-$Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.97 2006/03/16 11:51:09 ph10 Exp $
+$Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.131 2007/01/30 11:45:20 ph10 Exp $
New Features in Exim
--------------------
-This file contains descriptions of new features that have been added to Exim,
-but have not yet made it into the main manual (which is most conveniently
-updated when there is a relatively large batch of changes). The doc/ChangeLog
-file contains a listing of all changes, including bug fixes.
+This file contains descriptions of new features that have been added to Exim.
+Before a formal release, there may be quite a lot of detail so that people can
+test from the snapshots or the CVS before the documentation is updated. Once
+the documentation is updated, this file is reduced to a short list.
+
+Version 4.67
+------------
+
+ 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
+ the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
+ whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
+ MAIL command. This includes both the case when the connection is dropped,
+ and the case when QUIT is used. Note that it does not include cases where
+ the connection is rejected right at the start (by an ACL, or because there
+ are too many connections, or whatever). These cases already have their own
+ log lines.
+
+ The log line that is written contains the identity of the client in the
+ usual way, followed by D= and a time, which records the duration of the
+ connection. If the connection was authenticated, this fact is logged
+ exactly as it is for an incoming message, with an A= item. If the
+ connection was encrypted, CV=, DN=, and X= items may appear as they do for
+ an incoming message, controlled by the same logging options.
+
+ Finally, if any SMTP commands were issued during the connection, a C= item
+ is added to the line, listing the commands that were used. For example,
+
+ C=EHLO,QUIT
+
+ shows that the client issued QUIT straight after EHLO. If there were fewer
+ than 20 commands, they are all listed. If there were more than 20 commands,
+ the last 20 are listed, preceded by "...". However, with the default
+ setting of 10 for smtp_accep_max_nonmail, the connection will in any case
+ be aborted before 20 non-mail commands are processed.
+
+ 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
+ addresses, in order to restrict the match to specific results from the DNS
+ lookup, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than one
+ IP address. For example, consider the condition
+
+ dnslists = a.b.c=127.0.0.1
+
+ What happens if the DNS lookup for the incoming IP address yields both
+ 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2 by means of two separate DNS records? Is the
+ condition true because at least one given value was found, or is it false
+ because at least one of the found values was not listed? And how does this
+ affect negated conditions?
+
+ The behaviour of = and & has not been changed; however, the text below
+ documents it more clearly. In addition, two new additional conditions (==
+ and =&) have been added, to permit the "other" behaviour to be configured.
+
+ A DNS lookup may yield more than one record. Thus, the result of the lookup
+ for a dnslists check may yield more than one IP address. The question then
+ arises as to whether all the looked up addresses must be listed, or whether
+ just one is good enough. Both possibilities are provided for:
+
+ . If = or & is used, the condition is true if any one of the looked up
+ IP addresses matches one of the listed addresses. Consider:
+
+ dnslists = a.b.c=127.0.0.1
+
+ If the DNS lookup yields both 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2, the condition is
+ true because 127.0.0.1 matches.
+
+ . If == or =& is used, the condition is true only if every one of the
+ looked up IP addresses matches one of the listed addresses. Consider:
+
+ dnslists = a.b.c==127.0.0.1
+
+ If the DNS lookup yields both 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2, the condition is
+ false because 127.0.0.2 is not listed. You would need to have
+
+ dnslists = a.b.c==127.0.0.1,127.0.0.2
+
+ for the condition to be true.
+
+ When ! is used to negate IP address matching, it inverts the result, giving
+ the precise opposite of the behaviour above. Thus:
+
+ . If != or !& is used, the condition is true if none of the looked up IP
+ addresses matches one of the listed addresses. Consider:
+
+ dnslists = a.b.c!&0.0.0.1
+
+ If the DNS lookup yields both 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2, the condition is
+ false because 127.0.0.1 matches.
+
+ . If !== or !=& is used, the condition is true there is at least one looked
+ up IP address that does not match. Consider:
+
+ dnslists = a.b.c!=&0.0.0.1
+
+ If the DNS lookup yields both 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2, the condition is
+ true, because 127.0.0.2 does not match. You would need to have
+
+ dnslists = a.b.c!=&0.0.0.1,0.0.0.2
+
+ for the condition to be false.
+
+ When the DNS lookup yields only a single IP address, there is no difference
+ between = and == and between & and =&.
+
+ 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been
+ for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the
+ other parameters to be varied. Here is complete documentation for the
+ available features:
+
+ GnuTLS allows the caller to specify separate lists of permitted key
+ exchange methods, main cipher algorithms, and MAC algorithms. These may be
+ used in any combination to form a specific cipher suite. This is unlike
+ OpenSSL, where complete cipher names can be passed to its control function.
+ GnuTLS also allows a list of acceptable protocols to be supplied.
+
+ For compatibility with OpenSSL, the tls_require_ciphers option can be set
+ to complete cipher suite names such as RSA_ARCFOUR_SHA, but for GnuTLS this
+ option controls only the cipher algorithms. Exim searches each item in the
+ list for the name of an available algorithm. For example, if the list
+ contains RSA_AES_SHA, then AES is recognized, and the behaviour is exactly
+ the same as if just AES were given.
+
+ There are additional options called gnutls_require_kx, gnutls_require_mac,
+ and gnutls_require_protocols that can be used to restrict the key exchange
+ methods, MAC algorithms, and protocols, respectively. These options are
+ ignored if OpenSSL is in use.
+
+ All four options are available as global options, controlling how Exim
+ behaves as a server, and also as options of the smtp transport, controlling
+ how Exim behaves as a client. All the values are string expanded. After
+ expansion, the values must be colon-separated lists, though the separator
+ can be changed in the usual way.
+
+ Each of the four lists starts out with a default set of algorithms. If the
+ first item in one of the "require" options does _not_ start with an
+ exclamation mark, all the default items are deleted. In this case, only
+ those that are explicitly specified can be used. If the first item in one
+ of the "require" items _does_ start with an exclamation mark, the defaults
+ are left on the list.
+
+ Then, any item that starts with an exclamation mark causes the relevant
+ entry to be removed from the list, and any item that does not start with an
+ exclamation mark causes a new entry to be added to the list. Unrecognized
+ items in the list are ignored. Thus:
+
+ tls_require_ciphers = !ARCFOUR
+
+ allows all the defaults except ARCFOUR, whereas
+
+ tls_require_ciphers = AES : 3DES
+
+ allows only cipher suites that use AES or 3DES. For tls_require_ciphers
+ the recognized names are AES_256, AES_128, AES (both of the preceding),
+ 3DES, ARCFOUR_128, ARCFOUR_40, and ARCFOUR (both of the preceding). The
+ default list does not contain all of these; it just has AES_256, AES_128,
+ 3DES, and ARCFOUR_128.
+
+ For gnutls_require_kx, the recognized names are DHE_RSA, RSA (which
+ includes DHE_RSA), DHE_DSS, and DHE (which includes both DHE_RSA and
+ DHE_DSS). The default list contains RSA, DHE_DSS, DHE_RSA.
+
+ For gnutls_require_mac, the recognized names are SHA (synonym SHA1), and
+ MD5. The default list contains SHA, MD5.
+
+ For gnutls_require_protocols, the recognized names are TLS1 and SSL3.
+ The default list contains TLS1, SSL3.
+
+ In a server, the order of items in these lists is unimportant. The server
+ will advertise the availability of all the relevant cipher suites. However,
+ in a client, the order in the tls_require_ciphers list specifies a
+ preference order for the cipher algorithms. The first one in the client's
+ list that is also advertised by the server is tried first.
+
+ 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. You must
+ not set this option unless you really, really, really understand what you
+ are doing. No pre-compiled distributions of Exim should ever set this
+ option. When it is set, Exim compiles a runtime option called
+ disable_fsync. If this is set true, Exim no longer calls fsync() to force
+ updated files' data to be written to disc. Unexpected events such as
+ crashes and power outages may cause data to be lost or scrambled. Beware.
+
+ When ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC is not set, a reference to disable_fsync in a
+ runtime configuration generates an "unknown option" error.
+
+ 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start. The name
+ is deliberately long, in order to emphasize what the contents are. This
+ variable is set greater than zero only in processes spawned by the Exim
+ daemon for handling incoming SMTP connections. When the daemon accepts a
+ new connection, it increments this variable. A copy of the variable is
+ passed to the child process that handles the connection, but its value is
+ fixed, and never changes. It is only an approximation of how many incoming
+ connections there actually are, because many other connections may come and
+ go while a single connection is being processed. When a child process
+ terminates, the daemon decrements the variable.
+
+ 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining, which does what its name
+ suggests. It turns off the advertising of the PIPELINING extension to SMTP.
+ To be useful, this control must be obeyed before Exim sends its response to
+ an EHLO command. Therefore, it should normally appear in an ACL controlled
+ by acl_smtp_connect or acl_smtp_helo.
+
+
+Version 4.66
+------------
+
+No new features were added to 4.66.
+
+
+Version 4.65
+------------
+
+No new features were added to 4.65.
+
+
+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.
+
+ 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
+------------
+
+1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
+ router.
+
+2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
+ start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
+ read.
+
+3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
+ or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
+ start of the message for an SMTP error code.
+
+4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
+ one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
+
+5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
+ --reverse
+ After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
+ before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
+ --random
+ Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
+ --size
+ Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
+ of their sizes.
+ --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
+ Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
+ each messages value for each variable.
+ --not
+ Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
+ same criteria without --not).
+
+
+Version 4.62
+------------
+
+1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
+ as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
+ the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
+ name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
+ IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
+ This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
+
+ ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
+
+ Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
+ one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
+ a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
+ domain socket.
+
+2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
+ incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
+ one, a batch delivery now occurs.
+
+3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
+ Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
+ against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
+ maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
+
Version 4.61
------------
-PH/01 There is a new global option called disable_ipv6, which does exactly what
- its name implies. If set true, even if the Exim binary has IPv6 support,
- no IPv6 activities take place. AAAA records are never looked up for host
- names given in manual routing data or elsewhere. AAAA records that are
- received from the DNS as additional data for MX records are ignored. Any
- IPv6 addresses that are listed in local_interfaces, manualroute route
- data, etc. are also ignored. If IP literals are enabled, the ipliteral
- router declines to handle IPv6 literal addresses.
-
-PH/02 There are now 20 of each type of ACL variable by default (instead of 10).
- It is also possible to change the numbers by setting ACL_CVARS and/or
- ACL_MVARS in Local/Makefile. Backward compatibility is maintained if you
- upgrade to this release with existing messages containing ACL variable
- settings on the queue. However, going in the other direction
- (downgrading) will not be compatible; the values of ACL variables will be
- lost.
-
-PH/03 If quota_warn_message contains a From: header, Exim now refrains from
- adding the default one. Similarly, if it contains a Reply-To: header, the
- errors_reply_to option, if set, is not used.
-
-PH/04 The variables $auth1, $auth2, $auth3 are now available in authenticators,
- containing the same values as $1, $2, $3. The new variables are provided
- because the numerical variables can be reset during string expansions
- (for example, during a "match" operation) and so may lose the
- authentication data. The preferred variables are now the new ones, with
- the use of the numerical ones being deprecated, though the support will
- not be removed, at least, not for a long time.
-
-PH/05 The "control=freeze" ACL modifier can now be followed by /no_tell. If
- the global option freeze_tell is set, it is ignored for the current
- message (that is, nobody is told about the freezing), provided all the
- "control=freeze" modifiers that are obeyed in the current message have
- the /no_tell option.
-
-PH/06 In both GnuTLS and OpenSSL, an expansion of tls_privatekey that results
- in an empty string is now treated as unset.
-
-PH/07 There is a new log selector called sender_verify_fail, which is set by
- default. If it is unset, the separate log line that gives details of a
- sender verification failure is not written. Log lines for the rejection
- of SMTP commands (e.g. RCPT) contain just "sender verify failed", so some
- detail is lost.
-
-PH/08 The default for dns_check_names_pattern now allows slashes within names,
- as there are now some PTR records that contain slashes. This check is
- only to protect against broken name servers that fall over on strange
- characters, so the fact that it applies to all lookups doesn't matter.
-
-PH/09 The default for rfc4131_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
-
-PH/10 When compiled on FreeBSD, NetBSD, or BSD/OS, the pipe transport has a new
- Boolean option called use_classresources, defaulting false. If it is set
- true, the setclassresources() function is used to set resource limits
- when a pipe transport is run to perform a delivery. The limits for the
- uid under which the pipe is to run are obtained from the login class
- database.
-
-PH/11 If retry_interval_max is set greater than 24 hours, it is quietly reset
- to 24 hours. This avoids potential overflow problems when processing G
- and H retry rules, and it seems reasonable to require a retry at least
- once a day.
-
-PH/12 When the plaintext authenticator is running as a client, the server
- challenges are now checked to ensure they are valid base64 strings. The
- default action on failure is to abort the authentication. However, if
- client_ignore_invalid_base64 is set true, invalid responses are ignored.
-
-PH/13 When the plaintext authenticator is running as a client, the challenges
- from the server are placed in $auth1, $auth2, etc. as they are received.
- Thus, the challege that is received in response to sending the first
- string (with the AUTH command) can be used in the expansion of the second
- string, and so on. Currently, up to 3 challenge strings are available in
- this way. If an invalid base64 string is received when client_ignore_
- invalid_base64 is set, an empty string is put in the $auth<n> variable.
-
-PH/14 Messages created by the autoreply transport now contain a References:
- header. This is constructed in accordance with rules that are described
- in section 3.64 of RFC 2822, which states that replies should contain
- such a header line, and section 3.14 of RFC 3834, which states that
- automatic responses are not different in this respect. However, because
- some mail processing software does not cope well with very long header
- lines, no more than 12 message IDs are copied from the References: header
- line in the incoming message. If there are more than 12, the first one
- and then the final 11 are copied, before adding the message ID of the
- incoming message.
-
-PH/15 The smtp transport has a new option called authenticated_sender_force.
- When set true, it allows the authenticated_sender option's value to be
- used, even if Exim has not authenticated as a client.
-
-PH/16 The expansion ${time_eval:<string>} converts an Exim time string such as
- 2d4h1m into a number of seconds.
-
-PH/17 The ACL modifier control=allow_auth_unadvertised can be used to permit a
- client host to use the SMTP AUTH command even when it has not been
- advertised in response to EHLO. Furthermore, because there are apparently
- some really broken clients that do this, Exim will even accept AUTH after
- HELO when this control is set. It should only be used if you really need
- it, and you should limit its use to those broken hosts that do not work
- without it. For example:
-
- warn hosts = 192.168.34.25
- control = allow_auth_unadvertised
-
- This control is permitted only in the connection and HELO ACLs.
-
-PH/18 There is a new ACL modifier called "add_header" which does what its name
- implies. It specifies one of more header lines that are to be added to an
- incoming message, assuming, of course, that the message is ultimately
- accepted.
-
- This modifier is permitted in the MAIL, RCPT, PREDATA, DATA, MIME, and
- non-SMTP ACLs (in other words, those that are concerned with accepting a
- message). Added header lines are accumulated during the MAIL, RCPT, and
- PREDATA ACLs, with any duplicates being discarded. They are then added to
- the message before processing the DATA and MIME ACLs, during which
- further added header lines are accumulated, again with duplicates
- discarded. Thus, it is possible to add two identical header lines to an
- SMTP message, but only if one is added before DATA and one after.
-
- In the case of non-SMTP messages, new headers are accumulated during the
- non-SMTP ACL, and added to the message at the end.
-
- The add_header modifier is available for use with all ACL verbs. In the
- case of the WARN verb, add_header supersedes the use of "message" for
- this purpose; for the other verbs, it provides a new facility. If both
- add_header and "message" are present on a WARN verb, both are processed
- according to their specifications.
-
- The add_header modifier acts immediately it is encountered during the
- processing of an ACL. This is different to the (now-deprecated) use of
- "message" on a WARN verb, where the action is taken only if all the
- conditions are true. Notice the difference between these two cases on a
- RCPT ACL:
-
- deny add_header = ADDED: some text
- <some condition>
-
- deny <some condition>
- add_header = ADDED: some text
-
- In the first case, the header is always added, whether or not the current
- recipient is rejected. In the second case, the header is added only if
- the recipient is rejected.
-
- If add_header appears more than once on an ACL statement, multiple
- headers are added, provided that they have different content. (In the
- case of WARN with "message", only the last value of "message" is used.)
-
- The facility for specifying where the new header is to be inserted, as
- described for WARN with "message" in section 39.19 of the 4.60 manual, is
- supported.
-
-PH/19 The following errors can now be detected in retry rules:
-
- mail_4xx This is like rcpt_4xx, but applies to MAIL commands
-
- data_4xx This is like rcpt_4xx, but applies to DATA commands and the
- response code after the end of the data
-
- lost_connection This error occurs when the server unexpectedly closes
- the SMTP connection. There may, of course, legitmate reasons
- for this (host died, network died), but if it repeats a lot
- for the same host, it indicates something odd.
-
- tls_required The server was required to use TLS (hosts_require_tls),
- but either did not offer it, or responded with 4xx to
- STARTTLS, or there was a problem setting up the TLS connection
-
- Note that a 5xx response to STARTTLS is a permanent error.
-
-PH/20 There are now two options for the exicyclog script:
-
- -k <days> specifies the number of old logs to keep, overriding the
- default that is set when Exim is built.
-
- -l <path> specifies the log file path, in the same format as the
- log_file_path option (e.g. /var/log/exim_%slog), again,
- overriding the script's default - which is to find the setting
- from Exim's configuration.
+The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
+the 4.60 release are:
+
+. An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
+
+. An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
+
+. A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
+ $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
+ for other things in complicated expansions.
+
+. The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
+
+. It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
+ resources used in pipe deliveries.
+
+. A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
+
+. More errors are detectable in retry rules.
+
+There are a number of other additions too.
Version 4.60