4 This file contains descriptions of new features that have been added to Exim.
5 Before a formal release, there may be quite a lot of detail so that people can
6 test from the snapshots or the Git before the documentation is updated. Once
7 the documentation is updated, this file is reduced to a short list.
12 1. An "external" authenticator, per RFC 4422 Appendix A.
14 2. A JSON lookup type, and JSON variants of the forall/any expansion conditions.
16 3. Variables $tls_in_cipher_std, $tls_out_cipher_std giving the RFC names
19 4. Log_selectors "msg_id" (on by default) and "msg_id_created".
21 5. A case_insensitive option for verify=not_blind.
23 6. EXPERIMENTAL_TLS_RESUME optional build feature. See the experimental.spec
26 7. A main option exim_version to override the version Exim
27 reports in verious places ($exim_version, $version_number).
29 8. Expansion operator ${sha2_N:} for N=256, 384, 512.
31 9. Router variables, $r_... settable from router options and usable in routers
34 10. The spf lookup now supports IPv6.
36 11. Main options for DKIM verify to filter hash and key types.
42 1. ${l_header:<name>} and ${l_h:<name>} expansion items, giving a colon-sep
43 list when there are multiple headers having a given name. This matters
44 when individual headers are wrapped onto multiple lines; with previous
45 facilities hard to parse.
47 2. The ${readsocket } expansion item now takes a "tls" option, doing the
50 3. EXPERIMENTAL_REQUIRETLS and EXPERIMENTAL_PIPE_CONNECT optional build
51 features. See the experimental.spec file.
53 4. If built with SUPPORT_I18N a "utf8_downconvert" option on the smtp transport.
55 5. A "pipelining" log_selector.
57 6. Builtin macros for supported log_selector and openssl_options values.
59 7. JSON variants of the ${extract } expansion item.
61 8. A "noutf8" debug option, for disabling the UTF-8 characters in debug output.
63 9. TCP Fast Open support on MacOS.
68 1. Dual-certificate stacks on servers now support OCSP stapling, under GnuTLS
69 version 3.5.6 or later.
71 2. DANE is now supported under GnuTLS version 3.0.0 or later. Both GnuTLS and
72 OpenSSL versions are moved to mainline support from Experimental.
73 New SMTP transport option "dane_require_tls_ciphers".
75 3. Feature macros for the compiled-in set of malware scanner interfaces.
77 4. SPF support is promoted from Experimental to mainline status. The template
78 src/EDITME makefile does not enable its inclusion.
80 5. Logging control for DKIM verification. The existing DKIM log line is
81 controlled by a "dkim_verbose" selector which is _not_ enabled by default.
82 A new tag "DKIM=<domain>" is added to <= lines by default, controlled by
83 a "dkim" log_selector.
85 6. Receive duration on <= lines, under a new log_selector "receive_time".
87 7. Options "ipv4_only" and "ipv4_prefer" on the dnslookup router and on
88 routing rules in the manualroute router.
90 8. Expansion item ${sha3:<string>} / ${sha3_<N>:<string>} now also supported
91 under OpenSSL version 1.1.1 or later.
93 9. DKIM operations can now use the Ed25519 algorithm in addition to RSA, under
94 GnuTLS 3.6.0 or OpenSSL 1.1.1 or later.
96 10. Builtin feature-macros _CRYPTO_HASH_SHA3 and _CRYPTO_SIGN_ED25519, library
99 11. "exim -bP macro <name>" returns caller-usable status.
101 12. Expansion item ${authresults {<machine>}} for creating an
102 Authentication-Results: header.
104 13. EXPERIMENTAL_ARC. See the experimental.spec file.
105 See also new util/renew-opendmarc-tlds.sh script for use with DMARC/ARC.
107 14: A dane:fail event, intended to facilitate reporting.
109 15. "Lightweight" support for Redis Cluster. Requires redis_servers list to
110 contain all the servers in the cluster, all of which must be reachable from
111 the running exim instance. If the cluster has master/slave replication, the
112 list must contain all the master and slave servers.
114 16. Add an option to the Avast scanner interface: "pass_unscanned". This
115 allows to treat unscanned files as clean. Files may be unscanned for
116 several reasons: decompression bombs, broken archives.
122 1. PKG_CONFIG_PATH can now be set in Local/Makefile;
123 wildcards will be expanded, values are collapsed.
125 2. The ${readsocket } expansion now takes an option to not shutdown the
126 connection after sending the query string. The default remains to do so.
128 3. An smtp transport option "hosts_noproxy_tls" to control whether multiple
129 deliveries on a single TCP connection can maintain a TLS connection
130 open. By default disabled for all hosts, doing so saves the cost of
131 making new TLS sessions, at the cost of having to proxy the data via
132 another process. Logging is also affected.
134 4. A malware connection type for the FPSCAND protocol.
136 5. An option for recipient verify callouts to hold the connection open for
137 further recipients and for delivery.
139 6. The reproducible build $SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable is now
142 7. Optionally, an alternate format for spool data-files which matches the
143 wire format - meaning more efficient reception and transmission (at the
144 cost of difficulty with standard Unix tools). Only used for messages
145 received using the ESMTP CHUNKING option, and when a new main-section
146 option "spool_wireformat" (false by default) is set.
148 8. New main configuration option "commandline_checks_require_admin" to
149 restrict who can use various introspection options.
151 9. New option modifier "no_check" for quota and quota_filecount
152 appendfile transport.
154 10. Variable $smtp_command_history returning a comma-sep list of recent
157 11. Millisecond timetamps in logs, on log_selector "millisec". Also affects
158 log elements QT, DT and D, and timstamps in debug output.
160 12. TCP Fast Open logging. As a server, logs when the SMTP banner was sent
161 while still in SYN_RECV state; as a client logs when the connection
162 is opened with a TFO cookie.
164 13. DKIM support for multiple signing, by domain and/or key-selector.
165 DKIM support for multiple hashes, and for alternate-identity tags.
166 Builtin macro with default list of signed headers.
167 Better syntax for specifying oversigning.
168 The DKIM ACL can override verification status, and status is visible in
171 14. Exipick understands -C|--config for an alternative Exim
174 15. TCP Fast Open used, with data-on-SYN, for client SMTP via SOCKS5 proxy,
175 for ${readsocket } expansions, and for ClamAV.
177 16. The "-be" expansion test mode now supports macros. Macros are expanded
178 in test lines, and new macros can be defined.
180 17. Support for server-side dual-certificate-stacks (eg. RSA + ECDSA).
186 1. Allow relative config file names for ".include"
188 2. A main-section config option "debug_store" to control the checks on
189 variable locations during store-reset. Normally false but can be enabled
190 when a memory corruption issue is suspected on a production system.
196 1. The new perl_taintmode option allows to run the embedded perl
197 interpreter in taint mode.
199 2. New log_selector: dnssec, adds a "DS" tag to acceptance and delivery lines.
201 3. Speculative debugging, via a "kill" option to the "control=debug" ACL
204 4. New expansion item ${sha3:<string>} / ${sha3_<N>:<string>}.
205 N can be 224, 256 (default), 384, 512.
206 With GnuTLS 3.5.0 or later, only.
208 5. Facility for named queues: A command-line argument can specify
209 the queue name for a queue operation, and an ACL modifier can set
210 the queue to be used for a message. A $queue_name variable gives
213 6. New expansion operators base32/base32d.
215 7. The CHUNKING ESMTP extension from RFC 3030. May give some slight
216 performance increase and network load decrease. Main config option
217 chunking_advertise_hosts, and smtp transport option hosts_try_chunking
220 8. LMDB lookup support, as Experimental. Patch supplied by Andrew Colin Kissa.
222 9. Expansion operator escape8bit, like escape but not touching newline etc..
224 10. Feature macros, generated from compile options. All start with "_HAVE_"
225 and go on with some roughly recognisable name. Driver macros, for
226 router, transport and authentication drivers; names starting with "_DRIVER_".
227 Option macros, for each configuration-file option; all start with "_OPT_".
228 Use the "-bP macros" command-line option to see what is present.
230 11. Integer values for options can take a "G" multiplier.
232 12. defer=pass option for the ACL control cutthrough_delivery, to reflect 4xx
233 returns from the target back to the initiator, rather than spooling the
236 13. New built-in constants available for tls_dhparam and default changed.
238 14. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_QUEUEFILE, a queuefile transport, for writing
239 out copies of the message spool files for use by 3rd-party scanners.
241 15. A new option on the smtp transport, hosts_try_fastopen. If the system
242 supports it (on Linux it must be enabled in the kernel by the sysadmin)
243 try to use RFC 7413 "TCP Fast Open". No data is sent on the SYN segment
244 but it permits a peer that also supports the facility to send its SMTP
245 banner immediately after the SYN,ACK segment rather then waiting for
246 another ACK - so saving up to one roundtrip time. Because it requires
247 previous communication with the peer (we save a cookie from it) this
248 will only become active on frequently-contacted destinations.
250 16. A new syslog_pid option to suppress PID duplication in syslog lines.
256 1. The ACL conditions regex and mime_regex now capture substrings
257 into numeric variables $regex1 to 9, like the "match" expansion condition.
259 2. New $callout_address variable records the address used for a spam=,
260 malware= or verify= callout.
262 3. Transports now take a "max_parallel" option, to limit concurrency.
264 4. Expansion operators ${ipv6norm:<string>} and ${ipv6denorm:<string>}.
265 The latter expands to a 8-element colon-sep set of hex digits including
266 leading zeroes. A trailing ipv4-style dotted-decimal set is converted
267 to hex. Pure ipv4 addresses are converted to IPv4-mapped IPv6.
268 The former operator strips leading zeroes and collapses the longest
269 set of 0-groups to a double-colon.
271 5. New "-bP config" support, to dump the effective configuration.
273 6. New $dkim_key_length variable.
275 7. New base64d and base64 expansion items (the existing str2b64 being a
276 synonym of the latter). Add support in base64 for certificates.
278 8. New main configuration option "bounce_return_linesize_limit" to
279 avoid oversize bodies in bounces. The default value matches RFC
282 9. New $initial_cwd expansion variable.
288 1. Support for using the system standard CA bundle.
290 2. New expansion items $config_file, $config_dir, containing the file
291 and directory name of the main configuration file. Also $exim_version.
293 3. New "malware=" support for Avast.
295 4. New "spam=" variant option for Rspamd.
297 5. Assorted options on malware= and spam= scanners.
299 6. A command-line option to write a comment into the logfile.
301 7. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_SOCKS feature enabled, the smtp transport can
302 be configured to make connections via socks5 proxies.
304 8. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_INTERNATIONAL, support is included for
305 the transmission of UTF-8 envelope addresses.
307 9. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_INTERNATIONAL, an expansion item for a commonly
308 used encoding of Maildir folder names.
310 10. A logging option for slow DNS lookups.
312 11. New ${env {<variable>}} expansion.
314 12. A non-SMTP authenticator using information from TLS client certificates.
316 13. Main option "tls_eccurve" for selecting an Elliptic Curve for TLS.
317 Patch originally by Wolfgang Breyha.
319 14. Main option "dns_trust_aa" for trusting your local nameserver at the
320 same level as DNSSEC.
326 1. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_DANE feature enabled, Exim will follow the
327 DANE SMTP draft to assess a secure chain of trust of the certificate
328 used to establish the TLS connection based on a TLSA record in the
329 domain of the sender.
331 2. The EXPERIMENTAL_TPDA feature has been renamed to EXPERIMENTAL_EVENT
332 and several new events have been created. The reason is because it has
333 been expanded beyond just firing events during the transport phase. Any
334 existing TPDA transport options will have to be rewritten to use a new
335 $event_name expansion variable in a condition. Refer to the
336 experimental-spec.txt for details and examples.
338 3. The EXPERIMENTAL_CERTNAMES features is an enhancement to verify that
339 server certs used for TLS match the result of the MX lookup. It does
340 not use the same mechanism as DANE.
350 1. If built with the EXPERIMENTAL_PROXY feature enabled, Exim can be
351 configured to expect an initial header from a proxy that will make the
352 actual external source IP:host be used in exim instead of the IP of the
353 proxy that is connecting to it.
355 2. New verify option header_names_ascii, which will check to make sure
356 there are no non-ASCII characters in header names. Exim itself handles
357 those non-ASCII characters, but downstream apps may not, so Exim can
358 detect and reject if those characters are present.
360 3. New expansion operator ${utf8clean:string} to replace malformed UTF8
361 codepoints with valid ones.
363 4. New malware type "sock". Talks over a Unix or TCP socket, sending one
364 command line and matching a regex against the return data for trigger
365 and a second regex to extract malware_name. The mail spoolfile name can
366 be included in the command line.
368 5. The smtp transport now supports options "tls_verify_hosts" and
369 "tls_try_verify_hosts". If either is set the certificate verification
370 is split from the encryption operation. The default remains that a failed
371 verification cancels the encryption.
373 6. New SERVERS override of default ldap server list. In the ACLs, an ldap
374 lookup can now set a list of servers to use that is different from the
377 7. New command-line option -C for exiqgrep to specify alternate exim.conf
378 file when searching the queue.
380 8. OCSP now supports GnuTLS also, if you have version 3.1.3 or later of that.
382 9. Support for DNSSEC on outbound connections.
384 10. New variables "tls_(in,out)_(our,peer)cert" and expansion item
385 "certextract" to extract fields from them. Hash operators md5 and sha1
386 work over them for generating fingerprints, and a new sha256 operator
389 11. PRDR is now supported dy default.
391 12. OCSP stapling is now supported by default.
393 13. If built with the EXPERIMENTAL_DSN feature enabled, Exim will output
394 Delivery Status Notification messages in MIME format, and negotiate
395 DSN features per RFC 3461.
401 1. New command-line option -bI:sieve will list all supported sieve extensions
402 of this Exim build on standard output, one per line.
403 ManageSieve (RFC 5804) providers managing scripts for use by Exim should
404 query this to establish the correct list to include in the protocol's
405 SIEVE capability line.
407 2. If the -n option is combined with the -bP option, then the name of an
408 emitted option is not output, only the value (if visible to you).
409 For instance, "exim -n -bP pid_file_path" should just emit a pathname
410 followed by a newline, and no other text.
412 3. When built with SUPPORT_TLS and USE_GNUTLS, the SMTP transport driver now
413 has a "tls_dh_min_bits" option, to set the minimum acceptable number of
414 bits in the Diffie-Hellman prime offered by a server (in DH ciphersuites)
415 acceptable for security. (Option accepted but ignored if using OpenSSL).
416 Defaults to 1024, the old value. May be lowered only to 512, or raised as
417 far as you like. Raising this may hinder TLS interoperability with other
418 sites and is not currently recommended. Lowering this will permit you to
419 establish a TLS session which is not as secure as you might like.
421 Unless you really know what you are doing, leave it alone.
423 4. If not built with DISABLE_DNSSEC, Exim now has the main option
424 dns_dnssec_ok; if set to 1 then Exim will initialise the resolver library
425 to send the DO flag to your recursive resolver. If you have a recursive
426 resolver, which can set the Authenticated Data (AD) flag in results, Exim
427 can now detect this. Exim does not perform validation itself, instead
428 relying upon a trusted path to the resolver.
430 Current status: work-in-progress; $sender_host_dnssec variable added.
432 5. DSCP support for outbound connections: on a transport using the smtp driver,
433 set "dscp = ef", for instance, to cause the connections to have the relevant
434 DSCP (IPv4 TOS or IPv6 TCLASS) value in the header.
436 Similarly for inbound connections, there is a new control modifier, dscp,
437 so "warn control = dscp/ef" in the connect ACL, or after authentication.
439 Supported values depend upon system libraries. "exim -bI:dscp" to list the
440 ones Exim knows of. You can also set a raw number 0..0x3F.
442 6. The -G command-line flag is no longer ignored; it is now equivalent to an
443 ACL setting "control = suppress_local_fixups". The -L command-line flag
444 is now accepted and forces use of syslog, with the provided tag as the
445 process name. A few other flags used by Sendmail are now accepted and
448 7. New cutthrough routing feature. Requested by a "control = cutthrough_delivery"
449 ACL modifier; works for single-recipient mails which are received on and
450 deliverable via SMTP. Using the connection made for a recipient verify,
451 if requested before the verify, or a new one made for the purpose while
452 the inbound connection is still active. The bulk of the mail item is copied
453 direct from the inbound socket to the outbound (as well as the spool file).
454 When the source notifies the end of data, the data acceptance by the destination
455 is negotiated before the acceptance is sent to the source. If the destination
456 does not accept the mail item, for example due to content-scanning, the item
457 is not accepted from the source and therefore there is no need to generate
458 a bounce mail. This is of benefit when providing a secondary-MX service.
459 The downside is that delays are under the control of the ultimate destination
462 The Received-by: header on items delivered by cutthrough is generated
463 early in reception rather than at the end; this will affect any timestamp
464 included. The log line showing delivery is recorded before that showing
465 reception; it uses a new ">>" tag instead of "=>".
467 To support the feature, verify-callout connections can now use ESMTP and TLS.
468 The usual smtp transport options are honoured, plus a (new, default everything)
469 hosts_verify_avoid_tls.
471 New variable families named tls_in_cipher, tls_out_cipher etc. are introduced
472 for specific access to the information for each connection. The old names
473 are present for now but deprecated.
475 Not yet supported: IGNOREQUOTA, SIZE, PIPELINING.
477 8. New expansion operators ${listnamed:name} to get the content of a named list
478 and ${listcount:string} to count the items in a list.
480 9. New global option "gnutls_allow_auto_pkcs11", defaults false. The GnuTLS
481 rewrite in 4.80 combines with GnuTLS 2.12.0 or later, to autoload PKCS11
482 modules. For some situations this is desirable, but we expect admin in
483 those situations to know they want the feature. More commonly, it means
484 that GUI user modules get loaded and are broken by the setuid Exim being
485 unable to access files specified in environment variables and passed
486 through, thus breakage. So we explicitly inhibit the PKCS11 initialisation
487 unless this new option is set.
489 Some older OS's with earlier versions of GnuTLS might not have pkcs11 ability,
490 so have also added a build option which can be used to build Exim with GnuTLS
491 but without trying to use any kind of PKCS11 support. Uncomment this in the
494 AVOID_GNUTLS_PKCS11=yes
496 10. The "acl = name" condition on an ACL now supports optional arguments.
497 New expansion item "${acl {name}{arg}...}" and expansion condition
498 "acl {{name}{arg}...}" are added. In all cases up to nine arguments
499 can be used, appearing in $acl_arg1 to $acl_arg9 for the called ACL.
500 Variable $acl_narg contains the number of arguments. If the ACL sets
501 a "message =" value this becomes the result of the expansion item,
502 or the value of $value for the expansion condition. If the ACL returns
503 accept the expansion condition is true; if reject, false. A defer
504 return results in a forced fail.
506 11. Routers and transports can now have multiple headers_add and headers_remove
507 option lines. The concatenated list is used.
509 12. New ACL modifier "remove_header" can remove headers before message gets
510 handled by routers/transports.
512 13. New dnsdb lookup pseudo-type "a+". A sequence of "a6" (if configured),
513 "aaaa" and "a" lookups is done and the full set of results returned.
515 14. New expansion variable $headers_added with content from ACL add_header
516 modifier (but not yet added to message).
518 15. New 8bitmime status logging option for received messages. Log field "M8S".
520 16. New authenticated_sender logging option, adding to log field "A".
522 17. New expansion variables $router_name and $transport_name. Useful
523 particularly for debug_print as -bt command-line option does not
524 require privilege whereas -d does.
526 18. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_PRDR, per-recipient data responses per a
527 proposed extension to SMTP from Eric Hall.
529 19. The pipe transport has gained the force_command option, to allow
530 decorating commands from user .forward pipe aliases with prefix
531 wrappers, for instance.
533 20. Callout connections can now AUTH; the same controls as normal delivery
536 21. Support for DMARC, using opendmarc libs, can be enabled. It adds new
537 options: dmarc_forensic_sender, dmarc_history_file, and dmarc_tld_file.
538 It adds new expansion variables $dmarc_ar_header, $dmarc_status,
539 $dmarc_status_text, and $dmarc_used_domain. It adds a new acl modifier
540 dmarc_status. It adds new control flags dmarc_disable_verify and
541 dmarc_enable_forensic. The default for the dmarc_tld_file option is
542 "/etc/exim/opendmarc.tlds" and can be changed via EDITME.
544 22. Add expansion variable $authenticated_fail_id, which is the username
545 provided to the authentication method which failed. It is available
546 for use in subsequent ACL processing (typically quit or notquit ACLs).
548 23. New ACL modifier "udpsend" can construct a UDP packet to send to a given
551 24. New ${hexquote:..string..} expansion operator converts non-printable
552 characters in the string to \xNN form.
554 25. Experimental TPDA (Transport Post Delivery Action) function added.
555 Patch provided by Axel Rau.
557 26. Experimental Redis lookup added. Patch provided by Warren Baker.
563 1. New authenticator driver, "gsasl". Server-only (at present).
564 This is a SASL interface, licensed under GPL, which can be found at
565 http://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/.
566 This system does not provide sources of data for authentication, so
567 careful use needs to be made of the conditions in Exim.
569 2. New authenticator driver, "heimdal_gssapi". Server-only.
570 A replacement for using cyrus_sasl with Heimdal, now that $KRB5_KTNAME
571 is no longer honoured for setuid programs by Heimdal. Use the
572 "server_keytab" option to point to the keytab.
574 3. The "pkg-config" system can now be used when building Exim to reference
575 cflags and library information for lookups and authenticators, rather
576 than having to update "CFLAGS", "AUTH_LIBS", "LOOKUP_INCLUDE" and
577 "LOOKUP_LIBS" directly. Similarly for handling the TLS library support
578 without adjusting "TLS_INCLUDE" and "TLS_LIBS".
580 In addition, setting PCRE_CONFIG=yes will query the pcre-config tool to
581 find the headers and libraries for PCRE.
583 4. New expansion variable $tls_bits.
585 5. New lookup type, "dbmjz". Key is an Exim list, the elements of which will
586 be joined together with ASCII NUL characters to construct the key to pass
587 into the DBM library. Can be used with gsasl to access sasldb2 files as
590 6. OpenSSL now supports TLS1.1 and TLS1.2 with OpenSSL 1.0.1.
592 Avoid release 1.0.1a if you can. Note that the default value of
593 "openssl_options" is no longer "+dont_insert_empty_fragments", as that
594 increased susceptibility to attack. This may still have interoperability
595 implications for very old clients (see version 4.31 change 37) but
596 administrators can choose to make the trade-off themselves and restore
597 compatibility at the cost of session security.
599 7. Use of the new expansion variable $tls_sni in the main configuration option
600 tls_certificate will cause Exim to re-expand the option, if the client
601 sends the TLS Server Name Indication extension, to permit choosing a
602 different certificate; tls_privatekey will also be re-expanded. You must
603 still set these options to expand to valid files when $tls_sni is not set.
605 The SMTP Transport has gained the option tls_sni, which will set a hostname
606 for outbound TLS sessions, and set $tls_sni too.
608 A new log_selector, +tls_sni, has been added, to log received SNI values
609 for Exim as a server.
611 8. The existing "accept_8bitmime" option now defaults to true. This means
612 that Exim is deliberately not strictly RFC compliant. We're following
613 Dan Bernstein's advice in http://cr.yp.to/smtp/8bitmime.html by default.
614 Those who disagree, or know that they are talking to mail servers that,
615 even today, are not 8-bit clean, need to turn off this option.
617 9. Exim can now be started with -bw (with an optional timeout, given as
618 -bw<timespec>). With this, stdin at startup is a socket that is
619 already listening for connections. This has a more modern name of
620 "socket activation", but forcing the activated socket to fd 0. We're
621 interested in adding more support for modern variants.
623 10. ${eval } now uses 64-bit values on supporting platforms. A new "G" suffix
624 for numbers indicates multiplication by 1024^3.
626 11. The GnuTLS support has been revamped; the three options gnutls_require_kx,
627 gnutls_require_mac & gnutls_require_protocols are no longer supported.
628 tls_require_ciphers is now parsed by gnutls_priority_init(3) as a priority
629 string, documentation for which is at:
630 http://www.gnutls.org/manual/html_node/Priority-Strings.html
632 SNI support has been added to Exim's GnuTLS integration too.
634 For sufficiently recent GnuTLS libraries, ${randint:..} will now use
635 gnutls_rnd(), asking for GNUTLS_RND_NONCE level randomness.
637 12. With OpenSSL, if built with EXPERIMENTAL_OCSP, a new option tls_ocsp_file
638 is now available. If the contents of the file are valid, then Exim will
639 send that back in response to a TLS status request; this is OCSP Stapling.
640 Exim will not maintain the contents of the file in any way: administrators
641 are responsible for ensuring that it is up-to-date.
643 See "experimental-spec.txt" for more details.
645 13. ${lookup dnsdb{ }} supports now SPF record types. They are handled
646 identically to TXT record lookups.
648 14. New expansion variable $tod_epoch_l for higher-precision time.
650 15. New global option tls_dh_max_bits, defaulting to current value of NSS
651 hard-coded limit of DH ephemeral bits, to fix interop problems caused by
652 GnuTLS 2.12 library recommending a bit count higher than NSS supports.
654 16. tls_dhparam now used by both OpenSSL and GnuTLS, can be path or identifier.
655 Option can now be a path or an identifier for a standard prime.
656 If unset, we use the DH prime from section 2.2 of RFC 5114, "ike23".
657 Set to "historic" to get the old GnuTLS behaviour of auto-generated DH
660 17. SSLv2 now disabled by default in OpenSSL. (Never supported by GnuTLS).
661 Use "openssl_options -no_sslv2" to re-enable support, if your OpenSSL
662 install was not built with OPENSSL_NO_SSL2 ("no-ssl2").
668 1. New options for the ratelimit ACL condition: /count= and /unique=.
669 The /noupdate option has been replaced by a /readonly option.
671 2. The SMTP transport's protocol option may now be set to "smtps", to
672 use SSL-on-connect outbound.
674 3. New variable $av_failed, set true if the AV scanner deferred; ie, when
675 there is a problem talking to the AV scanner, or the AV scanner running.
677 4. New expansion conditions, "inlist" and "inlisti", which take simple lists
678 and check if the search item is a member of the list. This does not
679 support named lists, but does subject the list part to string expansion.
681 5. Unless the new EXPAND_LISTMATCH_RHS build option is set when Exim was
682 built, Exim no longer performs string expansion on the second string of
683 the match_* expansion conditions: "match_address", "match_domain",
684 "match_ip" & "match_local_part". Named lists can still be used.
690 1. The global option "dns_use_edns0" may be set to coerce EDNS0 usage on
691 or off in the resolver library.
697 1. In addition to the existing LDAP and LDAP/SSL ("ldaps") support, there
698 is now LDAP/TLS support, given sufficiently modern OpenLDAP client
699 libraries. The following global options have been added in support of
700 this: ldap_ca_cert_dir, ldap_ca_cert_file, ldap_cert_file, ldap_cert_key,
701 ldap_cipher_suite, ldap_require_cert, ldap_start_tls.
703 2. The pipe transport now takes a boolean option, "freeze_signal", default
704 false. When true, if the external delivery command exits on a signal then
705 Exim will freeze the message in the queue, instead of generating a bounce.
707 3. Log filenames may now use %M as an escape, instead of %D (still available).
708 The %M pattern expands to yyyymm, providing month-level resolution.
710 4. The $message_linecount variable is now updated for the maildir_tag option,
711 in the same way as $message_size, to reflect the real number of lines,
712 including any header additions or removals from transport.
714 5. When contacting a pool of SpamAssassin servers configured in spamd_address,
715 Exim now selects entries randomly, to better scale in a cluster setup.
721 1. SECURITY FIX: privilege escalation flaw fixed. On Linux (and only Linux)
722 the flaw permitted the Exim run-time user to cause root to append to
723 arbitrary files of the attacker's choosing, with the content based
724 on content supplied by the attacker.
726 2. Exim now supports loading some lookup types at run-time, using your
727 platform's dlopen() functionality. This has limited platform support
728 and the intention is not to support every variant, it's limited to
729 dlopen(). This permits the main Exim binary to not be linked against
730 all the libraries needed for all the lookup types.
736 NOTE: this version is not guaranteed backwards-compatible, please read the
737 items below carefully
739 1. A new main configuration option, "openssl_options", is available if Exim
740 is built with SSL support provided by OpenSSL. The option allows
741 administrators to specify OpenSSL options to be used on connections;
742 typically this is to set bug compatibility features which the OpenSSL
743 developers have not enabled by default. There may be security
744 consequences for certain options, so these should not be changed
747 2. A new pipe transport option, "permit_coredumps", may help with problem
748 diagnosis in some scenarios. Note that Exim is typically installed as
749 a setuid binary, which on most OSes will inhibit coredumps by default,
750 so that safety mechanism would have to be overridden for this option to
751 be able to take effect.
753 3. ClamAV 0.95 is now required for ClamAV support in Exim, unless
754 Local/Makefile sets: WITH_OLD_CLAMAV_STREAM=yes
755 Note that this switches Exim to use a new API ("INSTREAM") and a future
756 release of ClamAV will remove support for the old API ("STREAM").
758 The av_scanner option, when set to "clamd", now takes an optional third
759 part, "local", which causes Exim to pass a filename to ClamAV instead of
760 the file content. This is the same behaviour as when clamd is pointed at
761 a Unix-domain socket. For example:
763 av_scanner = clamd:192.0.2.3 1234:local
765 ClamAV's ExtendedDetectionInfo response format is now handled.
767 4. There is now a -bmalware option, restricted to admin users. This option
768 takes one parameter, a filename, and scans that file with Exim's
769 malware-scanning framework. This is intended purely as a debugging aid
770 to ensure that Exim's scanning is working, not to replace other tools.
771 Note that the ACL framework is not invoked, so if av_scanner references
772 ACL variables without a fallback then this will fail.
774 5. There is a new expansion operator, "reverse_ip", which will reverse IP
775 addresses; IPv4 into dotted quad, IPv6 into dotted nibble. Examples:
777 ${reverse_ip:192.0.2.4}
779 ${reverse_ip:2001:0db8:c42:9:1:abcd:192.0.2.3}
780 -> 3.0.2.0.0.0.0.c.d.c.b.a.1.0.0.0.9.0.0.0.2.4.c.0.8.b.d.0.1.0.0.2
782 6. There is a new ACL control called "debug", to enable debug logging.
783 This allows selective logging of certain incoming transactions within
784 production environments, with some care. It takes two options, "tag"
785 and "opts"; "tag" is included in the filename of the log and "opts"
786 is used as per the -d<options> command-line option. Examples, which
787 don't all make sense in all contexts:
790 control = debug/tag=.$sender_host_address
791 control = debug/opts=+expand+acl
792 control = debug/tag=.$message_exim_id/opts=+expand
794 7. It has always been implicit in the design and the documentation that
795 "the Exim user" is not root. src/EDITME said that using root was
796 "very strongly discouraged". This is not enough to keep people from
797 shooting themselves in the foot in days when many don't configure Exim
798 themselves but via package build managers. The security consequences of
799 running various bits of network code are severe if there should be bugs in
800 them. As such, the Exim user may no longer be root. If configured
801 statically, Exim will refuse to build. If configured as ref:user then Exim
802 will exit shortly after start-up. If you must shoot yourself in the foot,
803 then henceforth you will have to maintain your own local patches to strip
806 8. There is a new expansion condition, bool_lax{}. Where bool{} uses the ACL
807 condition logic to determine truth/failure and will fail to expand many
808 strings, bool_lax{} uses the router condition logic, where most strings
810 Note: bool{00} is false, bool_lax{00} is true.
812 9. Routers now support multiple "condition" tests.
814 10. There is now a runtime configuration option "tcp_wrappers_daemon_name".
815 Setting this allows an admin to define which entry in the tcpwrappers
816 config file will be used to control access to the daemon. This option
817 is only available when Exim is built with USE_TCP_WRAPPERS. The
818 default value is set at build time using the TCP_WRAPPERS_DAEMON_NAME
821 11. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The default value for system_filter_user is now
822 the Exim run-time user, instead of root.
824 12. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] ALT_CONFIG_ROOT_ONLY is no longer optional and
825 is forced on. This is mitigated by the new build option
826 TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST which defines a list of configuration files which
827 are trusted; one per line. If a config file is owned by root and matches
828 a pathname in the list, then it may be invoked by the Exim build-time
829 user without Exim relinquishing root privileges.
831 13. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The Exim user is no longer automatically
832 trusted to supply -D<Macro[=Value]> overrides on the command-line. Going
833 forward, we recommend using TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST with shim configs that
834 include the main config. As a transition mechanism, we are temporarily
835 providing a work-around: the new build option WHITELIST_D_MACROS provides
836 a colon-separated list of macro names which may be overridden by the Exim
837 run-time user. The values of these macros are constrained to the regex
838 ^[A-Za-z0-9_/.-]*$ (which explicitly does allow for empty values).
844 1. TWO SECURITY FIXES: one relating to mail-spools which are globally
845 writable, the other to locking of MBX folders (not mbox).
847 2. MySQL stored procedures are now supported.
849 3. The dkim_domain transport option is now a list, not a single string, and
850 messages will be signed for each element in the list (discarding
853 4. The 4.70 release unexpectedly changed the behaviour of dnsdb TXT lookups
854 in the presence of multiple character strings within the RR. Prior to 4.70,
855 only the first string would be returned. The dnsdb lookup now, by default,
856 preserves the pre-4.70 semantics, but also now takes an extended output
857 separator specification. The separator can be followed by a semicolon, to
858 concatenate the individual text strings together with no join character,
859 or by a comma and a second separator character, in which case the text
860 strings within a TXT record are joined on that second character.
861 Administrators are reminded that DNS provides no ordering guarantees
862 between multiple records in an RRset. For example:
864 foo.example. IN TXT "a" "b" "c"
865 foo.example. IN TXT "d" "e" "f"
867 ${lookup dnsdb{>/ txt=foo.example}} -> "a/d"
868 ${lookup dnsdb{>/; txt=foo.example}} -> "def/abc"
869 ${lookup dnsdb{>/,+ txt=foo.example}} -> "a+b+c/d+e+f"
875 1. Native DKIM support without an external library.
876 (Note that if no action to prevent it is taken, a straight upgrade will
877 result in DKIM verification of all signed incoming emails. See spec
878 for details on conditionally disabling)
880 2. Experimental DCC support via dccifd (contributed by Wolfgang Breyha).
882 3. There is now a bool{} expansion condition which maps certain strings to
883 true/false condition values (most likely of use in conjunction with the
884 and{} expansion operator).
886 4. The $spam_score, $spam_bar and $spam_report variables are now available
889 5. exim -bP now supports "macros", "macro_list" or "macro MACRO_NAME" as
890 options, provided that Exim is invoked by an admin_user.
892 6. There is a new option gnutls_compat_mode, when linked against GnuTLS,
893 which increases compatibility with older clients at the cost of decreased
894 security. Don't set this unless you need to support such clients.
896 7. There is a new expansion operator, ${randint:...} which will produce a
897 "random" number less than the supplied integer. This randomness is
898 not guaranteed to be cryptographically strong, but depending upon how
899 Exim was built may be better than the most naive schemes.
901 8. Exim now explicitly ensures that SHA256 is available when linked against
904 9. The transport_filter_timeout option now applies to SMTP transports too.
910 1. Preliminary DKIM support in Experimental.
916 1. The body_linecount and body_zerocount C variables are now exported in the
919 2. When a dnslists lookup succeeds, the key that was looked up is now placed
920 in $dnslist_matched. When the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in
921 this variable (though it is, of course, in the actual lookup). In simple
924 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example
926 the key is also available in another variable (in this case,
927 $sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not
928 true. For example, using a data lookup might generate a dnslists lookup
931 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|...
933 If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be
934 192.168.6.7 (for example).
936 3. Authenticators now have a client_condition option. When Exim is running as
937 a client, it skips an authenticator whose client_condition expansion yields
938 "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for example, to skip plain text
939 authenticators when the connection is not encrypted by a setting such as:
941 client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}}
943 Note that the 4.67 documentation states that $tls_cipher contains the
944 cipher used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it
945 contains the cipher used for the delivery. The same is true for
948 4. There is now a -Mvc <message-id> option, which outputs a copy of the
949 message to the standard output, in RFC 2822 format. The option can be used
950 only by an admin user.
952 5. There is now a /noupdate option for the ratelimit ACL condition. It
953 computes the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update
954 the saved data. This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup
955 the existence of a specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without
956 incrementing the ratelimit counter for that key.
958 In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must set the rate
959 for the same key somewhere (otherwise it will always be zero).
964 # Read the rate; if it doesn't exist or is below the maximum
966 deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate
967 log_message = RATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
968 (max $sender_rate_limit)
970 [... some other logic and tests...]
972 warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd
973 log_message = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
974 (max $sender_rate_limit)
975 condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}}
979 6. The variable $max_received_linelength contains the number of bytes in the
980 longest line that was received as part of the message, not counting the
981 line termination character(s).
983 7. Host lists can now include +ignore_defer and +include_defer, analogous to
984 +ignore_unknown and +include_unknown. These options should be used with
985 care, probably only in non-critical host lists such as whitelists.
987 8. There's a new option called queue_only_load_latch, which defaults true.
988 If set false when queue_only_load is greater than zero, Exim re-evaluates
989 the load for each incoming message in an SMTP session. Otherwise, once one
990 message is queued, the remainder are also.
992 9. There is a new ACL, specified by acl_smtp_notquit, which is run in most
993 cases when an SMTP session ends without sending QUIT. However, when Exim
994 itself is is bad trouble, such as being unable to write to its log files,
995 this ACL is not run, because it might try to do things (such as write to
996 log files) that make the situation even worse.
998 Like the QUIT ACL, this new ACL is provided to make it possible to gather
999 statistics. Whatever it returns (accept or deny) is immaterial. The "delay"
1000 modifier is forbidden in this ACL.
1002 When the NOTQUIT ACL is running, the variable $smtp_notquit_reason is set
1003 to a string that indicates the reason for the termination of the SMTP
1004 connection. The possible values are:
1006 acl-drop Another ACL issued a "drop" command
1007 bad-commands Too many unknown or non-mail commands
1008 command-timeout Timeout while reading SMTP commands
1009 connection-lost The SMTP connection has been lost
1010 data-timeout Timeout while reading message data
1011 local-scan-error The local_scan() function crashed
1012 local-scan-timeout The local_scan() function timed out
1013 signal-exit SIGTERM or SIGINT
1014 synchronization-error SMTP synchronization error
1015 tls-failed TLS failed to start
1017 In most cases when an SMTP connection is closed without having received
1018 QUIT, Exim sends an SMTP response message before actually closing the
1019 connection. With the exception of acl-drop, the default message can be
1020 overridden by the "message" modifier in the NOTQUIT ACL. In the case of a
1021 "drop" verb in another ACL, it is the message from the other ACL that is
1024 10. For MySQL and PostgreSQL lookups, it is now possible to specify a list of
1025 servers with individual queries. This is done by starting the query with
1026 "servers=x:y:z;", where each item in the list may take one of two forms:
1028 (1) If it is just a host name, the appropriate global option (mysql_servers
1029 or pgsql_servers) is searched for a host of the same name, and the
1030 remaining parameters (database, user, password) are taken from there.
1032 (2) If it contains any slashes, it is taken as a complete parameter set.
1034 The list of servers is used in exactly the same was as the global list.
1035 Once a connection to a server has happened and a query has been
1036 successfully executed, processing of the lookup ceases.
1038 This feature is intended for use in master/slave situations where updates
1039 are occurring, and one wants to update a master rather than a slave. If the
1040 masters are in the list for reading, you might have:
1042 mysql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw:master/db/name/pw
1044 In an updating lookup, you could then write
1046 ${lookup mysql{servers=master; UPDATE ...}
1048 If, on the other hand, the master is not to be used for reading lookups:
1050 pgsql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw
1052 you can still update the master by
1054 ${lookup pgsql{servers=master/db/name/pw; UPDATE ...}
1056 11. The message_body_newlines option (default FALSE, for backwards
1057 compatibility) can be used to control whether newlines are present in
1058 $message_body and $message_body_end. If it is FALSE, they are replaced by
1065 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
1066 the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
1067 whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
1070 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
1071 addresses, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than
1072 one IP address. This has been solved by the addition of == and =& for "all"
1073 rather than the default "any" matching.
1075 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been
1076 for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the
1077 other parameters to be varied.
1079 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When it is
1080 set, Exim compiles a runtime option called disable_fsync.
1082 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start.
1084 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining.
1086 7. There are two new variables called $sending_ip_address and $sending_port.
1087 These are set whenever an SMTP connection to another host has been set up.
1089 8. The expansion of the helo_data option in the smtp transport now happens
1090 after the connection to the server has been made.
1092 9. There is a new expansion operator ${rfc2047d: that decodes strings that
1093 are encoded as per RFC 2047.
1095 10. There is a new log selector called "pid", which causes the current process
1096 id to be added to every log line, in square brackets, immediately after the
1099 11. Exim has been modified so that it flushes SMTP output before implementing
1100 a delay in an ACL. It also flushes the output before performing a callout,
1101 as this can take a substantial time. These behaviours can be disabled by
1102 obeying control = no_delay_flush or control = no_callout_flush,
1103 respectively, at some earlier stage of the connection.
1105 12. There are two new expansion conditions that iterate over a list. They are
1106 called forany and forall.
1108 13. There's a new global option called dsn_from that can be used to vary the
1109 contents of From: lines in bounces and other automatically generated
1110 messages ("delivery status notifications" - hence the name of the option).
1112 14. The smtp transport has a new option called hosts_avoid_pipelining.
1114 15. By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matches. There is now a -I option
1115 that makes it case-sensitive.
1117 16. A number of new features ("addresses", "map", "filter", and "reduce") have
1118 been added to string expansions to make it easier to process lists of
1119 items, typically addresses.
1121 17. There's a new ACL modifier called "continue". It does nothing of itself,
1122 and processing of the ACL always continues with the next condition or
1123 modifier. It is provided so that the side effects of expanding its argument
1126 18. It is now possible to use newline and other control characters (those with
1127 values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists.
1129 19. The exigrep utility now has a -v option, which inverts the matching
1132 20. The host_find_failed option in the manualroute router can now be set to
1139 No new features were added to 4.66.
1145 No new features were added to 4.65.
1151 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
1152 "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
1153 least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
1156 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
1157 to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
1159 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
1160 authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
1161 number of authentication methods.
1163 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
1164 messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
1165 $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
1167 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
1168 second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
1169 restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
1170 without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
1172 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
1174 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
1175 conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
1176 followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
1177 before doing the expansions.
1179 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
1180 -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
1183 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
1184 is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
1185 subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
1187 10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
1188 shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
1190 11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
1191 as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
1192 relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
1193 available for compatibility.)
1195 12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
1196 to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
1202 1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
1205 2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
1206 start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
1209 3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
1210 or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
1211 start of the message for an SMTP error code.
1213 4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
1214 one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
1216 5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
1218 After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
1219 before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
1221 Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
1223 Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
1225 --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
1226 Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
1227 each messages value for each variable.
1229 Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
1230 same criteria without --not).
1236 1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
1237 as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
1238 the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
1239 name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
1240 IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
1241 This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
1243 ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
1245 Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
1246 one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
1247 a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
1250 2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
1251 incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
1252 one, a batch delivery now occurs.
1254 3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
1255 Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
1256 against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
1257 maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
1263 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
1264 the 4.60 release are:
1266 . An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
1268 . An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
1270 . A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
1271 $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
1272 for other things in complicated expansions.
1274 . The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
1276 . It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
1277 resources used in pipe deliveries.
1279 . A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
1281 . More errors are detectable in retry rules.
1283 There are a number of other additions too.
1289 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.60 release. Major new features since
1290 the 4.50 release are:
1292 . Support for SQLite.
1294 . Support for IGNOREQUOTA in LMTP.
1296 . Extensions to the "submission mode" features.
1298 . Support for Client SMTP Authorization (CSA).
1300 . Support for ratelimiting hosts and users.
1302 . New expansion items to help with the BATV "prvs" scheme.
1304 . A "match_ip" condition, that matches an IP address against a list.
1306 There are many more minor changes.