 <A NAME="SEC219" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC219">Q0828</A>: My problem is that Exim replaces <B>$local_part</B> with an empty string in the
5583 system filtering. What's wrong or what did I miss?
5587 A0828: A message may have many recipients. The system filter is run just once
5588 at the start of a delivery attempt. Consequently, it does not make sense
5589 to set <B><B>$local_part.</B></B> Which recipient should it be set to? However, you
5590 can access all the recipients from a system filter via the variable
5591 called <B><B>$recipients.</B></B>
5594 <A NAME="SEC220" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC220">Q0829</A>: Using <B>$recipients</B> in a system filter gives me another problem: how can
5595 I do a string lookup if <B>$recipients</B> is a list of addresses?
5599 A0829: Check out section 25 of the filter document ("Testing a list of
5600 addresses"). If that doesn't help, you may have to resort to calling an
5601 embedded Perl interpreter - but that is expensive.
5604 <A NAME="SEC221" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC221">Q0830</A>: Is there a way to configure Exim to reject mail to a certain local host?
5608 A0830: No, only to certain domains. Use a configuration like this:
5613 local_domains = rejected.domain : <other local domains></PRE>
5615 with the first director as
5621 domains = rejected.domain
5624 <A NAME="SEC222" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC222">Q0831</A>: Exim sometimes rejects messages with bad senders after the DATA and
5625 sometimes after the MAIL command. What is the difference?
5629 A0831: The first time Exim encounters a particular bad sender, it rejects the
5630 message after the data has been received, so that it can log the
5631 headers. If the same sender re-appears within 24 hours, Exim assumes
5632 that the remote host has (in violation of RFC 821) not interpreted the
5633 previous 550 error code correctly, so this time it rejects the MAIL
5634 command. Some hosts don't even managed to handle that, so if the same
5635 sender turns up for a third time within 24 hours, Exim accepts MAIL, but
5636 rejects every RCPT command instead.
5639 <A NAME="SEC223" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC223">Q0832</A>: How can I get Exim to remove attachments from messages?
5643 A0832: (A) The cleanest way is to check for the existence of a "Content-type"
5644 header line, and route messages containing it down a pipe to some
5645 other program that strips the attachments and re-submits the message
5646 to Exim. Alternatively, a transport filter can be used to do the
5647 job, as described in C028.
5651 (B) A somewhat more hairy way is to use embedded Perl from a system
5652 filter to truncate the message's data file directly, and then use
5653 the "headers remote" filter command to get rid of the associated
5657 <A NAME="SEC224" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC224">Q0833</A>: I ran a relay test against my host and it failed with an address
5658 containing a %, though I don't have <TT>percent_hack_domains</TT> set. Is Exim
5659 broken? This is what the tester said:
5664 >>> RSET
5665 <<< 250 Reset OK
5666 >>> MAIL FROM:<spamtest@example.com>
5667 <<< 250 <spamtest@example.com> is syntactically correct
5668 >>> RCPT TO:<relaytest%mail-abuse.org@example.com>
5669 <<< 250 <relaytest%mail-abuse.org@example.com> is syntactically correct
5671 Uh oh, host appeared to accept a message for relay.
5672 The host may reject this message internally, however</PRE>
5674 A0833: This does not prove that your host is open for relaying. Notice the
5675 wording of the last two sentences: "appeared to accept" and "may reject
5676 internally". Assuming that your Exim configuration is correct, Exim will
5677 discover that the local part <B>"relaytest%mail-abuse.org"</B> is not valid on
5678 your host, and it will bounce the message.
5682 Why doesn't it reject the RCPT TO command? Answer: because you have not
5683 set <TT>receiver_verify</TT> in your configuration file, or you have excluded
5684 these particular sender or recipient domains from receiver verification.
5687 <A NAME="SEC225" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC225">Q0834</A>: How can I arrange for each user to have a file listing the only sender
5688 addresses from which she will accept mail? I want to do this so my
5689 family members don't get any spam (or other inappropriate mail).
5693 A0834: Arrange for each user you want to control to have a file called
5694 .acceptlist, ignoring for the moment how this gets maintained. Then,
5695 turn on <TT>receiver_verify</TT> and make the following your first director:
5699 verify_known_sender:
5701 require_files = /home/$local_part/.acceptlist
5702 senders = ! /home/$local_part/.acceptlist
5703 new_address = :fail: Sender unknown</PRE>
5705 That will stop such messages even getting into your host. (Replace
5706 <B>/home/$local_part</B> with whatever the correct path to your user's home
5707 directories is.) As written above, the accept list is interpolated into
5708 the senders list and can contain wild cards. If there are no wild cards
5709 and the lists get very long, it would be more efficient to convert them
5710 into some indexed format, e.g. cdb and use a cdb lookup.
5714 One problem with this is that it will block bounce messages, which have
5715 empty senders. You can get round this, by changing the "senders" line to
5719 senders = ! : ! /home/$local_part/.acceptlist</PRE>
5721 However, this will, of course, let in spam that has a null sender. Since
5722 the "senders" option is expanded, you could perhaps include something
5723 that tested a message without a sender for being a plausible bounce
5724 message before including the null sender in the list. Another approach
5725 would be to use a <TT>condition</TT> option to do various tests, including
5726 looking up <B>$sender_address</B> in <B><B>/home/$local_part/.acceptlist</B>.</B>
5729 <A NAME="SEC226" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC226">Q0835</A>: I have the POP-auth-before-relay support in, but I see that Exim still
5730 does an RBL lookup before checking the POP authorisation file. How can I
5731 prevent it doing an RBL check if the caller is authorized by virtue of a
5732 recent POP authentication?
5736 A0835: If the file containing a list of recent POP-authenticated hosts is
5737 <B>/usr/local/etc/exim/popauth</B>, say, set
5741 rbl_hosts = !/usr/local/etc/exim/popauth</PRE>
5743 so that hosts in the list are exempted from RBL checking.
5746 <A NAME="SEC227" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC227">Q0836</A>: When using Nessus on a system that runs exim, a number of security
5747 issues are raised. Nessus complains that exim answers to EXPN and/or
5748 VRFY; sometimes it even complains that exim allows relaying.
5752 A0836: Exim supports EXPN only if you permit it to do so by setting
5753 <TT>smtp_expn_hosts</TT>. Likewise, it supports to VRFY only if you set
5754 <TT>smtp_verify</TT>. Without these settings, its responses are
5758 550 EXPN not available
5759 252 VRFY not available</PRE>
5761 Maybe the use of 252 is the "problem". It is recommended that this be
5762 done (by those that discuss these things) because there are stupid
5763 clients that attempt VRFY before sending a message.
5766 <A NAME="SEC228" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC228">Q0837</A>: Could anyone points me to right rules to prevent sending/receiving
5767 messages to/for domains which have one MX to localhost or only have
5772 A0837: You need to turn on <TT>sender_verify</TT>. With the default configuration, this
5773 will result in a temporary verification failure for these domains. You
5774 can make this into a permanent failure by adding
5780 to your <B>lookuphost</B> router. The default action on encountering a routing
5781 to the local host is to defer, and freeze the message if it is a
5782 delivery address. Making this change applies to any routing to the local
5783 host, not just to 127.0.0.1.
5787 If you are running Exim release 3.16 or later, an alternative approach
5788 is to set <TT>ignore_target_hosts</TT> = 127.0.0.1 on the relevant routers.
5791 <A NAME="SEC229" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC229">Q0838</A>: How can I lock out domains that do not have any MX records?
5795 A0838: You can do this by means of the <TT>mx_domains</TT> option, but you should NOT do
5796 this for Internet domains in general. There are still a large number of
5797 legitimate domains that do not have MX records.
5800 <A NAME="SEC230" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC230">Q0839</A>: I would like to have a per-user limit for the maximum size of messages
5805 A0839: The simplest way to do this is to put something in a system filter along
5810 if $message_size is above
5811 "${lookup{$sender_address}lsearch{/some/file}{$value}{10M}}"
5813 fail "Message is larger than $sender_address is allowed to send"
5815 <A NAME="SEC231" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC231">Q0840</A>: I have set up a DBM (or cdb, or lsearch, or MySQL or whatever) file
5816 containing a list of IP addresses for the hosts I want to allow to
5817 relay, but when I set <TT>host_accept_relay</TT> to do a lookup on that data, it
5822 A0840: If you include any kind of lookup in a host list, it will by default
5823 search on the host <EM>name</EM>, not on the IP address. What you want is
5828 host_accept_relay = net-dbm;/some/file</PRE>
5830 The prefix net- makes it look up the IP address instead of the name. You
5831 can also look up IP networks by using entries like
5835 host_accept_relay = net24-dbm;/some/file</PRE>
5837 For a host with IP address 192.168.45.23 this would do the lookup using
5838 the key "192.168.45.0/24".
5841 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC232" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC232">9. MAJORDOMO
5844 <A NAME="SEC233" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC233">Q0901</A>: How do I set up Majordomo to work with Exim?
5848 A0901: Users have found several ways of setting up Exim for use with Majordomo.
5849 There's a web page at
5853 <A HREF="http://www.netmaster.ca/exim/majordomo.html">http://www.netmaster.ca/exim/majordomo.html</A></PRE>
5855 which shows one way to do it, and discusses some of the issues. The
5856 sample configuration C018 is another approach which automates a lot of
5857 the functions based on whether the files or directories exist. Only
5858 three aliases per list are needed.
5862 Somewhere in the Majordomo docs or FAQ it mentions using batchmail or
5863 other additional programs to improve the performance of large lists.
5864 They are not needed with Exim, and their use can actually make things
5865 worse. However, it's a good idea to set <TT>remote_max_parallel</TT> to a value
5866 greater than 1 in the Exim configuration.
5869 <A NAME="SEC234" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC234">Q0902</A>: I have set <B>$mailer</B> in <B>majordomo.cf,</B> but it still isn't setting the
5870 sender correctly in the messages it sends.
5874 A0902: Make sure you have got the quoting correct in the <B>$mailer</B> setting. For
5879 $mailer = "$sendmail_command -oi -oee -f$sender\@lists.mydomain.de";</PRE>
5881 is not correct. It needs three backslashes, not one, and the $ at the
5882 start of <B>$sender</B> has to be escaped with a backslash.
5885 <A NAME="SEC235" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC235">Q0903</A>: I'm trying to set up majordomo, but I'm getting a "wrong mode" error
5886 when I try to send it mail. The panic log entry reads:
5890 1999-01-05 11:23:34 0zxZGY-0000vB-00 majordomo_aliases director:
5891 /var/lib/majordomo/lists/lists.aliases (lsearch lookup): wrong mode</PRE>
5893 A0903: Check the mode of <B><B>/var/lib/majordomo/lists/lists.aliases</B></B> and compare it
5894 with the setting of the modemask option in the <TT>majordomo_aliases</TT>
5895 director. This option specifies bits which must not be set for the alias
5896 file, and it defaults to 022.
5899 <A NAME="SEC236" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC236">Q0904</A>: I'm getting return code 9 from <B><B>/home/majordomo/majordomo-1.94.4/wrapper</B></B>
5900 when it is passed a message from Exim.
5904 A0904: A problem like this turned out to be the Perl version that came with
5905 RedHat 5.2. Rebuilding Perl 5.005x solved it.
5908 <A NAME="SEC237" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC237">Q0905</A>: Exim is complaining about an invalid command line when Majordomo tries
5909 to send it a message for delivery.
5913 A0905: Take a look at your <B>majordomo.cf</B> file, It should have something that
5918 $sendmail_command = "/usr/lib/sendmail";</PRE>
5920 and another line like
5924 $mailer = "$sendmail_command -oi -oee -f\$sender";</PRE>
5926 If you have modified resend (one of the majordomo programs) to use
5927 <B>$sendmail_command</B> instead of <B>$mailer</B> you will be calling Exim with no
5928 command line arguments.
5931 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC238" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC238">10. REWRITING ADDRESSES
5934 <A NAME="SEC239" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC239">Q1001</A>: How can I get Exim to strip the hostname from the sender's address?
5938 A1001: If you set up a rewriting rule in the following form:
5942 *@*.your.domain $1@your.domain</PRE>
5944 then Exim will rewrite all addresses in the envelope and the headers,
5945 removing anything between "@" and <B>"your.domain".</B> This applies to all
5946 messages that Exim processes. If you want to rewrite sender addresses
5947 only, the the rule should be
5951 *@*.your.domain $1@your.domain Ffrs</PRE>
5953 This applies the rule only to the envelope "From" address and to the
5954 From:, Reply-to:, and Sender: headers.
5957 <A NAME="SEC240" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC240">Q1002</A>: I have Exim configured to remove the hostname portion of the domain on
5958 outgoing mail, and yet the hostname is present when the mail gets
5963 A1002: Check the DNS record for your domain. If the MX record points to a CNAME
5964 record instead of to an A record, MTAs are liable to rewrite addresses,
5965 changing your domain name to its "canonical" form, as obtained from the
5969 <A NAME="SEC241" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC241">Q1003</A>: I want to rewrite local addresses in mail that goes to the outside
5970 world, but not for messages that remain within the local intranet.
5974 A1003: Exim wasn't really designed to handle this kind of split world, and
5975 doing this is not entirely straightforward.
5979 (A) If you are running version 3.20 or later, you can use the
5980 <TT>headers_rewrite</TT> option on a transport. This will apply to just those
5981 copies of a message that pass through the transport. The <TT>return_path</TT>
5982 option can similarly be used to rewrite the sender address, but there is
5983 no way of rewriting recipient addresses at transport time. However, as
5984 these are by definition remote addresses, you probably don't want to
5989 You have to set up the configuration so that it uses different SMTP
5990 transports for internal and external mail. Typically this would be done
5991 by setting the <TT>domains</TT> option on a router for handling your internal
5992 domains. However, if all domains are routed in the same way (for
5993 example, using a DNS lookup), another approach is to use a string
5994 expansion for the transport name. For example:
6000 transport = ${if match{$domain}{\\.my\\.domain\$}{int_smtp}{ext_smtp}}</PRE>
6002 This example uses the <TT>int_smtp</TT> transport for domains ending in
6003 .<B>my.domain,</B> and <TT>ext_smtp</TT> for everything else. The <TT>ext_smtp</TT> transport
6004 could be something like this:
6010 headers_rewrite = *@*.my.domain \
6011 ${lookup{$1}cdb{/etc/$2/mail.handles.cdb}{$value}fail}
6013 ${if match{$return_path}{^([^@]+)@(.*)\\.my\\.domain\$}\
6015 ${lookup{$1}cdb{/etc/$2/mail.handles.cdb}{$value}fail}\
6019 This example uses a separate file of local-to-external address
6020 translations for each domain. This is not the only possibility, of
6021 course. The <TT>headers_rewrite</TT> and <TT>return_path</TT> options apply the same
6022 rewriting to the header lines and the envelope sender address,
6027 (B) If you are running a version of Exim that is earlier than 3.20,
6028 doing this kind of rewriting is very much more difficult. Until the
6029 <TT>headers_rewrite</TT> option was added, all header rewriting was done at the
6030 time a message was received. A standard configuration cannot handle
6031 rewriting that is specific to certain recipients only.
6035 The simplest thing to do is to upgrade to the latest current Exim
6036 release. For those that cannot do that, this old information from the
6037 <B>pre-3.20</B> FAQ is retained:
6041 The trick is to split off a copy of the message to be sent to all
6042 external recipients, and do the rewriting on that. This can be achieved
6043 by running two differently-configured versions of Exim, either on a
6044 single host, or on two different hosts. If you have a gateway or
6045 firewall machine, that is the natural place to run the rewriting
6050 On a single machine, the following is one way of handling this:
6054 (1) Set up the normal configuration (in the configuration file whose
6055 name is screwed into the binary) such that it does local deliveries
6056 as required, but forwards a copy of the message for non-local
6057 recipients to a different incarnation of Exim via a private SMTP
6058 port. For example, use this transport and router:
6062 # Transport to send SMTP using port 26
6067 # Router to send everything the internal_smtp transport
6070 transport = internal_smtp
6071 route_list = * localhost byname
6074 This should be the only router. Because of the <TT>self = send</TT>
6075 setting, Exim will transport the messages, even though it knows it
6076 is going to the local host.
6080 (2) Set up a different configuration file for the rewriting version of
6081 Exim. This need do no local deliveries, so it needs no local
6082 domains or directors, and as it accepts mail only from the local
6083 host, there is no need for any spam-blocking or other policy
6084 controls. However, it does need to have its own spool area. The main
6085 part of the configuration could be like this:
6090 local_interfaces = 127.0.0.1
6091 host_reject = !127.0.0.1
6092 spool_directory = /var/spool/exim-external
6095 Note the use of a negated item for <TT>host_reject</TT>, causing rejection of
6096 SMTP calls from all but the local host.
6100 The directors section can be completely empty (apart from the line
6101 saying "end"), while the routers section should be as in a normal
6102 configuration, as it is going to control external delivery.
6106 The rule(s) for rewriting your internal addresses into external ones
6107 should be in this configuration. This is one example of what might
6113 ${lookup{$1}cdb{/etc/$2/mail.handles.cdb}{$value}fail}"</PRE>
6115 which looks up each local part in a per-host file to obtain the
6116 externally-visible address, including (in this example) the domain.
6120 (3) You have to arrange for a daemon to be listening on port 26, and to
6121 be using the alternate configuration file. It is necessary to do
6122 this as root so that Exim retains its privilege after reading a
6123 non-standard configuration. A command such as
6127 exim -C /etc/exim-configure2 -bd -oX 26</PRE>
6129 could be used in a suitable system start-up file. Alternatively you
6130 could set up <B>inetd</B> to run Exim with the <B>-C</B> option for incoming
6131 connections on port 26.
6135 The net result of all of this is that when a message has one or more
6136 external recipients, a copy of it is sent via port 26 to the second
6137 version of Exim, which rewrites any internal addresses and does the
6138 external deliveries. The cost of this is that the message has to be
6139 copied and spooled twice, and you have two different Exim queues to
6140 manage. Note that if the "external" Exim has to send a delivery failure
6141 message, it will use the rewritten sender address.
6144 <A NAME="SEC242" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC242">Q1004</A>: I'm using this rewriting rule to change login names into "friendly"
6145 names, but if mail comes in for an upper case login name, it doesn't
6150 *@my.domain ${lookup{$1}dbm{/usr/lib/exim/longforms}\
6151 {$value}fail}@my.domain bcfrtFT</PRE>
6153 The longforms database has entries of the form:
6157 ano23: A.N.Other</PRE>
6159 A1004: Replace <B>$1</B> in your rule by <B>${lc:$1}</B> to force the local part to lower
6160 case before it is used as a lookup key.
6163 <A NAME="SEC243" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC243">Q1005</A>: Is it possible to completely fail a message if the rewrite rules fail?
6167 A1005: It depends on what you mean by "fail a message" and what addresses you
6168 are rewriting. If you are rewriting recipient addresses for your local
6173 *@dom.ain ${lookup{$1}dbm{/wher/ever}{$value}{failaddr}} Ehq</PRE>
6175 and in your alias file put something like
6179 failaddr: :fail: Rewriting failed.</PRE>
6181 This fails a single recipient - others are processed independently.
6184 <A NAME="SEC244" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC244">Q1006</A>: I'm using <B>$domain</B> as the key for a lookup in a rewriting rule, but its
6185 contents are not being lowercased. Aren't domains supposed to be handled
6190 A1006: The value of <B>$domain</B> is the actual domain that appears in the address.
6191 It could of course be lower cased, but I know that would cause some
6192 unhappiness, because some people have mixed-case domain names which look
6193 silly if the case is changed. Thus, one wants to preserve the case in
6198 *@*.TheRap.com <something>@$domain</PRE>
6200 (not the best example) because "therap" doesn't look like two words. I
6201 know it seems trivial, but it is important to some people - especially
6202 if by some unfortunate accident the lowercased word is something
6207 You can trivally force lower casing by means of the <B>${lc:</B> operator.
6208 Instead of "$domain" write "${lc:$domain}".
6211 <A NAME="SEC245" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC245">Q1007</A>: I want to rewrite local sender addresses depending on the domain of the
6216 A1007: In general, this is not possible, because a message may have more than
6217 one recipient and Exim keeps just a single copy of each message. It may
6218 also deliver one copy of a message with several recipient addresses.
6219 You can do an incomplete job by using a regular expression match in a
6220 rewrite rule to test, for example, the contents of the To: header. This
6221 would work except in cases of multiple recipients. See also
6222 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC241">Q1003</A>.
6225 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC246" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC246">11. HEADERS
6228 <A NAME="SEC247" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC247">Q1101</A>: I would like add some custom headers to selected outgoing mail based on
6229 a specific domain and the subject line.
6233 A1101: To the <TT>remote_smtp</TT> transport, add something like
6237 headers_add = "${if and{\
6238 {eq{$domain}{spec.dom}}\
6239 {matches{$h_subject:}{whatever}}}\
6240 {Content-Type: text/html; charset=\"us-ascii\"} fail }"</PRE>
6242 This example shows a Content-Type header, but you can have anything you
6243 like, and multiple headers can be inserted by using \n to separate them.
6246 <A NAME="SEC248" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC248">Q1102</A>: Is it possible to have Exim add a header to only certain <TT>local_parts</TT> of
6251 A1102: Only if you arrange for each such local part to receive its own private
6252 copy of the mail. See <TT>max_rcpt</TT> in the SMTP transport. Then you could use
6253 conditions in an expansion string to add or not add a header.
6256 <A NAME="SEC249" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC249">Q1103</A>: How can I remove some part of the Received: header?
6260 A1103: Set <TT>received_header_text</TT>.
6263 <A NAME="SEC250" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC250">Q1104</A>: How I can insert the PGP header line using exim filters?
6267 A1104: You can't insert headers in a user filter. A system filter can do so,
6268 but the inserted lines then are included for all recipients.
6271 <A NAME="SEC251" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC251">Q1105</A>: I know I can use a system filter to replace certain headers in messages,
6272 but how can I add text to existing headers? I want to add [SPAM] to
6273 the subject line of messages that appear to be spam.
6277 A1105: You can only do this in a round about way, using filter commands like
6282 headers add "New-Subject: SPAM: $h_subject:"
6283 headers remove subject
6284 neaders add "Subject: $h_new-subject:"
6285 headers remove new-subject</PRE>
6287 This trick works only in system filters, where the commands are obeyed
6288 in order, and affect the master list of headers that apply to the whole
6289 message. You cannot do this with the <TT>headers_add</TT> and <TT>headers_remove</TT>
6293 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC252" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC252">12. FETCHMAIL
6296 <A NAME="SEC253" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC253">Q1201</A>: When I run fetchmail, I get the error "SMTP listener doesn't like
6297 recipient address <B><I>xxx</I>@localhost</B>".
6301 A1201: Put "localhost" in a list of local domains, that is, add it to the
6302 <TT>local_domains</TT> option in your Exim configuration file.
6305 <A NAME="SEC254" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC254">Q1202</A>: Fetchmail is passing on bounce messages to Exim with the sender address
6306 set to <B><B><@some.domain</B>></B> which causes Exim to complain, because there is no
6311 A1202: This was a fetchmail problem which has been fixed. Ideally, you should
6312 upgrade to the current fetchmail release. If you cannot do this, there
6313 is some Exim magic that might help. The 'S' rewriting flag allows
6314 rewriting of envelope addresses to be done as soon as they are received
6315 in the SMTP protocol, before any kind of checking or other processing is
6316 done. This is specifically provided for installations that have to cope
6317 with mangled addresses coming in over SMTP.
6320 <A NAME="SEC255" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC255">Q1203</A>: I'm currently using Exim with fetchmail and I'd like to use the RBL on
6321 Exim, but will it work? Do I need to configure fetchmail any particular
6322 way? As far as Exim knows, all mail is coming from 127.0.01. Will it
6323 check the source address against RBL? Or will it check the From: header?
6327 A1203: It will check 127.0.0.1 (not very useful). The point of the RBL is to
6328 keep messages from black-listed hosts out of your machine. If you are
6329 using fetchmail, you have got the messages into your machine before you
6330 approach Exim. That kind of defeats the purpose of the RBL. The right
6331 way to do this would be for the host from which you fetchmail to do the
6332 RBL checking and insert some kind of warning header for you to test, as
6333 Exim does if you run RBL checks in warning mode.
6336 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC256" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC256">13. PERL
6339 <A NAME="SEC257" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC257">Q1301</A>: Exim built with Perl support exits with the error message <B>"./exim:</B> can't
6340 load library <B>'libperl.so'".</B>
6344 A1301: If you are using BSDI, see
6345 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC324">Q9401</A>.
6348 <A NAME="SEC258" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC258">Q1302</A>: Exim built with Perl support exits with several error messages of the
6349 form "undefined reference to `PL_stack_sp'".
6353 A1302: This has been seen on FreeBSD systems that had two different versions of
6354 Perl installed, the older with an <B>a.out</B> library and the newer with an
6355 ELF library. Ensure that the older package is removed.
6358 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC259" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC259">14. DIAL-UP
6361 <A NAME="SEC260" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC260">Q1401</A>: How can I arrange for mail to other hosts on my local network to be
6362 delivered when I'm not connected to the Internet?
6366 A1401: Use the <TT>queue_remote_domains</TT> option to control which domains are held
6367 on the queue for later delivery. For example,
6371 queue_remote_domains = ! *.localnet</PRE>
6373 allows delivery to domains ending in .localnet, while queueing all the
6377 <A NAME="SEC261" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC261">Q1402</A>: I have a dial-up machine, and I use the <TT>queue_smtp_domains</TT> option so
6378 that remote mail only goes out when I do a queue run. However, any email
6379 I send with an address <B><B><anything>@aol.com</B></B> is returned within about 15
6380 minutes saying 'retry time exceeded', and all addresses are affected.
6384 A1402: (A) You should be using <TT>queue_remote_domains</TT> rather than <TT>queue_smtp_</TT>
6385 domains. With the latter, Exim is trying to route the addresses, which
6386 involves a DNS lookup. This is presumably timing out, causing a retry
6387 time to be set for the domain, and somehow a valid lookup never happened
6388 before the maximum retry time (default of 4 days) passed. Hence the
6389 bounce. The fact that it is <B>aol.com</B> is not relevant. You should probably
6390 also be using <B>-qq</B> to do your queue run rather than <B><B>-q.</B></B>
6394 (B) An alternative approach if you are sending all your outgoing mail to
6395 the same smart host is to use a single router like this:
6401 transport = remote_smtp
6402 route_list = "* smarthost.isp.net byname"</PRE>
6404 and put the address of the smart host in <B>/etc/hosts</B>, so that it can be
6405 found without the need of a DNS lookup. Then you can use <TT>queue_smtp_</TT>
6406 domains so that Exim does the routing for every message, but doesn't try
6407 to deliver it. See also
6408 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC262">Q1403</A>.
6411 <A NAME="SEC262" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC262">Q1403</A>: How should Exim be configured when it is acting as a temporary storage
6412 system for a domain on a dial-up host?
6416 A1403: Exim isn't really designed for this, but... The lowest-numbered MX
6417 record for the domain should be pointing to your host. You should set a
6418 large retry time for that domain, so that Exim doesn't keep trying to
6419 deliver when the host is offline. When the host comes online, the
6420 waiting messages have to be kicked somehow. This can be done by calling
6421 Exim with the <B>-R</B> option, or via the SMTP ETRN command. This works
6422 provided the number of messages is low. If you are handling lots of
6423 mail, keeping messages waiting for their host to connect and those that
6424 are having delivery problems to remote hosts all in the same queue
6425 doesn't work so well. It is better in this case to get Exim to deliver
6426 the mail for the dial-in hosts into some local files which then get
6427 transmitted by other software when the host connects. See the manual
6428 chapter entitled "Intermittently connected hosts" and also
6429 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC283">Q5014</A> and
6431 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC162">Q0521</A>.
6434 <A NAME="SEC263" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC263">Q1404</A>: I have <TT>queue_remote_domains</TT> or <TT>queue_smtp_domains</TT> set, and use <B>-qf</B> to
6435 force delivery of waiting mail when I dial in. How can I arrange for any
6436 new messages that arrive while I'm connected to be delivered immediately?
6440 A1404: (A) Instead of <TT>queue_remote_domains</TT> or <TT>queue_smtp_domains</TT>, use the
6441 <TT>queue_only_file</TT> option. This causes messages to be queued only if a
6442 particular file exists. The word "remote" or "smtp" before the file name
6443 controls which type of queueing is used. For example:
6447 queue_only_file = remote/etc/present/when/not/connected</PRE>
6449 Then, in the scripts which are run when you connect and disconnect,
6450 arrange to remove the file after connection, and create it just before
6455 (B) An alternative is to set <TT>hold_domains</TT> to point to a file lookup and
6456 switch that file appropriately.
6459 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC264" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC264">15. MODIFYING MESSAGE BODIES
6462 <A NAME="SEC265" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC265">Q1501</A>: How can I add a disclaimer or an advertisement to a message?
6466 A1501: There are a number of technical and potential legal problems that arise
6467 in connection with message modification. Some of them are listed below.
6468 If, despite these considerations, you still want to modify messages, you
6469 can do so using Exim, but not directly in Exim itself. It is not the job
6470 of an MTA to modify messages, something that requires understanding of
6471 their content and format.
6475 Exim provides a hook in the form of a "transport filter" that lets you
6476 pass any outgoing message through a program or script of your choice. It
6477 is the job of this script to make any changes to the message that you
6478 require. By this means, you have full control over what changes are
6479 made, and Exim does not need to know anything about message bodies.
6480 However, using a transport filter requires additional resources, and may
6481 slow down mail delivery.
6485 You can use Exim's directors and routers to arrange for those messages
6486 that you want to modify to be delivered via a transport filter. For
6487 example, suppose you want to do this for messages from addresses in
6488 your domain that are being delivered to a remote host. Place the
6489 following router before the standard <B>lookuphost</B> router:
6495 transport = remote_smtp_filter
6496 condition = ${if eq {$sender_address_domain}{your.domain}{yes}{no}}</PRE>
6498 This routes the relevant addresses to a transport called
6499 <TT>remote_smtp_filter</TT>. Other addresses fall through to the normal router,
6500 and are routed to the standard <TT>remote_smtp</TT> transport. Another way to do
6501 this would be to use a single router, with an expanded string for the
6502 transport setting. The new transport is defined thus:
6508 transport_filter = /your/filter/command</PRE>
6510 The entire message is passed to your filter command on its standard
6511 input. It must write the modified version to the standard output, taking
6512 care not to break the RFC 822 syntax. The command is run as the Exim
6513 user, if one is defined; otherwise it is run as root.
6517 There are a number of potential problems in doing this kind of
6518 modification in an MTA. Many people believe that to attempt is it wrong,
6523 1. It breaks digital signatures, which are becoming legally binding
6524 in some countries (already in the UK, likely to be 1 October 2000 in
6525 the USA). It may well also break encryption.
6529 2. It is likely to break MIME encoding, that is, it is likely to wreck
6530 attachments, unless great care is taken. And what about the case of a
6531 message containing only binary MIME parts?
6535 3. It is illegal under German and Dutch law to change the body of
6536 a mail message in transit. It might potentially be illegal in
6537 the UK under European law. This consideration applies to ISPs and
6538 other "common carriers". It would presumably not apply in a corporate
6539 environment where modification was done only to messages originating
6540 from the employees, before they left the company's network. It might
6541 also not apply if the senders have explicitly given their consent
6542 (e.g. agreed to have advertisements added to their incoming mail).
6546 4. Since the delivered message body was produced by the MTA (not the
6547 originator, because it was modified), the MTA operator could
6548 potentially be sued for any content. This again applies to "common
6549 carrier" MTAs. It's interesting that adding a disclaimer of liability
6550 could be making you liable for the message, but this case seems
6551 more likely to involve adding advertisements than disclaimers. After
6552 all, no postal service in the world opens all the mail it carries to
6557 5. Some mail clients (old versions of MS outlook) crash if the message
6558 body of an incoming MIME message has been tampered with.
6562 There are also potential problems that could arise if a scheme to add
6563 disclaimers goes wrong for some messages:
6567 1. False negatives: "Ah, this guy usually says he does not represent
6568 their views, but in this message he doesn't have the disclaimer".
6572 2. False positives: "This official announcement does not represent our
6577 An alternative approach to the disclaimer problem would be to insist
6578 that all relevant messages have the disclaimer appended by the MUA. The
6579 MTA should refuse to accept any that do not. Again, however, the MTA
6580 must understand the format of messages in order to do this. Simply
6581 checking for appropriate wording at the end of the body is not good
6582 enough. It would probably be necessary to run a Perl script from within
6583 an Exim system filter in order to adopt this approach.
6587 Finally, it's a trivial matter to add customized headers of the sort:
6591 X-Disclaimer: This is a standard disclaimer that says that the views
6592 X-Disclaimer: contained within this message are somebody elses.</PRE>
6594 which is a much easier alternative to modifying message bodies.
6597 <A NAME="SEC266" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC266">Q1502</A>: How can I remove attachments from messages?
6601 A1502: The answer to this is essentially the same as for
6602 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC265">Q1501</A>.
6605 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC267" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC267">20. MILLENNIUM
6608 <A NAME="SEC268" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC268">Q2000</A>: Are there any Y2K issues with Exim?
6612 A2000: The author of Exim believes that it is Y2K-compliant, as long as the
6613 underlying operating system and C library are. Exim does not parse dates
6614 or times at all. Internally, it makes some use of binary timestamps in
6615 Unix format (number of seconds since 1-Jan-1970) and uses C library
6616 services to convert these to printing forms (e.g. for logging). The
6617 printing forms all use 4-digit years. Some people have tried various
6618 tests. No problems have been reported, but details of what tests have
6619 been done are not available.
6623 Well, it's now August 2000, and no Y2K problems have been reported, so
6624 it looks like I was right.
6627 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC269" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC269">50. MISCELLANEOUS
6630 <A NAME="SEC270" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC270">Q5001</A>: What does the error "Unable to get interface configuration: 22 Invalid
6635 A5001: This is an error that occurs when Exim is trying to find out the all the
6636 IP addresses on all of the local host's interfaces. If you have lots of
6637 virtual interfaces, this can occur if there are more than around 250 of
6638 them. The solution is to set the option <TT>local_interfaces</TT> to list just
6639 those IP addresses that you want to use for making and receiving SMTP
6643 <A NAME="SEC271" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC271">Q5002</A>: How can I arrange to allow a limited set of users to perform a limited
6644 set of Exim administration functions? I don't want to put them all in
6649 A5002: See <B><A HREF="http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ian/userv/.">http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ian/userv/.</A></B> Using userv you can
6650 arrange (for example) for certain users to be able to invoke mailq or
6651 runq or other preset commands as exim (or any other user, as configured)
6652 with only userv configuration. If you want to check the particular Exim
6653 options available you can easily do it with shell or Perl scripts and
6654 userv configuration, and provided you know how to do argument
6655 `unparsing' properly in shell or Perl it will be secure.
6658 <A NAME="SEC272" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC272">Q5003</A>: How can I test for a message's size being greater or less than a given
6659 value in an expansion string?
6663 A5003: This isn't straightforward in versions of Exim prior to 2.10, because
6664 there were no arithmetic operators in expansion strings. In version
6665 2.10 or later you can write, straightforwardly,
6669 ${if > {$message_size}{10K} {yes} {no}}</PRE>
6671 In earlier versions, low cunning can be used to achieve certain
6672 kinds of test. For example, to test if the message size is less than
6673 or equal to 1000000:
6677 ${if eq{${expand:\$\{substr_-1000000_$message_size:x\}}} {} {yes} {no}}</PRE>
6678 <A NAME="SEC273" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC273">Q5004</A>: I want to "tail" the Exim log, but I have a number of other logs I also
6679 want to "tail", and the number of tailing windows is getting to be a
6684 A5004: Look for a program called 'xtail' (despite its name, it's not an
6685 X-windows application). It allows you to do multiple tails, even of
6689 <A NAME="SEC274" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC274">Q5005</A>: I would like to have Exim log information written to syslog.
6693 A5005: Support for this is available from version 3.10 onwards.
6696 <A NAME="SEC275" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC275">Q5006</A>: What does the error "Failed to create spool file" mean?
6700 A5006: Exim has been unable to create a file in its spool area in which to
6701 store an incoming message. This is most likely to be either a
6702 permissions problem in the file hierarchy, or a problem with the uid
6703 under which Exim is running, though it could be something more drastic
6704 such as your disc being full. Check that you have defined the spool
6705 directory correctly by running
6709 exim -bP spool_directory</PRE>
6711 and examining the output. Check the mode of this directory. It should
6712 look like this, assuming you are running Exim as user `exim':
6716 drwxr-x--- 6 exim exim 512 Jul 16 12:29 /var/spool/exim</PRE>
6718 If there are any subdirectories already in existence, they should have
6719 the same permissions, owner, and group. Check also that you haven't got
6720 incorrect permissions on superior directories (for example, <B>/var/spool</B>).
6721 Check that you have set up the exim binary to be setuid root. It should
6726 -rwsr-xr-x 1 root xxx 502780 Jul 16 14:16 exim</PRE>
6728 Note that it is not just the owner that must be root, but also the third
6729 permission must be "s" rather than "x".
6732 <A NAME="SEC276" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC276">Q5007</A>: Exim keeps crashing with segmentation errors (signal 11 or 139).
6736 A5007: This might be a problem with the db library. See
6737 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC146">Q0505</A>.
6740 <A NAME="SEC277" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC277">Q5008</A>: Exim's databases keep getting corrupted.
6745 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC146">Q0505</A>.
6748 <A NAME="SEC278" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC278">Q5009</A>: I've been using an autoreply director to try and mimic a bounce message,
6749 but I can't get it to have an envelope from of <>.
6753 A5009: You haven't, by any chance, put "exim" in the list of <TT>never_users</TT>, have
6757 <A NAME="SEC279" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC279">Q5010</A>: I see entries in the log that mention two different IP addresses for the
6758 same connection. Why is this? For example:
6762 H=tip-mp8-ncs-13.stanford.edu ([36.173.0.189]) [36.173.0.156]</PRE>
6764 A5010: The actual IP address from which the call came is the final one.
6765 Whenever there's something in parentheses in a host name, it is what the
6766 host quoted as the domain part of an SMTP HELO or EHLO command. So in
6767 this case, the client, despite being 36.173.0.156, issued the command
6771 HELO [36.173.0.189]</PRE>
6773 when it sent your server the message. This is, of course, very
6777 <A NAME="SEC280" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC280">Q5011</A>: How can I persuade Exim to accept ETRN commands without the leading
6782 A5011: Set the option
6786 smtp_etrn_command = /usr/lib/sendmail -R $domain</PRE>
6788 This causes Exim to run that command, with <B>$domain</B> replaced by the
6789 argument of ETRN. The default action of Exim is to require the # sign
6790 in order to be RFC-compliant, and to run the equivalent of
6794 smtp_etrn_command = /usr/lib/sendmail -R ${substr_1:$domain}</PRE>
6796 which uses the argument without the leading # as the value for the <B>-R</B>
6797 option. You aren't restricted to running Exim with the <B>-R</B> option, of
6798 course. You can specify any command you like, with any number of
6799 arguments. In particular, you can pass over the IP address of the caller
6800 via <B><B>$sender_host_address.</B></B> However, if you make use of expansion strings
6801 in the arguments, each one must be entirely contained in a single
6802 argument. For example, if you want to remove the first character of the
6803 ETRN argument when it is @ or #, you could use
6807 smtp_etrn_command = "/usr/lib/sendmail -R \
6808 \"${if match {$domain}{^[@#]}{${substr_1:$domain}}{$domain}}\""</PRE>
6810 The internal quotes are necessary because of the white space inside the
6815 If you use <TT>smtp_etrn_command</TT> to run something other than Exim with the
6816 <B>-R</B> option, you must disable <TT>smtp_etrn_serialize</TT>, because otherwise the
6817 serialization lock (which is set by default) never gets removed.
6820 <A NAME="SEC281" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC281">Q5012</A>: I've recently noticed that emails I send with a Bcc: line are being
6821 delivered to their final destination with the Bcc: line still present.
6825 A5012: Exim removes Bcc lines only if you call it with the <B>-t</B> option (i.e.
6826 when it is acting partly as an MUA). It does not remove Bcc lines that
6827 are present in incoming SMTP mail or command-line mail that does not
6828 use <B><B>-t.</B></B> Indeed, it should not remove them. From RFC 822:
6832 5.3. BCC / RESENT-BCC
6836 This field contains the identity of additional recipients of the
6837 message. The contents of this field are not included in copies of the
6838 message sent to the primary and secondary recipients. Some systems may
6839 choose to include the text of the "Bcc" field only in the author(s)'s
6840 copy, while others may also include it in the text sent to all those
6841 indicated in the "Bcc" list.
6845 Only the initiating software (i.e. the MUA) can tell what to do with
6846 Bcc; any MTA software has to leave it alone.
6849 <A NAME="SEC282" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC282">Q5013</A>: I used gv <B>v3.5.8</B> (ghostview) to try printing <B>spec.ps.</B> After every
6850 printed page, the printer ejects a blank sheet. Is this something to do
6851 with using "letter" rather than A4 paper?
6855 A5013: This seems to be an effect of using ghostview. Although the PostScript
6856 is generated for A4 pages, the size of the page images is such that they
6857 should fit on a letter page (they are shorter than would normally be
6858 used on A4 paper). If the PostScript file is sent directly to a
6859 PostScript printer, there is no problem. An alternative is to get hold
6860 of the "psutils" toolset, which is available from
6864 <A HREF="ftp://ftp.dcs.ed.ac.uk/pub/psutils/psutils.tar.gz">ftp://ftp.dcs.ed.ac.uk/pub/psutils/psutils.tar.gz</A></PRE>
6866 It contains utilities for extracting pages (which can be useful for
6867 double-sided printing) and for resizing pages. If you resize from A4 to
6868 letter the text shrinks a bit, but should then be printable via
6872 <A NAME="SEC283" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC283">Q5014</A>: I would like to have a separate queue per domain for hosts which dial
6873 in to collect their mail.
6877 A5014: Exim isn't really designed for this kind of operation. The only way to
6878 do this would be to cause it to send those messages to a differently
6879 configured version of Exim with its own spool area. This could be done
6880 via a pipe or SMTP to a private port. The main Exim, listening on port
6881 25, would then be configured to run an appropriate command to prod one
6882 of the others when it received ETRN, by means of the <TT>etrn_command</TT> option.
6886 You could probably manage this with a single Exim binary and a number of
6887 different configuration files, passed to the special versions using the
6888 <B>-C</B> option. For this application they could all run as exim, since no
6889 root privilege would be needed.
6893 An alternative approach id to get Exim to deliver mail for such hosts
6894 in batch SMTP format into some directory, and have the ETRN run
6895 something to pass such messages to the dialled-in host. See also
6896 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC144">Q0503</A>
6898 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC162">Q0521</A>.
6901 <A NAME="SEC284" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC284">Q5015</A>: A short time after I start Exim I see a <defunct> zombie process. What
6906 A5015: Your system must be lightly loaded as far as mail is concerned. The
6907 daemon sets off a queue runner process when it is started, but it only
6908 tidies up completed child processes when it wakes up for some other
6909 reason. When there's nothing much going on, you occasionally see
6910 <defunct> processes like this waiting to be dealt with. This is
6914 <A NAME="SEC285" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC285">Q5016</A>: On a reboot, or a restart of the mail system, I see the message "Mailer
6915 daemons: exim abandoned: unknown, malformed, or incomplete option
6916 <B>-bz</B> sendmail". What does this mean?
6920 A5016: <B>-bz</B> is a Sendmail option requesting it to create a "configuration freeze
6921 file". Exim has no such concept and so does not support the option. You
6922 probably have a line like
6926 /usr/lib/sendmail -bz</PRE>
6928 in some start-up script (e.g. <B><B>/etc/init.d/mail</B>)</B> immedately before
6932 /usr/lib/sendmail -bd -q15m</PRE>
6934 The first of these lines should be commented out.
6937 <A NAME="SEC286" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC286">Q5017</A>: I would like to restrict e-mail usage for some users to the local
6938 machine, ideally on a group basis.
6943 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC349">A9802</A>
6946 <A NAME="SEC287" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC287">Q5018</A>: Whenever exim restarts it takes up to 3-5 minutes to start responding on
6947 the SMTP port. Why is this?
6951 A5018: Something else is hanging onto port 25 and not releasing it. One place
6952 to look is <B><B>/etc/inetd.conf</B></B> in case for any reason an SMTP stream is
6956 <A NAME="SEC288" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC288">Q5019</A>: Why aren't there any man pages for Exim? I don't always carry my printed
6961 A5019: As well as plain ASCII text, the Exim documentation is provided in two
6962 online forms - texinfo and HTML - which have a certain amount of built-
6963 in indexing for ease of finding your way around. There are no man pages
6964 because the author of Exim hasn't the time (or desire :-) to maintain
6965 yet another documentation format. Besides, it is hard to know how to
6966 split the Exim manual up.
6970 There is a contributed man page for a previous version of Exim in
6974 <B><A HREF="ftp://ftp.cus.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programs/exim/Contrib/doc/exim.8">ftp://ftp.cus.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programs/exim/Contrib/doc/exim.8</A></B>
6978 This was written by a previous maintainer of the Debian GNU/Linux Exim
6979 package. You can view a nicely formated version at:
6983 <B><A HREF="http://dwww.jimpick.com/cgi-bin/dwww?type=man&location=/usr/man/man8/exim.8.gz">http://dwww.jimpick.com/cgi-bin/dwww?type=man&location=/usr/man/man8/exim.8.gz</A></B>
6987 This contains some introductory text and the command line options only.
6990 <A NAME="SEC289" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC289">Q5020</A>: When I send a message using the <B>-t</B> command line option, Exim sends only
6991 to the addresses within the message, not to those on the command line.
6995 A5020: By default Exim operates according to the Sendmail documentation, and
6996 interprets addresses on the command line as addresses <EM>not</EM> to send to.
7001 extract_addresses_remove_arguments = false</PRE>
7003 to change this behaviour. There is some confusion in the Sendmail
7004 community about the interpretation of recipient addresses on the command
7005 line if the <B>-t</B> option is used.
7009 Here is an except from one version of the sendmail documentation
7013 <B>-t</B> Read message for recipients. To:, Cc:, and Bcc: lines will
7014 be scanned for recipient addresses. The Bcc: line will be
7015 deleted before transmission. Any addresses in the argument
7016 list will be suppressed, that is, they will not receive
7017 copies even if listed in the message header.
7021 Earlier versions of the sendmail documentation are ambiguous (unlike the
7022 snippet above). Apparently the code and documentation streams resolved
7023 the ambiguity differently.
7026 <A NAME="SEC290" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC290">Q5021</A>: If I set up, for example,
7027 <TT>local_domains = *customer.com</TT>, then it matches
7028 <B>"customer.com"</B> and <B>"abc.customer.com"</B> as required, but it also matches
7029 <B>"noncustomer.com",</B> which is wrong. How can I get round this?
7033 A5021: (A) You have to specify two entries in the list:
7037 local_domains = customer.com : *.customer.com</PRE>
7039 because * in a domain list matches any characters, including "." and
7040 including a null sequence.
7044 (B) Alternatively, you could use a regular expression:
7048 local_domains = ^(.+\.|)customer\.com$</PRE>
7050 but that probably will not be as efficient.
7054 (C) If you have lots of local domains, you could put them into a file to
7055 be searched (using lsearch, dbm, cdb, or whatever) and use a partial
7060 local_domains = partial-dbm;/list/of/domains</PRE>
7062 If the file contains the key <B>*.customer.com</B> then the desired effect is
7063 achieved, because partial lookups do operate on a component basis. See
7064 the section entitled "Partial matching in domain lists". It is a bit
7065 confusing that "*" is used in this context, because its meaning is not
7066 the same as when it appears directly in a domain list.
7069 <A NAME="SEC291" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC291">Q5022</A>: I want to match all local domains of the form <B>*.oyoy.org</B> but want a few
7070 exceptions. For instance I don't want <B>foo.oyoy.org</B> or <B>bar.oyoy.org</B> to be
7071 treated as local. What is the best way to do this?
7075 A5022: (A) From release 3.00 onwards, you can put negative items in the
7076 <TT>local_domains</TT> setting, like this:
7080 local_domains = !foo.oyoy.org : !bar.oyoy.org : *.oyoy.org</PRE>
7082 If there are many exceptions, you can use a lookup instead of listing
7087 (B) Otherwise, you can use a regular expression:
7091 local_domains = ^.*(?<!^foo|^bar)\.oyoy\.org$</PRE>
7093 An alternative formulation that is more efficient in execution (because
7094 it doesn't backtrack for .* in cases that don't match) is
7098 local_domains = ^(?>.*$)(?<=\.oyoy\.org)(?<!^(foo|bar)\.oyoy\.org)</PRE>
7100 If you are using an earlier version of Exim in which the regular
7101 expression library does not have lookbehind support (versions prior to
7102 2.051, but after 1.735):
7106 local_domains = ^(?!(foo|bar)\.oyoy\.org$).+\.oyoy\.org$</PRE>
7108 If you are using a version of Exim that is earlier than 1.735, consider
7112 <A NAME="SEC292" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC292">Q5023</A>: I can't seem to find a pre-built version of Exim anywhere. The machine
7113 is a Sparc 5 running Solaris 2.6.
7117 A5023: The problem is that there are a number of build-time options, requiring
7118 the answer to questions like:
7122 . Which DBM library do you have? (On Solaris probably ndbm, but no easy
7123 default on some other systems.)
7127 . Which uid/gid do you want to use for Exim?
7131 . Where do you want the configuration file to be? (<EM>Many</EM> different
7132 answers, even on the same OS, depending on local policy.)
7136 . Ditto for the binaries.
7140 . Which optional bits of Exim do you want to include?
7144 ... and so on. One could impose a set of values, but I suspect they
7145 would probably please nobody.
7148 <A NAME="SEC293" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC293">Q5024</A>: Is there a Windows NT version of Exim available?
7152 A5024: A long time ago somebody took a copy of the Exim source with the aim of
7153 trying to port it to NT. However, I never heard anything more.
7156 <A NAME="SEC294" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC294">Q5025</A>: Does Exim support Delivery Status Notificaion (DSN), Message Status
7157 Notification (MSN), or any other form of delivery acknowledgement?
7162 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC158">A0517</A>.
7165 <A NAME="SEC295" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC295">Q5026</A>: What does "Exim" stand for?
7169 A5026: Originally, it was "EXperimental Internet Mailer", which was the best I
7170 could come up with when I was starting out. At that point it <EM>was</EM>
7171 experimental - I wanted to see if the ideas I had for extending Smail's
7172 approach actually worked. Then somebody discovered about it and wanted
7173 to start using it, and told other people about it...
7176 <A NAME="SEC296" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC296">Q5027</A>: What does the log message "no immediate delivery: more than 10 messages
7177 received in one connection" mean?
7182 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC159">A0518</A>.
7185 <A NAME="SEC297" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC297">Q5028</A>: Although I haven't set <TT>check_spool_space</TT>, Exim is still checking the
7186 amount of space on the spool for incoming SMTP messages that use the
7187 SIZE option. Can I suppress this?
7191 A5028: The RFC for the SIZE option says
7195 If the server currently lacks sufficient resources to accept a
7196 message of the indicated size, but may be able to accept the
7197 message at a later time, it responds with code "452
7198 insufficient system storage".
7202 and that is what Exim is trying to implement. This is entirely
7203 independent from <TT>check_spool_space</TT>, which says "don't accept any mail
7204 if there is less than so much space in the spool partition", though the
7205 code is optimised to do both checks at the same time if required.
7206 However, you can suppress the SIZE check if you want to, by unsetting
7207 <TT>smtp_check_spool_space</TT>.
7210 <A NAME="SEC298" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC298">Q5029</A>: I just noticed log entries that start off "<= <>". Am I correct in
7211 assuming that the "<>" indicates that the envelope did not contain any
7216 A5029: Yes. This indicates a delivery failure report (aka "bounce message").
7217 Here is what RFC 1123 has to say about this:
7221 "If there is a delivery failure after acceptance of a message,
7222 the receiver-SMTP MUST formulate and mail a notification
7223 message. This notification MUST be sent using a null ("<>")
7224 reverse path in the envelope; see Section 3.6 of RFC-821. The
7225 recipient of this notification SHOULD be the address from the
7226 envelope return path (or the Return-Path: line). However, if
7227 this address is null ("<>"), the receiver-SMTP MUST NOT send a
7228 notification. If the address is an explicit source route, it
7229 SHOULD be stripped down to its final hop."
7233 The reason for using empty sender addresses is to identify bounce
7234 messages so that they themselves do not cause further bounces. However,
7235 this has made life harder for those that want to check incoming mail for
7236 valid senders. It is a pity that some other mechanism (e.g. a keyword
7237 on the MAIL command) was not used instead, but it is far too late to
7242 Empty senders are also used for other kinds of report which should not
7243 themselves cause the generation of bounce messages. For example, Exim
7244 uses them when sending out warnings about delivery delays.
7247 <A NAME="SEC299" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC299">Q5030</A>: I've received a message which does not have my address in the To:
7248 line. It is a spam message with the same address in both the From: and
7249 the To: headers. How can this happen, and why doesn't Exim reject it?
7253 A5030: There is an important distinction between the "envelope" from and to and
7254 the "header" from and to. The former are sometimes called the "sender"
7255 and "recipient". An email message needs an "envelope" for the same
7256 reason that paper mail does - the envelope tells the delivery mechanism
7257 what to do with *this copy* of the message, whereas the To: header lists
7258 all the recipients, including those who have been sent different copies
7259 of the message because their mailbox is on some other host.
7263 An MTA such as Exim normally works entirely with the "envelope"
7264 addresses, not with those in the header lines. However, you can specify
7265 that it should do some checking of header addresses by setting a
7266 number of options whose names begin with <TT>headers_</TT>.
7270 Don't try to block mail where envelope from and the header from differ.
7271 There are common legitimate cases where this happens, for example,
7272 messages forwarded from mailing lists and delivery failure reports.
7275 <A NAME="SEC300" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC300">Q5031</A>: Can (or will) Exim ever handle a message delivery purely in memory,
7276 that is, it is handled without it ever hitting the disc?
7280 A5031: It doesn't, and never will. Accepting and delivering a message are two
7281 entirely separate, independent processes, which communicate only by
7282 writing/reading the message on the disc.
7285 <A NAME="SEC301" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC301">Q5032</A>: If I am using dbm files for data that Exim reads, can I rebuild them
7286 on the fly, or do I need to restart Exim every time I make a change?
7290 A5032: Exim re-reads the file every time it consults it, so if you are using a
7291 cdb or a DBM library that uses just a single file (i.e. NOT ndbm) then
7292 you can just build the new file with a temporary file name, and use "mv"
7293 to rename it into the correct place on the fly. If there are two files
7294 to rename, there is a window of time during which the DBM database is
7295 inconsistent. On lightly loaded systems this may not matter.
7298 <A NAME="SEC302" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC302">Q5033</A>: What are the main differences between using an Exim filter and using
7303 A5033: Exim filters and procmail provide different facilities. Exim filters run
7304 at directing time, before <EM>any</EM> deliveries are done. A filter is like a
7305 <B>".forward</B> file with conditions". One of the benefits is de-duplication.
7306 Another is that if you forward, you are forwarding the original message.
7310 However, this does mean that pipes etc. are not run at filtering time,
7311 nor can you change the headers, because the message may have other
7312 recipients and Exim keeps only a single set of headers.
7316 Procmail runs at delivery time. This is for one recipient only, and so
7317 it can change headers, run pipes and check the results, etc. However, if
7318 it wants to forward, it has to create a new message containing a copy
7319 of the original message.
7323 It's your choice as to which of these you use. You can of course use
7327 <A NAME="SEC303" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC303">Q5034</A>: I need an option that is the opposite of <B>-bpa,</B> that is, a listing of
7328 those addresses generated from a top-level address that have not yet
7333 A5034: Exim does not keep this information. It saves only the top-level
7334 addresses and the list of addresses that are finished with. At each
7335 delivery attempt, generated addresses are recomputed from scratch. This
7336 makes it possible to correct errors in <B>.forward</B> and alias files that are
7337 causing delivery delays. However, there is an option you can set on an
7338 <B>aliasfile</B> or <B>forwardfile</B> director that changes things. It is called
7339 <TT>one_time</TT>, and if it is set, the list of generated addresses gets added
7340 to the top-level list at the first delivery attempt, and is never
7341 regenerated. Because top-level address lists must be real email
7342 addresses, this option cannot be used if any of the generated addresses
7343 are pipes, files, or autoreplies.
7346 <A NAME="SEC304" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC304">Q5035</A>: I am getting complaints from a customer who uses my EXIM server for
7347 relaying that they are being blocked with a "Too many connections"
7352 A5035: See <TT>smtp_accept_max</TT> and related options such as <TT>smtp_accept_reserve</TT>.
7355 <A NAME="SEC305" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC305">Q5036</A>: When I try "exim <B>-bf"</B> to test a system filter, I received the following
7356 error message: "Filter error: unavailable filtering command "fail" near
7357 line 8 of filter file".
7361 A5036: Use the <B>-bF</B> option to test system filters. This gives you access to the
7362 freeze and fail actions.
7365 <A NAME="SEC306" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC306">Q5037</A>: How can I make Exim receive incoming mail, queue it, but NOT attempt to
7366 deliver it? I want to be in this state while moving some mailboxes.
7370 A5037: (1) Set <TT>queue_only</TT> in the Exim configuration. (2) Kill off your daemon,
7371 and restart it <EM>without</EM> the <B>-q</B> option (i.e. with just the <B>-bd</B> option),
7372 so that it does not spawn any queue runners. This stops all deliveries,
7373 remote as well as local. To stop just local deliveries, assuming that
7374 none of your routers are configured to send messages directly to a local
7375 transport, make this your first director:
7381 new_address = :defer:</PRE>
7383 When you are ready to go again, remove that director and do a <B>-qf</B> run to
7384 override the retry times. This solution works from release 3.10 onwards.
7385 In earlier releases an <B>aliasfile</B> director must be used because :defer:
7386 was not available for use in <B>smartuser</B>.
7389 <A NAME="SEC307" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC307">Q5038</A>: What does the rejection message "reject all recipients: 3 times bad
7394 A5038: See the section of the manual entitled "Sender verification". Exim has
7395 failed to verify a sender from the same host 3 times within a period of
7399 <A NAME="SEC308" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC308">Q5039</A>: The menu in Eximon isn't working. It displays, but I can't select
7404 A5039: On some X implementations, if the numlock key is pressed (so that the
7405 numeric keypad is working) then the menu didn't work properly in
7406 versions of Eximon before Exim release 3.10. The problem is an
7407 infelicity in the particular implementation of X. A workaround was
7408 introduced at release 3.10, so this problem should no longer be
7412 <A NAME="SEC309" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC309">Q5040</A>: What does "ridiculously long message header" in an error report mean?
7416 A5040: There has to be some limit to the length of a message's header lines,
7417 because otherwise a malefactor could open an SMTP channel to your host,
7418 start a message, and then just send characters continuously until your
7419 machine ran out of memory. (Exim stores all the header lines in main
7420 memory). For this reason a limit is imposed on the total amount of
7421 memory that can be used for header lines. The default is 1MB, but this
7422 can be changed by setting HEADER_MAXSIZE in <B>Local/Makefile</B>. Exceeding
7423 the limit provokes the "ridiculous" error message.
7427 Prior to release 3.022 Exim used two separate limits, one on the length
7428 of an individual header line and one on the total number of header
7429 lines. A header line longer than 8192 used to provoke the error "Header
7430 line is ridiculously overlong". In subsequent releases there is no limit
7431 on individual header lines; only the total header size matters.
7434 <A NAME="SEC310" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC310">Q5041</A>: What does Exim use for POP as a default? Do I have to install anything
7439 A5041: Yes. Exim provides MTA functionality. That is, it delivers mail. POP is
7440 one of several ways of reading previously-delivered mail. Exim does not
7441 provide that functionality.
7444 <A NAME="SEC311" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC311">Q5042</A>: I see that Exim doesn't support SSL. Can it be made to work with stunnel?
7448 A5042: From release 3.20, Exim does support SSL/TLS, by making use of the
7453 The problem with using stunnel is that all your SSL connections look
7454 like they come from 127.0.0.1 - none of your IP based policies will
7455 have any effect. This means that you are basically an open relay,
7456 anyone who connects to your server via SSL can relay through you,
7457 whether they are local or not (and who knows, spammers may someday
7458 evolve brains enough to try using SSL ports).
7462 One solution to this is to force all SSL connections to authenticate
7463 before relaying. This is how one user has done this:
7467 First make sure you are set up to do SMTP AUTH properly (see the sample
7468 configuration C034). Then add MUSTAUTH to the <TT>auth_hosts</TT> line in your
7469 configure file. If you don't already have a list of IPs there, it will
7474 auth_hosts = MUSTAUTH</PRE>
7476 If you have some IPs you want to authenticate, add them like this:
7480 auth_hosts = MUSTAUTH:10.1.1.1:10.1.1.2</PRE>
7482 Then invoke stunnel like this:
7486 /usr/local/sbin/stunnel -d 465 -l /usr/exim/bin/exim \
7487 -p /usr/local/ssl/certs/exim.pem -- exim -bs -DMUSTAUTH=127.0.0.1</PRE>
7489 Whenever an SSL connection is established, Exim is invoked with the
7490 macro MUSTAUTH defined as 127.0.0.1, which forces that one particular
7491 instance to authenticate, without disrupting normal 127.0.0.1 operations
7492 via non-SSL sessions.
7495 <A NAME="SEC312" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC312">Q5043</A>: Is there an easy way of removing all queued messages at once in a safe
7500 A5043: Try this command:
7504 exim -bp | awk '/^ *[0-9]+[mhd]/{print "exim -Mrm " $3}' | sh</PRE>
7505 <A NAME="SEC313" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC313">Q5044</A>: What is the best way to provide backup MX for clients?
7509 A5044: If the clients are always online, all you need to do is to have MX
7510 records for their domains pointing to your host, with suitable
7511 preference values, and ensure that their domains are listed in
7512 <TT>relay_domains</TT>. If the clients are not always online, see
7513 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC262">Q1403</A>.
7516 <A NAME="SEC314" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC314">Q5045</A>: Why does Exim do "ident" callbacks by default? Isn't this just a waste
7517 of resources? I've been told this is an ancient way of authentication.
7522 A5045: This is a common mistake, at least partially resulting from the
7523 incorrect naming of the protocol when it was first published.
7524 The service on port 113 is an identification service, which allows a
7525 target host to record information identifying the user responsible for
7526 making a connection to it. The information may not be intelligible to
7527 the recording host - it could, for example, be encrypted so that only
7528 someone on the calling host can make sense of it. It is useful for
7529 providing additional information in an audit trail.
7533 The data should not be used for authentication in any form except
7534 on a closed secure network between cooperating hosts (probably not
7535 even then). The information from the source host is only as reliable
7536 as the host itself - if it's not under your control then you have to
7537 treat the information as opaque data that can be used by the sysadmin
7538 of the source system to trace back connection data - and some ident
7539 implementations send out opaque cookies or DES encrypted information.
7540 Ident is hugely useful at times - especially for checking back on
7541 connections from multiuser machines (as opposed to one-person desktop
7546 You can stop Exim making ident calls by adding
7550 rfc1413_query_timeout = 0s</PRE>
7552 to its configuration, but it is better to leave it active (reducing the
7553 timeout if it is causing problems) - it costs very little, and in cases
7554 of mail forgery from a multiuser system can track the sinner concerned
7558 <A NAME="SEC315" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC315">Q5046</A>: I often have the problem that a message gets stuck in the mailq and I
7559 want it to be bounced to a certain address.
7563 A5046: You can do this using a combination of four command line options, like
7568 exim -Mf 14Fdlq-0003kM-00
7569 exim -Mmad 14Fdlq-0003kM-00
7570 exim -Mar 14Fdlq-0003kM-00 new@ddress
7571 exim -M 14Fdlq-0003kM-00</PRE>
7573 The first command freezes the message so that a queue runner won't start
7574 to deliver it while you are changing things. The second command marks
7575 all existing recipients as delivered. The third command adds a new
7576 recipient, and the fourth command forces a delivery of the message,
7577 which will cause it to be delivered to the new address, and then
7581 <A NAME="SEC316" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC316">Q5047</A>: What precautions should I take when editing <B>exim.conf?</B>
7585 A5047: Edit <B>exim.conf</B> to <B>exim.conf.new.</B> Then run
7589 exim -bV -C exim.conf.new</PRE>
7591 That will check for syntax errors without disturbing your running
7592 configuration. If you are paranoid enough, <EM>as</EM> <EM>root</EM> run
7596 exim -C exim.conf.new <some address>
7597 <some message>
7600 and see if it delivers it. Carry on testing until happy. When happy,
7604 mv exim.conf.new exim.conf
7605 kill -HUP `cat /var/spool/exim/exim-daemon.pid`</PRE>
7607 Then check the Exim log to be sure the daemon restarted OK. Watch the
7608 log for a bit to see that mail is flowing.
7611 <A NAME="SEC317" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC317">Q5048</A>: Is exim able to use RFC 2645, On-demand Mail Relay (ODMR)?
7618 <A NAME="SEC318" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC318">Q5049</A>: I want to send every bounced mail that is received by my server, as
7619 "headers-only" to the sysadmin. How can I do this?
7623 A5049: 1. Set up a transport with <TT>headers_only</TT> to do the delivery.
7627 2. Set up a <B>smartuser</B> director that directs messages to a special local
7628 alias (e.g. "sysadmin-header") to that transport.
7632 3. Set up a system filter file, containing something like
7636 if first_delivery and error_message then
7637 unseen deliver sysadmin-header@your.domain
7639 <A NAME="SEC319" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC319">Q5050</A>: What POP3 daemon should I use with Exim? I want something with
7640 configurable authentication mechanisms.
7644 A5050: Qmail-pop has a checkpasswd part that can be hacked to add whatever
7645 authentication you want. There is also Solid POP which has a lot of
7646 Exim support in it (e.g. nhash). There is also Cyrus, which is
7647 self-contained, so you don't have to worry about ownership of mailboxes
7648 and also it can be poked into authenticating from just about anything.
7649 However, in general, YMMV, and really what suits one user may not suit
7650 another. There is a mailing list at <B><B>pop-imap@exim.org</B></B> for the discussion
7651 of POP/IMAP issues. More information can be found in its archives.
7654 <A NAME="SEC320" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC320">Q5051</A>: Is there any way I can send bounces to the postmaster, and nobody else?
7655 Basically, I want to recieve them, and I don't want the reply/from
7656 person to get them. If I think they need it I will forward it myself.
7660 A5051: Put <TT>errors_to=postmaster</TT> on every router and director.
7663 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC321" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC321">93. HP-UX
7666 <A NAME="SEC322" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC322">Q9301</A>: I'm trying to compile on an HP machine and I don't have gcc there. So I
7667 put <TT>CC=cc</TT> in the <B>Local/Makefile</B>, but I got this error:
7671 (Bundled) cc: "buildconfig.c", line 54: error 1705: Function prototypes
7672 are an ANSI feature.</PRE>
7674 A9301: The bundled compiler is not an ANSI C compiler. You either have to get a
7675 copy of gcc from the HPUX Software Porting Archives or buy the ANSI cc
7676 from HP. The advice given by one user of HP systems on the Exim
7677 mailing list was as follows:
7681 "Personally, I wouldn't use anything but the ANSI C compiler. gcc
7682 works for compilation, but it doesn't know squat about PA-RISC chips
7683 past the 1.0 rev. Since then, HP has come out with PA-RISC 1.1, 2.0,
7684 and 2.1, each with better features. gcc will compile for them, but it
7685 doesn't produce anywhere near the optimization that HP's compiler
7690 I took the gcc road when we moved from FreeBSD to HP-UX because I was
7691 familiar with it. After 6 months, I had to go and re-port everything
7692 over when we realized that gcc wasn't going to do it for us long-term.
7693 If I could give advice to any new HP-UX admin: don't use gcc if you
7694 can afford the ANSI C compiler. Based on the cost of even the lowest
7695 HP workstation, that usually isn't a problem."
7698 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC323" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC323">94. BSDI
7701 <A NAME="SEC324" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC324">Q9401</A>: On BSDI 4.0, Exim built with Perl support exits with the error message
7705 ./exim: can't load library 'libperl.so'</PRE>
7707 A9401: You probably compiled perl5 yourself, without looking into
7711 /usr/src/contrib/perl5/perl5.004_02/hints/bsdos.sh</PRE>
7713 first. The problem is that the command
7717 perl5 -MExtUtils::Embed -e ldopts</PRE>
7719 doesn't give you sufficient flags to link something with libperl.
7720 Since 5.004_02 the <B>hints/bsdos.sh</B> file has changed to adapt to the
7721 changes between BSDI 3.1 and 4.0, but it is still not entirely right.
7725 The solution is, when you compile perl, change the "ccdlflags"
7726 variable in <B>config.sh</B> to:
7730 -rdynamic -Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.00502/i386-bsdos/CORE</PRE>
7732 (or something similar). Alternatively, you can run ./Configure and
7733 answering the question "Any special flags to pass to cc to use dynamic
7734 loading?" with the above line. It is not known what <B>-rdynamic</B> means
7735 (it's not apparently documented in any man page), but that's what BSDI
7736 guys did to compile perl5 which comes with BSDI 4.0 distribution.
7739 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC325" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC325">95. IRIX
7742 <A NAME="SEC326" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC326">Q9501</A>: I'm running IRIX 6.2 with a number of alias IP addresses set up, but
7743 Exim doesn't seem to recognize them as local addresses.
7747 A9501: This problem was fixed in Exim release 2.03. If you are running an
7748 earlier version you should use the <TT>local_interfaces</TT> option to specify
7749 all your IP addresses explicitly.
7752 <A NAME="SEC327" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC327">Q9502</A>: The IP addresses for incoming calls are all being given as
7753 255.255.255.255 or 0.0.0.0.
7757 A9502: From release 3.21, Exim contains a workaround that should fix this
7758 problem. If you are using an earlier release, read on...
7762 If you used the gcc compiler 2.8.x or a version in the 2.95 series,
7763 there is a known bug with the "gethost" function under Irix. SGI
7764 recommends using either their cc compiler in Irix 6.5, or a lesser
7765 version of the gnu compiler. Version 2.7.2.3 is known to work.
7766 Alternatively, there is an Inst-able port of Exim for Irix at
7767 <B><A HREF="http://freeware.sgi.com">http://freeware.sgi.com</A>,</B> but it is not likely to be the latest release.
7768 There is further information about this problem, which is described as a
7769 "classic gcc structure-in-a-register bug" at this URL:
7773 <B><A HREF="http://www.ccp14.ac.uk/ccp14admin/apache13/apache255error.html">http://www.ccp14.ac.uk/ccp14admin/apache13/apache255error.html</A></B>
7777 This is a summary that I was sent:
7781 "Gcc does not correctly pass/return structures which are smaller than
7782 16 bytes and which are not 8 bytes. The problem is very involved and
7783 difficult to fix. It affects a number of other targets also, but irix6
7784 is affected the most, because it is a 64 bit target, and 4 byte
7785 structures are common. The exact problem is that structures are being
7786 padded at the wrong end, e.g. a 4 byte structure is loaded into the
7787 lower 4 bytes of the register when it should be loaded into the upper
7788 4 bytes of the register."
7791 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC328" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC328">96. LINUX
7794 <A NAME="SEC329" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC329">Q9601</A>: Exim is mysteriously crashing, usually when forking to send a delivery
7799 A9601: This has been seen in cases where Exim has been incorrectly built with
7800 a muddled combination of an <B>ndbm.h</B> include file and a non-matching
7805 Faults like this have also been seen on systems with faulty motherboards.
7806 You could try to compile the Linux kernel 10 times - if the compile
7807 process stops with signal 11, your hardware is to blame.
7810 <A NAME="SEC330" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC330">Q9602</A>: Exim has created a directory called <B>build-Linux-libc5-i386</B> but is
7811 trying to reference <B>build-Linux-libc5-i386-linux</B> while building.
7815 A9602: You have several shells installed, which are setting conflicting values
7816 in the HOSTTYPE environment variable that is used to construct the name
7817 of the build directory. One way round this is to run this command:
7821 ln -s build-Linux-libc5-i386-linux build-Linux-libc5-i386</PRE>
7823 This problem should no longer be encountered in release 3.10 or later.
7824 Exim has been changed to get the host type from the "uname" command
7828 <A NAME="SEC331" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC331">Q9603</A>: I want to use logrotate which is standard with <B>RH5.2</B> Linux to rotate
7829 my mail logs. Anyone worked out the logrotate config file that will
7834 A9603: Here's one suggestion:
7838 /var/log/exim/main.log {
7839 create 644 exim exim
7845 The sleep is added to allow things to close the log file prior to
7846 compression. You also need similar entries for the panic log and the
7847 reject log, of course.
7850 <A NAME="SEC332" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC332">Q9604</A>: I'm seeing the message "<B>inetd</B>[334]: imap/tcp server failing (looping),
7851 service terminated" on a RedHat 5.2 system, causing imap connections to
7852 be refused. The imapd in use is Washington Uni vers 12.250. Could this
7853 be anything to do with Exim?
7857 A9604: No, it's nothing to do with Exim, but here's the answer anyway: there
7858 is a maximum connection rate for <B>inetd</B>. If connections come in faster
7859 than that, it thinks a caller is looping. The default setting on RedHat
7860 5.2 is 40 calls in any one minute before <B>inetd</B> thinks there's a problem
7861 and suspends further calls for 10 mins. This default setting is very
7862 conservative. You should probably increase it by a factor of 10 or 20.
7867 imap stream tcp nowait.400 root /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/local/etc/imapd</PRE>
7869 The rate setting is the number following "nowait". This syntax seems to
7870 be specific to the Linux version of <B>inetd</B>. Other operating systems
7871 provide similar functionality, but in different ways.
7874 <A NAME="SEC333" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC333">Q9605</A>: I get the "too many open files" error especially when a lot of messages
7875 land for majordomo at the same time.
7879 A9605: The problem appears to be the number of open files the system can
7880 handle. This is changable by using the proc filesystem. To your
7881 <B><B>/etc/rc.d/rc.local</B></B> file append something like the following:
7885 # Now System is up, Modify kernel parameters for max open etc.</PRE>
7887 if [ -f /proc/sys/kernel/file-max ]; then
7888 echo 16384 >> /proc/sys/kernel/file-max
7890 if [ -f /proc/sys/kernel/inode-max ]; then
7891 echo 24576 >> /proc/sys/kernel/inode-max
7893 if [ -f /proc/sys/kernel/file-nr ]; then
7894 echo 2160 >> /proc/sys/kernel/file-nr
7897 By echoing the value you want for file-max to the file file-max <B>etc.,</B>
7898 you actually change the kernel parameters.
7901 <A NAME="SEC334" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC334">Q9606</A>: I'm having a problem with an Exim RPM.
7905 A9606: Normally the thing to do if you have a problem with an RPM package is
7906 to contact the person who built the package first, not the person who
7907 made the software that's in the package. You can usually find out who
7908 made a package using the following command:
7912 rpm --query --package --queryformat '%{PACKAGER}\n' <rpm-package-file></PRE>
7914 where <rpm-package-file> is the actual file, e.g. <B>`exim-3.03-2.i386.rpm'.</B>
7915 Or, if the package is installed on your system:
7919 rpm --query --queryformat '%{PACKAGER}\n' <package-name></PRE>
7921 where <package-name> is the name component of the package, e.g. `exim'.
7922 If the packager is unable or unwilling to help, only then should you
7923 contact the actual author or associated mailing list of the software.
7927 If you discover through the querying process that you can't tell who
7928 the person (or company or group) is who built the package, or that they
7929 no longer exist at the given address, then you should reconsider
7930 whether you want a package from an unknown source on your system.
7934 If you discover through the querying process that you yourself are the
7935 person who built the package, then you should either (a) contact the
7936 author or associated mailing list, or (b) reconsider whether you ought
7937 to be building and distributing RPM packages of software you don't
7942 Similar rules of thumb govern other binary package formats, including
7943 debs, tarballs, and POSIX packages.
7946 <A NAME="SEC335" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC335">Q9607</A>: I installed debian 2.2 linux on a small 325mb 486 laptop. When I try
7947 to test the Mail program, I get the following error: "Failed to open
7948 configuration file <B><B>/etc/exim.conf</B>".</B>
7952 A9607: The Debian installation should have given you <B>/usr/sbin/eximconfig</B>,
7953 which asks you some questions and then sets up the configuration file
7954 in <B><B>/etc/exim.conf</B>.</B> Try running that (you'll probably need root) and see
7955 how it goes. In any case you get a thoroughly commented conf file at
7956 the end, which will give you a sample from which to work if you need
7957 further modification.
7961 The exim docs in the Debian package are in <B>/usr/doc/exim</B> and the full
7962 reference manual is <B>spec.txt.gz</B>
7965 <A NAME="SEC336" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC336">Q9608</A>: I'm getting the error <B>"db.h:</B> No such file or directory" when I try to
7966 build Exim under RedHat 7.0.
7971 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC62">Q0113</A>.
7974 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC337" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC337">97. SUN SYSTEMS
7977 <A NAME="SEC338" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC338">Q9701</A>: Exim builds fine with gcc on SunOS 4 but crashes inside <B>sscanf()</B>.
7981 A9701: Make sure you are liking with the GNU <B>ld</B> linker and not the system
7982 version of <B>ld</B>.
7985 <A NAME="SEC339" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC339">Q9702</A>: How can I get rid of spurious ^M characters in messages sent from
7990 A9702: CDE <B>dtmail</B> passes messages to Exim via the command line interface with
7991 lines terminated by CRLF, instead of the Unix convention of just LF. As
7992 Exim is an 8-bit clean program it treats the CR as just another data
7993 character. Exim has a command line option called <B>-dropcr</B> which causes
7994 it to ignore <EM>all</EM> CR characters in an incoming non-SMTP message. You
7995 should configure <B>dtmail</B> to add this option to the command it uses to
7996 call Exim (using the path <B>/usr/lib/sendmail</B>). However, it has been
7997 reported that it isn't possible to change this call from <B>dtmail</B> by any
7998 official means. An alternative approach is to replace <B>/usr/lib/sendmail</B>
7999 by a filtering script which removes the spurious CRs from the input
8000 before passing it to Exim.
8003 <A NAME="SEC340" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC340">Q9703</A>: On SunOS 4 Exim crashes when looking up domains in the DNS that have
8004 more than 10 A records.
8008 A9703: There are Sun library patches to fix this. It is not Exim's problem.
8009 For 4.13_U1 the patch is 101558<I>-xx</I>; for 4.1.3 the patch is 100891<I>-xx</I>.
8010 From the README: 1054748 ftp, ping dump core when connecting to a host
8011 with multiple DNS A records.
8015 An alternative is to build another resolver library - such as the ones
8016 that are part of the bind distribution - and explicitly link against
8020 <A NAME="SEC341" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC341">Q9704</A>: The menu in Eximon isn't working on my Sun system.
8024 A9704: With OpenWindows, if the numlock key is pressed (so that the numeric
8025 pad is working) then some menus don't work. This appears to be true for
8026 the console and (some) remote X-window servers. A workaround for this
8027 problem was introduced in the 3.10 Exim release, so it should no longer
8031 <A NAME="SEC342" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC342">Q9705</A>: I am experiencing mailbox locking problems with Sun's <B>mailtool</B> used
8036 A9705: Under the "Expert" settings of mailtool is a option to turn on "Use
8037 network aware mail file locking". By default <B>dtmail</B> has this set, but
8038 mailtool doesn't. You should set it. The help info on <B>dtmail</B> has this
8043 "Mailer tries to prevent two different instances of itself from opening
8044 the same mail file at the same time through a technique that detects
8045 this access when both instances of Mailer and the file are all on the
8046 same machine. A network-aware mail file locking protocol is available
8047 that uses ToolTalk to coordinate instances of Mailer running from more
8048 than one machine, or mail files accessed over the network. Mailer can
8049 only change this option when first opening a mail file."
8053 If you are using the SunOS4 version of <B>mailtool</B>, this apparently
8054 doesn't work. The only thing which does seem to work it getting the user
8055 to hit the "done" button to make it release the lock.
8058 <A NAME="SEC343" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC343">Q9706</A>: Exim has been crashing on my Solaris x86 system, apparently while
8059 running DBM functions.
8063 A9706: The use of ndbm with gcc has caused problems on x86 Solaris systems.
8064 Try changing one or the other; using either db 1.85 with gcc, or Sun's
8065 WS compiler with ndbm, has fixed this in the past.
8068 <A NAME="SEC344" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC344">Q9707</A>: The exiwhat utility isn't working for me on a Solaris 2 system.
8072 A9707: Have you got <B>/usr/ucb</B> on your path? If so, it is probably picking up the
8073 wrong version of the <B>ps</B> command. The exiwhat script is built on
8074 Solaris to expect the normal Solaris version of <B>ps</B>.
8077 <A NAME="SEC345" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC345">Q9708</A>: How do I stop Sun's <B>dtcm</B> from hanging?
8081 A9708: From qmail's FAQ: "There is a novice programming error in <B>dtcm</B>, known as
8082 ``failure to close the output side of the pipe in the <B>child.''</B> Sun has,
8083 at the time of this writing, not yet provided a patch."
8086 <A NAME="SEC346" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC346">Q9709</A>: I want Exim to use only the resolver (i.e. ignore <B>/etc/hosts</B>), but don't
8087 want to alter the <B>nsswitch.conf</B> file in Solaris 2.
8091 A9709: You need to rebuild Exim after fiddling with <B>OS/os.h-SunOS5:</B>
8095 #define gethostbyaddr res_gethostbyaddr
8096 #define gethostbyname res_gethostbyname
8097 #define endhostent res_endhostent
8098 #define endnetent res_endnetent
8099 #define gethostent res_gethostent
8100 #define getnetbyaddr res_getnetbyaddr
8101 #define getnetbyname res_getnetbyname
8102 #define getnetent res_getnetent
8103 #define sethostent res_sethostent
8104 #define setnetent res_setnetent</PRE>
8106 Exim uses gethostbyname and gethostbyaddr only, but may use others in
8107 the future. Note that <B>-lnsl</B> is still needed in the Makefile as it
8108 contains code used by the NIS lookup and also the <TT>inet_addr</TT> function
8112 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC347" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC347">98. COOKBOOK
8115 <A NAME="SEC348" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC348">Q9801</A>: How do I configure Exim as part of TPC <B>(<A HREF="http://www.tpc.int">http://www.tpc.int</A>)?</B>
8119 A9801: (1) add <B>partial-lsearch;/etc/mail/tpc.domains</B> to <TT>local_domains</TT>;
8120 <B><B>/etc/mail/tpc.domains</B></B> is a text file with lines in this format:
8124 9.3.5.1.0.8.1.tpc.int.</PRE>
8126 This sample line indicates that we accept faxes destined for
8131 (2) Set up the following transport:
8137 command = /usr/local/tpc/tpcmailer.pl ${local_part}@${domain} \
8139 pipe_as_creator</PRE>
8141 <B><B>/usr/local/tpc/tpcmailer.pl</B></B> is the mail processing script that can
8142 be obtained from the TPC distribution.
8146 (3) Set up the following director:
8153 domains = partial-lsearch;/etc/mail/tpc.domains</PRE>
8155 Of course, there are other things to do as well before your system is
8156 a functioning TPC server.
8159 <A NAME="SEC349" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC349">Q9802</A>: How do I configure Exim so that it sends mail to the outside world only
8160 from a restricted list of our local users?
8164 A9802: There are several possible ways that this can be done.
8168 (A) You can restrict the senders directly by putting a setting such as
8169 this one on all the drivers that route to the outside (usually this
8170 is just the final <B>lookuphost</B> router):
8174 senders = :^[^@]+@(?!${rxquote:your.domain}\$):\
8175 lsearch;/permitted/senders</PRE>
8177 The first item in this list is empty, to match the empty sender.
8178 This is necessary because bounce messages have null senders. The
8179 second item is a regular expression that matches any address whose
8180 domain is <EM>not</EM> your domain. This caters for cases when mail from
8181 an external user has arrived for a local user who has forwarding
8182 set up to some outside address.
8186 If the first two items do not match (that is, the address is in your
8187 domain) the sender is looked up in a file of permitted senders; each
8188 item in the file must be a complete address, including the domain.
8189 If the sender is unacceptable, an "unrouteable mail domain" error
8190 will occur because the router won't run, and there are no more to
8195 (B) If your local users are in many domains, it may be easier to use a
8196 <TT>condition</TT> option to test the domain and local part independently,
8202 ${lookup{${domain:$sender_address}}lsearch{/domain/list}\
8204 ${lookup{${local_part:$sender_address}}lsearch\
8205 {/permitted/senders}{yes}{no}}\
8209 Obviously other means of testing the domain and local part could be
8210 substituted, for example, by having separate files of valid local
8211 parts for each local domain.
8215 (C) If your local users are logged in to your host, you could use a
8216 special group for those that are permitted to mail to the world.
8217 Assuming your groups are defined in <B>/etc/group</B> you could arrange to
8218 look up the group in that file and then check that the sender was in
8219 the group,using something along these lines:
8224 ${lookup{groupname}lsearch{/etc/group}\
8225 {${if match {$value}\
8226 {[:,]${rxquote:${local_part:$sender_address}}(,|\$)}\
8227 {yes}{no}}}{no}}</PRE>
8229 This is checking the local part of the sender; a alternative might
8230 be to check <B><B>$sender_ident.</B></B> However, you should really also check
8231 that <B>$sender_host_address</B> is either unset or set to 127.0.0.1 or
8232 your IP address, so you check only locally-originated mail.
8236 A block like this does not prevent a logged in user from sending
8237 mail by telnetting to another host's SMTP port, or indeed from
8238 installing a private version of Exim to do the job for her.
8242 (D) On a gateway server that has no local users and so receives all the
8243 mail via SMTP from client hosts, you could use a rewriting rule to
8244 rewrite sender addresses in your local domain from a table of legal
8245 local parts, replacing any illegal addresses with an address such as
8246 <B><B>unknown@your.domain</B>.</B> If this is combined with <TT>sender_verify=true</TT>
8247 it causes messages from users that are not in the table to be
8248 refused, assuming that the gateway is capable of verifying the local
8249 part of <B><B>user@your.domain</B>.</B>
8252 <A NAME="SEC350" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC350">Q9803</A>: How do I configure Exim to run with SmartList?
8256 A9803: This is what was done for Exim's own mailing list, using SmartList/
8257 procmail 3.11pre7. It runs as its own user - trying to manage mailing
8258 lists under your own ID can be hard work. Smartlist is installed into
8259 <B>/var/spool/slist</B>, and there is an slist user defined. Each list appears
8260 as a directory under <B>/var/spool/slist</B> (as per usual for Smarlist).
8261 Exim is configured like this:
8265 # slist added to list of trusted users so it can
8266 # manipulate sender addresses</PRE>
8268 trusted_users = exim:slist</PRE>
8270 # in transports, a list transport is defined:</PRE>
8274 command = /var/spool/slist/.bin/flist \
8275 ${local_part}${local_part_suffix}
8276 current_directory = /var/spool/slist
8277 home_directory = /var/spool/slist
8281 # in directors a list director is defined:</PRE>
8287 local_parts = !.bin:!.etc
8288 require_files = /var/spool/slist/${local_part}/rc.init
8289 transport = list_transport</PRE>
8291 and thats it - no aliases, no special handling of out lists etc.
8292 What you do need is to ensure that choplist is used for distribution
8293 (that is, do not uncomment the <TT>alt_sendmail</TT> entry which is blank).
8297 A couple of other things are forced - for example since the list runs in
8298 its own domain the domain value is forced to <B>exim.org.</B>
8302 Then everything else is basic SmartList configuration - and that's
8303 moderately well documented. A confirmation stage on signup was added -
8304 now when you subscribe you are sent a confirmation which you must
8305 return before the system subscribes you (this prevents people
8306 subscribing their "friends" and makes sure that the addresses really do
8307 work). The confirm package is available at:
8311 <A HREF="ftp://ftp.fatfree.com/confirm-1.1.tar.gz">ftp://ftp.fatfree.com/confirm-1.1.tar.gz</A></PRE>
8313 and was written by Michelle Dick.
8316 <A NAME="SEC351" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC351">Q9804</A>: How do I configure Exim to minic PP's "tripnote" facility?
8323 <A NAME="SEC352" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC352">Q9805</A>: How do I configure Exim to handle local parts with extensions?
8330 <A NAME="SEC353" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC353">Q9806</A>: How do I configure Exim so that only a restricted list of users can
8331 receive mail from external domains?
8338 <A NAME="SEC354" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC354">Q9807</A>: I have <B><B>someuser@mydomain.com</B></B> that I only want certain users to be able
8339 to mail to. How do I accomplish this?
8343 A9807: This is a transport:
8349 from = postmaster@mydomain.com
8350 to = $sender_address
8352 subject = "Re: Your mail to ${local_part}"
8353 text = "You are not allowed to mail to ${local_part}."</PRE>
8355 This is a director that should come before all the others:
8361 local_parts = someuser
8363 senders = !: !lsearch;/list/of/permitted/senders</PRE>
8365 Note that leading "!:" in senders. It allows the null sender <> to be
8366 valid (i.e. not to match this director). This is necessary, since bounce
8367 messages have null senders. All other permitted senders must be in the
8368 file as complete addresses, including a domain.
8371 <A NAME="SEC355" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC355">Q9808</A>: A site for which I provide secondary MX is down for some time. Is there
8372 a way to run the queue for that destination separately from the main
8377 A9808: No, because Exim does not have the concept of "the queue for that
8378 destination". It simply has a single pool of messages awaiting delivery
8379 (and some of them may have several destinations). The best approach to
8380 this is to arrange for all messages for the site to be saved somewhere
8381 other than the main spool, either on a separate dedicated MTA, or in
8382 BSMTP files. There is an example of the latter approach in C014.
8385 <A NAME="SEC356" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC356">Q9809</A>: How do I implement VERP (Variable Envelope Return Paths) in Exim?
8392 <A NAME="SEC357" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC357">Q9810</A>: I'd like to make a copy of all outgoing messages to a local mailbox. Is
8393 there a solution for this using an Exim filter?
8397 A9810: The following filter makes a copy of every message, except for delivery
8404 # Ignore error messages
8405 if error_message then finish endif</PRE>
8407 # Copy if this is the first delivery attempt
8408 if first_delivery then
8409 unseen deliver copy@your.domain errors_to postmaster@your.domain
8412 The keyword "unseen" stops this being a "significant delivery", so that
8413 the message goes on to be delivered as normal. The <TT>errors_to</TT> setting
8414 changes the envelope sender on the copy so that if there is a problem
8415 delivering it, the bounce message is sent to postmaster.
8419 You can add to the condition setting to select specific messages.
8420 To make a copy of outgoing messages only requires a definition
8421 of "outgoing". Because a message may have many recipients, simply
8422 testing for your own domain in both the From: and the To: headers is not
8423 enough. You can craft your own conditions, but here is one suggestion:
8427 if $h_from: contains your.domain and
8428 foranyaddress $h_to:,$h_cc:
8429 ($thisaddress does not contain your.domain)
8431 unseen deliver copy@your.domain errors_to postmaster@your.domain
8434 This takes copies of messages whose From: header contains <B>your.domain</B>
8435 and whose To: and Cc: headers contain at least one address that does not
8436 contain <B>your.domain.</B> See also
8437 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC364">Q9817</A>.
8440 <A NAME="SEC358" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC358">Q9811</A>: I want to make a copy of outgoing messages to a specific file for each
8441 user in a specific directory, using a "save" command in a system filter.
8442 How can I arrange for Exim to write to these files under the correct
8447 A9811: You need to set up a special transport and tell Exim to use it for
8448 file deliveries from the system filter. Add the following setting to
8453 message_filter_file_transport = copy_transport</PRE>
8455 Then define <TT>copy_transport</TT> like this
8463 user = ${local_part:$sender_address}</PRE>
8465 This assumes that you want to run the delivery under the uid associated
8466 with the local part of the sender address. Alternatively, you could just
8467 use <TT>user=exim</TT> and do all the writing under the same UID/GID.
8470 <A NAME="SEC359" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC359">Q9812</A>: How can I keep an archive of all mail for some specific local email
8475 A9812: You could use a system filter, along the lines of
8480 first_delivery and <tests for appropriate addresses>
8483 /mail/archive/${substr_0_10:$tod_log}
8486 That would create a new file for each day. However, in order to use
8487 this, you will need to set <TT>message_filter_file_transport</TT> to point to an
8488 appropriate transport which includes a setting of "user" to specify
8489 which uid to run the saving under, as is described in
8490 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC358">Q9811</A>.
8493 <A NAME="SEC360" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC360">Q9813</A>: How can I configure Exim to provide a vacation message when there are
8494 no local users on my mail hub?
8501 <A NAME="SEC361" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC361">Q9814</A>: We want to be able to temporarily lock out a user by disabling the
8502 password and moving the home directory to another place. How can we
8503 arrange to reject mail for users in this state?
8507 A9814: Change the home directory pointer in the passwd file to something
8508 distinctive. For example, we use <B>/home/CANCELLED</B> for cancelled users.
8509 Then you can pick up such users with this director, which is placed
8510 immediately after <TT>system_aliases</TT>:
8516 transport = cancelleduser_pipe
8518 match_directory = /home/CANCELLED</PRE>
8520 This sends messages for cancelled users to the following special
8527 command = "/opt/exim/util/cancelleduser.sh"
8532 The script simply generates a message saying that the user is cancelled
8533 on its standard output. This gets returned to the original message
8534 sender in an error report.
8538 If you don't want to change the home directory in the passwd file,
8539 an alternative is to check for the non-existence of the home directory
8544 require_files = +!$home</PRE>
8546 instead of setting <TT>match_directory</TT>.
8549 <A NAME="SEC362" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC362">Q9815</A>: I need an alias, say "fakeaddress" that should receive a message,
8550 strip all reply-to: headers present, substitute another one pointing to
8551 "otheraddress" and forward a message to "realaddress".
8555 A9815: Add this director:
8559 fakeaddress_director:
8561 domain = (if necessary to restrict the domain)
8562 local_parts = fakeaddress
8563 headers_remove = reply-to
8564 headers_add = reply-to: otheraddress
8565 new_address = realaddress</PRE>
8567 If there are several of these aliases then you could list them in a file
8568 along with the corresponding other addresses, and use lookups instead of
8569 the fixed values shown above.
8572 <A NAME="SEC363" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC363">Q9816</A>: How can I set up Exim to work with Listar?
8576 A9816: See <B><A HREF="http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~vadik/listar-exim/.">http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~vadik/listar-exim/.</A></B>
8579 <A NAME="SEC364" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC364">Q9817</A>: I need to take copies of all incoming and outgoing mail for certain
8580 users. For each user there may be a different monitoring address.
8584 A9817: You can adapt the filter solution given in
8585 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC357">Q9810</A> by adding a test for
8586 the relevant local parts. Create a file containing lines like this:
8590 user1@domain1: monitor1@monitor.domain1
8591 user2@domain2: monitor2@monitor.domain2</PRE>
8593 and then use the following command in a system filter:
8597 if ${lookup{$sender_address}lsearch{/some/file}{$value}{}} is not ""
8599 unseen deliver ${lookup{$sender_address}lsearch{/some/file}{$value}}
8600 errors_address = postmaster@your.domain
8602 if foranyaddress $recipients
8603 (${lookup{$thisaddress}lsearch{/some/file}{$value}{}} is not "")
8605 unseen deliver ${lookup{$thisaddress}lsearch{/some/file}{$value}}
8606 errors_address = postmaster@your.domain
8610 It is messy to have to repeat the lookups, but it won't be inefficient,
8611 because Exim caches the results of successful lookups.
8614 <A NAME="SEC365" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC365">Q9818</A>: How can I add a disclaimer to the end of every message?
8619 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC265">Q1501</A>.
8622 <A NAME="SEC366" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC366">Q9819</A>: I would like to append a simple advertisement text to all outgoing
8628 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC265">Q1501</A>.
8631 <A NAME="SEC367" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC367">Q9820</A>: How can I configure Exim so that all mails adressed to
8632 <B><B>something@username.domain.net</B></B> get delivered to <B>/var/spool/mail/username</B>?
8636 A9820: There are several possibilities, depending on exactly how you are set
8637 up. Here is one approach: First, arrange that all the domains you are
8638 interested in are local domains, for example, by listing them in a file:
8642 local_domains = /list/of/domains</PRE>
8644 If there are lots of them, a DBM or cdb file should be used for a faster
8645 lookup. Assuming that "username" is set up as a user on your system, and
8646 you have a configuration that can handle <B><B>username@domain.net</B></B> in the
8647 normal way, all you have to do is to arrange to convert the recipient
8648 address by means of a <B>smartuser</B> director like this:
8654 domains = /list/of/domains
8655 new_address = ${if match{$domain}{^([^.]+)\\.domain\\.net\$}{$1}fail}@domain.net</PRE>
8657 This should be the first director.
8660 <A NAME="SEC368" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC368">Q9821</A>: How do I get exim not to add a Sender: header to locally originated
8665 A9821: It only adds it if the From: header doesn't correspond to the user
8666 sending the message. From release 3.14 onwards, you can suppress this
8667 by setting <TT>no_local_from_check</TT>. Alternatively,
8671 (1) You can get it removed later, by putting
8675 headers_remove = Sender</PRE>
8677 on all your transports. This doesn't test for locally originated mail,
8678 but you could use a more complicated expansion string to make that test.
8683 headers_remove = ${if eq{$sender_host_address}{}{Sender}}</PRE>
8685 which removes it only if there is no sending host address.
8689 (2) If your <EM>real</EM> question "how do I submit mail from UUCP
8690 without it adding Sender:?" Then see
8691 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC185">Q0603</A>.
8694 <A NAME="SEC369" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC369">Q9822</A>: How can I get Exim to work with mailman?
8698 A9822: The configuration in <B><A HREF="http://www.exim.org/howto/mailman.html">http://www.exim.org/howto/mailman.html</A></B> was used for
8699 the Exim mailing list before it switched to SmartList.
8702 <A NAME="SEC370" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC370">Q9823</A>: Is there any way to have messages sent to a specific local address
8703 delayed by - say - 24 hours?
8707 A9823: Using Exim 3.10 or later, the answer is "yes". Set up a <B>smartuser</B>
8714 domains = the.domain
8715 local_parts = thelocalpart
8716 condition = ${if < ${$message_age}{86400}{yes}{no}}
8717 new_address = :defer: message not old enough</PRE>
8719 Of course, this will also have the effect of setting a retry time for
8720 the address. You may want to set a special retry rule for it.
8723 <A NAME="SEC371" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC371">Q9824</A>: I have a mailing list exploder on one host, and three other hosts where
8724 I want to do the actual deliveries from. How can I get Exim to split
8725 a message into groups of recipients between the three hosts?
8729 A9824: Splitting into groups of recipients can be done by setting <TT>max_rcpt</TT> in
8730 the SMTP transport. Persuading Exim to spread the groups between three
8731 hosts is a little harder. Suppose you have 300 addresses, and <TT>max_rcpt</TT>
8732 is set to 100. One approach is to try <TT>hosts_randomize</TT> in a <B>domainlist</B>
8739 transport = remote_smtp
8741 route_list = * hostA:hostB:hostC byname</PRE>
8743 Unfortunately, this doesn't work quite as you might expect. There are
8744 six different permutations of the host list, and so if the randomizing
8745 works perfectly, Exim will end up with
8749 50 addresses routed to hostA:hostB:hostC
8750 50 addresses routed to hostA:hostC:hostB
8751 50 addresses routed to hostB:hostC:hostA
8752 50 addresses routed to hostB:hostA:hostC
8753 50 addresses routed to hostC:hostA:hostB
8754 50 addresses routed to hostC:hostB:hostA</PRE>
8756 Although a total of 100 addresses have hostA as their first host, Exim
8757 will still send them in two separate SMTP calls, because it can only
8758 batch up addresses that have identical host lists. If hostA is down, it
8759 will send 50 of these to host B and 50 to host C. It will aways send six
8760 copies of the message.
8764 With only three hosts, this isn't a major problem, but if the number of
8765 hosts increases, it becomes more serious. If there are four delivery
8766 hosts, there are 24 different permuations, and with five hosts there are
8767 120, so 120 messages are sent. When the hosts are not all of the same
8768 power, you might want to use a list like
8772 hostA:hostA:hostA:hostB:hostB:hostC</PRE>
8774 to send more to hostA, and this makes the situation worse. There is,
8775 however, a way to solve this. Instead of putting the host list on the
8776 router, put it on the transport. The router just contains one host:
8782 transport = special_smtp
8783 route_list = * hostA byname</PRE>
8785 and the transport has the full list, set to override the router's host:
8791 hosts = hostA:hostA:hostA:hostB:hostB:hostC
8794 max_rcpt = 100</PRE>
8796 Now all 300 addresses are routed to the same host, so they are sent to
8797 the transport 100 at a time. The transport overrides the router's host
8798 with its own list, which it randomizes each time. (This works only for
8799 releases of Exim after 3.16 - up to and including that release, there is
8800 a bug that prevents it re-randomizing for each group.) See also C040.
8803 <BR><H2><A NAME="SEC372" HREF="FAQ.html#TOC372">99. LIST OF SAMPLE CONFIGURATIONS
8807 Each sample configuration is held in a separate file in the <B>config.samples</B>
8808 directory. Those with names of the form Cnnn are Exim configurations; those
8809 with names of the form Fnnn are filter file fragments.
8813 C001: "This config will support delivery across multiple systems using NIS to
8814 look up delivery addresses from the <B>mail.aliases</B> database."
8818 C002: "Although exim not intended for use in UUCP environment (it doesn't
8819 know anything about bang!path addresses), I'm successfully using it for
8820 delivering mail to UUCP clients."
8824 C003: "I've read down through
8825 <A HREF="FAQ.html#SEC183">Q0601</A> and your request for UUCP examples. Here's
8826 how I'm doing it." (This example uses routers.)
8830 C004: "Here's a BSMTP over UUCP [configuration] - the transport is Taylor/GNU
8831 UUCP - which takes the long option types." (This example uses
8836 C005: "I am using a virus scanner program that is invoked by a pipe, scans the
8837 mail and re-invokes Exim to do the delivery. The pipe is invoking a perl
8838 script that tries to unpack and MIME, zip and other archives and then
8839 applies the McAfee scanner on the results."
8843 C006: "This is how I have configured a PP-inspired vacationnote, there is
8844 (was?) such a feature in PP. The user makes a file "tripnote" in his/her
8845 home directory, the message is passed to the sender once with a short
8850 C007: "If I host a domain <B>foo.dom</B> on my machine as a virtual domain I expect
8851 it to be completely virtual and separate from other mail domains that
8852 end up on my machine."
8856 C008: "And of course it is possible to do a very interesting solution to
8857 this [virtual domains] using LDAP."
8861 C009: "These are suggested parts of a configuration for looking up users in
8862 <B><B>/etc/passwd.domain</B></B> rather than in <B>/etc/passwd</B> ..."
8866 C010: "One of our customers is looking for us to support addresses of the form
8867 <B><B>username+extension@domain.com</B>,</B> primarily for use with procmail."
8871 C011: "Thanks to Philip and others I now have my ISP style config built and
8872 therefore am posting the final configuration fragments to the list in
8873 case anyone else wants to do a similar thing."
8877 C012: "I've written a small chapter how-to configure Exim for use with UUCP
8878 (mostly condensed from the exim-user mailing list plus some
8879 experimenting) and would be glad if it could be included in the Exim
8884 C013: "I've take some tips from the FAQ about permitting only certain users
8885 to send to external mail and came up with my own for the receiving
8890 C014: "If I have a situation where a site I MX for has a known outage I stash
8891 all their mail into a directory in BSMTP format."
8895 C015: "This approach to virtual domains has helped me a great deal, and is so
8896 easy to maintain (add and modify as appropriate)."
8900 C016: "Herewith my configuration." (A complete configuration, including simple
8901 virtual domains, along the lines of C015).
8905 C017: "I have gotten the new VERP feature of Exim 2.054 working in test, along
8906 with some supporting programs to handle bounces that do come back."
8910 C018: "This Majordomo configuration removes a lot of the aliases, and
8911 automates a lot of the other functions based on whether the files or
8916 C019: "The following configuration file entries can be used to provide a
8917 'vacation'-style function for a mailhub which has no local users."
8921 C020: "I was asked for a copy of the programs we were using to mail
8926 C021: "Here is some sample code that might be useful for handling
8927 X-Failed-Recipients headers generated by Exim, with mailing lists."
8931 C022: "This is the Exim configuration file of a machine which delivers mail to
8932 several local domains where the mail is delivered locally, several hairy
8933 domains, handled as described below, and a half-virtual domain, which is
8934 first processed by its special alias file, then processed as other local
8935 domains (including the processing by the global alias file)."
8939 C023: A Perl script and instructions for hooking it into Exim in order to
8940 handle disposition-notification-to and return-receipt-to by using a
8941 shadow transport to send copies of delivered messages to the script.
8945 C024: "In case anybody wants to use a MySql database to store aliases this is
8946 how I managed to get my site working."
8950 C025: "As promised here is the way I got Exim to delver to Cyrus mailboxes if
8951 the user exists in the MySql database."
8955 C026: "The following configuration and program will allow messages going to
8956 AOL only, to be filtered thru a Perl script. This Perl script will
8957 convert any URL's to the HTML syntax. In addition, the transport will
8958 use VERP to send a unique envelope sender with each message."
8962 C027: "This is an FYI to demonstrate how to have exim work with SSL using the
8963 stunnel wrapper and its underlying OpenSSL libraries and toolkit."
8967 C028: "This Python script reads from stdin and writes to stdout. It strips all
8968 the MIME attachments from a mail message that are one of the mime types
8969 listed on the command line. Exim can use it in its configuration file,
8970 for example, as follows:"
8974 C029: "The standard way to connect one's MTA to a list manager seems to be to
8975 add a set of aliases for <EM>every</EM> list one creates. Once upon a time, I
8976 crufted a set of configs from Smail to work with majordomo, to
8977 automaticaly recognize the standard patterns, for all lists in
8978 existence...I have setup a set of transports and directors for Exim,
8979 which will do the same thing for mailman."
8983 C030: "I am currently configuring an exim for a site that will to mail
8984 hosting for several domains. I want the domain holders to have control
8985 over 'their' alias files, being able to create their own aliases.
8986 However, I don't want them to have postmaster, abuse and other role
8987 accounts under their control."
8991 C031: "These are config file snippets for handling certain remote addresses as
8992 local, and making only real external addresses visible to users."
8996 C032: "This is the Exim Nervous Mailbox Quota Suite. It does not impose
8997 hard quotas on users' mailboxes, but it makes a user nervous by
8998 putting all his mail in a secondary mailbox, inaccessible to the
8999 user, when he is over his quota. When the user clears his
9000 mailbox (i.<B>e.,</B> deletes mail to make his mailbox below the quota
9001 again), mail from his secondary mailbox is transferred back to
9002 his primary mailbox, in FIFO order."
9006 C033: "Here's our current automatic vacation recipe".
9010 C034: "This is a HOW-TO for setting up Exim to support SMTP authentication
9011 under different environments, including regular password files, PAM
9016 C035: "These configurations enable exim and hylafax <B>(www.hylafax.org)</B> work
9017 together, I mean sending fax by email <B><B>(user@123456.fax</B>)."</B>
9021 C036: "My aim was to have an LDAP-driven system for mail delivery."
9025 C037: An elegant way of using ETRN, which does immediate delivery if the host
9026 is online, but saves mail in a BSMTP file after some time on the queue.
9027 ETRN then re-injects the mail.
9031 C038: Amavis virus scanning: "Here ya go. This is the config we use... this
9032 box is our main MX host then relays it to our real server for delivery."
9036 C039: "For reference, this is how I got PAM authentication from a standard
9037 UNIX password database with Eudora 4.3 clients to work on a Debian 2.2
9038 (Intel) system. This configuration assumes that you are using standard
9039 UNIX crypt passwords; pam-pwdfile is NOT compatible with MD5 encrypted
9044 C040: "Exim 3.20 has a feature that allows a large mailing of a single message
9045 to be sent to many different relays. This is useful for mailing lists,
9046 as it allows the message to be relayed to multiple machines, in groups
9047 of 100 addresses, for final delivery."
9051 C041: "Attached you will find a plain text file where I explain how to set up
9052 mailman to use virtual environment (single setup for many domains)."
9056 F001: "I thought that the rest of the list may be interested in reviewing our
9057 filter as a starting point for their own system message filter."
9061 F002: "... program which refused mail from unknown addresses until they mailed
9062 me promising not to spam me ... since I'd already thought through how
9063 to do it in Exim, and knew it'd be slightly easier than falling out of
9064 bed, I went ahead and did it."
9068 F003: "Here's four checks installed in our system wide filter that knock out
9069 a lot of otherwise hard to detect rubbish."
9073 F004: "This is an Exim filter snippet to change locally-generated Message-Id:
9074 and Resent-Message-Id: headers to world-unique values."
git://git.exim.org / exim-website.git / blob