1 $Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.168 2010/06/05 11:13:29 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.
50 1. TWO SECURITY FIXES: one relating to mail-spools which are globally
51 writable, the other to locking of MBX folders (not mbox).
53 2. MySQL stored procedures are now supported.
55 3. The dkim_domain transport option is now a list, not a single string, and
56 messages will be signed for each element in the list (discarding
59 4. The 4.70 release unexpectedly changed the behaviour of dnsdb TXT lookups
60 in the presence of multiple character strings within the RR. Prior to 4.70,
61 only the first string would be returned. The dnsdb lookup now, by default,
62 preserves the pre-4.70 semantics, but also now takes an extended output
63 separator specification. The separator can be followed by a semicolon, to
64 concatenate the individual text strings together with no join character,
65 or by a comma and a second separator character, in which case the text
66 strings within a TXT record are joined on that second character.
67 Administrators are reminded that DNS provides no ordering guarantees
68 between multiple records in an RRset. For example:
70 foo.example. IN TXT "a" "b" "c"
71 foo.example. IN TXT "d" "e" "f"
73 ${lookup dnsdb{>/ txt=foo.example}} -> "a/d"
74 ${lookup dnsdb{>/; txt=foo.example}} -> "def/abc"
75 ${lookup dnsdb{>/,+ txt=foo.example}} -> "a+b+c/d+e+f"
81 1. Native DKIM support without an external library.
82 (Note that if no action to prevent it is taken, a straight upgrade will
83 result in DKIM verification of all signed incoming emails. See spec
84 for details on conditionally disabling)
86 2. Experimental DCC support via dccifd (contributed by Wolfgang Breyha).
88 3. There is now a bool{} expansion condition which maps certain strings to
89 true/false condition values (most likely of use in conjuction with the
90 and{} expansion operator).
92 4. The $spam_score, $spam_bar and $spam_report variables are now available
95 5. exim -bP now supports "macros", "macro_list" or "macro MACRO_NAME" as
96 options, provided that Exim is invoked by an admin_user.
98 6. There is a new option gnutls_compat_mode, when linked against GnuTLS,
99 which increases compatibility with older clients at the cost of decreased
100 security. Don't set this unless you need to support such clients.
102 7. There is a new expansion operator, ${randint:...} which will produce a
103 "random" number less than the supplied integer. This randomness is
104 not guaranteed to be cryptographically strong, but depending upon how
105 Exim was built may be better than the most naive schemes.
107 8. Exim now explicitly ensures that SHA256 is available when linked against
110 9. The transport_filter_timeout option now applies to SMTP transports too.
116 1. The body_linecount and body_zerocount C variables are now exported in the
119 2. When a dnslists lookup succeeds, the key that was looked up is now placed
120 in $dnslist_matched. When the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in
121 this variable (though it is, of course, in the actual lookup). In simple
124 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example
126 the key is also available in another variable (in this case,
127 $sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not
128 true. For example, using a data lookup might generate a dnslists lookup
131 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|...
133 If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be
134 192.168.6.7 (for example).
136 3. Authenticators now have a client_condition option. When Exim is running as
137 a client, it skips an authenticator whose client_condition expansion yields
138 "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for example, to skip plain text
139 authenticators when the connection is not encrypted by a setting such as:
141 client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}}
143 Note that the 4.67 documentation states that $tls_cipher contains the
144 cipher used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it
145 contains the cipher used for the delivery. The same is true for
148 4. There is now a -Mvc <message-id> option, which outputs a copy of the
149 message to the standard output, in RFC 2822 format. The option can be used
150 only by an admin user.
152 5. There is now a /noupdate option for the ratelimit ACL condition. It
153 computes the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update
154 the saved data. This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup
155 the existence of a specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without
156 incrementing the ratelimit counter for that key.
158 In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must set the rate
159 for the same key somewhere (otherwise it will always be zero).
164 # Read the rate; if it doesn't exist or is below the maximum
166 deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate
167 log_message = RATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
168 (max $sender_rate_limit)
170 [... some other logic and tests...]
172 warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd
173 log_message = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
174 (max $sender_rate_limit)
175 condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}}
179 6. The variable $max_received_linelength contains the number of bytes in the
180 longest line that was received as part of the message, not counting the
181 line termination character(s).
183 7. Host lists can now include +ignore_defer and +include_defer, analagous to
184 +ignore_unknown and +include_unknown. These options should be used with
185 care, probably only in non-critical host lists such as whitelists.
187 8. There's a new option called queue_only_load_latch, which defaults true.
188 If set false when queue_only_load is greater than zero, Exim re-evaluates
189 the load for each incoming message in an SMTP session. Otherwise, once one
190 message is queued, the remainder are also.
192 9. There is a new ACL, specified by acl_smtp_notquit, which is run in most
193 cases when an SMTP session ends without sending QUIT. However, when Exim
194 itself is is bad trouble, such as being unable to write to its log files,
195 this ACL is not run, because it might try to do things (such as write to
196 log files) that make the situation even worse.
198 Like the QUIT ACL, this new ACL is provided to make it possible to gather
199 statistics. Whatever it returns (accept or deny) is immaterial. The "delay"
200 modifier is forbidden in this ACL.
202 When the NOTQUIT ACL is running, the variable $smtp_notquit_reason is set
203 to a string that indicates the reason for the termination of the SMTP
204 connection. The possible values are:
206 acl-drop Another ACL issued a "drop" command
207 bad-commands Too many unknown or non-mail commands
208 command-timeout Timeout while reading SMTP commands
209 connection-lost The SMTP connection has been lost
210 data-timeout Timeout while reading message data
211 local-scan-error The local_scan() function crashed
212 local-scan-timeout The local_scan() function timed out
213 signal-exit SIGTERM or SIGINT
214 synchronization-error SMTP synchronization error
215 tls-failed TLS failed to start
217 In most cases when an SMTP connection is closed without having received
218 QUIT, Exim sends an SMTP response message before actually closing the
219 connection. With the exception of acl-drop, the default message can be
220 overridden by the "message" modifier in the NOTQUIT ACL. In the case of a
221 "drop" verb in another ACL, it is the message from the other ACL that is
224 10. For MySQL and PostgreSQL lookups, it is now possible to specify a list of
225 servers with individual queries. This is done by starting the query with
226 "servers=x:y:z;", where each item in the list may take one of two forms:
228 (1) If it is just a host name, the appropriate global option (mysql_servers
229 or pgsql_servers) is searched for a host of the same name, and the
230 remaining parameters (database, user, password) are taken from there.
232 (2) If it contains any slashes, it is taken as a complete parameter set.
234 The list of servers is used in exactly the same was as the global list.
235 Once a connection to a server has happened and a query has been
236 successfully executed, processing of the lookup ceases.
238 This feature is intended for use in master/slave situations where updates
239 are occurring, and one wants to update a master rather than a slave. If the
240 masters are in the list for reading, you might have:
242 mysql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw:master/db/name/pw
244 In an updating lookup, you could then write
246 ${lookup mysql{servers=master; UPDATE ...}
248 If, on the other hand, the master is not to be used for reading lookups:
250 pgsql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw
252 you can still update the master by
254 ${lookup pgsql{servers=master/db/name/pw; UPDATE ...}
256 11. The message_body_newlines option (default FALSE, for backwards
257 compatibility) can be used to control whether newlines are present in
258 $message_body and $message_body_end. If it is FALSE, they are replaced by
265 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
266 the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
267 whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
270 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
271 addresses, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than
272 one IP address. This has been solved by the addition of == and =& for "all"
273 rather than the default "any" matching.
275 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been
276 for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the
277 other parameters to be varied.
279 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When it is
280 set, Exim compiles a runtime option called disable_fsync.
282 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start.
284 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining.
286 7. There are two new variables called $sending_ip_address and $sending_port.
287 These are set whenever an SMTP connection to another host has been set up.
289 8. The expansion of the helo_data option in the smtp transport now happens
290 after the connection to the server has been made.
292 9. There is a new expansion operator ${rfc2047d: that decodes strings that
293 are encoded as per RFC 2047.
295 10. There is a new log selector called "pid", which causes the current process
296 id to be added to every log line, in square brackets, immediately after the
299 11. Exim has been modified so that it flushes SMTP output before implementing
300 a delay in an ACL. It also flushes the output before performing a callout,
301 as this can take a substantial time. These behaviours can be disabled by
302 obeying control = no_delay_flush or control = no_callout_flush,
303 respectively, at some earlier stage of the connection.
305 12. There are two new expansion conditions that iterate over a list. They are
306 called forany and forall.
308 13. There's a new global option called dsn_from that can be used to vary the
309 contents of From: lines in bounces and other automatically generated
310 messages ("delivery status notifications" - hence the name of the option).
312 14. The smtp transport has a new option called hosts_avoid_pipelining.
314 15. By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matches. There is now a -I option
315 that makes it case-sensitive.
317 16. A number of new features ("addresses", "map", "filter", and "reduce") have
318 been added to string expansions to make it easier to process lists of
319 items, typically addresses.
321 17. There's a new ACL modifier called "continue". It does nothing of itself,
322 and processing of the ACL always continues with the next condition or
323 modifier. It is provided so that the side effects of expanding its argument
326 18. It is now possible to use newline and other control characters (those with
327 values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists.
329 19. The exigrep utility now has a -v option, which inverts the matching
332 20. The host_find_failed option in the manualroute router can now be set to
339 No new features were added to 4.66.
345 No new features were added to 4.65.
351 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
352 "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
353 least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
356 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
357 to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
359 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
360 authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
361 number of authentication methods.
363 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
364 messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
365 $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
367 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
368 second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
369 restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
370 without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
372 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
374 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
375 conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
376 followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
377 before doing the expansions.
379 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
380 -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
383 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
384 is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
385 subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
387 10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
388 shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
390 11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
391 as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
392 relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
393 available for compatibility.)
395 12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
396 to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
402 1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
405 2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
406 start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
409 3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
410 or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
411 start of the message for an SMTP error code.
413 4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
414 one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
416 5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
418 After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
419 before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
421 Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
423 Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
425 --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
426 Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
427 each messages value for each variable.
429 Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
430 same criteria without --not).
436 1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
437 as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
438 the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
439 name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
440 IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
441 This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
443 ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
445 Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
446 one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
447 a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
450 2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
451 incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
452 one, a batch delivery now occurs.
454 3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
455 Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
456 against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
457 maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
463 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
464 the 4.60 release are:
466 . An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
468 . An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
470 . A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
471 $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
472 for other things in complicated expansions.
474 . The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
476 . It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
477 resources used in pipe deliveries.
479 . A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
481 . More errors are detectable in retry rules.
483 There are a number of other additions too.
489 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.60 release. Major new features since
490 the 4.50 release are:
492 . Support for SQLite.
494 . Support for IGNOREQUOTA in LMTP.
496 . Extensions to the "submission mode" features.
498 . Support for Client SMTP Authorization (CSA).
500 . Support for ratelimiting hosts and users.
502 . New expansion items to help with the BATV "prvs" scheme.
504 . A "match_ip" condition, that matches an IP address against a list.
506 There are many more minor changes.