1 $Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.73 2005/09/19 14:01:51 ph10 Exp $
6 This file contains descriptions of new features that have been added to Exim,
7 but have not yet made it into the main manual (which is most conveniently
8 updated when there is a relatively large batch of changes). The doc/ChangeLog
9 file contains a listing of all changes, including bug fixes.
14 TK/01 Added the "success_on_redirect" address verification option. When an
15 address generates new addresses during routing, Exim will abort
16 verification with "success" when more than one address has been
17 generated, but continue to verify a single new address. The latter
18 does not happen when the new "success_on_redirect" option is set, like
20 require verify = recipient/success_on_redirect/callout=10s
22 In that case, verification will succeed when a router generates a new
25 PH/01 Support for SQLite database lookups has been added. This is another
26 query-style lookup, but it is slightly different from the others because
27 a file name is required in addition to the SQL query. This is because an
28 SQLite database is a single file and there is no daemon as in other SQL
29 databases. The interface to Exim requires the name of the file, as an
30 absolute path, to be given at the start of the query. It is separated
31 from the query by white space. This means that the path name cannot
32 contain white space. Here is a lookup expansion example:
34 ${lookup sqlite {/some/thing/sqlitedb \
35 select name from aliases where id='ph10';}}
37 In a list, the syntax is similar. For example:
39 domainlist relay_domains = sqlite;/some/thing/sqlitedb \
40 select * from relays where ip='$sender_host_address';
42 The only character affected by the ${quote_sqlite: operator is a single
43 quote, which it doubles.
45 The SQLite library handles multiple simultaneous accesses to the database
46 internally. Multiple readers are permitted, but only one process can
47 update at once. Attempts to access the database while it is being updated
48 are rejected after a timeout period, during which the SQLite library
49 waits for the lock to be released. In Exim, the default timeout is set
50 to 5 seconds, but it can be changed by means of the sqlite_lock_timeout
53 Note that you must set LOOKUP_SQLITE=yes in Local/Makefile in order to
54 obtain SQLite support, and you will also need to add -lsqlite3 to the
55 EXTRALIBS setting. And of course, you have to install SQLite on your
58 PH/02 The variable $message_id is now deprecated, to be replaced by
59 $message_exim_id, which makes it clearer which ID is being referenced.
61 PH/03 The use of forbid_filter_existstest now also locks out the use of the
62 ${stat: expansion item.
64 PH/04 The IGNOREQUOTA extension to the LMTP protocol is now available in both
65 the lmtp transport and the smtp transport running in LMTP mode. In the
66 lmtp transport there is a new Boolean option called ignore_quota, and in
67 the smtp transport there is a new Boolean option called
68 lmtp_ignore_quota. If either of these options is set TRUE, the string
69 "IGNOREQUOTA" is added to RCPT commands when using the LMTP protocol,
70 provided that the server has advertised support for IGNOREQUOTA in its
71 response to the LHLO command.
73 PH/05 Previously, if "verify = helo" was set in an ACL, the condition was true
74 only if the host matched helo_try_verify_hosts, which caused the
75 verification to occur when the EHLO/HELO command was issued. The ACL just
76 tested the remembered result. Now, if a previous verification attempt has
77 not happened, "verify = helo" does it there and then.
79 PH/06 It is now possible to specify a port number along with a host name or
80 IP address in the list of hosts defined in the manualroute or
81 queryprogram routers, fallback_hosts, or the "hosts" option of the smtp
82 transport. These all override any port specification on the transport.
83 The relatively standard syntax of using a colon separator has been
84 adopted, but there are some gotchas that need attention:
86 * In all these lists of hosts, colon is the default separator, so either
87 the colon that specifies a port must be doubled, or the separator must
88 be changed. The following two examples have the same effect:
90 fallback_hosts = host1.tld::1225 : host2.tld::1226
91 fallback_hosts = <; host1.tld:1225 ; host2.tld:1226
93 * When IPv6 addresses are involved, it gets worse, because they contain
94 colons of their own. To make this case easier, it is permitted to
95 enclose an IP address (either v4 or v6) in square brackets if a port
96 number follows. Here's an example from a manualroute router:
98 route_list = * "</ [10.1.1.1]:1225 / [::1]:1226"
100 If the "/MX" feature is to be used as well as a port specifier, the port
101 must come last. For example:
103 route_list = * dom1.tld/mx::1225
105 PH/07 $smtp_command_argument is now set for all SMTP commands, not just the
106 non-message ones. This makes it possible to inspect the complete command
107 for RCPT commands, for example. But see also PH/45 below.
109 PH/08 The ${eval expansion now supports % as a "remainder" operator.
111 PH/09 There is a new ACL condition "verify = not_blind". It checks that there
112 are no blind (bcc) recipients in the message. Every envelope recipient
113 must appear either in a To: header line or in a Cc: header line for this
114 condition to be true. Local parts are checked case-sensitively; domains
115 are checked case-insensitively. If Resent-To: or Resent-Cc: header lines
116 exist, they are also checked. This condition can be used only in a DATA
119 There are, of course, many legitimate messages that make use of blind
120 (bcc) recipients. This check should not be used on its own for blocking
123 PH/10 There is a new ACL control called "suppress_local_fixups". This applies
124 to locally submitted (non TCP/IP) messages, and is the complement of
125 "control = submission". It disables the fixups that are normally applied
126 to locally-submitted messages. Specifically:
128 (a) Any Sender: header line is left alone (in this respect, it's a
129 dynamic version of local_sender_retain).
131 (b) No Message-ID:, From:, or Date: headers are added.
133 (c) There is no check that From: corresponds to the actual sender.
135 This feature may be useful when a remotely-originated message is
136 accepted, passed to some scanning program, and then re-submitted for
137 delivery. It means that all four possibilities can now be specified:
139 (1) Locally submitted, fixups applies: the default.
140 (2) Locally submitted, no fixups applied: use control =
141 suppress_local_fixups.
142 (3) Remotely submitted, no fixups applied: the default.
143 (4) Remotely submitted, fixups applied: use control = submission.
145 PH/11 There is a new log selector, "unknown_in_list", which provokes a log
146 entry when the result of a list match is failure because a DNS lookup
149 PH/12 There is a new variable called $smtp_command which contains the full SMTP
150 command (compare $smtp_command_argument - see PH/07 above). This makes it
151 possible to distinguish between HELO and EHLO, and also between things
152 like "MAIL FROM:<>" and "MAIL FROM: <>".
154 TF/01 There's a new script in util/ratelimit.pl which extracts sending
155 rates from log files, to assist with choosing appropriate settings
156 when deploying the ratelimit ACL condition.
158 PH/13 A new letter, "H", is available in retry parameter sets. It is similar
159 to "G" (geometric increasing time intervals), except that the interval
160 before the next retry is randomized. Each time, the previous interval is
161 multiplied by the factor in order to get a maximum for the next interval.
162 The mininum interval is the first argument of the parameter, and an
163 actual interval is chosen randomly between them. Such a rule has been
164 found to be helpful in cluster configurations when all the members of the
165 cluster restart at once, and may synchronize their queue processing
168 PH/14 The options never_users, trusted_users, admin_groups, and trusted_groups
169 are now expanded when the configuration file is read.
175 TF/01 Support for checking Client SMTP Authorization has been added. CSA is a
176 system which allows a site to advertise which machines are and are not
177 permitted to send email. This is done by placing special SRV records in
178 the DNS, which are looked up using the client's HELO domain. At this
179 time CSA is still an Internet-Draft.
181 Client SMTP Authorization checks are performed by the ACL condition
182 verify=csa. This will fail if the client is not authorized. If there is
183 a DNS problem, or if no valid CSA SRV record is found, or if the client
184 is authorized, the condition succeeds. These three cases can be
185 distinguished using the expansion variable $csa_status, which can take
186 one of the values "fail", "defer", "unknown", or "ok". The condition
187 does not itself defer because that would be likely to cause problems
188 for legitimate email.
190 The error messages produced by the CSA code include slightly more
191 detail. If $csa_status is "defer" this may be because of problems
192 looking up the CSA SRV record, or problems looking up the CSA target
193 address record. There are four reasons for $csa_status being "fail":
194 the client's host name is explicitly not authorized; the client's IP
195 address does not match any of the CSA target IP addresses; the client's
196 host name is authorized but it has no valid target IP addresses (e.g.
197 the target's addresses are IPv6 and the client is using IPv4); or the
198 client's host name has no CSA SRV record but a parent domain has
199 asserted that all subdomains must be explicitly authorized.
201 The verify=csa condition can take an argument which is the domain to
202 use for the DNS query. The default is verify=csa/$sender_helo_name.
204 This implementation includes an extension to CSA. If the query domain
205 is an address literal such as [192.0.2.95], or if it is a bare IP
206 address, Exim will search for CSA SRV records in the reverse DNS as if
207 the HELO domain was e.g. 95.2.0.192.in-addr.arpa. Therefore it is
208 meaningful to say, for example, verify=csa/$sender_host_address - in
209 fact, this is the check that Exim performs if the client does not say
210 HELO. This extension can be turned off by setting the main
211 configuration option dns_csa_use_reverse = false.
213 If a CSA SRV record is not found for the domain itself, then a search
214 is performed through its parent domains for a record which might be
215 making assertions about subdomains. The maximum depth of this search is
216 limited using the main configuration option dns_csa_search_limit, which
217 takes the value 5 by default. Exim does not look for CSA SRV records in
218 a top level domain, so the default settings handle HELO domains as long
219 as seven (hostname.five.four.three.two.one.com) which encompasses the
220 vast majority of legitimate HELO domains.
222 The dnsdb lookup also has support for CSA. Although dnsdb already
223 supports SRV lookups, this is not sufficient because of the extra
224 parent domain search behaviour of CSA, and (as with PTR lookups)
225 dnsdb also turns IP addresses into lookups in the reverse DNS space.
226 The result of ${lookup dnsdb {csa=$sender_helo_name} } has two
227 space-separated fields: an authorization code and a target host name.
228 The authorization code can be "Y" for yes, "N" for no, "X" for explicit
229 authorization required but absent, or "?" for unknown.
231 PH/01 The amount of output produced by the "make" process has been reduced,
232 because the compile lines are often rather long, making it all pretty
233 unreadable. The new style is along the lines of the 2.6 Linux kernel:
234 just a short line for each module that is being compiled or linked.
235 However, it is still possible to get the full output, by calling "make"
240 The value of FULLECHO defaults to "@", the flag character that suppresses
241 command reflection in "make". When you ask for the full output, it is
242 given in addition to the the short output.
244 TF/02 There have been two changes concerned with submission mode:
246 Until now submission mode always left the return path alone, whereas
247 locally-submitted messages from untrusted users have the return path
248 fixed to the user's email address. Submission mode now fixes the return
249 path to the same address as is used to create the Sender: header. If
250 /sender_retain is specified then both the Sender: header and the return
253 Note that the changes caused by submission mode take effect after the
254 predata ACL. This means that any sender checks performed before the
255 fix-ups will use the untrusted sender address specified by the user, not
256 the trusted sender address specified by submission mode. Although this
257 might be slightly unexpected, it does mean that you can configure ACL
258 checks to spot that a user is trying to spoof another's address, for
261 There is also a new /name= option for submission mode which allows you
262 to specify the user's full name to be included in the Sender: header.
265 accept authenticated = *
266 control = submission/name=${lookup {$authenticated_id} \
267 lsearch {/etc/exim/namelist} }
269 The namelist file contains entries like
273 And the resulting Sender: header looks like
275 Sender: Tony Finch <fanf@exim.org>
277 TF/03 The control = fakereject ACL modifier now has a fakedefer counterpart,
278 which works in exactly the same way except it causes a fake SMTP 450
279 response after the message data instead of a fake SMTP 550 response.
280 You must take care when using fakedefer because it will cause messages
281 to be duplicated when the sender retries. Therefore you should not use
282 fakedefer if the message will be delivered normally.
284 TF/04 There is a new ratelimit ACL condition which can be used to measure
285 and control the rate at which clients can send email. This is more
286 powerful than the existing smtp_ratelimit_* options, because those
287 options only control the rate of commands in a single SMTP session,
288 whereas the new ratelimit condition works across all connections
289 (concurrent and sequential) to the same host.
291 The syntax of the ratelimit condition is:
293 ratelimit = <m> / <p> / <options> / <key>
295 If the average client sending rate is less than m messages per time
296 period p then the condition is false, otherwise it is true.
298 The parameter p is the smoothing time constant, in the form of an Exim
299 time interval e.g. 8h for eight hours. A larger time constant means it
300 takes Exim longer to forget a client's past behaviour. The parameter m is
301 the maximum number of messages that a client can send in a fast burst. By
302 increasing both m and p but keeping m/p constant, you can allow a client
303 to send more messages in a burst without changing its overall sending
304 rate limit. Conversely, if m and p are both small then messages must be
305 sent at an even rate.
307 The key is used to look up the data used to calculate the client's
308 average sending rate. This data is stored in a database maintained by
309 Exim in its spool directory alongside the retry database etc. For
310 example, you can limit the sending rate of each authenticated user,
311 independent of the computer they are sending from, by setting the key
312 to $authenticated_id. The default key is $sender_host_address.
313 Internally, Exim includes the smoothing constant p and the options in
314 the lookup key because they alter the meaning of the stored data.
315 This is not true for the limit m, so you can alter the configured
316 maximum rate and Exim will still remember clients' past behaviour,
317 but if you alter the other ratelimit parameters Exim will effectively
318 forget their past behaviour.
320 Each ratelimit condition can have up to two options. The first option
321 specifies what Exim measures the rate of, and the second specifies how
322 Exim handles excessively fast clients. The options are separated by a
323 slash, like the other parameters.
325 The per_mail option means that it measures the client's rate of sending
326 messages. This is the default if none of the per_* options is specified.
328 The per_conn option means that it measures the client's connection rate.
330 The per_byte option limits the sender's email bandwidth. Note that it
331 is best to use this option in the DATA ACL; if it is used in an earlier
332 ACL it relies on the SIZE parameter on the MAIL command, which may be
333 inaccurate or completely missing. You can follow the limit m in the
334 configuration with K, M, or G to specify limits in kilobytes,
335 megabytes, or gigabytes respectively.
337 The per_cmd option means that Exim recomputes the rate every time the
338 condition is processed, which can be used to limit the SMTP command rate.
339 The alias per_rcpt is provided for use in the RCPT ACL instead of per_cmd
340 to make it clear that the effect is to limit the rate at which recipients
341 are accepted. Note that in this case the rate limiting engine will see a
342 message with many recipients as a large high-speed burst.
344 If a client's average rate is greater than the maximum, the rate
345 limiting engine can react in two possible ways, depending on the
346 presence of the strict or leaky options. This is independent of the
347 other counter-measures (e.g. rejecting the message) that may be
348 specified by the rest of the ACL. The default mode is leaky, which
349 avoids a sender's over-aggressive retry rate preventing it from getting
352 The strict option means that the client's recorded rate is always
353 updated. The effect of this is that Exim measures the client's average
354 rate of attempts to send email, which can be much higher than the
355 maximum. If the client is over the limit it will be subjected to
356 counter-measures until it slows down below the maximum rate.
358 The leaky option means that the client's recorded rate is not updated
359 if it is above the limit. The effect of this is that Exim measures the
360 client's average rate of successfully sent email, which cannot be
361 greater than the maximum. If the client is over the limit it will
362 suffer some counter-measures, but it will still be able to send email
363 at the configured maximum rate, whatever the rate of its attempts.
365 As a side-effect, the ratelimit condition will set the expansion
366 variables $sender_rate containing the client's computed rate,
367 $sender_rate_limit containing the configured value of m, and
368 $sender_rate_period containing the configured value of p.
370 Exim's other ACL facilities are used to define what counter-measures
371 are taken when the rate limit is exceeded. This might be anything from
372 logging a warning (e.g. while measuring existing sending rates in order
373 to define our policy), through time delays to slow down fast senders,
374 up to rejecting the message. For example,
376 # Log all senders' rates
378 ratelimit = 0 / 1h / strict
380 Sender rate $sender_rate > $sender_rate_limit / $sender_rate_period
382 # Slow down fast senders
384 ratelimit = 100 / 1h / per_rcpt / strict
385 delay = ${eval: 10 * ($sender_rate - $sender_rate_limit) }
387 # Keep authenticated users under control
389 ratelimit = 100 / 1d / strict / $authenticated_id
391 # System-wide rate limit
393 message = Sorry, too busy. Try again later.
394 ratelimit = 10 / 1s / $primary_hostname
396 # Restrict incoming rate from each host, with a default rate limit
397 # set using a macro and special cases looked up in a table.
399 message = Sender rate $sender_rate exceeds \
400 $sender_rate_limit messages per $sender_rate_period
401 ratelimit = ${lookup {$sender_host_address} \
402 cdb {DB/ratelimits.cdb} \
403 {$value} {RATELIMIT} }
405 Warning: if you have a busy server with a lot of ratelimit tests,
406 especially with the per_rcpt option, you may suffer from a performance
407 bottleneck caused by locking on the ratelimit hints database. Apart from
408 making your ACLs less complicated, you can reduce the problem by using a
409 RAM disk for Exim's hints directory, /var/spool/exim/db/. However this
410 means that Exim will lose its hints data after a reboot (including retry
411 hints, the callout cache, and ratelimit data).
413 TK/01 Added an 'spf' lookup type that will return an SPF result for a given
414 email address (the key) and an IP address (the database):
416 ${lookup {tom@duncanthrax.net} spf{217.115.139.137}}
418 The lookup will return the same result strings as they can appear in
419 $spf_result (pass,fail,softfail,neutral,none,err_perm,err_temp). The
420 lookup is armored in EXPERIMENTAL_SPF. Currently, only IPv4 addresses
423 Patch submitted by Chris Webb <chris@arachsys.com>.
425 PH/02 There's a new verify callout option, "fullpostmaster", which first acts
426 as "postmaster" and checks the recipient <postmaster@domain>. If that
427 fails, it tries just <postmaster>, without a domain, in accordance with
428 the specification in RFC 2821.
430 PH/03 The action of the auto_thaw option has been changed. It no longer applies
431 to frozen bounce messages.
433 TK/02 There are two new expansion items to help with the implementation of
434 the BATV "prvs" scheme in an Exim configuration:
437 ${prvs {<ADDRESS>}{<KEY>}{[KEYNUM]}}
439 The "prvs" expansion item takes three arguments: A qualified RFC2821
440 email address, a key and an (optional) key number. All arguments are
441 expanded before being used, so it is easily possible to lookup a key
442 and key number using the address as the lookup key. The key number is
443 optional and defaults to "0". The item will expand to a "prvs"-signed
444 email address, to be typically used with the "return_path" option on
445 a smtp transport. The decision if BATV should be used with a given
446 sender/recipient pair should be done on router level, to avoid having
447 to set "max_rcpt = 1" on the transport.
450 ${prvscheck {<ADDRESS>}{<SECRET>}{<RETURN_STRING>}}
452 The "prvscheck" expansion item takes three arguments. Argument 1 is
453 expanded first. When the expansion does not yield a SYNTACTICALLY
454 valid "prvs"-scheme address, the whole "prvscheck" item expands to
455 the empty string. If <ADDRESS> is a "prvs"-encoded address after
456 expansion, two expansion variables are set up:
458 $prvscheck_address Contains the "prvs"-decoded version of
459 the address from argument 1.
461 $prvscheck_keynum Contains the key number extracted from
462 the "prvs"-address in argument 1.
464 These two variables can be used in the expansion code of argument 2
465 to retrieve the <SECRET>. The VALIDITY of the "prvs"-signed address
466 is then checked. The result is stored in yet another expansion
469 $prvscheck_result Contains the result of a "prvscheck"
470 expansion: Unset (the empty string) for
471 failure, "1" for success.
473 The "prvscheck" expansion expands to the empty string if <ADDRESS>
474 is not a SYNTACTICALLY valid "prvs"-scheme address. Otherwise,
475 argument 3 defines what "prvscheck" expands to: If argument 3
476 is the empty string, "prvscheck" expands to the decoded version
477 of the address (no matter if it is CRYPTOGRAPHICALLY valid or not).
478 If argument 3 expands to a non-empty string, "prvscheck" expands
487 PRVSCHECK_SQL = ${lookup mysql{SELECT secret FROM batv_prvs WHERE \
488 sender='${quote_mysql:$prvscheck_address}'}{$value}}
492 # Bounces: drop unsigned addresses for BATV senders
493 deny message = This address does not send an unsigned reverse path.
495 recipients = +batv_recipients
497 # Bounces: In case of prvs-signed address, check signature.
498 deny message = Invalid reverse path signature.
500 condition = ${prvscheck {$local_part@$domain}{PRVSCHECK_SQL}{1}}
501 !condition = $prvscheck_result
507 data = ${prvscheck {$local_part@$domain}{PRVSCHECK_SQL}{}}
509 Transport (referenced by router that makes decision if
514 return_path = ${prvs {$return_path} \
515 {${lookup mysql{SELECT \
516 secret FROM batv_prvs WHERE \
517 sender='${quote_mysql:$sender_address}'} \
520 PH/04 There are two new options that control the retrying done by the daemon
521 at startup when it cannot immediately bind a socket (typically because
522 the socket is already in use). The default values reproduce what were
523 built-in constants previously: daemon_startup_retries defines the number
524 of retries after the first failure (default 9); daemon_startup_sleep
525 defines the length of time to wait between retries (default 30s).
527 PH/05 There is now a new ${if condition called "match_ip". It is similar to
528 match_domain, etc. It must be followed by two argument strings. The first
529 (after expansion) must be an IP address or an empty string. The second
530 (after expansion) is a restricted host list that can match only an IP
531 address, not a host name. For example:
533 ${if match_ip{$sender_host_address}{1.2.3.4:5.6.7.8}{...}{...}}
535 The specific types of host list item that are permitted in the list are
536 shown below. Consult the manual section on host lists for further
539 . An IP address, optionally with a CIDR mask.
541 . A single asterisk matches any IP address.
543 . An empty item matches only if the IP address is empty. This could be
544 useful for testing for a locally submitted message or one from specific
545 hosts in a single test such as
547 ${if match_ip{$sender_host_address}{:4.3.2.1:...}{...}{...}}
549 where the first item in the list is the empty string.
551 . The item @[] matches any of the local host's interface addresses.
553 . Lookups are assumed to be "net-" style lookups, even if "net-" is not
554 specified. Thus, the following are equivalent:
556 ${if match_ip{$sender_host_address}{lsearch;/some/file}...
557 ${if match_ip{$sender_host_address}{net-lsearch;/some/file}...
559 You do need to specify the "net-" prefix if you want to specify a
560 specific address mask, for example, by using "net24-".
562 PH/06 The "+all" debug selector used to set the flags for all possible output;
563 it is something that people tend to use semi-automatically when
564 generating debug output for me or for the list. However, by including
565 "+memory", an awful lot of output that is very rarely of interest was
566 generated. I have changed this so that "+all" no longer includes
567 "+memory". However, "-all" still turns everything off.
573 PH/01 The format in which GnuTLS parameters are written to the gnutls-param
574 file in the spool directory has been changed. This change has been made
575 to alleviate problems that some people had with the generation of the
576 parameters by Exim when /dev/random was exhausted. In this situation,
577 Exim would hang until /dev/random acquired some more entropy.
579 The new code exports and imports the DH and RSA parameters in PEM
580 format. This means that the parameters can be generated externally using
581 the certtool command that is part of GnuTLS.
583 To replace the parameters with new ones, instead of deleting the file
584 and letting Exim re-create it, you can generate new parameters using
585 certtool and, when this has been done, replace Exim's cache file by
586 renaming. The relevant commands are something like this:
590 # chown exim:exim new.params
591 # chmod 0400 new.params
592 # certtool --generate-privkey --bits 512 >new.params
593 # echo "" >>new.params
594 # certtool --generate-dh-params --bits 1024 >> new.params
595 # mv new.params params
597 If Exim never has to generate the parameters itself, the possibility of
600 PH/02 A new expansion item for dynamically loading and calling a locally-
601 written C function is now provided, if Exim is compiled with
605 set in Local/Makefile. The facility is not included by default (a
606 suitable error is given if you try to use it when it is not there.)
608 If you enable EXPAND_DLFUNC, you should also be aware of the new redirect
609 router option forbid_filter_dlfunc. If you have unprivileged users on
610 your system who are permitted to create filter files, you might want to
611 set forbid_filter_dlfunc=true in the appropriate router, to stop them
612 using ${dlfunc to run code within Exim.
614 You load and call an external function like this:
616 ${dlfunc{/some/file}{function}{arg1}{arg2}...}
618 Once loaded, Exim remembers the dynamically loaded object so that it
619 doesn't reload the same object file in the same Exim process (but of
620 course Exim does start new processes frequently).
622 There may be from zero to eight arguments to the function. When compiling
623 a local function that is to be called in this way, local_scan.h should be
624 included. The Exim variables and functions that are defined by that API
625 are also available for dynamically loaded functions. The function itself
626 must have the following type:
628 int dlfunction(uschar **yield, int argc, uschar *argv[])
630 Where "uschar" is a typedef for "unsigned char" in local_scan.h. The
631 function should return one of the following values:
633 OK Success. The string that is placed in "yield" is put into
634 the expanded string that is being built.
636 FAIL A non-forced expansion failure occurs, with the error
637 message taken from "yield", if it is set.
639 FAIL_FORCED A forced expansion failure occurs, with the error message
640 taken from "yield" if it is set.
642 ERROR Same as FAIL, except that a panic log entry is written.
644 When compiling a function that is to be used in this way with gcc,
645 you need to add -shared to the gcc command. Also, in the Exim build-time
646 configuration, you must add -export-dynamic to EXTRALIBS.
648 TF/01 $received_time is a new expansion variable containing the time and date
649 as a number of seconds since the start of the Unix epoch when the
650 current message was received.
652 PH/03 There is a new value for RADIUS_LIB_TYPE that can be set in
653 Local/Makefile. It is RADIUSCLIENTNEW, and it requests that the new API,
654 in use from radiusclient 0.4.0 onwards, be used. It does not appear to be
655 possible to detect the different versions automatically.
657 PH/04 There is a new option called acl_not_smtp_mime that allows you to scan
658 MIME parts in non-SMTP messages. It operates in exactly the same way as
661 PH/05 It is now possible to redefine a macro within the configuration file.
662 The macro must have been previously defined within the configuration (or
663 an included file). A definition on the command line using the -D option
664 causes all definitions and redefinitions within the file to be ignored.
665 In other words, -D overrides any values that are set in the file.
666 Redefinition is specified by using '==' instead of '='. For example:
670 MAC1 == updated value
672 Redefinition does not alter the order in which the macros are applied to
673 the subsequent lines of the configuration file. It is still the same
674 order in which the macros were originally defined. All that changes is
675 the macro's value. Redefinition makes it possible to accumulate values.
680 MAC1 == MAC1 and something added
682 This can be helpful in situations where the configuration file is built
683 from a number of other files.
685 PH/06 Macros may now be defined or redefined between router, transport,
686 authenticator, or ACL definitions, as well as in the main part of the
687 configuration. They may not, however, be changed within an individual
688 driver or ACL, or in the local_scan, retry, or rewrite sections of the
691 PH/07 $acl_verify_message is now set immediately after the failure of a
692 verification in an ACL, and so is available in subsequent modifiers. In
693 particular, the message can be preserved by coding like this:
695 warn !verify = sender
696 set acl_m0 = $acl_verify_message
698 Previously, $acl_verify_message was set only while expanding "message"
699 and "log_message" when a very denied access.
701 PH/08 The redirect router has two new options, sieve_useraddress and
702 sieve_subaddress. These are passed to a Sieve filter to specify the :user
703 and :subaddress parts of an address. Both options are unset by default.
704 However, when a Sieve filter is run, if sieve_useraddress is unset, the
705 entire original local part (including any prefix or suffix) is used for
706 :user. An unset subaddress is treated as an empty subaddress.
708 PH/09 Quota values can be followed by G as well as K and M.
710 PH/10 $message_linecount is a new variable that contains the total number of
711 lines in the header and body of the message. Compare $body_linecount,
712 which is the count for the body only. During the DATA and
713 content-scanning ACLs, $message_linecount contains the number of lines
714 received. Before delivery happens (that is, before filters, routers, and
715 transports run) the count is increased to include the Received: header
716 line that Exim standardly adds, and also any other header lines that are
717 added by ACLs. The blank line that separates the message header from the
718 body is not counted. Here is an example of the use of this variable in a
721 deny message = Too many lines in message header
723 ${if <{250}{${eval: $message_linecount - $body_linecount}}}
725 In the MAIL and RCPT ACLs, the value is zero because at that stage the
726 message has not yet been received.
728 PH/11 In a ${run expansion, the variable $value (which contains the standard
729 output) is now also usable in the "else" string.
731 PH/12 In a pipe transport, although a timeout while waiting for the pipe
732 process to complete was treated as a delivery failure, a timeout while
733 writing the message to the pipe was logged, but erroneously treated as a
734 successful delivery. Such timeouts include transport filter timeouts. For
735 consistency with the overall process timeout, these timeouts are now
736 treated as errors, giving rise to delivery failures by default. However,
737 there is now a new Boolean option for the pipe transport called
738 timeout_defer, which, if set TRUE, converts the failures into defers for
739 both kinds of timeout. A transport filter timeout is now identified in
746 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.50 release.