1 $Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.162 2010/01/04 19:35:50 nm4 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.
19 1. Native DKIM support without an external library.
21 2. Experimental DCC support via dccifd (contributed by Wolfgang Breyha).
23 3. There is now a bool{} expansion condition which maps certain strings to
24 true/false condition values (most likely of use in conjuction with the
25 and{} expansion operator).
27 4. The $spam_score, $spam_bar and $spam_report variables are now available
30 5. exim -bP now supports "macros", "macro_list" or "macro MACRO_NAME" as
31 options, provided that Exim is invoked by an admin_user.
33 6. There is a new option gnutls_compat_mode, when linked against GnuTLS,
34 which increases compatibility with older clients at the cost of decreased
35 security. Don't set this unless you need to support such clients.
37 7. There is a new expansion operator, ${randint:...} which will produce a
38 "random" number less than the supplied integer. This randomness is
39 not guaranteed to be cryptographically strong, but depending upon how
40 Exim was built may be better than the most naive schemes.
42 8. Exim now explicitly ensures that SHA256 is available when linked against
45 9. The transport_filter_timeout option now applies to SMTP transports too.
51 1. The body_linecount and body_zerocount C variables are now exported in the
54 2. When a dnslists lookup succeeds, the key that was looked up is now placed
55 in $dnslist_matched. When the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in
56 this variable (though it is, of course, in the actual lookup). In simple
59 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example
61 the key is also available in another variable (in this case,
62 $sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not
63 true. For example, using a data lookup might generate a dnslists lookup
66 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|...
68 If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be
69 192.168.6.7 (for example).
71 3. Authenticators now have a client_condition option. When Exim is running as
72 a client, it skips an authenticator whose client_condition expansion yields
73 "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for example, to skip plain text
74 authenticators when the connection is not encrypted by a setting such as:
76 client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}}
78 Note that the 4.67 documentation states that $tls_cipher contains the
79 cipher used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it
80 contains the cipher used for the delivery. The same is true for
83 4. There is now a -Mvc <message-id> option, which outputs a copy of the
84 message to the standard output, in RFC 2822 format. The option can be used
85 only by an admin user.
87 5. There is now a /noupdate option for the ratelimit ACL condition. It
88 computes the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update
89 the saved data. This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup
90 the existence of a specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without
91 incrementing the ratelimit counter for that key.
93 In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must set the rate
94 for the same key somewhere (otherwise it will always be zero).
99 # Read the rate; if it doesn't exist or is below the maximum
101 deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate
102 log_message = RATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
103 (max $sender_rate_limit)
105 [... some other logic and tests...]
107 warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd
108 log_message = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
109 (max $sender_rate_limit)
110 condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}}
114 6. The variable $max_received_linelength contains the number of bytes in the
115 longest line that was received as part of the message, not counting the
116 line termination character(s).
118 7. Host lists can now include +ignore_defer and +include_defer, analagous to
119 +ignore_unknown and +include_unknown. These options should be used with
120 care, probably only in non-critical host lists such as whitelists.
122 8. There's a new option called queue_only_load_latch, which defaults true.
123 If set false when queue_only_load is greater than zero, Exim re-evaluates
124 the load for each incoming message in an SMTP session. Otherwise, once one
125 message is queued, the remainder are also.
127 9. There is a new ACL, specified by acl_smtp_notquit, which is run in most
128 cases when an SMTP session ends without sending QUIT. However, when Exim
129 itself is is bad trouble, such as being unable to write to its log files,
130 this ACL is not run, because it might try to do things (such as write to
131 log files) that make the situation even worse.
133 Like the QUIT ACL, this new ACL is provided to make it possible to gather
134 statistics. Whatever it returns (accept or deny) is immaterial. The "delay"
135 modifier is forbidden in this ACL.
137 When the NOTQUIT ACL is running, the variable $smtp_notquit_reason is set
138 to a string that indicates the reason for the termination of the SMTP
139 connection. The possible values are:
141 acl-drop Another ACL issued a "drop" command
142 bad-commands Too many unknown or non-mail commands
143 command-timeout Timeout while reading SMTP commands
144 connection-lost The SMTP connection has been lost
145 data-timeout Timeout while reading message data
146 local-scan-error The local_scan() function crashed
147 local-scan-timeout The local_scan() function timed out
148 signal-exit SIGTERM or SIGINT
149 synchronization-error SMTP synchronization error
150 tls-failed TLS failed to start
152 In most cases when an SMTP connection is closed without having received
153 QUIT, Exim sends an SMTP response message before actually closing the
154 connection. With the exception of acl-drop, the default message can be
155 overridden by the "message" modifier in the NOTQUIT ACL. In the case of a
156 "drop" verb in another ACL, it is the message from the other ACL that is
159 10. For MySQL and PostgreSQL lookups, it is now possible to specify a list of
160 servers with individual queries. This is done by starting the query with
161 "servers=x:y:z;", where each item in the list may take one of two forms:
163 (1) If it is just a host name, the appropriate global option (mysql_servers
164 or pgsql_servers) is searched for a host of the same name, and the
165 remaining parameters (database, user, password) are taken from there.
167 (2) If it contains any slashes, it is taken as a complete parameter set.
169 The list of servers is used in exactly the same was as the global list.
170 Once a connection to a server has happened and a query has been
171 successfully executed, processing of the lookup ceases.
173 This feature is intended for use in master/slave situations where updates
174 are occurring, and one wants to update a master rather than a slave. If the
175 masters are in the list for reading, you might have:
177 mysql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw:master/db/name/pw
179 In an updating lookup, you could then write
181 ${lookup mysql{servers=master; UPDATE ...}
183 If, on the other hand, the master is not to be used for reading lookups:
185 pgsql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw
187 you can still update the master by
189 ${lookup pgsql{servers=master/db/name/pw; UPDATE ...}
191 11. The message_body_newlines option (default FALSE, for backwards
192 compatibility) can be used to control whether newlines are present in
193 $message_body and $message_body_end. If it is FALSE, they are replaced by
200 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
201 the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
202 whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
205 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
206 addresses, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than
207 one IP address. This has been solved by the addition of == and =& for "all"
208 rather than the default "any" matching.
210 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been
211 for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the
212 other parameters to be varied.
214 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When it is
215 set, Exim compiles a runtime option called disable_fsync.
217 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start.
219 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining.
221 7. There are two new variables called $sending_ip_address and $sending_port.
222 These are set whenever an SMTP connection to another host has been set up.
224 8. The expansion of the helo_data option in the smtp transport now happens
225 after the connection to the server has been made.
227 9. There is a new expansion operator ${rfc2047d: that decodes strings that
228 are encoded as per RFC 2047.
230 10. There is a new log selector called "pid", which causes the current process
231 id to be added to every log line, in square brackets, immediately after the
234 11. Exim has been modified so that it flushes SMTP output before implementing
235 a delay in an ACL. It also flushes the output before performing a callout,
236 as this can take a substantial time. These behaviours can be disabled by
237 obeying control = no_delay_flush or control = no_callout_flush,
238 respectively, at some earlier stage of the connection.
240 12. There are two new expansion conditions that iterate over a list. They are
241 called forany and forall.
243 13. There's a new global option called dsn_from that can be used to vary the
244 contents of From: lines in bounces and other automatically generated
245 messages ("delivery status notifications" - hence the name of the option).
247 14. The smtp transport has a new option called hosts_avoid_pipelining.
249 15. By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matches. There is now a -I option
250 that makes it case-sensitive.
252 16. A number of new features ("addresses", "map", "filter", and "reduce") have
253 been added to string expansions to make it easier to process lists of
254 items, typically addresses.
256 17. There's a new ACL modifier called "continue". It does nothing of itself,
257 and processing of the ACL always continues with the next condition or
258 modifier. It is provided so that the side effects of expanding its argument
261 18. It is now possible to use newline and other control characters (those with
262 values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists.
264 19. The exigrep utility now has a -v option, which inverts the matching
267 20. The host_find_failed option in the manualroute router can now be set to
274 No new features were added to 4.66.
280 No new features were added to 4.65.
286 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
287 "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
288 least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
291 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
292 to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
294 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
295 authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
296 number of authentication methods.
298 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
299 messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
300 $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
302 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
303 second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
304 restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
305 without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
307 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
309 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
310 conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
311 followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
312 before doing the expansions.
314 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
315 -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
318 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
319 is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
320 subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
322 10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
323 shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
325 11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
326 as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
327 relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
328 available for compatibility.)
330 12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
331 to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
337 1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
340 2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
341 start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
344 3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
345 or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
346 start of the message for an SMTP error code.
348 4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
349 one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
351 5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
353 After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
354 before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
356 Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
358 Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
360 --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
361 Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
362 each messages value for each variable.
364 Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
365 same criteria without --not).
371 1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
372 as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
373 the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
374 name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
375 IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
376 This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
378 ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
380 Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
381 one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
382 a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
385 2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
386 incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
387 one, a batch delivery now occurs.
389 3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
390 Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
391 against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
392 maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
398 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
399 the 4.60 release are:
401 . An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
403 . An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
405 . A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
406 $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
407 for other things in complicated expansions.
409 . The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
411 . It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
412 resources used in pipe deliveries.
414 . A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
416 . More errors are detectable in retry rules.
418 There are a number of other additions too.
424 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.60 release. Major new features since
425 the 4.50 release are:
427 . Support for SQLite.
429 . Support for IGNOREQUOTA in LMTP.
431 . Extensions to the "submission mode" features.
433 . Support for Client SMTP Authorization (CSA).
435 . Support for ratelimiting hosts and users.
437 . New expansion items to help with the BATV "prvs" scheme.
439 . A "match_ip" condition, that matches an IP address against a list.
441 There are many more minor changes.