1 $Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.127 2007/01/17 11:17:58 ph10 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.
14 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
15 the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
16 whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
17 MAIL command. This includes both the case when the connection is dropped,
18 and the case when QUIT is used. Note that it does not include cases where
19 the connection is rejected right at the start (by an ACL, or because there
20 are too many connections, or whatever). These cases already have their own
23 The log line that is written contains the identity of the client in the
24 usual way, followed by D= and a time, which records the duration of the
25 connection. If the connection was authenticated, this fact is logged
26 exactly as it is for an incoming message, with an A= item. If the
27 connection was encrypted, CV=, DN=, and X= items may appear as they do for
28 an incoming message, controlled by the same logging options.
30 Finally, if any SMTP commands were issued during the connection, a C= item
31 is added to the line, listing the commands that were used. For example,
35 shows that the client issued QUIT straight after EHLO. If there were fewer
36 than 20 commands, they are all listed. If there were more than 20 commands,
37 the last 20 are listed, preceded by "...". However, with the default
38 setting of 10 for smtp_accep_max_nonmail, the connection will in any case
39 be aborted before 20 non-mail commands are processed.
41 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
42 addresses, in order to restrict the match to specific results from the DNS
43 lookup, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than one
44 IP address. For example, consider the condition
46 dnslists = a.b.c=127.0.0.1
48 What happens if the DNS lookup for the incoming IP address yields both
49 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2 by means of two separate DNS records? Is the
50 condition true because at least one given value was found, or is it false
51 because at least one of the found values was not listed? And how does this
52 affect negated conditions?
54 The behaviour of = and & has not been changed; however, the text below
55 documents it more clearly. In addition, two new additional conditions (==
56 and =&) have been added, to permit the "other" behaviour to be configured.
58 A DNS lookup may yield more than one record. Thus, the result of the lookup
59 for a dnslists check may yield more than one IP address. The question then
60 arises as to whether all the looked up addresses must be listed, or whether
61 just one is good enough. Both possibilities are provided for:
63 . If = or & is used, the condition is true if any one of the looked up
64 IP addresses matches one of the listed addresses. Consider:
66 dnslists = a.b.c=127.0.0.1
68 If the DNS lookup yields both 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2, the condition is
69 true because 127.0.0.1 matches.
71 . If == or =& is used, the condition is true only if every one of the
72 looked up IP addresses matches one of the listed addresses. Consider:
74 dnslists = a.b.c==127.0.0.1
76 If the DNS lookup yields both 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2, the condition is
77 false because 127.0.0.2 is not listed. You would need to have
79 dnslists = a.b.c==127.0.0.1,127.0.0.2
81 for the condition to be true.
83 When ! is used to negate IP address matching, it inverts the result, giving
84 the precise opposite of the behaviour above. Thus:
86 . If != or !& is used, the condition is true if none of the looked up IP
87 addresses matches one of the listed addresses. Consider:
89 dnslists = a.b.c!&0.0.0.1
91 If the DNS lookup yields both 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2, the condition is
92 false because 127.0.0.1 matches.
94 . If !== or !=& is used, the condition is true there is at least one looked
95 up IP address that does not match. Consider:
97 dnslists = a.b.c!=&0.0.0.1
99 If the DNS lookup yields both 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2, the condition is
100 true, because 127.0.0.2 does not match. You would need to have
102 dnslists = a.b.c!=&0.0.0.1,0.0.0.2
104 for the condition to be false.
106 When the DNS lookup yields only a single IP address, there is no difference
107 between = and == and between & and =&.
113 No new features were added to 4.66.
119 No new features were added to 4.65.
125 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
126 "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
127 least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
130 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
131 to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
133 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
134 authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
135 number of authentication methods.
137 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
138 messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
139 $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
141 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
142 second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
143 restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
144 without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
146 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
148 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
149 conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
150 followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
151 before doing the expansions.
153 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
154 -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
157 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
158 is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
159 subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
161 10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
162 shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
164 11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
165 as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
166 relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
167 available for compatibility.)
169 12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
170 to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
176 1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
179 2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
180 start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
183 3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
184 or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
185 start of the message for an SMTP error code.
187 4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
188 one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
190 5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
192 After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
193 before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
195 Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
197 Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
199 --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
200 Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
201 each messages value for each variable.
203 Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
204 same criteria without --not).
210 1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
211 as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
212 the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
213 name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
214 IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
215 This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
217 ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
219 Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
220 one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
221 a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
224 2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
225 incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
226 one, a batch delivery now occurs.
228 3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
229 Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
230 against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
231 maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
237 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
238 the 4.60 release are:
240 . An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
242 . An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
244 . A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
245 $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
246 for other things in complicated expansions.
248 . The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
250 . It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
251 resources used in pipe deliveries.
253 . A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
255 . More errors are detectable in retry rules.
257 There are a number of other additions too.
263 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.60 release. Major new features since
264 the 4.50 release are:
266 . Support for SQLite.
268 . Support for IGNOREQUOTA in LMTP.
270 . Extensions to the "submission mode" features.
272 . Support for Client SMTP Authorization (CSA).
274 . Support for ratelimiting hosts and users.
276 . New expansion items to help with the BATV "prvs" scheme.
278 . A "match_ip" condition, that matches an IP address against a list.
280 There are many more minor changes.