1 $Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.176 2010/06/14 18:51:10 pdp Exp $
6 This file contains descriptions of new features that have been added to Exim.
7 Before a formal release, there may be quite a lot of detail so that people can
8 test from the snapshots or the CVS before the documentation is updated. Once
9 the documentation is updated, this file is reduced to a short list.
15 1. The global option "dns_use_edns0" may be set to coerce EDNS0 usage on
16 or off in the resolver library.
22 1. In addition to the existing LDAP and LDAP/SSL ("ldaps") support, there
23 is now LDAP/TLS support, given sufficiently modern OpenLDAP client
24 libraries. The following global options have been added in support of
25 this: ldap_ca_cert_dir, ldap_ca_cert_file, ldap_cert_file, ldap_cert_key,
26 ldap_cipher_suite, ldap_require_cert, ldap_start_tls.
28 2. The pipe transport now takes a boolean option, "freeze_signal", default
29 false. When true, if the external delivery command exits on a signal then
30 Exim will freeze the message in the queue, instead of generating a bounce.
32 3. Log filenames may now use %M as an escape, instead of %D (still available).
33 The %M pattern expands to yyyymm, providing month-level resolution.
35 4. The $message_linecount variable is now updated for the maildir_tag option,
36 in the same way as $message_size, to reflect the real number of lines,
37 including any header additions or removals from transport.
39 5. When contacting a pool of SpamAssassin servers configured in spamd_address,
40 Exim now selects entries randomly, to better scale in a cluster setup.
46 1. SECURITY FIX: privilege escalation flaw fixed. On Linux (and only Linux)
47 the flaw permitted the Exim run-time user to cause root to append to
48 arbitrary files of the attacker's choosing, with the content based
49 on content supplied by the attacker.
51 2. Exim now supports loading some lookup types at run-time, using your
52 platform's dlopen() functionality. This has limited platform support
53 and the intention is not to support every variant, it's limited to
54 dlopen(). This permits the main Exim binary to not be linked against
55 all the libraries needed for all the lookup types.
61 NOTE: this version is not guaranteed backwards-compatible, please read the
64 1. A new main configuration option, "openssl_options", is available if Exim
65 is built with SSL support provided by OpenSSL. The option allows
66 administrators to specify OpenSSL options to be used on connections;
67 typically this is to set bug compatibility features which the OpenSSL
68 developers have not enabled by default. There may be security
69 consequences for certain options, so these should not be changed
72 2. A new pipe transport option, "permit_coredumps", may help with problem
73 diagnosis in some scenarios. Note that Exim is typically installed as
74 a setuid binary, which on most OSes will inhibit coredumps by default,
75 so that safety mechanism would have to be overridden for this option to
76 be able to take effect.
78 3. ClamAV 0.95 is now required for ClamAV support in Exim, unless
79 Local/Makefile sets: WITH_OLD_CLAMAV_STREAM=yes
80 Note that this switches Exim to use a new API ("INSTREAM") and a future
81 release of ClamAV will remove support for the old API ("STREAM").
83 The av_scanner option, when set to "clamd", now takes an optional third
84 part, "local", which causes Exim to pass a filename to ClamAV instead of
85 the file content. This is the same behaviour as when clamd is pointed at
86 a Unix-domain socket. For example:
88 av_scanner = clamd:192.0.2.3 1234:local
90 ClamAV's ExtendedDetectionInfo response format is now handled.
92 4. There is now a -bmalware option, restricted to admin users. This option
93 takes one parameter, a filename, and scans that file with Exim's
94 malware-scanning framework. This is intended purely as a debugging aid
95 to ensure that Exim's scanning is working, not to replace other tools.
96 Note that the ACL framework is not invoked, so if av_scanner references
97 ACL variables without a fallback then this will fail.
99 5. There is a new expansion operator, "reverse_ip", which will reverse IP
100 addresses; IPv4 into dotted quad, IPv6 into dotted nibble. Examples:
102 ${reverse_ip:192.0.2.4}
104 ${reverse_ip:2001:0db8:c42:9:1:abcd:192.0.2.3}
105 -> 3.0.2.0.0.0.0.c.d.c.b.a.1.0.0.0.9.0.0.0.2.4.c.0.8.b.d.0.1.0.0.2
107 6. There is a new ACL control called "debug", to enable debug logging.
108 This allows selective logging of certain incoming transactions within
109 production environments, with some care. It takes two options, "tag"
110 and "opts"; "tag" is included in the filename of the log and "opts"
111 is used as per the -d<options> command-line option. Examples, which
112 don't all make sense in all contexts:
115 control = debug/tag=.$sender_host_address
116 control = debug/opts=+expand+acl
117 control = debug/tag=.$message_exim_id/opts=+expand
119 7. It has always been implicit in the design and the documentation that
120 "the Exim user" is not root. src/EDITME said that using root was
121 "very strongly discouraged". This is not enough to keep people from
122 shooting themselves in the foot in days when many don't configure Exim
123 themselves but via package build managers. The security consequences of
124 running various bits of network code are severe if there should be bugs in
125 them. As such, the Exim user may no longer be root. If configured
126 statically, Exim will refuse to build. If configured as ref:user then Exim
127 will exit shortly after start-up. If you must shoot yourself in the foot,
128 then henceforth you will have to maintain your own local patches to strip
131 8. There is a new expansion operator, bool_lax{}. Where bool{} uses the ACL
132 condition logic to determine truth/failure and will fail to expand many
133 strings, bool_lax{} uses the router condition logic, where most strings
135 Note: bool{00} is false, bool_lax{00} is true.
137 9. Routers now support multiple "condition" tests,
139 10. There is now a runtime configuration option "tcp_wrappers_daemon_name".
140 Setting this allows an admin to define which entry in the tcpwrappers
141 config file will be used to control access to the daemon. This option
142 is only available when Exim is built with USE_TCP_WRAPPERS. The
143 default value is set at build time using the TCP_WRAPPERS_DAEMON_NAME
146 11. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The default value for system_filter_user is now
147 the Exim run-time user, instead of root.
149 12. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] ALT_CONFIG_ROOT_ONLY is no longer optional and
150 is forced on. This is mitigated by the new build option
151 TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST which defines a list of configuration files which
152 are trusted; one per line. If a config file is owned by root and matches
153 a pathname in the list, then it may be invoked by the Exim build-time
154 user without Exim relinquishing root privileges.
156 13. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The Exim user is no longer automatically
157 trusted to supply -D<Macro[=Value]> overrides on the command-line. Going
158 forward, we recommend using TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST with shim configs that
159 include the main config. As a transition mechanism, we are temporarily
160 providing a work-around: the new build option WHITELIST_D_MACROS provides
161 a colon-separated list of macro names which may be overridden by the Exim
162 run-time user. The values of these macros are constrained to the regex
163 ^[A-Za-z0-9_/.-]*$ (which explicitly does allow for empty values).
169 1. TWO SECURITY FIXES: one relating to mail-spools which are globally
170 writable, the other to locking of MBX folders (not mbox).
172 2. MySQL stored procedures are now supported.
174 3. The dkim_domain transport option is now a list, not a single string, and
175 messages will be signed for each element in the list (discarding
178 4. The 4.70 release unexpectedly changed the behaviour of dnsdb TXT lookups
179 in the presence of multiple character strings within the RR. Prior to 4.70,
180 only the first string would be returned. The dnsdb lookup now, by default,
181 preserves the pre-4.70 semantics, but also now takes an extended output
182 separator specification. The separator can be followed by a semicolon, to
183 concatenate the individual text strings together with no join character,
184 or by a comma and a second separator character, in which case the text
185 strings within a TXT record are joined on that second character.
186 Administrators are reminded that DNS provides no ordering guarantees
187 between multiple records in an RRset. For example:
189 foo.example. IN TXT "a" "b" "c"
190 foo.example. IN TXT "d" "e" "f"
192 ${lookup dnsdb{>/ txt=foo.example}} -> "a/d"
193 ${lookup dnsdb{>/; txt=foo.example}} -> "def/abc"
194 ${lookup dnsdb{>/,+ txt=foo.example}} -> "a+b+c/d+e+f"
200 1. Native DKIM support without an external library.
201 (Note that if no action to prevent it is taken, a straight upgrade will
202 result in DKIM verification of all signed incoming emails. See spec
203 for details on conditionally disabling)
205 2. Experimental DCC support via dccifd (contributed by Wolfgang Breyha).
207 3. There is now a bool{} expansion condition which maps certain strings to
208 true/false condition values (most likely of use in conjunction with the
209 and{} expansion operator).
211 4. The $spam_score, $spam_bar and $spam_report variables are now available
214 5. exim -bP now supports "macros", "macro_list" or "macro MACRO_NAME" as
215 options, provided that Exim is invoked by an admin_user.
217 6. There is a new option gnutls_compat_mode, when linked against GnuTLS,
218 which increases compatibility with older clients at the cost of decreased
219 security. Don't set this unless you need to support such clients.
221 7. There is a new expansion operator, ${randint:...} which will produce a
222 "random" number less than the supplied integer. This randomness is
223 not guaranteed to be cryptographically strong, but depending upon how
224 Exim was built may be better than the most naive schemes.
226 8. Exim now explicitly ensures that SHA256 is available when linked against
229 9. The transport_filter_timeout option now applies to SMTP transports too.
235 1. Preliminary DKIM support in Experimental.
241 1. The body_linecount and body_zerocount C variables are now exported in the
244 2. When a dnslists lookup succeeds, the key that was looked up is now placed
245 in $dnslist_matched. When the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in
246 this variable (though it is, of course, in the actual lookup). In simple
249 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example
251 the key is also available in another variable (in this case,
252 $sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not
253 true. For example, using a data lookup might generate a dnslists lookup
256 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|...
258 If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be
259 192.168.6.7 (for example).
261 3. Authenticators now have a client_condition option. When Exim is running as
262 a client, it skips an authenticator whose client_condition expansion yields
263 "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for example, to skip plain text
264 authenticators when the connection is not encrypted by a setting such as:
266 client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}}
268 Note that the 4.67 documentation states that $tls_cipher contains the
269 cipher used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it
270 contains the cipher used for the delivery. The same is true for
273 4. There is now a -Mvc <message-id> option, which outputs a copy of the
274 message to the standard output, in RFC 2822 format. The option can be used
275 only by an admin user.
277 5. There is now a /noupdate option for the ratelimit ACL condition. It
278 computes the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update
279 the saved data. This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup
280 the existence of a specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without
281 incrementing the ratelimit counter for that key.
283 In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must set the rate
284 for the same key somewhere (otherwise it will always be zero).
289 # Read the rate; if it doesn't exist or is below the maximum
291 deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate
292 log_message = RATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
293 (max $sender_rate_limit)
295 [... some other logic and tests...]
297 warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd
298 log_message = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
299 (max $sender_rate_limit)
300 condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}}
304 6. The variable $max_received_linelength contains the number of bytes in the
305 longest line that was received as part of the message, not counting the
306 line termination character(s).
308 7. Host lists can now include +ignore_defer and +include_defer, analagous to
309 +ignore_unknown and +include_unknown. These options should be used with
310 care, probably only in non-critical host lists such as whitelists.
312 8. There's a new option called queue_only_load_latch, which defaults true.
313 If set false when queue_only_load is greater than zero, Exim re-evaluates
314 the load for each incoming message in an SMTP session. Otherwise, once one
315 message is queued, the remainder are also.
317 9. There is a new ACL, specified by acl_smtp_notquit, which is run in most
318 cases when an SMTP session ends without sending QUIT. However, when Exim
319 itself is is bad trouble, such as being unable to write to its log files,
320 this ACL is not run, because it might try to do things (such as write to
321 log files) that make the situation even worse.
323 Like the QUIT ACL, this new ACL is provided to make it possible to gather
324 statistics. Whatever it returns (accept or deny) is immaterial. The "delay"
325 modifier is forbidden in this ACL.
327 When the NOTQUIT ACL is running, the variable $smtp_notquit_reason is set
328 to a string that indicates the reason for the termination of the SMTP
329 connection. The possible values are:
331 acl-drop Another ACL issued a "drop" command
332 bad-commands Too many unknown or non-mail commands
333 command-timeout Timeout while reading SMTP commands
334 connection-lost The SMTP connection has been lost
335 data-timeout Timeout while reading message data
336 local-scan-error The local_scan() function crashed
337 local-scan-timeout The local_scan() function timed out
338 signal-exit SIGTERM or SIGINT
339 synchronization-error SMTP synchronization error
340 tls-failed TLS failed to start
342 In most cases when an SMTP connection is closed without having received
343 QUIT, Exim sends an SMTP response message before actually closing the
344 connection. With the exception of acl-drop, the default message can be
345 overridden by the "message" modifier in the NOTQUIT ACL. In the case of a
346 "drop" verb in another ACL, it is the message from the other ACL that is
349 10. For MySQL and PostgreSQL lookups, it is now possible to specify a list of
350 servers with individual queries. This is done by starting the query with
351 "servers=x:y:z;", where each item in the list may take one of two forms:
353 (1) If it is just a host name, the appropriate global option (mysql_servers
354 or pgsql_servers) is searched for a host of the same name, and the
355 remaining parameters (database, user, password) are taken from there.
357 (2) If it contains any slashes, it is taken as a complete parameter set.
359 The list of servers is used in exactly the same was as the global list.
360 Once a connection to a server has happened and a query has been
361 successfully executed, processing of the lookup ceases.
363 This feature is intended for use in master/slave situations where updates
364 are occurring, and one wants to update a master rather than a slave. If the
365 masters are in the list for reading, you might have:
367 mysql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw:master/db/name/pw
369 In an updating lookup, you could then write
371 ${lookup mysql{servers=master; UPDATE ...}
373 If, on the other hand, the master is not to be used for reading lookups:
375 pgsql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw
377 you can still update the master by
379 ${lookup pgsql{servers=master/db/name/pw; UPDATE ...}
381 11. The message_body_newlines option (default FALSE, for backwards
382 compatibility) can be used to control whether newlines are present in
383 $message_body and $message_body_end. If it is FALSE, they are replaced by
390 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
391 the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
392 whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
395 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
396 addresses, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than
397 one IP address. This has been solved by the addition of == and =& for "all"
398 rather than the default "any" matching.
400 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been
401 for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the
402 other parameters to be varied.
404 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When it is
405 set, Exim compiles a runtime option called disable_fsync.
407 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start.
409 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining.
411 7. There are two new variables called $sending_ip_address and $sending_port.
412 These are set whenever an SMTP connection to another host has been set up.
414 8. The expansion of the helo_data option in the smtp transport now happens
415 after the connection to the server has been made.
417 9. There is a new expansion operator ${rfc2047d: that decodes strings that
418 are encoded as per RFC 2047.
420 10. There is a new log selector called "pid", which causes the current process
421 id to be added to every log line, in square brackets, immediately after the
424 11. Exim has been modified so that it flushes SMTP output before implementing
425 a delay in an ACL. It also flushes the output before performing a callout,
426 as this can take a substantial time. These behaviours can be disabled by
427 obeying control = no_delay_flush or control = no_callout_flush,
428 respectively, at some earlier stage of the connection.
430 12. There are two new expansion conditions that iterate over a list. They are
431 called forany and forall.
433 13. There's a new global option called dsn_from that can be used to vary the
434 contents of From: lines in bounces and other automatically generated
435 messages ("delivery status notifications" - hence the name of the option).
437 14. The smtp transport has a new option called hosts_avoid_pipelining.
439 15. By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matches. There is now a -I option
440 that makes it case-sensitive.
442 16. A number of new features ("addresses", "map", "filter", and "reduce") have
443 been added to string expansions to make it easier to process lists of
444 items, typically addresses.
446 17. There's a new ACL modifier called "continue". It does nothing of itself,
447 and processing of the ACL always continues with the next condition or
448 modifier. It is provided so that the side effects of expanding its argument
451 18. It is now possible to use newline and other control characters (those with
452 values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists.
454 19. The exigrep utility now has a -v option, which inverts the matching
457 20. The host_find_failed option in the manualroute router can now be set to
464 No new features were added to 4.66.
470 No new features were added to 4.65.
476 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
477 "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
478 least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
481 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
482 to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
484 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
485 authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
486 number of authentication methods.
488 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
489 messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
490 $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
492 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
493 second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
494 restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
495 without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
497 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
499 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
500 conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
501 followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
502 before doing the expansions.
504 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
505 -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
508 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
509 is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
510 subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
512 10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
513 shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
515 11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
516 as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
517 relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
518 available for compatibility.)
520 12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
521 to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
527 1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
530 2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
531 start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
534 3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
535 or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
536 start of the message for an SMTP error code.
538 4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
539 one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
541 5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
543 After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
544 before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
546 Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
548 Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
550 --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
551 Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
552 each messages value for each variable.
554 Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
555 same criteria without --not).
561 1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
562 as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
563 the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
564 name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
565 IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
566 This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
568 ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
570 Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
571 one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
572 a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
575 2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
576 incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
577 one, a batch delivery now occurs.
579 3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
580 Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
581 against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
582 maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
588 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
589 the 4.60 release are:
591 . An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
593 . An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
595 . A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
596 $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
597 for other things in complicated expansions.
599 . The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
601 . It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
602 resources used in pipe deliveries.
604 . A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
606 . More errors are detectable in retry rules.
608 There are a number of other additions too.
614 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.60 release. Major new features since
615 the 4.50 release are:
617 . Support for SQLite.
619 . Support for IGNOREQUOTA in LMTP.
621 . Extensions to the "submission mode" features.
623 . Support for Client SMTP Authorization (CSA).
625 . Support for ratelimiting hosts and users.
627 . New expansion items to help with the BATV "prvs" scheme.
629 . A "match_ip" condition, that matches an IP address against a list.
631 There are many more minor changes.