1 $Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-misc/WishList,v 1.37 2005/06/07 15:36:47 ph10 Exp $
6 Even when it was first released, Exim 4 had a Wish List because not all the
7 things suggested for it were implemented. The list has not stopped growing...
9 Another reason it is so long is that I have retained some items from the Exim 3
10 Wish List that never got implemented, but which seem reasonable possibilities
11 for later addition to Exim 4.
13 I have guessed at the amount of work involved, and categorized the items as
14 Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, or Unknown. The guesses are not based on any
15 detailed investigation, so must be taken as very rough.
18 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20 ----- Retained from the Exim 3 Wish List ------
21 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24 (10) 13-Jul-98 M more flexibility for pipe returns
27 The ability to specify more precisely what happens concerning the return code
28 from the pipe and the presence/absence of STDOUT/STDERR is requested. The
29 particular configuration that was requested was:
31 > if the command exited EX_OK, *and* produced nothing on STDOUT or
32 > STDERR, it succeeded...
33 > if the command exited EX_TEMPFAIL, defer, regardless of
35 > otherwise freeze the message (this will get my attention by way of
36 > freeze_tell_mailmaster)...
37 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
39 (11) 17-Jul-98 G support for DSN
42 It is unclear to me how this should work in the presence of aliases and
43 forwarding. Local deliveries would have to explicitly configured as deliveries
44 or relaying or whatever. A substantial amount of code is probably needed.
47 I have nothing to add except to say that for many of the reasons you've
48 stated, I don't think that DSN is coherent enough to be worth the effort
53 I thought the RFC was pretty clear on this. In a nutshell, if the
54 delivery rewrites the envelope from address, it's considered a
55 terminal delivery (i.e. delivery to a mailing list exploder), otherwise
56 treat it as a forwarding operation (the /etc/aliases case). I would
57 treat a .forward expansion as a final delivery event (it got to the
58 user as far as the MTA is concerned).
60 Yes, we need the DSN syntax. We also require the complete semantics of
61 NOTIFY=SUCCESS,FAILURE for our application to work.
63 Electronic Bill Presentment is really going to push the need for
64 DSN support in MTAs. We just don't want to get stuck in a situation
65 where we're faced with a non-DSN-aware MTA when we go to install
66 our bill/statement engine, thus our interest in what the MTA vendors
67 are planning to do about DSN.
68 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
70 (41) 14-Oct-98 M Find a way of modifying header lines
73 The problem with header_remove followed by header_add is that you can't refer
74 to the previous value of the header when adding a replacement. This could be
75 solved with a replace_header option. See also Exim 4/333.
76 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
78 (43) 15-Oct-98 M Sender rewrite *after* SMTP incoming checks
81 The anti-relaying check happens after the sender has been rewritten; there are
82 times when it would be helpful to do the check on the original sender, not on
83 the rewritten one. Quite how to configure this I'm not sure.
85 A related suggestion (from Steve Sargent) is to retain the original sender
86 address and make it accessible somehow.
87 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
89 (46) 20-Oct-98 L SMTP protocol hooks
92 "But there are enough broken SMTP implementations to make me wonder whether
93 there isn't a case for providing hooks for tweaking the SMTP transport's
94 protocol exchange. Something which would allow me to say things like 'if, when
95 talking to lame.example.com, you get a 251 response to a MAIL command, rewrite
96 the response to 501 before continuing'."
97 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
99 (50) 13-Nov-98 M A "Focus" option for eximon
102 This is the opposite of "Hide"; it just displays a certain subset. Hmm. Could
103 something clever be done with regular expressions?
104 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
106 (61) 22-Dec-98 M Send failed error messages to somebody
109 With sendmail, the failed error message is made into a error message,
110 with both envelope sender and recipient set to MAILER-DAEMON. The
111 original, bogus-envelope-sender message is then available to whoever
112 receives MAILER-DAEMON's mail. A more flexible approach would be to
113 specify a specific recipient.
114 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
116 (81) 01-Mar-99 M Addition of Content-MD5 support
119 Martin supplied a suggested patch at
120 http://www.net.lut.ac.uk/~martin/antispam/exim-hacks/
121 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
123 (85) 15-Mar-99 M ability to rewrite addresses in non-standard headers
127 Such as "return-receipt-to". See also 41. See also Exim 4/333.
128 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
130 (90) 21-Apr-99 M change wild prefix/suffix greediness
133 Currently, when prefix or suffix containing * is set on a director, and the
134 fixed part occurs more than once in a local part, the length of the prefix or
135 suffix is maximized. For example, with suffix = -* and a local part of
136 foo-bar-baz the suffix is taken as bar-baz, leaving the local part as foo.
137 An option is proposed to invert this rule.
138 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
140 (91) 26-Apr-99 S make queue_run_in_order to newest first
141 "Andreas M. Kirchwitz"
143 The tidiest thing would be to have queue_run_order={random,oldest,newest},
144 and make queue_run_in_order obsolete.
145 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
147 (93) 04-May-1999 L fallback_transport
149 This would be a generic transport option, specifying a different transport to
150 be used if the first one failed. Failed hard, or failed soft? Or an option?
151 And if failed hard, is a bounce message sent as well, or not? There are uid
152 issues. Remote delivery would have to be done always in a subprocess so that
153 the main process could retain privilege in case the fallback transport was
154 local. That could be conditional. That's why this is labelled "Large". Some of
155 the things people want to do with this can be done by variations in the
156 routers, e.g. use $message_age to switch routers.
157 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
159 (94) 13-May-1999 M message to go with -Mg
163 So the admin can pass back a reason.
164 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
166 (99) 28-May-1999 M header to list failures for syntax_errors_to
169 "I use the syntax_errors_to feature to email a copy of the error message.
170 It would be helpful to have the X-Failed-Receipients header in there,
171 identifying which addreses(s) are the problem, so that I don't have to
172 parse the body of the email message to figure out which addresses."
173 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
175 (100) 04-Jun-1999 S admin_users option, like trusted_users
177 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
179 (102) 21-Jun-1999 M expanded basic variables
182 Oh, and a wishlist entry, qualify_domain, and preferably other variables
183 can be set with a $lookup in the first part of the exim configuration
184 file, perhaps by an equivalent to backticks in shell script ("`command`")?
185 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
187 (105) 28-Jun-1999 M MIME-format bounce messages
190 "Is there any work going/gone on/planned to enable exim to report delivery
191 status notifications using RFC1892 multipart/report MIME messages? It would be
192 great to have errors reported in a message/rfc822 attachment."
195 "I like plain bounces, so would hope that if you do this, that it be
196 configurable. I think that even for those who want it, it shouldn't be very
197 high on the wish list priority."
199 Other suggestions: toggle for bounces/warnings; override max_return for
200 certain addresses; use plain text if original not MIME. See Paul's hack
201 for background of what to do.
203 Nigel suggests using a specially named autoreply transport to generate bounces;
204 people could then replace this with another transport (e.g. pipe) if they want
205 to customize it themselves.
207 Eli Chen posted an unconditional patch for 3.32 that does some of this work.
208 That could form a basis.
209 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
211 (107) 12-Jul-1999 S defer transport at given load level
214 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
216 (108) 16-Jul-1999 S remote sort by numbers of recipients
219 In the absence of remote_sort, sort remote domains by the number of recipients
221 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
223 (114) 11-Nov-1999 S List of possible outgoing interfaces
225 Allow the smtp "interface" option to be a list: try them in turn until one
226 is found to work. Also allow masks to specify a range of addresses.
227 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
229 (123) 23-Dec-1999 L Use AUTH + TURN for dial-in hosts
232 The way to do this would be to have Exim deliver messages into per-host
233 directories in, say, BSMTP format. Accept TURN if authenticated, and cause it
234 to run a helper program that is passed the socket in order to deliver the mail.
235 Provide a helper program!
236 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
238 (125) 04-Jan-2000 L Use shared memory segment for queue list
241 The idea is that a queue-runner that finds no existing shared segment should
242 create one (if configured - possibly some fixed size) and all Exim processes
243 should maintain a list of messages in it, thereby saving on directory scans
244 when there are lots of messages. This needs a lot of careful thought to try to
245 eliminate any possibility of data loss. The interlocking could be quite tricky.
246 Further posters suggested using a db file to hold the list. See also 127.
247 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
249 (129) 14-Jan-2000 L Dynamically loadable lookup modules
252 Suggested patch provided.
253 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
255 (131) 17-Jan-2000 T Facility for assuming existence for EACCES
258 The opposite option for "+" in require_files: assume existence if cannot
259 peer into the directory (+ assumes non-existence).
260 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
262 (131) 29-Feb-2000 M? Control total number of outgoing SMTP calls
265 This is for hosts with slow connections. Could some modification of
266 serialize_hosts be used for this? Or maybe use a semaphore? They seem to
267 be quite widely available.
268 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
270 (132) 01-Mar-2000 S Lookup host name from outgoing interface
273 Instead of primary_hostname, look up the name for the interface that is being
274 used for sending. Suggested patch supplied, but this should be an option of the
276 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
278 (133) 06-Mar-2000 S Filter option not to log "previously sent"
281 This is when using the "log" option of the autoreply driver.
282 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
284 (134) 09-Mar-2000 S Option to remove attachments when bouncing
285 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
287 (136) 13-Mar-2000 S/M Option for aliasfile to suppress "me too"
289 Could be tricky determining who "me" is.
290 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
292 (143) 08-May-2000 S Make quota_warn_threshold into a list
295 So several warnings could be generated as the mailbox got bigger and bigger.
296 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
298 (146) 15-May-2000 M Allow SMTP error codes in retry rules
300 This would allow special handling of certain errors from certain hosts. In
301 particular, it would allow failing of certain 4xx codes.
303 This is now available for 4xx responses to RCPT commands. Is anything more
304 needed? Apparently, yes; there's been a request for a similar feature for MAIL
306 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
308 (148) 15-May-2000 S Warn recipient if message rejected for quota excession.
311 Maybe not all that small, because the possibility of retrying must be taken
313 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
315 (149) 19-May-2000 L Make added headers visible in filters and other places
318 Headers added by directors/routers are not visible in subsequent processing.
319 This is a request to make them visible. What about removed headers? This could
320 be tricky to specify, hence the L.
322 A separate but related issue is the effect of headers added by "unseen"
323 directors. These are documented in chapter 19 as not being accumulated. Should
324 any change be made? See also Exim 4/333.
325 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
327 (155) 16-Jun-2000 M Special handling for certain hosts
330 A means of changing the transport depending on the host name/IP of the most
331 preferred MX record so that all domains that route to certain hosts can be
332 handled specially. Maybe this could be a variable that is available in the
333 expansion of the "transport" option.
334 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
336 (158) 29-Jun-2000 S Configure "From" in bounces
340 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
342 (159) 07-Jul-2000 M Keep messages for fixed time
345 An option to keep messages on the queue for a specified time, even if all their
346 destination hosts have timed out.
347 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
349 (164) 17-Aug-2000 S sender_unqualified_auth_hosts
351 To allow authenticated hosts to send unqualified addresses. Presumably it
352 needs received_... as well.
353 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
355 (167) 05-Sep-2000 L Support for ODBC
357 This would allow access to databases that don't have native support built into
358 Exim. See http://www.openlinksw.com/info/docs/rel3doc/unix/odbcsdk.htm
359 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
361 (168) 06-Sep-2000 M Deliver messages that alias to nothing to a given address
364 If other people are managing alias lists, and one is empty, bounce that
365 delivery to a given address rather than freezing the message. Use the errors_to
367 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
369 (172) 11-Sep-2000 S Allow file/directory in appendfile to override
372 When appendfile is called from forward or filter files, it ignores file or
373 directory settings. Maybe they should override. The path set by the forward or
374 filter is available in $address_file these days, so it could be used to create
376 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
378 (173) 18-Sep-2000 S A way of doing lsearches with EOL terminated keys
381 This is for looking up things like subject contents. Probably need an option to
382 exim_dbmbuild to make them into DBM files.
383 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
385 (174) 19-Sep-2000 S A way of using a different port for fallback hosts.
387 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
389 (181) 10-Nov-2000 S Compile-time options for ignoring Sendmail options
391 So that new ones could be accommodated easily.
392 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
394 (183) 04-Dec-2000 L dns_means_nonexist_after
397 In other words, wait a bit before giving up. This needs a mechanism for
398 remembering, which is not currently available. To be borne in mind for the
400 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
402 (184) 04-Dec-2000 M Log more details of local caller
405 "I was wondering if it was possible for exim to log the parent pid's cwd and
406 exe when it is called from a script/invoked by actually running /usr/sbin/exim
407 or /usr/sbin/sendmail." Question: is this information actually/easily
408 available to Exim? Needs investigation.
409 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
411 (186) 19-Dec-2000 S A simple utility to reset a retry time
414 Basically, to do what exim_fixdb "delete" can do, but straightforwardly. There
415 could be an interface from eximon.
416 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
418 (187) 02-Jan-2001 M Wildcarding in headers_remove
421 What I'd like to see is it to handle globs (or regexps, but i'm not sure this
422 latter would worth the hassle), in a way like:
424 headers_remove = "X-*:Additional-header"
425 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
427 (188) 02-Jan-2001 S Make pipe timeout a temporary error
430 A way to make a timeout into a temporary error.
431 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
433 (190) 03-Jan-2001 M Multiple message operations in eximon
434 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
436 (195) 19-Mar-2001 T TCP window size
438 TCP window size for receiving/sending, SMTP client/server.
439 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
440 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
444 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
445 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
446 ----- Things that didn't make it into Exim 4 ------
447 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
448 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
450 . An option to send messages to postmaster when ignore_errmsg_errors_after
453 . When an address is being routed, its constituents are in $local_part and
454 $domain, but there is currently no variable that contains the whole thing. It
455 could be put into $recipient, but that risks confusion with $recipients
456 (which is available in system filters). Maybe $address could be used?
458 . The ability to relay to host X without knowing all the domains that host X
459 might have. At ACL time, one would need to verify the recipient, and determine
460 that it routed to host X.
462 . A new lookup library that operates on a specially prepared file of IP
463 addresses and masks so that a single "lookup" yields a yes/no answer. This
464 should be a freestanding thing - needs a utility to build the file from a list.
466 . People want to change the wording of messages; can we find an efficient way
467 of allowing this? (Maybe put all messages into a separate module?) The problem
468 is not in the messages themselves, but in the values that get inserted into
469 messages. Would have to invent a new kind of function that used identified
470 values rather than positional ones. Use GNU gettext?
472 . Invent lf_hosts for those that may use LF without CR. Any other RFC
473 things we need to worry about?
475 . A user would really like to see something similar, perhaps with
476 "ID=$authenticated_id", similar to "helo=" and "ident=" in the default received
477 header. BUT there are security issues. Maybe give it as a commented out option
478 in the default configuration?
480 . Consider expanding further options that take integer values. What about
481 smtp_xxx options for different limits at different times of day (for example)?
482 What about tls_advertise_hosts (so can look at incoming IP/port)?
484 . How about a "hold hosts" option (cf hold_domains) to hold delivery to certain
487 . Allow user filters to use "headers add", but probably not remove. Or maybe
488 just implement "allow" options for both of these features.
490 . Have the return from pipe in a variable, so that (e.g. error_message_file)
493 . Implement randomize for ldap/sql servers.
495 . Add an option for ETRN that says "wait for the command to finish, and use its
496 stdout as the SMTP response."
498 . -odsomething for "ignore retry when doing immediate delivery".
500 . Add an option to the smtp transport to make it treat 5xx on connection as if
501 it were 4xx. Or possible add a sophisticated "after command X, treat xxx as
504 . A way of rewriting addresses in non-standard header lines such as
507 . Global option to enable initgroups() for exim uid. Default off.
509 . When verifying a sender, should it be rewritten with any T rewrites, because
510 it would be so rewritten if it actually was a recipient in a message?
512 . Sean Witham wants a way of defining macros that are not privileged, and a
513 sort of #ifdef structure that allows for different configurations in the same
516 . Allow :fail: to specify that 551 be used instead of 550. Maybe allow a code
517 at the start, optionally? What about :defer:?
519 . SMTP timeout in middle of receiving message: log sender address if known, and
520 possibly message_id if known.
522 . Make -brw show rewrites for transports too.
524 . Have the MTA log destinations that have timed-out on a ident request and
525 no longer send rfc1413_queries to them. Add an option for how not to cache
528 . Options and/or a utility to enable non-privileged users to view the queue
529 (e.g. -bpp), manipulate their own messages, etc.
531 . Specify a port along with a host in a route_list.
533 . A generalized "From" escaping scheme that also escapes >From so that the
534 whole thing can be reversed.
536 . There was a request for the \dns_again_means_nonexist\ option not to be
537 instantaneous, but to operate only after the DNS has been giving "try again"
538 for some time. Use the misc hints database.
542 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
543 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
544 ----- The Exim 4 Wish List ------
545 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
546 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
548 (1) 01-Jan-02 U Use of dynamically loaded libraries.
550 People want Exim to use dynamically loaded modules for a variety of reasons.
551 When I started to create Exim, I never expected anything other than source
552 distribution; the RPMs and inclusions in OS distributions caught me by
553 surprise. I know very little about the mechanics of dynamic loading, but I'm
554 aware that not all operating systems support it. I'm also aware that not all
557 Furthermore, a way round this might be to supply more hooks along the lines of
558 local_scan(). Then people can write their own dynamic loaders if they want.
559 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
561 (3) 01-Jan-02 U Test for over-quota at SMTP time
563 This is a hard one, because the only way to test for over quota is to try to
564 deliver a message, certainly if system quotas are being used. And also, the
565 only available size at RCPT time is the SIZE option, though of course the test
566 could be run at DATA time. I think maybe we leave this one to an external
567 program, and require people to use ${run} to access the data. Let someone else
568 figure out how to extract the current mailbox size!
570 One suggestion is to implement
572 ${file_size:/path/to/file}
573 ${directory_size:/path/to/directory}
575 so that explicit checks can be done. It may be necessary to have four
576 operators, two being based on the block count, and two showing the "visible"
577 size. Directory scanning is expensive; is there any scope for caching? It would
578 seem not (you don't often get two addresses to the same user).
579 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
581 (6) 01-Jan-02 S Option to disable the use of -t
584 Would require work so that Exim itself doesn't use -t.
585 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
587 (7) 01-Jan-02 M Avoid showing LDAP passwords in log lines for LDAP errors
590 May be tricky, because at the higher levels, the format of the query is not
592 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
594 (8) 01-Jan-02 S Expand once_repeat in autoreply
596 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
598 (9) 01-Jan-02 S Headers as well as body in file for autoreply
600 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
602 (10) 01-Jan-02 T Make "true" and "false" valid expansion conditions
604 This might help with "and" and "or" when one of the sub-conditions is, for
606 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
608 (11) 01-Jan-02 S Allow a filter to include another file.
609 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
611 (12) 01-Jan-02 M Support for different SQL servers per query
613 In other words, the global mysql_servers etc. is too restrictive.
614 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
616 (14) 01-Jan-02 M? Support for Sendmail milters
618 This could perhaps be done by extending the local_scan() idea and providing a
619 "standard" module which interfaced to milter.
620 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
622 (15) 01-Jan-02 M More hooks like local_scan()
624 One request has been for a similar hook at logging time. For other SMTP
625 interactions, maybe a hook into the ACL? See also 79 and 218 and 301.
626 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
628 (17) 11-Jan-02 M The construction of config.h needs refactoring
630 This has been hacked about substantially since the original implementation.
631 Given that there is a program (buildconfig), the messing around with the
632 environment could be abolished. Also, the distinction between "yes" and "no"
633 isn't always properly made (tests for #ifdef don't care about the value).
634 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
636 (18) 24-Jan-02 S Make $value retain its value after a top-level expansion
638 This was specifically for use in filter files. Currently it reverts to empty
639 as a consequence of save/restore for every lookup. It might be confusing to
640 do otherwise, however.
641 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
643 (19) 29-Jan-02 L Use of multiple DBM libraries
645 The problem is how to handle conflicting function names. Much research is
647 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
649 (20) 29-Jan-02 S Make system filter refreeze after manual thaw
651 Currently, a "freeze" in a system filter doesn't freeze after a manual thaw.
652 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
654 (21) 12-Feb-02 S Expand return_size_limit
657 Is this really worth it? A per-transport value is also suggested - that would
658 mean remembering the value with each failed address and taking a minimum or
659 a maximimum (which?).
660 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
662 (24) 21-Feb-02 ? A way of testing TLS using -bh
663 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
665 (27) 06-Mar-02 M Distinguishing between different temporary callout errors
667 The request was to distinguish between a 4xx error and a failure to connect.
668 Problem is: how to cope when there is more than one host? Maybe only if ALL
669 fail to connect. An option like /callout_no_connect_ok.
670 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
672 (30) 12-Mar-02 S Add "recipients" precondition to routers.
674 This would avoid having to use "condition". (See also requirement for $address
675 mentioned above.) However, it would also require adding a caching feature, and
676 probably $recipient_data (cf $domain_data).
677 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
679 (31) 21-Mar-02 S Variables that indicate 8-bit message and 8-bit host, and
680 a way of using them to suppress a transport filter
682 A variable that is set if the message contains 8-bit characters, and another
683 that is set during the smtp transport if the host supports 8-bit. Then we also
684 need a condition that's expanded in the transport to control whether the filter
685 is run or not (e.g. transport_filter_condition).
686 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
688 (32) 22-Mar-02 M More info about callout fails for header sender verify
690 When there's a callout failure for an envelope address, the error message
691 contains details (by default) of the callout commands. This doesn't happen
692 for addresses in the header because there may be more than one of them, and
693 deciding how to give that information is tricky. Can we do better?
694 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
696 (33) 25-Mar-02 S Option to assume nomatch in dnslist lookups that time out
698 Currently this causes a DEFER.
699 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
701 (34) 26-Mar-02 S Access to DNS lookup functions via local_scan() API
703 This would make local_scan() writers lives easier for DNS usage.
704 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
706 (36) 02-Apr-02 ? A way of throttling, but allowing, relaying that would
709 This was suggested in connection with anonymizing messages. The "wait" command
710 in ACLs goes some way towards this. Is it enough?
711 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
713 (41) 17-Apr-02 T Make config.samples available as a directory for ftp
715 This is so that people can browse individual samples directly.
716 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
718 (42) 23-Apr-02 T An option not to flatten newlines in $message_body.
720 Or maybe better to provide $message_body_nl so as to have both.
721 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
723 (43) 23-Apr-02 T An option to treat 4xx as 5xx from STARTTLS
725 This would make Exim retry in clear unless the host is in hosts_require_tls.
726 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
728 (44) 24-Apr-02 ? Use errors_to for timeouts after redirect syntax errors
730 A syntax error in redirection data (with skip_syntax_errors false) causes a
731 defer. Eventually, the address may time out. This suggestion is that, when it
732 does, the bounce is sent to errors_to rather than to the sender.
733 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
735 (45) 13-May-02 T smtp_etrn_serialize_id = ....
737 The default behaviour would be equivalent to
739 smtp_etrn_serialize_id = $smtp_command_argument
740 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
742 (47) 16-May-02 S Access to all addresses in batched local delivery
743 Miquel van Smoorenburg
745 In a batched local delivery with more than one recipient, there's no way to
746 access the list of recipients for doing custom things, such as stuffing them
747 all into a header. (BSMTP is the only approach; not everybody can use it.)
748 Suggested patch supplied.
749 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
751 (48) 21-May-02 M Support for ATRN (server and client)
754 Server: If Exim had the ability to accept an ATRN command and then simply
755 invoke an external program, passing the SMTP stream on stdin and stdout and
756 the authenticated id as a parameter, that would do the job nicely.
758 Client: We need a variant of 'exim -bs' which would connect to a specified
759 host, send AUTH/ATRN, and then accept incoming messages as usual.
760 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
762 (50) 22-May-02 S? Add comment (duplicate address) to Envelope-To:
764 This is just to minimize the confusion some people have. However, it is not
765 trivially easy to decide which to label as duplicates because of complications
766 with redirection. I'm not convinced it will actually reduce confusion.
767 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
769 (51) 07-Jun-02 S Option to use another address in callout MAIL FROM
771 This would be an address to try if MAIL FROM:<> failed. Is this actually going
772 to be helpful? See also 101.
773 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
775 (53) 11-Jun-02 S Make local_scan() dynamically loadable
777 David Woodhouse sent a patch. There's a more sophisticated one from Marc
778 Merlin. (See also Peter Benie's comments.) But should the base Exim have all
780 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
782 (54) 11-Jun-02 S Ignore -Ac if called as mailq
784 I am not sure if this makes sense. This flag requests a listing of a different
785 mail queue, but Exim doesn't work like that. Is is not better for people to be
787 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
789 (55) 13-Jun-02 M Rewriting whole header lines
792 Current rewriting rules apply to individual addresses in header lines. This
793 feature would use a regex to match whole lines and replace them. It could be
794 useful for patching up syntactically invalid lines from crappy clients, before
795 the syntax check kicks in. (It might also be useful for hiding local host names
796 in Received: headers.) See also 333.
797 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
799 (58) 26-Jun-02 ? Extend PAM support
801 Apparently PAM can do challenge-response authentication. The Exim interface
802 can't handle this. Investigate and think about how to do this.
803 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
805 (59) 26-Jun-02 M A "custom" authenticator
807 ... that is simply a front end to external code. For example, there may be
808 an external API that hides the user password and does CRAM-MD5 when passed the
809 details of the challenge and response.
810 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
812 (60) 27-Jun-02 S Make trusted_users a local part list
814 So that it can use lsearch etc.
815 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
817 (62) 28-Jun-02 S Remove headers before DATA ACL
820 "I'd like to be able to give Exim a list of headers that must be removed
821 from the message at arrival, before data_acl processing (and before the
822 rcpt_acl warn headers are added to the message)." See also 333.
823 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
825 (63) 28-Jun-02 S Access to ACL-added headers in ACLs
828 "I'd like also to be able to look at the already added headers by a
829 rcpt_acl when still checking rcpt_acl (either later in the acl for the same
830 RCPT TO or for another RCPT TO)." See also 333.
831 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
833 (65) 28-Jun-02 M Expand fallback hosts
835 See also 174 of the Exim 3 list.
836 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
838 (66) 01-Jul-02 M Use Berkeley DB 4 concurrent access features
840 This might give better performance on very busy sites by reducing the
841 contention for access to hints databases. Rob Butler points out that this could
842 also be useful to allow updates of other DB files used by Exim to happen
843 concurrently. Another thing to think about with BDB is the possible use of
845 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
847 (68) 01-Jul-02 S Add sender host to delivery line
849 "Would it be possible to have a "sending_host_on_delivery" option that
850 logs the IP of the sending host in the => line?" Also requested was amount of
851 data transmitted for a non-delivery attempt.
852 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
854 (69) 03-Jul-02 T Log selector to log whoson checs
857 "I'd quite like a log_selector option which could spot you'd done a whoson
858 lookup in your DATA ACL and maybe log it as W=user."
859 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
861 (70) 09-Jul-02 S A way of changing the RCPT address in an accept router
863 So as to avoid duplication problems when sending multiple addresses in multiple
864 copies to the same address.
865 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
867 (73) 17-Jul-02 M Match a list from within a condition
869 e.g. ${if matchdomain {$domain}{+domainlist} ...
870 ${if matchhost {$sender_host_address}{1.2.3.4/10:2.3.4.5/16}...
872 Thought needed about how to handle host names. This may be too messy to specify
875 22-Apr-04: Implemented for domains, addresses, and local parts. Hosts are
878 The only sensible approach seems to be to allow IP address arguments only.
879 Anything else should be diagnosed as an error. However, if a name appears in
880 the list, a PTR lookup should be done. This may require a lot of refactoring
881 in the code, because of the current assumption that were are (almost) always
882 dealing with THE sending host.
883 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
885 (74) 22-Jul-02 M Extend -bV to do more semantic checking
887 For example, diagnose "local_hosts" that should probably be "+local_hosts".
888 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
890 (75) 23-Jul-02 S Reference option on command line
892 The idea here is that a spam scanner that re-injects a message can supply a
893 reference on the command line that gets logged with R=.
894 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
896 (78) 30-Jul-02 S Expand queue_only (and/or queue_only_file)
898 The requirement is to make it possible to queue messages if certain conditions
899 are met (e.g. messages from certain local users). See also 93.
901 This control can now be achieved in the ACL - is this still needed?
902 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
904 (79) 31-Jul-02 S Additional info for log lines
906 An option to set an expanded string to be added to <= lines. And also for the
907 other delivery lines? See also 15.
908 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
910 (84) 09-Aug-02 S Make interfaces available in a variable
912 Something like $local_interfaces. Maybe limit the max length.
913 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
915 (85) 12-Aug-02 S/M Notice database connection failures
917 The small version of this just removes a server from the list within a single
918 Exim process when a connection to it fails. The bigger project would use the
919 retry database - but that has implications for bottlenecking and may not be
920 helpful. See also item 109. Another suggestion is to randomize the order in
921 which database servers are tried (randomize_database_servers). And another is
922 to measure response times and remember which server is fastest.
923 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
925 (87) 12-Aug-02 M Partial lookups for query-style lookups
927 The suggestion is to allow the lookup to contain a keystring (same syntax as
928 single-key lookups) which is then permuted and place in a suitable variable
929 each time - $permuted_key or something.
930 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
932 (88) 20-Aug-02 S Allow special retrying for forced defer
934 See also 146 in Exim 3 wish list above.
935 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
937 (89) 20-Aug-02 S Also allow retry rules on routers and transports
938 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
940 (90) 23-Aug-02 M Macros with arguments, a la C
942 I don't like this, because of the cost of frequent interpretation.
943 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
945 (93) 27-Aug-02 S queue_only_condition
948 queue_only_condition global option, expanded string. This contain
949 condition, which if evaluated to `no' or `false' or `0', behaves like
950 queue_only (queue_only_load ?). Don't know what to do is the string
951 expansion fails with DEFER (either force queueing or continue with
952 immediate delivery). Another option can control Exim behaviour if the
953 expansion fails. Don't know how the name for it ;-) See also 78.
955 This control can now be achieved in the ACL - is the new feature now needed?
956 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
958 (95) 27-Aug-02 S Log all parents as a router option
960 So that specific addresses can be logged like this. Should there be more log
961 selector options per router? Per transport?
962 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
964 (99) 28-Aug-02 L Test pre-conditions in order given
966 This would get round certain problems with require_files. However, it is
967 totally incompatible, and therefore an "Exim 5" wish.
968 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
970 (101) 02-Oct-02 M Callout and <> rejections
972 Some people don't want to fail the callout if the MAIL FROM:<> command is
973 rejected. Think of a way of handling this tidily. See also 51.
974 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
976 (102) 03-Oct-02 M Log option to suppress message-id logging
978 M because it would involve a change to eximstats.
979 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
981 (106) 09-Oct-02 S Appendfile to create directory not as user
983 Arrange for the setup entry to appendfile to create the directory under some
984 other uid (and with given owners/permissions?)
985 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
987 (109) 15-Oct-02 M Remember when LDAP (etc) servers are down
989 The idea would be to use some kind of retry rule, just like for hosts.
991 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
993 (110) 18-Oct-02 M errors_to for pipe command in filter
995 To work in the same was as errors_to for deliver commands.
996 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
998 (113) 15-Nov-02 M support for XMLRPC
1000 Patch supplied for 4.10 by Joel Vandal.
1001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1003 (114) 04-Dec-02 M local_scan: return message on accept
1005 (This actually dates from earlier.) The problem with this is that the string
1006 currently passes into $local_scan_data. Thus, an incompatible change of some
1007 sort would be required. Possibly a global that local_scan can set?
1008 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1010 (118) 10-Dec-02 S access to Perl from local_scan
1011 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1013 (119) 12-Dec-02 M ability to specify additional headers in an autoreply
1015 This is so that vacation messages etc can have MIME headers that specify, for
1016 example, the character set.
1017 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1019 (125) 02-Jan-03 M Per-host daemon logging
1021 "So what I would like is an option like debug_hosts, that allows to specify
1022 an hostlist, and if the current incoming/outgoing hosts matches, creates a
1023 logfile like $hostname_(in|out).log in my logdirectory."
1024 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1026 (127) 06-Jan-03 M Different messages for different callout failures
1028 The real requirement here is to detect when a callout "MAIL FROM:<>" failed, so
1029 that a specific warning about that can be sent, different to the message when a
1030 callout "RCPT TO:" fails. I think this is in fact now mostly done.
1031 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1033 (129) 09-Jan-03 M Keep track of DNSBL timeouts, and refrain from calling
1035 If so configured, keep track of DNSBL timeouts in a hints record, and don't
1036 retry that DNSBL for a while after (a sufficient number of) timeouts. It is
1037 effectively disabled for a while. Log enable/disable, of course. Another
1038 thought is an option not to apply +defer_unknown unless *all* DNSBL lookups in
1040 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1042 (130) 09-Jan-03 M A number of LDAP-related things
1045 OpenLDAP 2.1 is going to be more popular (2.1.9 is available with many
1046 bug fixes). TLS-enabled LDAP is an interesting and usefull thing.
1047 I can try to implement some things and send the patches, like with
1052 1) The propagation of TLS options (key, certificate, CA certificate)
1053 to the OpenLDAP library.
1055 2) (was dereferencing; done in 4.23).
1056 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1058 (131) 09-Jan-03 S Additional variables
1063 (Some that were previously here are done)
1065 $smtp_accept_count -- used for acl_smtp_connect
1067 $queue_runners -- children of the listening daemon could use this
1068 value for controlling the number of queue runners
1070 I don't like either of these because they cannot be real-time values. They
1071 would be snapshots of the values at the time the process was forked from the
1072 daemon, and I fear they would just be confusing. For processes that were not
1073 forked from the daemon they couldn't be set at all.
1074 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1076 (131) 09-Jan-03 S Additional options
1080 exim_file_descriptors_max
1081 queue_run_condition -- to deprecate queue_run_max, better system
1084 Given Exim's distributed nature, I'm not at all sure how the first two of these
1085 can usefully be implemented.
1086 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1088 (132) 16-Jan-03 M Option for when a transport filter fails (crashes)
1090 Freezing is one obvious option. Currently, Exim just retries. Another user
1091 wanted to retry without the filter, but that is much harder.
1092 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1094 (136) 24-Jan-03 M Make "personal" available as a condition for use in routers
1095 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1097 (138) 28-Jan-03 M A variable containing what was matched in a host list
1099 Or, presumably, other lists. This is so that ACL messages can say things like
1100 "your host name matches xxxx". Note: not the same as $domain_data. Also, this
1101 could be tricky with lookups and things that match in files.
1102 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1104 (143) 06-Mar-03 L Ability to have multiple authenticators of same type
1106 For example, to have two PLAIN authenticators; if the first fails, try the
1108 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1110 (144) 07-Mar-03 T ACL control = local_scan_skip to skip the local scan
1112 A bigger project would be control = local_scan <xxx> where xxx could select
1113 different local_scan functions (possibly by dynamic loading).
1115 This can now be simulated using the fact that ACL variables are preserved,
1116 so it doesn't look as it once did.
1117 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1119 (145) 07-Mar-03 T Export string_cat() to local_scan()
1120 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1122 (147) 17-Mar-03 T Option to treat 5xx as 4xx if received on initial connection
1124 This issue is controversial. That may be a good reason for not changing
1126 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1128 (153) 25-Apr-03 S A way of making log_as_local apply to the smtp transport
1130 Either an option on the transport, or log_remote_as_local for the router.
1131 Messy, either way. Maybe log_local_as_local and log_remote_as_local, and
1132 deprecate log_as_local?
1133 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1135 (154) 01-May-03 M Teergrubing at the CR/LF level
1137 It is believed that the most effective way to teergrube is to insert a delay
1138 between transmitting CR and LF in the SMTP response. Furthermore, this is also
1139 the best place to test for bad synchronization (i.e. at the last possible
1141 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1143 (155) 01-May-03 S "control=no_pipelining" for connect and EHLO ACLs
1145 Yet more flexibility! Maybe this should be a more general control for what is
1146 sent in response to EHLO.
1147 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1149 (156) 06-May-02 M Finer-grained synchronisation checking
1151 On operating systems that can be asked whether any sent bytes have not yet been
1152 ACK'd at the TCP/IP level, a finer-grained check for proper synchronisation can
1153 be done. All bytes must have been ACK'd if the client has received the previous
1154 response before sending the next command. See also 293.
1155 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1157 (157) 07-May-03 M Newline as a list item separator
1159 This will make life easier for lists obtained form databases where the
1160 separator is naturally a newline.
1161 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1163 (158) 13-May-03 M Ability to add to OK message for SMTP commands
1165 For sending reasons for slow response, etc.
1166 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1168 (160) 19-May-03 M Remove headers using wild cards
1171 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1173 (162) 28-May-03 M/L Use of real numbers in filters, expansions, and options
1175 The motivation for this is for handling spam scores that are real numbers. The
1176 questions are (a) how widely should it spread and (b) whether floating point or
1177 fixed point representations should be used. And what about the eval operator?
1178 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1180 (164) 02-Jun-03 S Set variables for interface and port in smtp transport
1182 These could be useful for varying HELO data etc. See also several other
1183 items about interfaces above.
1184 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1186 (166) 18-Jun-03 S CN verification in client TLS code
1188 A tls_verify_cn option is suggested by Sven Geggus.
1189 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1191 (168) 19-Jun-03 S Ability to add a header recording envelope rewrites
1193 Current code adds a deleted header with only some information. Maybe what is
1194 needed is a flag for a rewrite rule.
1195 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1197 (169) 19-Jun-03 M A way of detecting timeouts in callout returns
1199 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1201 (170) 23-Jun-03 S Option to accept rather than defer after local scan timeout
1203 Suggested patch supplied.
1204 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1206 (171) 23-Jun-03 S Option to make timeout a soft failure on pipe transport
1208 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1210 (172) 23-Jun-03 M Option to make SQL query to specific server
1212 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1214 (175) 04-Jul-03 S show_all_ancestors_in_errmsg for the redirect router
1216 This is the opposite of hide_child_in_errmsg in effect.
1217 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1219 (180) 14-Jul-03 M Extend never_users to be more flexible
1221 e.g. never_users = ! mailnull : ! cyrus : !mailman : 0-100
1222 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1224 (183) 16-Jul-03 S freeze_tell_text to add custom text to the message
1226 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1228 (185) 24-Jul-03 S An expansion operator that decodes RFC 2047 strings
1230 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1232 (188) 13-Aug-03 T batch_max=0 to mean unlimited
1234 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1236 (189) 22-Aug-03 S Allow filter "logwrite" to write to syslog
1238 I feel this is a dangerous facility, and also of very minority interest, at
1239 least for user's filters. Allowing a system filter to write to mainlog or
1240 syslog may be different. However, writing the main log would only be possible
1241 if the filter runs as root or exim.
1242 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1244 (190) 22-Aug-03 S A way of testing "forced delivery" in filter and routers
1245 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1247 (191) 26-Aug-03 M Preserve $address_data for a verified recipient
1249 The idea is to preserve it in the recipients data structure so that local_scan
1250 can have access to it. The value could also be used as the initial value of
1251 $address_data while routing.
1252 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1254 (192) 05-Sep-03 M Better handling of TXT records for dnslists
1256 When multiple lists are accessible via a merged lookup, handling TXT records
1257 is difficult. An option for doing the TXT lookup in a sub-list has been
1258 suggested, with syntax such as
1260 dnslists = list.example.org=127.0.0.2%dialups \
1263 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1265 (194) 10-Sep-03 M $addresslist_data to be like $host_data/$domain_data
1267 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1269 (195) 29-Sep-03 M A variable containing the error for verify = header_syntax
1271 Maybe there should always be a variable with the error message for all the
1272 different kinds of verify failure.
1273 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1275 (196) 30-Sep-03 S A way of detecting whether it was HELO or EHLO in the ACL
1277 $received_protocol isn't reset until after the command is accepted (which
1278 seems right), and $smtp_data shows only the arguments. Maybe $smtp_command?
1279 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1281 (197) 30-Sep-03 S MACROS_DROP_PRIVS and ALT_CONFIG_DROP_PRIVS
1283 Now that alternative configurations can be restricted to certain directories,
1284 some more flexibility can be allowed. Not by default, though.
1285 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1287 (198) 01-Oct-03 M Accept mail after local_scan() crash instead of defer
1289 This may not be as easy to implement as it sounds; one is never sure of the
1290 environment after a crash. Is is actually a good idea? The crashing local_scan
1291 may have wrecked the memory in arbitrary ways; for example, screwing up the
1293 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1295 (199) 01-Oct-03 M ${pipe which will pipe the message to a script ...
1297 ... and otherwise behave as ${run. Probably needs to have locking out features
1298 so that it can be turned off for users .forwards if the sysadmin so desires.
1299 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1301 (200) 07-Oct-03 L Alternative ways of storing hints
1303 People want to store hints in databases. Some assert that SQL databases can
1304 be made to perform satisfactorily. If a general interface could be worked on,
1305 people could at least try different strategies. See also 66 above, which is
1306 specifically concerned with Berkeley DB. Another possible option is a switch to
1307 disable smtp-wait hints - to avoid contention problems.
1308 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1310 (201) 07-Oct-03 M A "soft bounce" feature
1312 This is an option that turns all hard bounces into soft bounces. The idea is
1313 that it can be used as a safety-net while testing configurations. Instead of a
1314 local bounce, the message stays on the queue; instead of 5xx SMTP responses,
1317 The ability to do the opposite - turn 4xx into 5xx under certain circumstances
1318 might also be useful (e.g. after a certain time). This might best be done by
1319 extending the retry logic to recognize 4xx as a special error. (This is now
1321 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1323 (202) 10-Oct-03 S -bvsomething to do a callout after the verify
1325 For example: -bvc and -bvsc. The problem now (Nov 04) is that there are quite a
1326 few possible callout options that can be specified in an ACL, and they would
1327 have to be replicated here.
1328 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1330 (203) 14-Oct-03 S verify=something to easily check for header presence
1332 This is purely cosmetic; "condition" can already be used.
1333 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1335 (204) 27-Oct-03 S an inverted queue_only_file
1337 That is, queue if a file does NOT exist.
1338 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1340 (205) 27-Oct-03 S expand smtp_accept_queue_per_connection
1342 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1344 (206) 27-Oct-03 S appendfile: a variable containing the maildir base name
1346 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1348 (207) 29-Oct-03 S ability to keep trusted users in a file - expand it.
1349 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1351 (208) 31-Oct-03 M cache temporary verification errors and fail after a time
1353 This request was for a way of turning temporary verification failures into
1354 permanent ones after some fixed time.
1355 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1357 (209) 31-Oct-03 S a way of making crashes in pipe commands temporary errors
1359 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1361 (210) 31-Oct-03 S runtime option to change the daemon name used for tcprwappers
1363 A patch for compile time was supplied, but this seems better as a runtime
1364 option, for use with multiple Exim daemons.
1365 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1367 (211) 31-Oct-03 S ability to disable debugging output from -bh & -bhc
1368 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1370 (212) 31-Oct-03 M specify headers lines in HELO ACL to be added to all msgs
1373 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1375 (214) 05-Nov-03 S Put the wild part of local part prefix/suffx in variables
1377 Unfortunately, this isn't quite as trivial as it seems.
1378 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1380 (215) 14-Nov-03 S A way of turning off message-submission fix-ups
1382 Globally, and perhaps also via an ACL control so that it can be done on a
1383 per-message basis. Is this still needed? Since this item was added to this
1384 list, default fixups for non-local messages have been removed, and control =
1385 submission has been added.
1386 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1388 (215) 26-Nov-03 M/L Conversion of IDNA domain names for logging
1390 IDNA (RFCs 3490-3492) converts domains names containing non-ASCII characters
1391 into ASCII strings of a special form. Exim will of course handle these.
1392 However, it might be nice to convert them to a local code for logging. This
1393 might be quite a big project: there's also output from -bp and eximon queue
1394 display and no doubt other places as well. (Utilities that process the logs,
1395 e.g. exigrep, eximstats, will be automatically handled if the logs are
1397 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1399 (216) 27-Nov-03 S Option to bounce if required TLS doesn't happen
1401 This is for the smtp transport with hosts_require_tls set. Currently, it
1402 defers. Possibly the best approach is to make the error one that can be seen by
1404 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1406 (217) 27-Nov-03 M A function to pass back variables from Perl
1408 This is a function that can be called from Perl, to take a name and a value and
1409 put that value into an Exim variable.
1410 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1412 (218) 01-Dec-03 M A local_scan-like hook at system filter time
1414 That is, make a C API available for custom filtering at this point.
1415 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1417 (221) 18-Dec-03 U Merge routers and ACLs - or at least make more similar
1419 "It will be very useful to be able to use most of the ACL conditions
1420 (authenticated, hosts, senders, sender_domains, ... ) in routers and also the
1421 possibility to have multiple conditions in routers. It will be great to also
1422 be able to set variables in routers like in acl's." This is effectively a
1423 radical suggestion for a complete re-design, and is therefore BIG.
1424 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1426 (223) 22-Dec-03 S Support SOA lookup in dnsdb lookups
1428 This could be like zns, and climb up the tree till it hits a zone. Would the
1429 name of the zone be required?
1430 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1432 (225) 22-Dec-03 M Add acl= to routers
1434 This would use an ACL to "control access" to a router, opening up a number
1435 of interesting possibilities. Details of possible limitations need to be
1437 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1439 (226) 23-Dec-03 S A way of treating DEFER as fail in dnsdb lookups
1441 (i.e. the dnsdb lookup failed, so accept the message)
1442 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1444 (227) 30-Jan-04 M A configuration .if facility
1446 "Second with the .ifdef and such, it would be nice to have a base .if,
1447 so I could do something like
1448 .if DEFINED_DATA == xyz
1450 .elseif DEFINED_DATA == abc
1455 also this would be nice at least in my case in the system filters, but
1456 isn't required but you could pass the defined data to the system, in
1458 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1460 (229) 30-Jan-04 M New expansion mechanism: {list ...}
1462 "Proposed syntax: {list {separator}{item}{item}...}
1463 This first expands the contents of {separator} and all of the {item}s,
1464 then constructs a separator-delimited list. The twist is: if an {item}
1465 generates the empty string, no separator will be generated for it.
1466 The entire construct will fail is {separator} fails, or all {item}s
1467 fail. If just some {item}s fail, they will be treated as if they
1468 generated empty strings.
1470 {list {,}{aaaaaa}{bbbbbb}{cccccc}} -> aaaaaa,bbbbbb,cccccc
1471 {list {,}{:fail:}{bbbbbb}{cccccc}} -> bbbbbb,cccccc
1472 {list {,}{aaaaaa}{:fail:}{cccccc}} -> aaaaaa,cccccc
1473 {list { }{aaaaaa}{bbbbbb}{}} -> aaaaaa bbbbbb
1474 {list { }{:fail:}{:fail:}{:fail:}} -> :fail:
1475 {list {:fail:}{aaaaa}{bbbb}{cccc}} -> :fail:
1476 See particularly examples 2-4, which handle the case of a missing first
1477 and last item with ease; doing this using {if ...} would be quite difficult!"
1478 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1480 (230) 30-Jan-04 M Find IP addresses of a domain's nameservers
1482 This needs some way of processing a list of things in a similar way, which
1483 should perhaps be a more general facility. // This can now be done using the
1484 list facilities of dnsdb; verbose, but it can be done. //
1485 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1487 (231) 30-Jan-04 ? -C has a number of problems when used for real
1489 -C was intended for testing; people are using it for "alternate"
1490 configurations, and it doesn't work too well. Can a better way of doing this be
1492 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1494 (232) 02-Feb-04 ? Make parts of the code loadable
1496 The idea being that drivers, etc. could be compiled separately. There are, of
1497 course, security issues. This is not something I want to go into at present.
1498 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1500 (235) 02-Feb-04 T Make smtp_accept_count available as a variable
1502 This is for use in ACLs. Of course, it is a snapshot of the count at the
1503 start of the receiving process. As such, it could be confusing because if a
1504 connection lasts a long time, the "true" value could be very different. For
1505 this reason, I don't really like this idea.
1506 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1508 (236) 02-Feb-04 S String in local_scan that's added to the binary version string
1509 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1511 (237) 02-Feb-04 M Add_header in ACLs because "message" is overloaded
1513 This would be useful for verbs where "message" is an error message. See also
1515 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1517 (238) 05-Feb-04 S ${address to handle multiple addresses
1519 At present, ${address expects to see just one address. An extension would let
1520 it handle header lines with multiple addresses, just retaining the actual
1521 addresses. Or perhaps a new operator is needed?
1522 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1524 (239) 23-Feb-04 ? Expansion items for encryption/decryption
1526 Perhaps for some kind of cookie handling? This would need an external crypto
1527 library, because there's no crypto code in Exim itself.
1528 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1530 (240) 23-Feb-04 ? Some way to know if a ip is a mx for a given domain
1532 Some kind of iterative operation for dnsdb might be a general way of providing
1533 this. // This can now be done using the list facilities of dnsdb; verbose, but
1535 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1537 (242) 01-Mar-04 ? Run a filter from an expansion condition
1539 This would add a lot of power to ACLs, but its implementation might be tricky
1540 because of the possibility of recursion.
1541 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1543 (243) 01-Mar-04 ? Run an ACL from an expansion condition
1545 The problem here is knowing what data is available at an arbitrary time.
1546 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1548 (244) 01-Mar-04 ? Add an on-success event to transports
1550 This could just be an expansion string, whose value is either ignored or
1551 logged, but it could be used to run SQL updates or run programs etc.
1552 However, what is "success" when a transport has multiple recipients?
1553 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1555 (245) 01-Mar-04 M Add all the string expansion conditions to filters
1557 Some thought would be needed on how to design the syntax for this.
1558 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1560 (247) 09-Mar-04 S IP addresses that are never looked up
1562 It would be nice if we could prevent this for certain IP addresses for
1563 which we _know_ we'll never get a valid PTR record, like 2002::/16.
1564 So a new option might reasonably default to:
1566 hosts_never_lookup = <; 2002::/16
1567 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1569 (253) 05-Apr-04 M Use ESMTP and TLS for recipient callout verification
1571 The best way to do this would involve quite a bit of refactoring so as to
1572 abstract some of the code from the smtp transport into subroutines that could
1573 also be used from the callout code. The tls parameters should probably be
1574 taken from the transport. That might also require some substantial code
1575 refactoring. See also 294.
1576 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1578 (260) 30-Apr-04 S Respect +tls_cipher +tls_peerdn in rejectlog entries
1580 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1582 (261) 05-May-04 S Add a "required_version" option
1584 So that configurations can insist on a specific Exim version.
1585 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1587 (262) 10-May-04 S Add "scratch" ACL variables
1589 The idea is for variables that are flushed at the start of each ACL. I'm not
1590 really convinced that these are worth implementing.
1591 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1593 (263) 10-May-04 S Add variable $router_name $transport_name
1595 These could be used in debug_print settings, which are output during -bt, and
1596 thus don't need the privilege to run with -d.
1597 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1599 (265) 25-May-04 M An init.d script for exim is needed
1601 The old sendmail script used to "just work" because it just did -bd -q 20m or
1602 whatever. Newer versions start more than one sendmail daemon, so do not work.
1603 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1605 (267) 25-May-04 S tarpitting delay option
1607 A modifier that sets a delay between lines for multiline responses.
1608 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1610 (268) 25-May-04 S? Add a PID to every log line
1612 Given that pids are reused non-cyclically these days, is this actually useful?
1613 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1615 (270) 01-Jun-04 M Add headers at top and middle
1617 Various initiatives like SPF and DomainKeys require header lines to be added
1618 above or in the middle of existing headers. Exim always adds at the bottom.
1619 When these requirements are more standard and clearer, some way of controlling
1620 where header lines are added will probably become necessary. Some new syntax
1623 This can now be done fairly generally from local_scan(), and at the start and
1624 after the Received: block from an ACL. Is anything more needed? See also 333.
1625 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1627 (271) 02-Jun-04 L Callouts at routing time
1629 From a user's message:
1631 > I would like to be able to:
1633 > 2) Forcing callouts as address verification at router level
1634 > [ check_callout just like check_local_user ]
1636 > I would like to redirect messages in some domain to "domain with callout
1637 > verification" and to "domain without callout verification"
1640 > userA@domain.in -> userX@doamin.out-verify (use callout to verify)
1641 > userB@domain.in -> userY@doamin.out-noverify (do not use callout verify)
1643 > [both out-* domains delivered via "callout ready" transports]
1645 Other versions of the wish:
1646 * limiting callouts in acls to specific transport
1647 verify = recipient/callout=5s,transport:intranet_smtp
1648 * adding "select transport" to ACL conditions
1649 accept domains = +local_domains
1650 transport = cyrus_ltcp
1651 verify = recipient/callout=5s
1652 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1654 (272) 07-Jun-04 S Expand hosts_randomize
1656 It occurs in manualroute and in smtp.
1657 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1659 (278) 21-Jun-04 M quota_warn_message_file option
1661 Similar to the bounce and delivery warn message files.
1662 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1664 (280) 23-Jun-04 M A way of adding a header line after callout defer_ok
1666 This would record that, e.g., a sender domain verified, but the callout
1667 could not be done. There are ways of fudging this, using ACL variables and
1669 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1671 (285) 16-Jul-04 M Separate and independent log_selector for rejectlog
1673 For example: mainlog_selector and rejectlog_selector, with log_selector setting
1675 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1677 (286) 21-Jul-04 M Distinguishing a larger number of errors
1679 For instance, detecting "connection reset by peer" (ENETRESET or ECONNRESET)
1681 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1683 (288) 10-Aug-04 M Option for verify to require MX
1685 e.g. verify=sender/require_mx
1686 I'm not too keen because this is rather special purpose, and of course could
1687 only apply if the verification happened to hit a dnslookup router.
1688 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1690 (289) 10-Aug-04 L Option to treat defers in database lookups as "not found"
1692 This is so that alternatives can be coded for when databases are down. A
1693 suggested patch has been sent, but it just catches all instances of "defer"
1694 from a lookup in an expansion string. These can occur for a number of different
1695 reasons, not just connection failures. I think that we need a specific
1696 "connection failed" indicator. Also, what about lookups in lists?
1697 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1699 (291) 13-Aug-04 M An ACL or "local_scan()" to be run on size excession
1701 The idea is to give something a chance to look at the data so far received when
1702 more than message_size_limit (or some other limit) has arrived. I am not sure
1703 how useful this would actually be in practice.
1704 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1706 (292) 13-Aug-04 M Overall timeout for message reception
1708 A client could in priciple keep an SMTP connection open for a very long time by
1709 trickling in data very slowly. Also, after message_size_limit is exceeded, Exim
1710 continues to swallow the data (though it does not write it to disk) until the
1711 end is reached. Again, the connection could be held open for a very long time.
1712 Some kind of overall time limit for an SMTP connection, possibly reset at the
1713 start of each message, might be helpful in these situations.
1714 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1716 (294) 23-Aug-04 L Callouts and AUTH and LMTP
1718 People want to do callouts using LMTP as well as SMTP, and that would also
1719 include sockets as well as TCP/IP connections. Also, people want to make use of
1720 AUTH during the callout checking, on all types of connection. I suppose that
1721 means making TLS available as well. This probably means a rewrite of the code
1722 that actually does the callout. Should we use the relevant transport in a new
1723 "callout" mode instead of keeping things separate? See also 253 and 323.
1725 And here's another submitted idea: "My actual suggestion is that if this model
1726 is followed, the parent process doesn't have to stop the callout process if it
1727 is taking too long to respond: it can return 450 to the incoming connection
1728 within the 5 minute SMTP command timeout and leave the callout process to
1729 continue, in the hope that it will eventually get a result and store it in the
1730 callout cache in time for the sender's next attempt."
1731 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1733 (296) 09-Sep-04 S Make deliver_time work for == lines as well as =>
1735 What about ** lines?
1736 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1738 (299) 25-Oct-04 S Options to make Sieve "keep" pass to next router
1740 Currently, "keep" saves in the mailbox. Probably need two options, for implicit
1741 and explicit keep commands.
1742 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1744 (301) 27-Oct-04 M Use an "ACL" to filter logging
1746 This idea was for ACL syntax to be able to "accept" or "deny" individual log
1747 lines. This would make it possible to have, for example, per-host logging for
1748 certain things. See also 15 above.
1749 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1751 (302) 28-Oct-04 M Expand pass_router and redirect_router
1753 Doing this would mean postponing the validity checks till the router was
1754 actually used instead of doing them at start up. It does not seem to be a
1755 facility that will be widely used.
1756 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1758 (303) 28-Oct-04 M Support SQL relay
1760 This would make it easier for packagers to support "generic SQL" without having
1761 to choose which one. It can be slotted in using a MySQL interface without
1762 modifying Exim, but native support would be nice.
1763 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1765 (304) 02-Nov-04 M A way of seeing the whole message in Perl or ${run
1767 At present, the headers are available in $message_headers, but only part of
1768 the body is visible. The only way to pass the whole body would be as a file
1769 descriptor because it can be very large. See also (42).
1770 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1772 (305) 02-Nov-04 M A Perl transport
1774 The suggestion here is that an embedded Perl function takes responsibility for
1775 doing the delivery. I am not at all keen on this. One way of doing it would be
1776 to implement (244), which provides an "on success" string expansion. Then
1777 anyone who wants this could run that on a transport that does nothing.
1778 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1780 (306) 09-Nov-04 M Make the search type partial-lsearch*@ be useful
1782 At present, it treats the whole key as a domain for the partial search, then
1783 does the *@ thing. A more sensible plan would be something like:
1791 That is, try the local part and * at each of the partial domain values.
1792 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1794 (307) 24-Nov-04 S Check the syntax of Message-ID: header lines
1796 This could be added to "verify=header_syntax" or, if the incompatibility is
1797 felt to be too great, an additional condition, or a sub-option, could be added.
1798 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1800 (308) 24-Nov-04 S Add $body_longlinecount and $header_longlinecount
1802 These variables would hold the number of physical lines in the body and header
1803 that were longer than 998 bytes. This would be fiddly to implement because of
1804 the way Exim currently reads the input. It isn't just a trivial patch.
1805 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1807 (309) 01-Dec-04 S/M Queue runners should get locks before forking
1809 If a queue-runner opened the -D file and took out the lock before forking, it
1810 would waste fewer resources if the message was already being delivered. But how
1811 often would this actually matter in practice?
1812 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1814 (310) 06-Dec-04 S After "personal" save what matched
1816 The idea is to save the email address that actually was found in the message
1817 in a variable so it can be used (e.g. as the From: address in an autoreply).
1818 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1820 (311) 07-Dec-04 ? More flexible SMTP response codes
1822 The requestor wanted to be able to specify, for example, 551 in an ACL deny
1823 instead of 550, and also vary the defer code. The first digit, however, should
1824 remain fixed. In addition to main codes, enhanced status codes (RFC 2034) were
1825 requested. (As far as I can tell, they have never been highly popular.)
1826 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1828 (312) 10-Dec-04 ? Shadow remote transports
1830 Unless a lot of work is done, this would be restricted to another remote
1831 transport. A similar effect could therefore be achieved with "shadow_hosts"
1832 which are like fallback_hosts but which operate on success.
1833 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1835 (313) 21-Jan-05 ? Multiple queues
1837 Exim runs poorly if its queue gets too big. Various ways round this are all
1838 to some extent kludges. There has been a suggestion of using multiple
1839 directories instead of just "input". (Originally it was for a whole set of
1840 spool directories, but that introduces complications with the hint files.)
1841 On message arrival, somehow a selection of "input" must be made. Then queue
1842 runners must be startable for the different "queues". Don't forget that the
1843 "msglog" directory is also involved. Perhaps add a new level of indirection:
1844 /var/spool/exim/queue1/{input,msglog}, /var/spool/exim/queue2/....
1845 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1847 (314) 15-Feb-05 M Multiple headers_{add,remove} for routers
1849 If headers_{add,remove} could be specified multiple times, it would be easier
1850 for those people that construct configs using .ifdef or .include, etc. See also
1852 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1854 (315) 15-Feb-05 M String variables for use in filters.
1856 Currently, only numerical variables are supported.
1857 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1859 (316) 21-Feb-05 M Put callout response into a variable
1861 When a callout fails, put the entire SMTP response into a variable. This is not
1862 trivial because we probably should retain it in the cache as well.
1863 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1865 (317) 25-Feb-05 S Delete the pid file when the daemon exits
1867 At least try to catch some of the exit routes from the daemon and either delete
1868 or empty the pid file.
1869 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1871 (318) 02-Mar-05 S Add current connection count to daemon's exiwhat output
1872 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1874 (319) 03-Mar-05 ? Allow file rather than directory for scanning call
1876 "I can call arbitrary scanning software by specifying the full path. I can pass
1877 a directory to be scanned in the arguments. I'd like to be able to pass a
1878 specific file name instead of a directory. I think this would allow me to call
1879 Bogofilter at smtp time. Bogofilter requires a filename, not a directory. The
1880 file would contain the complete email. I suppose there may be other scanning
1881 solutions with a similar requirement."
1882 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1884 (320) 03-Mar-05 T Options to control daemon retry binding
1886 Currently the daemon tries 10 times at 30-second intervals to listen on an IP
1887 address. The wish is for options to control these numbers.
1888 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1890 (321) 07-Mar-05 S Run an ACL on a sync error
1892 ... and possibly "accept" or "deny" it.
1893 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1895 (322) 15-Mar-05 M Add a /defer_ok option to verify=reverse_host_lookup
1896 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1898 (323) 15-Mar-05 M Make callouts use smtp_data from the smtp transport
1900 This is yet another problem caused by duplicating the SMTP code between the
1901 transport and the callout verification. See item 294 above. Merging the
1902 transport and the callout code could prevent this kind of thing from happening.
1903 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1905 (324) 04-Apr-05 ? Make -bP show ACLs
1907 This is in the Bugzilla as #10.
1908 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1910 (326) 03-May-05 ? Queue-only on memory shortage
1912 This is bugzilla #17. The idea is to have something like queue_only_load that
1913 triggers on a shortage of main memory.
1914 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1916 (327) 06-May-05 ? Break delay if connection drops
1918 Currently, "delay=5m" (e.g.) waits for 5 minutes. If we can detect that the
1919 connection has died in the meantime, it would make sense to break the delay.
1920 However, it doesn't seem possible to detect a dropped connection without trying
1922 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1924 (328) 10-May-05 S After "unseen" routing, pass on header additions/deletions
1926 Currently, when an "unseen" router accepts an address, header additions and
1927 deletions stick with that address, and the "clone" address that continues to be
1928 routed starts off without any additions or removals. This request is for an
1929 option to select other actions: retain header actions with the clone only, or
1930 pass them on to both addresses. See also 333.
1931 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1933 (329) 12-May-05 S Create message ID at MAIL FROM time
1935 Currently, the ID is created only when Exim is about to create the data (-D)
1936 file for an incoming message. In other words, after it knows it really is going
1937 to accept the message. Creating the ID earlier would mean that rejection
1938 messages in the log would be tagged with an ID, and this is seen as desirable
1940 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1942 (330) 31-May-05 ? Default interface for -bh and default port for -oMi
1944 I do not think it worth putting effort in here for these reasons: If a host has
1945 multiple interfaces, there's no easy way to choose one to be the default for
1946 $interface_address when -bh is used. If the host does not have multiple
1947 interfaces, chances are the configuration won't be looking at
1948 $interface_address anyway. If you are setting -oMi, and care about the port, it
1949 isn't much effort to tack on a port number, though in this case, I suppose a
1950 default of 25 is "obvious".
1951 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1953 (331) 31-May-05 M More than one retry time per host
1955 Consider this example: an attempt to start a TLS connection to a host gets a
1956 temporary error. This stops *all* connections, both for TLS and otherwise.
1957 Different retry times for different circumstances are needed to get round this.
1958 What are the circumstances? TLS/not-TLS is clearly one, but sometimes you don't
1959 know if you are going to try TLS until you have connected. So this makes sense
1960 only if require_tls is used. Perhaps the multiple retry times should just be
1961 per-transport, to avoid these difficulties. If we made all retry keys depend on
1962 the transport, this would happen automatically.
1963 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1965 (332) 03-Jun-05 S A "receive time taken" log selector
1967 This suggestion is to at an RT= item to the <= line, giving the time it
1968 actually took to receive the message.
1969 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1971 (333) 06-Jun-05 L Re-think and re-implement header handling
1973 There are a number of items related to headers above. Better facilities for
1974 handling headers at ACL time are needed. The whole way in which Exim handles
1975 headers should be re-planned and re-implemented in a more consistent manner.
1977 These are the main previous items:
1979 Exim 3 Wish List: 41, 85, 149, 187.
1980 Exim 4 Wish List: 55, 62, 63, 160, 212, 237, 270, 314, 328.
1981 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1983 (334) 07-Jun-05 M Support for messages larger than 2G
1985 This is probably a longish-term thing at the moment. Quotas over 2G are now
1986 supported, but not individual messages; no doubt one day this will be wanted.
1987 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1988 --- HWM 334 ------------------------------------------------------------------
1989 ---------------------------- End of WishList ---------------------------------