-$Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.118 2006/10/23 13:24:21 ph10 Exp $
+$Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.125 2006/12/20 09:44:37 ph10 Exp $
New Features in Exim
--------------------
Version 4.64
------------
-1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
- "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are
- at least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit
- or an underscore. The rest of the name can contain alphanumeric characters
- and underscores. This is a compatible change because the old set of
- variables such as acl_m12 are a subset of the allowed names. There may now
- be any number of ACL variables. For example:
-
- set acl_c13 = value for original ACL variable
- set acl_c13b = whatever
- set acl_m_foo = something
-
- What happens if a syntactically valid but undefined ACL variable is
- referenced depends on the setting of the strict_acl_vars option. If it is
- false (the default), an empty string is substituted; if it is true, an error
- is generated. This affects all ACL variables, including the "old" ones such
- as acl_c4. (Previously there wasn't the concept of an undefined ACL
- variable.)
-
- The implementation has been done in such a way that spool files containing
- ACL variable settings written by previous releases of Exim are compatible
- and can be read by the new release. If only the original numeric names are
- used, spool files written by the new release can be read by earlier
- releases.
-
-2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
- to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections. Its
- argument is a list of words which can be "main", "reject", or "panic". The
- default is "main:reject". The list may be empty, in which case a rejection
- is not logged at all. For example, this ACL fragment writes no logging
- information when access is denied:
-
- deny <some conditions>
- log_reject_target =
-
- The modifier can be used in SMTP and non-SMTP ACLs. It applies to both
- permanent and temporary rejections.
-
-3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
- authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
- number of authentication methods. If you are using Dovecot to authenticate
- POP/IMAP clients, it might be helpful to use the same mechanisms for SMTP
- authentication. This is a server authenticator only. The only option is
- server_socket, which must specify the socket which is the interface to
- Dovecot authentication. The public_name option must specify an
- authentication mechanism that Dovecot is configured to support. You can have
- several authenticators for different mechanisms. For example:
-
- dovecot_plain:
- driver = dovecot
- public_name = PLAIN
- server_name = /var/run/dovecot/auth-client
- server_setid = $auth1
-
- dovecot_ntlm:
- driver = dovecot
- public_name = NTLM
- server_name = /var/run/dovecot/auth-client
- server_setid = $auth1
-
- If the SMTP connection is encrypted, or if $sender_host_address is equal to
- $interface_address (that is, the connection is local), the "secured" option
- is passed in the Dovecot authentication command. If, for a TLS connection, a
- client certificate has been verified, the "valid-client-cert" option is
- passed.
-
-4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
- messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
- $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
-
-5. In a DNS black list, when the facility for restricting the matching IP
- values is used, the text from the TXT record that is set in $dnslist_text
- may not reflect the true reason for rejection. This happens when lists are
- merged and the IP address in the A record is used to distinguish them;
- unfortunately there is only one TXT record. One way round this is not to use
- merged lists, but that can be inefficient because it requires multiple DNS
- lookups where one would do in the vast majority of cases when the host of
- interest is not on any of the lists.
-
- A less inefficient way of solving this problem has now been implemented. If
- two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the second is used first to do
- an initial check, making use of any IP value restrictions that are set. If
- there is a match, the first domain is used, without any IP value
- restrictions, to get the TXT record. As a byproduct of this, there is also a
- check that the IP being tested is indeed on the first list. The first domain
- is the one that is put in $dnslist_domain. For example:
-
- reject message = rejected because $sender_ip_address is blacklisted \
- at $dnslist_domain\n$dnslist_text
- dnslists = sbl.spamhaus.org,sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org=127.0.0.2 : \
- dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net,dnsbl.sorbs.net=127.0.0.10
-
- For the first blacklist item, this starts by doing a lookup in
- sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org and testing for a 127.0.0.2 return. If there is a
- match, it then looks in sbl.spamhaus.org, without checking the return value,
- and as long as something is found, it looks for the corresponding TXT
- record. If there is no match in sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org, nothing more is done.
- The second blacklist item is processed similarly.
-
- If you are interested in more than one merged list, the same list must be
- given several times, but because the results of the DNS lookups are cached,
- the DNS calls themselves are not repeated. For example:
-
- reject dnslists = http.dnsbl.sorbs.net,dnsbl.sorbs.net=127.0.0.2 : \
- socks.dnsbl.sorbs.net,dnsbl.sorbs.net=127.0.0.3 : \
- misc.dnsbl.sorbs.net,dnsbl.sorbs.net=127.0.0.4 : \
- dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net,dnsbl.sorbs.net=127.0.0.10
-
- In this case there is a lookup in dnsbl.sorbs.net, and if none of the IP
- values matches (or if no record is found), this is the only lookup that is
- done. Only if there is a match is one of the more specific lists consulted.
-
-6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option. Previously, only
- plaintext had this, and this has not changed: it must be set to the
- authenticator as a server. For the others, if server_condition is set, it is
- expanded if authentication is successful, and treated exactly as it is in
- plaintext. This can serve as a means of adding authorization to an
- authenticator.
-
-7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
- conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
- followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message before doing the
- expansions, thus setting message-specific variables such as $message_size
- and the header variables. This feature is provided to make it easier to test
- expansions that make use of these variables. However, Exim must be called by
- an admin user when -Mset is used.
+ 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
+ "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
+ least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
+ an underscore.
+
+ 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
+ to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
+
+ 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
+ authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
+ number of authentication methods.
+
+ 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
+ messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
+ $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
+
+ 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
+ second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
+ restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
+ without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
+
+ 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
+
+ 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
+ conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
+ followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
+ before doing the expansions.
+
+ 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
+ -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
+ message.
+
+ 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
+ is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
+ subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
+
+10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
+ shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
+
+11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
+ as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
+ relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
+ available for compatibility.)
+
+12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
+ to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
Version 4.63