1 $Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.154 2007/06/27 11:01:51 ph10 Exp $
6 This file contains descriptions of new features that have been added to Exim.
7 Before a formal release, there may be quite a lot of detail so that people can
8 test from the snapshots or the CVS before the documentation is updated. Once
9 the documentation is updated, this file is reduced to a short list.
14 1. The body_linecount and body_zerocount C variables are now exported in the
17 2. When a dnslists lookup succeeds, the key that was looked up is now placed
18 in $dnslist_matched. When the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in
19 this variable (though it is, of course, in the actual lookup). In simple
22 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example
24 the key is also available in another variable (in this case,
25 $sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not
26 true. For example, using a data lookup might generate a dnslists lookup
29 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|...
31 If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be
32 192.168.6.7 (for example).
34 3. Authenticators now have a client_condition option. When Exim is running as
35 a client, it skips an authenticator whose client_condition expansion yields
36 "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for example, to skip plain text
37 authenticators when the connection is not encrypted by a setting such as:
39 client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}}
41 Note that the 4.67 documentation states that $tls_cipher contains the
42 cipher used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it
43 contains the cipher used for the delivery. The same is true for
46 4. There is now a -Mvc <message-id> option, which outputs a copy of the
47 message to the standard output, in RFC 2822 format. The option can be used
48 only by an admin user.
50 5. There is now a /noupdate option for the ratelimit ACL condition. It
51 computes the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update
52 the saved data. This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup
53 the existence of a specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without
54 incrementing the ratelimit counter for that key.
56 In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must set the rate
57 for the same key somewhere (otherwise it will always be zero).
62 # Read the rate; if it doesn't exist or is below the maximum
64 deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate
65 log_message = RATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
66 (max $sender_rate_limit)
68 [... some other logic and tests...]
70 warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd
71 log_message = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
72 (max $sender_rate_limit)
73 condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}}
77 6. The variable $max_received_linelength contains the number of bytes in the
78 longest line that was received as part of the message, not counting the
79 line termination character(s).
81 7. Host lists can now include +ignore_defer and +include_defer, analagous to
82 +ignore_unknown and +include_unknown. These options should be used with
83 care, probably only in non-critical host lists such as whitelists.
85 8. There's a new option called queue_only_load_latch, which defaults true.
86 If set false when queue_only_load is greater than zero, Exim re-evaluates
87 the load for each incoming message in an SMTP session. Otherwise, once one
88 message is queued, the remainder are also.
94 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
95 the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
96 whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
99 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
100 addresses, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than
101 one IP address. This has been solved by the addition of == and =& for "all"
102 rather than the default "any" matching.
104 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been
105 for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the
106 other parameters to be varied.
108 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When it is
109 set, Exim compiles a runtime option called disable_fsync.
111 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start.
113 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining.
115 7. There are two new variables called $sending_ip_address and $sending_port.
116 These are set whenever an SMTP connection to another host has been set up.
118 8. The expansion of the helo_data option in the smtp transport now happens
119 after the connection to the server has been made.
121 9. There is a new expansion operator ${rfc2047d: that decodes strings that
122 are encoded as per RFC 2047.
124 10. There is a new log selector called "pid", which causes the current process
125 id to be added to every log line, in square brackets, immediately after the
128 11. Exim has been modified so that it flushes SMTP output before implementing
129 a delay in an ACL. It also flushes the output before performing a callout,
130 as this can take a substantial time. These behaviours can be disabled by
131 obeying control = no_delay_flush or control = no_callout_flush,
132 respectively, at some earlier stage of the connection.
134 12. There are two new expansion conditions that iterate over a list. They are
135 called forany and forall.
137 13. There's a new global option called dsn_from that can be used to vary the
138 contents of From: lines in bounces and other automatically generated
139 messages ("delivery status notifications" - hence the name of the option).
141 14. The smtp transport has a new option called hosts_avoid_pipelining.
143 15. By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matches. There is now a -I option
144 that makes it case-sensitive.
146 16. A number of new features ("addresses", "map", "filter", and "reduce") have
147 been added to string expansions to make it easier to process lists of
148 items, typically addresses.
150 17. There's a new ACL modifier called "continue". It does nothing of itself,
151 and processing of the ACL always continues with the next condition or
152 modifier. It is provided so that the side effects of expanding its argument
155 18. It is now possible to use newline and other control characters (those with
156 values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists.
158 19. The exigrep utility now has a -v option, which inverts the matching
161 20. The host_find_failed option in the manualroute router can now be set to
168 No new features were added to 4.66.
174 No new features were added to 4.65.
180 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
181 "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
182 least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
185 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
186 to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
188 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
189 authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
190 number of authentication methods.
192 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
193 messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
194 $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
196 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
197 second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
198 restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
199 without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
201 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
203 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
204 conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
205 followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
206 before doing the expansions.
208 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
209 -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
212 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
213 is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
214 subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
216 10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
217 shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
219 11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
220 as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
221 relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
222 available for compatibility.)
224 12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
225 to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
231 1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
234 2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
235 start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
238 3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
239 or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
240 start of the message for an SMTP error code.
242 4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
243 one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
245 5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
247 After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
248 before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
250 Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
252 Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
254 --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
255 Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
256 each messages value for each variable.
258 Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
259 same criteria without --not).
265 1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
266 as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
267 the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
268 name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
269 IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
270 This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
272 ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
274 Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
275 one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
276 a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
279 2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
280 incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
281 one, a batch delivery now occurs.
283 3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
284 Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
285 against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
286 maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
292 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
293 the 4.60 release are:
295 . An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
297 . An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
299 . A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
300 $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
301 for other things in complicated expansions.
303 . The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
305 . It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
306 resources used in pipe deliveries.
308 . A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
310 . More errors are detectable in retry rules.
312 There are a number of other additions too.
318 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.60 release. Major new features since
319 the 4.50 release are:
321 . Support for SQLite.
323 . Support for IGNOREQUOTA in LMTP.
325 . Extensions to the "submission mode" features.
327 . Support for Client SMTP Authorization (CSA).
329 . Support for ratelimiting hosts and users.
331 . New expansion items to help with the BATV "prvs" scheme.
333 . A "match_ip" condition, that matches an IP address against a list.
335 There are many more minor changes.