1 $Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.158 2008/02/12 12:52:51 nm4 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. Preliminary SPF Best Guess support. Documentation for this is in
15 experimental-spec.txt.
21 1. The body_linecount and body_zerocount C variables are now exported in the
24 2. When a dnslists lookup succeeds, the key that was looked up is now placed
25 in $dnslist_matched. When the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in
26 this variable (though it is, of course, in the actual lookup). In simple
29 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example
31 the key is also available in another variable (in this case,
32 $sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not
33 true. For example, using a data lookup might generate a dnslists lookup
36 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|...
38 If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be
39 192.168.6.7 (for example).
41 3. Authenticators now have a client_condition option. When Exim is running as
42 a client, it skips an authenticator whose client_condition expansion yields
43 "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for example, to skip plain text
44 authenticators when the connection is not encrypted by a setting such as:
46 client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}}
48 Note that the 4.67 documentation states that $tls_cipher contains the
49 cipher used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it
50 contains the cipher used for the delivery. The same is true for
53 4. There is now a -Mvc <message-id> option, which outputs a copy of the
54 message to the standard output, in RFC 2822 format. The option can be used
55 only by an admin user.
57 5. There is now a /noupdate option for the ratelimit ACL condition. It
58 computes the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update
59 the saved data. This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup
60 the existence of a specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without
61 incrementing the ratelimit counter for that key.
63 In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must set the rate
64 for the same key somewhere (otherwise it will always be zero).
69 # Read the rate; if it doesn't exist or is below the maximum
71 deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate
72 log_message = RATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
73 (max $sender_rate_limit)
75 [... some other logic and tests...]
77 warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd
78 log_message = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
79 (max $sender_rate_limit)
80 condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}}
84 6. The variable $max_received_linelength contains the number of bytes in the
85 longest line that was received as part of the message, not counting the
86 line termination character(s).
88 7. Host lists can now include +ignore_defer and +include_defer, analagous to
89 +ignore_unknown and +include_unknown. These options should be used with
90 care, probably only in non-critical host lists such as whitelists.
92 8. There's a new option called queue_only_load_latch, which defaults true.
93 If set false when queue_only_load is greater than zero, Exim re-evaluates
94 the load for each incoming message in an SMTP session. Otherwise, once one
95 message is queued, the remainder are also.
97 9. There is a new ACL, specified by smtp_notquit_acl, which is run in most
98 cases when an SMTP session ends without sending QUIT. However, when Exim
99 itself is is bad trouble, such as being unable to write to its log files,
100 this ACL is not run, because it might try to do things (such as write to
101 log files) that make the situation even worse.
103 Like the QUIT ACL, this new ACL is provided to make it possible to gather
104 statistics. Whatever it returns (accept or deny) is immaterial. The "delay"
105 modifier is forbidden in this ACL.
107 When the NOTQUIT ACL is running, the variable $smtp_notquit_reason is set
108 to a string that indicates the reason for the termination of the SMTP
109 connection. The possible values are:
111 acl-drop Another ACL issued a "drop" command
112 bad-commands Too many unknown or non-mail commands
113 command-timeout Timeout while reading SMTP commands
114 connection-lost The SMTP connection has been lost
115 data-timeout Timeout while reading message data
116 local-scan-error The local_scan() function crashed
117 local-scan-timeout The local_scan() function timed out
118 signal-exit SIGTERM or SIGINT
119 synchronization-error SMTP synchronization error
120 tls-failed TLS failed to start
122 In most cases when an SMTP connection is closed without having received
123 QUIT, Exim sends an SMTP response message before actually closing the
124 connection. With the exception of acl-drop, the default message can be
125 overridden by the "message" modifier in the NOTQUIT ACL. In the case of a
126 "drop" verb in another ACL, it is the message from the other ACL that is
129 10. For MySQL and PostgreSQL lookups, it is now possible to specify a list of
130 servers with individual queries. This is done by starting the query with
131 "servers=x:y:z;", where each item in the list may take one of two forms:
133 (1) If it is just a host name, the appropriate global option (mysql_servers
134 or pgsql_servers) is searched for a host of the same name, and the
135 remaining parameters (database, user, password) are taken from there.
137 (2) If it contains any slashes, it is taken as a complete parameter set.
139 The list of servers is used in exactly the same was as the global list.
140 Once a connection to a server has happened and a query has been
141 successfully executed, processing of the lookup ceases.
143 This feature is intended for use in master/slave situations where updates
144 are occurring, and one wants to update a master rather than a slave. If the
145 masters are in the list for reading, you might have:
147 mysql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw:master/db/name/pw
149 In an updating lookup, you could then write
151 ${lookup mysql{servers=master; UPDATE ...}
153 If, on the other hand, the master is not to be used for reading lookups:
155 pgsql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw
157 you can still update the master by
159 ${lookup pgsql{servers=master/db/name/pw; UPDATE ...}
161 11. The message_body_newlines option (default FALSE, for backwards
162 compatibility) can be used to control whether newlines are present in
163 $message_body and $message_body_end. If it is FALSE, they are replaced by
170 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
171 the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
172 whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
175 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
176 addresses, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than
177 one IP address. This has been solved by the addition of == and =& for "all"
178 rather than the default "any" matching.
180 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been
181 for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the
182 other parameters to be varied.
184 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When it is
185 set, Exim compiles a runtime option called disable_fsync.
187 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start.
189 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining.
191 7. There are two new variables called $sending_ip_address and $sending_port.
192 These are set whenever an SMTP connection to another host has been set up.
194 8. The expansion of the helo_data option in the smtp transport now happens
195 after the connection to the server has been made.
197 9. There is a new expansion operator ${rfc2047d: that decodes strings that
198 are encoded as per RFC 2047.
200 10. There is a new log selector called "pid", which causes the current process
201 id to be added to every log line, in square brackets, immediately after the
204 11. Exim has been modified so that it flushes SMTP output before implementing
205 a delay in an ACL. It also flushes the output before performing a callout,
206 as this can take a substantial time. These behaviours can be disabled by
207 obeying control = no_delay_flush or control = no_callout_flush,
208 respectively, at some earlier stage of the connection.
210 12. There are two new expansion conditions that iterate over a list. They are
211 called forany and forall.
213 13. There's a new global option called dsn_from that can be used to vary the
214 contents of From: lines in bounces and other automatically generated
215 messages ("delivery status notifications" - hence the name of the option).
217 14. The smtp transport has a new option called hosts_avoid_pipelining.
219 15. By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matches. There is now a -I option
220 that makes it case-sensitive.
222 16. A number of new features ("addresses", "map", "filter", and "reduce") have
223 been added to string expansions to make it easier to process lists of
224 items, typically addresses.
226 17. There's a new ACL modifier called "continue". It does nothing of itself,
227 and processing of the ACL always continues with the next condition or
228 modifier. It is provided so that the side effects of expanding its argument
231 18. It is now possible to use newline and other control characters (those with
232 values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists.
234 19. The exigrep utility now has a -v option, which inverts the matching
237 20. The host_find_failed option in the manualroute router can now be set to
244 No new features were added to 4.66.
250 No new features were added to 4.65.
256 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
257 "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
258 least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
261 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
262 to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
264 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
265 authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
266 number of authentication methods.
268 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
269 messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
270 $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
272 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
273 second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
274 restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
275 without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
277 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
279 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
280 conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
281 followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
282 before doing the expansions.
284 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
285 -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
288 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
289 is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
290 subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
292 10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
293 shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
295 11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
296 as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
297 relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
298 available for compatibility.)
300 12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
301 to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
307 1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
310 2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
311 start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
314 3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
315 or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
316 start of the message for an SMTP error code.
318 4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
319 one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
321 5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
323 After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
324 before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
326 Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
328 Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
330 --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
331 Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
332 each messages value for each variable.
334 Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
335 same criteria without --not).
341 1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
342 as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
343 the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
344 name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
345 IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
346 This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
348 ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
350 Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
351 one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
352 a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
355 2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
356 incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
357 one, a batch delivery now occurs.
359 3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
360 Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
361 against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
362 maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
368 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
369 the 4.60 release are:
371 . An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
373 . An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
375 . A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
376 $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
377 for other things in complicated expansions.
379 . The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
381 . It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
382 resources used in pipe deliveries.
384 . A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
386 . More errors are detectable in retry rules.
388 There are a number of other additions too.
394 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.60 release. Major new features since
395 the 4.50 release are:
397 . Support for SQLite.
399 . Support for IGNOREQUOTA in LMTP.
401 . Extensions to the "submission mode" features.
403 . Support for Client SMTP Authorization (CSA).
405 . Support for ratelimiting hosts and users.
407 . New expansion items to help with the BATV "prvs" scheme.
409 . A "match_ip" condition, that matches an IP address against a list.
411 There are many more minor changes.