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. A new main configuration option, "openssl_options", is available if Exim
16 is built with SSL support provided by OpenSSL. The option allows
17 administrators to specify OpenSSL options to be used on connections;
18 typically this is to set bug compatibility features which the OpenSSL
19 developers have not enabled by default. There may be security
20 consequences for certain options, so these should not be changed
23 2. A new pipe transport option, "permit_coredumps", may help with problem
24 diagnosis in some scenarios. Note that Exim is typically installed as
25 a setuid binary, which on most OSes will inhibit coredumps by default,
26 so that safety mechanism would have to be overriden for this option to
27 be able to take effect.
29 3. ClamAV 0.95 is now required for ClamAV support in Exim, unless
30 Local/Makefile sets: WITH_OLD_CLAMAV_STREAM=yes
31 Note that this switches Exim to use a new API ("INSTREAM") and a future
32 release of ClamAV will remove support for the old API ("STREAM").
34 The av_scanner option, when set to "clamd", now takes an optional third
35 part, "local", which causes Exim to pass a filename to ClamAV instead of
36 the file content. This is the same behaviour as when clamd is pointed at
37 a Unix-domain socket. For example:
39 av_scanner = clamd:192.0.2.3 1234:local
41 4. There is now a -bmalware option, restricted to admin users. This option
42 takes one parameter, a filename, and scans that file with Exim's
43 malware-scanning framework. This is intended purely as a debugging aid
44 to ensure that Exim's scanning is working, not to replace other tools.
45 Note that the ACL framework is not invoked, so if av_scanner references
46 ACL variables without a fallback then this will fail.
48 5. There is a new expansion operator, "reverse_ip", which will reverse IP
49 addresses; IPv4 into dotted quad, IPv6 into dotted nibble. Examples:
51 ${reverse_ip:192.0.2.4}
53 ${reverse_ip:2001:0db8:c42:9:1:abcd:192.0.2.3}
54 -> 3.0.2.0.0.0.0.c.d.c.b.a.1.0.0.0.9.0.0.0.2.4.c.0.8.b.d.0.1.0.0.2
56 6. There is a new ACL control called "debug", to enable debug logging.
57 This allows selective logging of certain incoming transactions within
58 production environments, with some care. It takes two options, "tag"
59 and "opts"; "tag" is included in the filename of the log and "opts"
60 is used as per the -d<options> command-line option. Examples, which
61 don't all make sense in all contexts:
64 control = debug/tag=.$sender_host_address
65 control = debug/opts=+expand+acl
66 control = debug/tag=.$message_exim_id/opts=+expand
68 7. It has always been implicit in the design and the documentation that
69 "the Exim user" is not root. src/EDITME said that using root was
70 "very strongly discouraged". This is not enough to keep people from
71 shooting themselves in the foot in days when many don't configure Exim
72 themselves but via package build managers. The security consequences of
73 running various bits of network code are severe if there should be bugs in
74 them. As such, the Exim user may no longer be root. If configured
75 statically, Exim will refuse to build. If configured as ref:user then Exim
76 will exit shortly after start-up. If you must shoot yourself in the foot,
77 then henceforth you will have to maintain your own local patches to strip
80 8. There is a new expansion operator, bool_lax{}. Where bool{} uses the ACL
81 condition logic to determine truth/failure and will fail to expand many
82 strings, bool_lax{} uses the router condition logic, where most strings
84 Note: bool{00} is false, bool_lax{00} is true.
86 9. Routers now support multiple "condition" tests,
88 10. There is now a runtime configuration option "tcp_wrappers_daemon_name".
89 Setting this allows an admin to define which entry in the tcpwrappers
90 config file will be used to control access to the daemon. This option
91 is only available when Exim is built with USE_TCP_WRAPPERS. The
92 default value is set at build time using the TCP_WRAPPERS_DAEMON_NAME
99 1. TWO SECURITY FIXES: one relating to mail-spools which are globally
100 writable, the other to locking of MBX folders (not mbox).
102 2. MySQL stored procedures are now supported.
104 3. The dkim_domain transport option is now a list, not a single string, and
105 messages will be signed for each element in the list (discarding
108 4. The 4.70 release unexpectedly changed the behaviour of dnsdb TXT lookups
109 in the presence of multiple character strings within the RR. Prior to 4.70,
110 only the first string would be returned. The dnsdb lookup now, by default,
111 preserves the pre-4.70 semantics, but also now takes an extended output
112 separator specification. The separator can be followed by a semicolon, to
113 concatenate the individual text strings together with no join character,
114 or by a comma and a second separator character, in which case the text
115 strings within a TXT record are joined on that second character.
116 Administrators are reminded that DNS provides no ordering guarantees
117 between multiple records in an RRset. For example:
119 foo.example. IN TXT "a" "b" "c"
120 foo.example. IN TXT "d" "e" "f"
122 ${lookup dnsdb{>/ txt=foo.example}} -> "a/d"
123 ${lookup dnsdb{>/; txt=foo.example}} -> "def/abc"
124 ${lookup dnsdb{>/,+ txt=foo.example}} -> "a+b+c/d+e+f"
130 1. Native DKIM support without an external library.
131 (Note that if no action to prevent it is taken, a straight upgrade will
132 result in DKIM verification of all signed incoming emails. See spec
133 for details on conditionally disabling)
135 2. Experimental DCC support via dccifd (contributed by Wolfgang Breyha).
137 3. There is now a bool{} expansion condition which maps certain strings to
138 true/false condition values (most likely of use in conjunction with the
139 and{} expansion operator).
141 4. The $spam_score, $spam_bar and $spam_report variables are now available
144 5. exim -bP now supports "macros", "macro_list" or "macro MACRO_NAME" as
145 options, provided that Exim is invoked by an admin_user.
147 6. There is a new option gnutls_compat_mode, when linked against GnuTLS,
148 which increases compatibility with older clients at the cost of decreased
149 security. Don't set this unless you need to support such clients.
151 7. There is a new expansion operator, ${randint:...} which will produce a
152 "random" number less than the supplied integer. This randomness is
153 not guaranteed to be cryptographically strong, but depending upon how
154 Exim was built may be better than the most naive schemes.
156 8. Exim now explicitly ensures that SHA256 is available when linked against
159 9. The transport_filter_timeout option now applies to SMTP transports too.
165 1. Preliminary DKIM support in Experimental.
171 1. The body_linecount and body_zerocount C variables are now exported in the
174 2. When a dnslists lookup succeeds, the key that was looked up is now placed
175 in $dnslist_matched. When the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in
176 this variable (though it is, of course, in the actual lookup). In simple
179 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example
181 the key is also available in another variable (in this case,
182 $sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not
183 true. For example, using a data lookup might generate a dnslists lookup
186 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|...
188 If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be
189 192.168.6.7 (for example).
191 3. Authenticators now have a client_condition option. When Exim is running as
192 a client, it skips an authenticator whose client_condition expansion yields
193 "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for example, to skip plain text
194 authenticators when the connection is not encrypted by a setting such as:
196 client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}}
198 Note that the 4.67 documentation states that $tls_cipher contains the
199 cipher used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it
200 contains the cipher used for the delivery. The same is true for
203 4. There is now a -Mvc <message-id> option, which outputs a copy of the
204 message to the standard output, in RFC 2822 format. The option can be used
205 only by an admin user.
207 5. There is now a /noupdate option for the ratelimit ACL condition. It
208 computes the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update
209 the saved data. This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup
210 the existence of a specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without
211 incrementing the ratelimit counter for that key.
213 In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must set the rate
214 for the same key somewhere (otherwise it will always be zero).
219 # Read the rate; if it doesn't exist or is below the maximum
221 deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate
222 log_message = RATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
223 (max $sender_rate_limit)
225 [... some other logic and tests...]
227 warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd
228 log_message = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
229 (max $sender_rate_limit)
230 condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}}
234 6. The variable $max_received_linelength contains the number of bytes in the
235 longest line that was received as part of the message, not counting the
236 line termination character(s).
238 7. Host lists can now include +ignore_defer and +include_defer, analagous to
239 +ignore_unknown and +include_unknown. These options should be used with
240 care, probably only in non-critical host lists such as whitelists.
242 8. There's a new option called queue_only_load_latch, which defaults true.
243 If set false when queue_only_load is greater than zero, Exim re-evaluates
244 the load for each incoming message in an SMTP session. Otherwise, once one
245 message is queued, the remainder are also.
247 9. There is a new ACL, specified by acl_smtp_notquit, which is run in most
248 cases when an SMTP session ends without sending QUIT. However, when Exim
249 itself is is bad trouble, such as being unable to write to its log files,
250 this ACL is not run, because it might try to do things (such as write to
251 log files) that make the situation even worse.
253 Like the QUIT ACL, this new ACL is provided to make it possible to gather
254 statistics. Whatever it returns (accept or deny) is immaterial. The "delay"
255 modifier is forbidden in this ACL.
257 When the NOTQUIT ACL is running, the variable $smtp_notquit_reason is set
258 to a string that indicates the reason for the termination of the SMTP
259 connection. The possible values are:
261 acl-drop Another ACL issued a "drop" command
262 bad-commands Too many unknown or non-mail commands
263 command-timeout Timeout while reading SMTP commands
264 connection-lost The SMTP connection has been lost
265 data-timeout Timeout while reading message data
266 local-scan-error The local_scan() function crashed
267 local-scan-timeout The local_scan() function timed out
268 signal-exit SIGTERM or SIGINT
269 synchronization-error SMTP synchronization error
270 tls-failed TLS failed to start
272 In most cases when an SMTP connection is closed without having received
273 QUIT, Exim sends an SMTP response message before actually closing the
274 connection. With the exception of acl-drop, the default message can be
275 overridden by the "message" modifier in the NOTQUIT ACL. In the case of a
276 "drop" verb in another ACL, it is the message from the other ACL that is
279 10. For MySQL and PostgreSQL lookups, it is now possible to specify a list of
280 servers with individual queries. This is done by starting the query with
281 "servers=x:y:z;", where each item in the list may take one of two forms:
283 (1) If it is just a host name, the appropriate global option (mysql_servers
284 or pgsql_servers) is searched for a host of the same name, and the
285 remaining parameters (database, user, password) are taken from there.
287 (2) If it contains any slashes, it is taken as a complete parameter set.
289 The list of servers is used in exactly the same was as the global list.
290 Once a connection to a server has happened and a query has been
291 successfully executed, processing of the lookup ceases.
293 This feature is intended for use in master/slave situations where updates
294 are occurring, and one wants to update a master rather than a slave. If the
295 masters are in the list for reading, you might have:
297 mysql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw:master/db/name/pw
299 In an updating lookup, you could then write
301 ${lookup mysql{servers=master; UPDATE ...}
303 If, on the other hand, the master is not to be used for reading lookups:
305 pgsql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw
307 you can still update the master by
309 ${lookup pgsql{servers=master/db/name/pw; UPDATE ...}
311 11. The message_body_newlines option (default FALSE, for backwards
312 compatibility) can be used to control whether newlines are present in
313 $message_body and $message_body_end. If it is FALSE, they are replaced by
320 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
321 the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
322 whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
325 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
326 addresses, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than
327 one IP address. This has been solved by the addition of == and =& for "all"
328 rather than the default "any" matching.
330 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been
331 for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the
332 other parameters to be varied.
334 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When it is
335 set, Exim compiles a runtime option called disable_fsync.
337 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start.
339 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining.
341 7. There are two new variables called $sending_ip_address and $sending_port.
342 These are set whenever an SMTP connection to another host has been set up.
344 8. The expansion of the helo_data option in the smtp transport now happens
345 after the connection to the server has been made.
347 9. There is a new expansion operator ${rfc2047d: that decodes strings that
348 are encoded as per RFC 2047.
350 10. There is a new log selector called "pid", which causes the current process
351 id to be added to every log line, in square brackets, immediately after the
354 11. Exim has been modified so that it flushes SMTP output before implementing
355 a delay in an ACL. It also flushes the output before performing a callout,
356 as this can take a substantial time. These behaviours can be disabled by
357 obeying control = no_delay_flush or control = no_callout_flush,
358 respectively, at some earlier stage of the connection.
360 12. There are two new expansion conditions that iterate over a list. They are
361 called forany and forall.
363 13. There's a new global option called dsn_from that can be used to vary the
364 contents of From: lines in bounces and other automatically generated
365 messages ("delivery status notifications" - hence the name of the option).
367 14. The smtp transport has a new option called hosts_avoid_pipelining.
369 15. By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matches. There is now a -I option
370 that makes it case-sensitive.
372 16. A number of new features ("addresses", "map", "filter", and "reduce") have
373 been added to string expansions to make it easier to process lists of
374 items, typically addresses.
376 17. There's a new ACL modifier called "continue". It does nothing of itself,
377 and processing of the ACL always continues with the next condition or
378 modifier. It is provided so that the side effects of expanding its argument
381 18. It is now possible to use newline and other control characters (those with
382 values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists.
384 19. The exigrep utility now has a -v option, which inverts the matching
387 20. The host_find_failed option in the manualroute router can now be set to
394 No new features were added to 4.66.
400 No new features were added to 4.65.
406 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
407 "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
408 least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
411 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
412 to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
414 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
415 authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
416 number of authentication methods.
418 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
419 messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
420 $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
422 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
423 second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
424 restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
425 without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
427 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
429 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
430 conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
431 followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
432 before doing the expansions.
434 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
435 -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
438 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
439 is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
440 subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
442 10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
443 shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
445 11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
446 as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
447 relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
448 available for compatibility.)
450 12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
451 to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
457 1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
460 2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
461 start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
464 3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
465 or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
466 start of the message for an SMTP error code.
468 4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
469 one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
471 5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
473 After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
474 before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
476 Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
478 Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
480 --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
481 Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
482 each messages value for each variable.
484 Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
485 same criteria without --not).
491 1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
492 as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
493 the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
494 name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
495 IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
496 This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
498 ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
500 Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
501 one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
502 a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
505 2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
506 incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
507 one, a batch delivery now occurs.
509 3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
510 Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
511 against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
512 maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
518 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
519 the 4.60 release are:
521 . An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
523 . An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
525 . A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
526 $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
527 for other things in complicated expansions.
529 . The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
531 . It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
532 resources used in pipe deliveries.
534 . A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
536 . More errors are detectable in retry rules.
538 There are a number of other additions too.
544 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.60 release. Major new features since
545 the 4.50 release are:
547 . Support for SQLite.
549 . Support for IGNOREQUOTA in LMTP.
551 . Extensions to the "submission mode" features.
553 . Support for Client SMTP Authorization (CSA).
555 . Support for ratelimiting hosts and users.
557 . New expansion items to help with the BATV "prvs" scheme.
559 . A "match_ip" condition, that matches an IP address against a list.
561 There are many more minor changes.