4 This file contains descriptions of new features that have been added to Exim.
5 Before a formal release, there may be quite a lot of detail so that people can
6 test from the snapshots or the Git before the documentation is updated. Once
7 the documentation is updated, this file is reduced to a short list.
12 1. An "external" authenticator, per RFC 4422 Appendix A.
14 2. A JSON lookup type, and JSON variants of the forall/any expansion conditions.
16 3. Variables $tls_in_cipher_std, $tls_out_cipher_std giving the RFC names
19 4. Log_selectors "msg_id" (on by default) and "msg_id_created".
21 5. A case_insensitive option for verify=not_blind.
23 6. EXPERIMENTAL_TLS_RESUME optional build feature. See the experimental.spec
26 7. A main option exim_version to override the version Exim
27 reports in verious places ($exim_version, $version_number).
29 8. Expansion operator ${sha2_N:} for N=256, 384, 512.
31 9. Router variables, $r_... settable from router options and usable in routers
34 10. The spf lookup now supports IPv6.
40 1. ${l_header:<name>} and ${l_h:<name>} expansion items, giving a colon-sep
41 list when there are multiple headers having a given name. This matters
42 when individual headers are wrapped onto multiple lines; with previous
43 facilities hard to parse.
45 2. The ${readsocket } expansion item now takes a "tls" option, doing the
48 3. EXPERIMENTAL_REQUIRETLS and EXPERIMENTAL_PIPE_CONNECT optional build
49 features. See the experimental.spec file.
51 4. If built with SUPPORT_I18N a "utf8_downconvert" option on the smtp transport.
53 5. A "pipelining" log_selector.
55 6. Builtin macros for supported log_selector and openssl_options values.
57 7. JSON variants of the ${extract } expansion item.
59 8. A "noutf8" debug option, for disabling the UTF-8 characters in debug output.
61 9. TCP Fast Open support on MacOS.
66 1. Dual-certificate stacks on servers now support OCSP stapling, under GnuTLS
67 version 3.5.6 or later.
69 2. DANE is now supported under GnuTLS version 3.0.0 or later. Both GnuTLS and
70 OpenSSL versions are moved to mainline support from Experimental.
71 New SMTP transport option "dane_require_tls_ciphers".
73 3. Feature macros for the compiled-in set of malware scanner interfaces.
75 4. SPF support is promoted from Experimental to mainline status. The template
76 src/EDITME makefile does not enable its inclusion.
78 5. Logging control for DKIM verification. The existing DKIM log line is
79 controlled by a "dkim_verbose" selector which is _not_ enabled by default.
80 A new tag "DKIM=<domain>" is added to <= lines by default, controlled by
81 a "dkim" log_selector.
83 6. Receive duration on <= lines, under a new log_selector "receive_time".
85 7. Options "ipv4_only" and "ipv4_prefer" on the dnslookup router and on
86 routing rules in the manualroute router.
88 8. Expansion item ${sha3:<string>} / ${sha3_<N>:<string>} now also supported
89 under OpenSSL version 1.1.1 or later.
91 9. DKIM operations can now use the Ed25519 algorithm in addition to RSA, under
92 GnuTLS 3.6.0 or OpenSSL 1.1.1 or later.
94 10. Builtin feature-macros _CRYPTO_HASH_SHA3 and _CRYPTO_SIGN_ED25519, library
97 11. "exim -bP macro <name>" returns caller-usable status.
99 12. Expansion item ${authresults {<machine>}} for creating an
100 Authentication-Results: header.
102 13. EXPERIMENTAL_ARC. See the experimental.spec file.
103 See also new util/renew-opendmarc-tlds.sh script for use with DMARC/ARC.
105 14: A dane:fail event, intended to facilitate reporting.
107 15. "Lightweight" support for Redis Cluster. Requires redis_servers list to
108 contain all the servers in the cluster, all of which must be reachable from
109 the running exim instance. If the cluster has master/slave replication, the
110 list must contain all the master and slave servers.
112 16. Add an option to the Avast scanner interface: "pass_unscanned". This
113 allows to treat unscanned files as clean. Files may be unscanned for
114 several reasons: decompression bombs, broken archives.
120 1. PKG_CONFIG_PATH can now be set in Local/Makefile;
121 wildcards will be expanded, values are collapsed.
123 2. The ${readsocket } expansion now takes an option to not shutdown the
124 connection after sending the query string. The default remains to do so.
126 3. An smtp transport option "hosts_noproxy_tls" to control whether multiple
127 deliveries on a single TCP connection can maintain a TLS connection
128 open. By default disabled for all hosts, doing so saves the cost of
129 making new TLS sessions, at the cost of having to proxy the data via
130 another process. Logging is also affected.
132 4. A malware connection type for the FPSCAND protocol.
134 5. An option for recipient verify callouts to hold the connection open for
135 further recipients and for delivery.
137 6. The reproducible build $SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable is now
140 7. Optionally, an alternate format for spool data-files which matches the
141 wire format - meaning more efficient reception and transmission (at the
142 cost of difficulty with standard Unix tools). Only used for messages
143 received using the ESMTP CHUNKING option, and when a new main-section
144 option "spool_wireformat" (false by default) is set.
146 8. New main configuration option "commandline_checks_require_admin" to
147 restrict who can use various introspection options.
149 9. New option modifier "no_check" for quota and quota_filecount
150 appendfile transport.
152 10. Variable $smtp_command_history returning a comma-sep list of recent
155 11. Millisecond timetamps in logs, on log_selector "millisec". Also affects
156 log elements QT, DT and D, and timstamps in debug output.
158 12. TCP Fast Open logging. As a server, logs when the SMTP banner was sent
159 while still in SYN_RECV state; as a client logs when the connection
160 is opened with a TFO cookie.
162 13. DKIM support for multiple signing, by domain and/or key-selector.
163 DKIM support for multiple hashes, and for alternate-identity tags.
164 Builtin macro with default list of signed headers.
165 Better syntax for specifying oversigning.
166 The DKIM ACL can override verification status, and status is visible in
169 14. Exipick understands -C|--config for an alternative Exim
172 15. TCP Fast Open used, with data-on-SYN, for client SMTP via SOCKS5 proxy,
173 for ${readsocket } expansions, and for ClamAV.
175 16. The "-be" expansion test mode now supports macros. Macros are expanded
176 in test lines, and new macros can be defined.
178 17. Support for server-side dual-certificate-stacks (eg. RSA + ECDSA).
184 1. Allow relative config file names for ".include"
186 2. A main-section config option "debug_store" to control the checks on
187 variable locations during store-reset. Normally false but can be enabled
188 when a memory corruption issue is suspected on a production system.
194 1. The new perl_taintmode option allows to run the embedded perl
195 interpreter in taint mode.
197 2. New log_selector: dnssec, adds a "DS" tag to acceptance and delivery lines.
199 3. Speculative debugging, via a "kill" option to the "control=debug" ACL
202 4. New expansion item ${sha3:<string>} / ${sha3_<N>:<string>}.
203 N can be 224, 256 (default), 384, 512.
204 With GnuTLS 3.5.0 or later, only.
206 5. Facility for named queues: A command-line argument can specify
207 the queue name for a queue operation, and an ACL modifier can set
208 the queue to be used for a message. A $queue_name variable gives
211 6. New expansion operators base32/base32d.
213 7. The CHUNKING ESMTP extension from RFC 3030. May give some slight
214 performance increase and network load decrease. Main config option
215 chunking_advertise_hosts, and smtp transport option hosts_try_chunking
218 8. LMDB lookup support, as Experimental. Patch supplied by Andrew Colin Kissa.
220 9. Expansion operator escape8bit, like escape but not touching newline etc..
222 10. Feature macros, generated from compile options. All start with "_HAVE_"
223 and go on with some roughly recognisable name. Driver macros, for
224 router, transport and authentication drivers; names starting with "_DRIVER_".
225 Option macros, for each configuration-file option; all start with "_OPT_".
226 Use the "-bP macros" command-line option to see what is present.
228 11. Integer values for options can take a "G" multiplier.
230 12. defer=pass option for the ACL control cutthrough_delivery, to reflect 4xx
231 returns from the target back to the initiator, rather than spooling the
234 13. New built-in constants available for tls_dhparam and default changed.
236 14. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_QUEUEFILE, a queuefile transport, for writing
237 out copies of the message spool files for use by 3rd-party scanners.
239 15. A new option on the smtp transport, hosts_try_fastopen. If the system
240 supports it (on Linux it must be enabled in the kernel by the sysadmin)
241 try to use RFC 7413 "TCP Fast Open". No data is sent on the SYN segment
242 but it permits a peer that also supports the facility to send its SMTP
243 banner immediately after the SYN,ACK segment rather then waiting for
244 another ACK - so saving up to one roundtrip time. Because it requires
245 previous communication with the peer (we save a cookie from it) this
246 will only become active on frequently-contacted destinations.
248 16. A new syslog_pid option to suppress PID duplication in syslog lines.
254 1. The ACL conditions regex and mime_regex now capture substrings
255 into numeric variables $regex1 to 9, like the "match" expansion condition.
257 2. New $callout_address variable records the address used for a spam=,
258 malware= or verify= callout.
260 3. Transports now take a "max_parallel" option, to limit concurrency.
262 4. Expansion operators ${ipv6norm:<string>} and ${ipv6denorm:<string>}.
263 The latter expands to a 8-element colon-sep set of hex digits including
264 leading zeroes. A trailing ipv4-style dotted-decimal set is converted
265 to hex. Pure ipv4 addresses are converted to IPv4-mapped IPv6.
266 The former operator strips leading zeroes and collapses the longest
267 set of 0-groups to a double-colon.
269 5. New "-bP config" support, to dump the effective configuration.
271 6. New $dkim_key_length variable.
273 7. New base64d and base64 expansion items (the existing str2b64 being a
274 synonym of the latter). Add support in base64 for certificates.
276 8. New main configuration option "bounce_return_linesize_limit" to
277 avoid oversize bodies in bounces. The default value matches RFC
280 9. New $initial_cwd expansion variable.
286 1. Support for using the system standard CA bundle.
288 2. New expansion items $config_file, $config_dir, containing the file
289 and directory name of the main configuration file. Also $exim_version.
291 3. New "malware=" support for Avast.
293 4. New "spam=" variant option for Rspamd.
295 5. Assorted options on malware= and spam= scanners.
297 6. A command-line option to write a comment into the logfile.
299 7. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_SOCKS feature enabled, the smtp transport can
300 be configured to make connections via socks5 proxies.
302 8. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_INTERNATIONAL, support is included for
303 the transmission of UTF-8 envelope addresses.
305 9. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_INTERNATIONAL, an expansion item for a commonly
306 used encoding of Maildir folder names.
308 10. A logging option for slow DNS lookups.
310 11. New ${env {<variable>}} expansion.
312 12. A non-SMTP authenticator using information from TLS client certificates.
314 13. Main option "tls_eccurve" for selecting an Elliptic Curve for TLS.
315 Patch originally by Wolfgang Breyha.
317 14. Main option "dns_trust_aa" for trusting your local nameserver at the
318 same level as DNSSEC.
324 1. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_DANE feature enabled, Exim will follow the
325 DANE SMTP draft to assess a secure chain of trust of the certificate
326 used to establish the TLS connection based on a TLSA record in the
327 domain of the sender.
329 2. The EXPERIMENTAL_TPDA feature has been renamed to EXPERIMENTAL_EVENT
330 and several new events have been created. The reason is because it has
331 been expanded beyond just firing events during the transport phase. Any
332 existing TPDA transport options will have to be rewritten to use a new
333 $event_name expansion variable in a condition. Refer to the
334 experimental-spec.txt for details and examples.
336 3. The EXPERIMENTAL_CERTNAMES features is an enhancement to verify that
337 server certs used for TLS match the result of the MX lookup. It does
338 not use the same mechanism as DANE.
348 1. If built with the EXPERIMENTAL_PROXY feature enabled, Exim can be
349 configured to expect an initial header from a proxy that will make the
350 actual external source IP:host be used in exim instead of the IP of the
351 proxy that is connecting to it.
353 2. New verify option header_names_ascii, which will check to make sure
354 there are no non-ASCII characters in header names. Exim itself handles
355 those non-ASCII characters, but downstream apps may not, so Exim can
356 detect and reject if those characters are present.
358 3. New expansion operator ${utf8clean:string} to replace malformed UTF8
359 codepoints with valid ones.
361 4. New malware type "sock". Talks over a Unix or TCP socket, sending one
362 command line and matching a regex against the return data for trigger
363 and a second regex to extract malware_name. The mail spoolfile name can
364 be included in the command line.
366 5. The smtp transport now supports options "tls_verify_hosts" and
367 "tls_try_verify_hosts". If either is set the certificate verification
368 is split from the encryption operation. The default remains that a failed
369 verification cancels the encryption.
371 6. New SERVERS override of default ldap server list. In the ACLs, an ldap
372 lookup can now set a list of servers to use that is different from the
375 7. New command-line option -C for exiqgrep to specify alternate exim.conf
376 file when searching the queue.
378 8. OCSP now supports GnuTLS also, if you have version 3.1.3 or later of that.
380 9. Support for DNSSEC on outbound connections.
382 10. New variables "tls_(in,out)_(our,peer)cert" and expansion item
383 "certextract" to extract fields from them. Hash operators md5 and sha1
384 work over them for generating fingerprints, and a new sha256 operator
387 11. PRDR is now supported dy default.
389 12. OCSP stapling is now supported by default.
391 13. If built with the EXPERIMENTAL_DSN feature enabled, Exim will output
392 Delivery Status Notification messages in MIME format, and negotiate
393 DSN features per RFC 3461.
399 1. New command-line option -bI:sieve will list all supported sieve extensions
400 of this Exim build on standard output, one per line.
401 ManageSieve (RFC 5804) providers managing scripts for use by Exim should
402 query this to establish the correct list to include in the protocol's
403 SIEVE capability line.
405 2. If the -n option is combined with the -bP option, then the name of an
406 emitted option is not output, only the value (if visible to you).
407 For instance, "exim -n -bP pid_file_path" should just emit a pathname
408 followed by a newline, and no other text.
410 3. When built with SUPPORT_TLS and USE_GNUTLS, the SMTP transport driver now
411 has a "tls_dh_min_bits" option, to set the minimum acceptable number of
412 bits in the Diffie-Hellman prime offered by a server (in DH ciphersuites)
413 acceptable for security. (Option accepted but ignored if using OpenSSL).
414 Defaults to 1024, the old value. May be lowered only to 512, or raised as
415 far as you like. Raising this may hinder TLS interoperability with other
416 sites and is not currently recommended. Lowering this will permit you to
417 establish a TLS session which is not as secure as you might like.
419 Unless you really know what you are doing, leave it alone.
421 4. If not built with DISABLE_DNSSEC, Exim now has the main option
422 dns_dnssec_ok; if set to 1 then Exim will initialise the resolver library
423 to send the DO flag to your recursive resolver. If you have a recursive
424 resolver, which can set the Authenticated Data (AD) flag in results, Exim
425 can now detect this. Exim does not perform validation itself, instead
426 relying upon a trusted path to the resolver.
428 Current status: work-in-progress; $sender_host_dnssec variable added.
430 5. DSCP support for outbound connections: on a transport using the smtp driver,
431 set "dscp = ef", for instance, to cause the connections to have the relevant
432 DSCP (IPv4 TOS or IPv6 TCLASS) value in the header.
434 Similarly for inbound connections, there is a new control modifier, dscp,
435 so "warn control = dscp/ef" in the connect ACL, or after authentication.
437 Supported values depend upon system libraries. "exim -bI:dscp" to list the
438 ones Exim knows of. You can also set a raw number 0..0x3F.
440 6. The -G command-line flag is no longer ignored; it is now equivalent to an
441 ACL setting "control = suppress_local_fixups". The -L command-line flag
442 is now accepted and forces use of syslog, with the provided tag as the
443 process name. A few other flags used by Sendmail are now accepted and
446 7. New cutthrough routing feature. Requested by a "control = cutthrough_delivery"
447 ACL modifier; works for single-recipient mails which are received on and
448 deliverable via SMTP. Using the connection made for a recipient verify,
449 if requested before the verify, or a new one made for the purpose while
450 the inbound connection is still active. The bulk of the mail item is copied
451 direct from the inbound socket to the outbound (as well as the spool file).
452 When the source notifies the end of data, the data acceptance by the destination
453 is negotiated before the acceptance is sent to the source. If the destination
454 does not accept the mail item, for example due to content-scanning, the item
455 is not accepted from the source and therefore there is no need to generate
456 a bounce mail. This is of benefit when providing a secondary-MX service.
457 The downside is that delays are under the control of the ultimate destination
460 The Received-by: header on items delivered by cutthrough is generated
461 early in reception rather than at the end; this will affect any timestamp
462 included. The log line showing delivery is recorded before that showing
463 reception; it uses a new ">>" tag instead of "=>".
465 To support the feature, verify-callout connections can now use ESMTP and TLS.
466 The usual smtp transport options are honoured, plus a (new, default everything)
467 hosts_verify_avoid_tls.
469 New variable families named tls_in_cipher, tls_out_cipher etc. are introduced
470 for specific access to the information for each connection. The old names
471 are present for now but deprecated.
473 Not yet supported: IGNOREQUOTA, SIZE, PIPELINING.
475 8. New expansion operators ${listnamed:name} to get the content of a named list
476 and ${listcount:string} to count the items in a list.
478 9. New global option "gnutls_allow_auto_pkcs11", defaults false. The GnuTLS
479 rewrite in 4.80 combines with GnuTLS 2.12.0 or later, to autoload PKCS11
480 modules. For some situations this is desirable, but we expect admin in
481 those situations to know they want the feature. More commonly, it means
482 that GUI user modules get loaded and are broken by the setuid Exim being
483 unable to access files specified in environment variables and passed
484 through, thus breakage. So we explicitly inhibit the PKCS11 initialisation
485 unless this new option is set.
487 Some older OS's with earlier versions of GnuTLS might not have pkcs11 ability,
488 so have also added a build option which can be used to build Exim with GnuTLS
489 but without trying to use any kind of PKCS11 support. Uncomment this in the
492 AVOID_GNUTLS_PKCS11=yes
494 10. The "acl = name" condition on an ACL now supports optional arguments.
495 New expansion item "${acl {name}{arg}...}" and expansion condition
496 "acl {{name}{arg}...}" are added. In all cases up to nine arguments
497 can be used, appearing in $acl_arg1 to $acl_arg9 for the called ACL.
498 Variable $acl_narg contains the number of arguments. If the ACL sets
499 a "message =" value this becomes the result of the expansion item,
500 or the value of $value for the expansion condition. If the ACL returns
501 accept the expansion condition is true; if reject, false. A defer
502 return results in a forced fail.
504 11. Routers and transports can now have multiple headers_add and headers_remove
505 option lines. The concatenated list is used.
507 12. New ACL modifier "remove_header" can remove headers before message gets
508 handled by routers/transports.
510 13. New dnsdb lookup pseudo-type "a+". A sequence of "a6" (if configured),
511 "aaaa" and "a" lookups is done and the full set of results returned.
513 14. New expansion variable $headers_added with content from ACL add_header
514 modifier (but not yet added to message).
516 15. New 8bitmime status logging option for received messages. Log field "M8S".
518 16. New authenticated_sender logging option, adding to log field "A".
520 17. New expansion variables $router_name and $transport_name. Useful
521 particularly for debug_print as -bt command-line option does not
522 require privilege whereas -d does.
524 18. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_PRDR, per-recipient data responses per a
525 proposed extension to SMTP from Eric Hall.
527 19. The pipe transport has gained the force_command option, to allow
528 decorating commands from user .forward pipe aliases with prefix
529 wrappers, for instance.
531 20. Callout connections can now AUTH; the same controls as normal delivery
534 21. Support for DMARC, using opendmarc libs, can be enabled. It adds new
535 options: dmarc_forensic_sender, dmarc_history_file, and dmarc_tld_file.
536 It adds new expansion variables $dmarc_ar_header, $dmarc_status,
537 $dmarc_status_text, and $dmarc_used_domain. It adds a new acl modifier
538 dmarc_status. It adds new control flags dmarc_disable_verify and
539 dmarc_enable_forensic. The default for the dmarc_tld_file option is
540 "/etc/exim/opendmarc.tlds" and can be changed via EDITME.
542 22. Add expansion variable $authenticated_fail_id, which is the username
543 provided to the authentication method which failed. It is available
544 for use in subsequent ACL processing (typically quit or notquit ACLs).
546 23. New ACL modifier "udpsend" can construct a UDP packet to send to a given
549 24. New ${hexquote:..string..} expansion operator converts non-printable
550 characters in the string to \xNN form.
552 25. Experimental TPDA (Transport Post Delivery Action) function added.
553 Patch provided by Axel Rau.
555 26. Experimental Redis lookup added. Patch provided by Warren Baker.
561 1. New authenticator driver, "gsasl". Server-only (at present).
562 This is a SASL interface, licensed under GPL, which can be found at
563 http://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/.
564 This system does not provide sources of data for authentication, so
565 careful use needs to be made of the conditions in Exim.
567 2. New authenticator driver, "heimdal_gssapi". Server-only.
568 A replacement for using cyrus_sasl with Heimdal, now that $KRB5_KTNAME
569 is no longer honoured for setuid programs by Heimdal. Use the
570 "server_keytab" option to point to the keytab.
572 3. The "pkg-config" system can now be used when building Exim to reference
573 cflags and library information for lookups and authenticators, rather
574 than having to update "CFLAGS", "AUTH_LIBS", "LOOKUP_INCLUDE" and
575 "LOOKUP_LIBS" directly. Similarly for handling the TLS library support
576 without adjusting "TLS_INCLUDE" and "TLS_LIBS".
578 In addition, setting PCRE_CONFIG=yes will query the pcre-config tool to
579 find the headers and libraries for PCRE.
581 4. New expansion variable $tls_bits.
583 5. New lookup type, "dbmjz". Key is an Exim list, the elements of which will
584 be joined together with ASCII NUL characters to construct the key to pass
585 into the DBM library. Can be used with gsasl to access sasldb2 files as
588 6. OpenSSL now supports TLS1.1 and TLS1.2 with OpenSSL 1.0.1.
590 Avoid release 1.0.1a if you can. Note that the default value of
591 "openssl_options" is no longer "+dont_insert_empty_fragments", as that
592 increased susceptibility to attack. This may still have interoperability
593 implications for very old clients (see version 4.31 change 37) but
594 administrators can choose to make the trade-off themselves and restore
595 compatibility at the cost of session security.
597 7. Use of the new expansion variable $tls_sni in the main configuration option
598 tls_certificate will cause Exim to re-expand the option, if the client
599 sends the TLS Server Name Indication extension, to permit choosing a
600 different certificate; tls_privatekey will also be re-expanded. You must
601 still set these options to expand to valid files when $tls_sni is not set.
603 The SMTP Transport has gained the option tls_sni, which will set a hostname
604 for outbound TLS sessions, and set $tls_sni too.
606 A new log_selector, +tls_sni, has been added, to log received SNI values
607 for Exim as a server.
609 8. The existing "accept_8bitmime" option now defaults to true. This means
610 that Exim is deliberately not strictly RFC compliant. We're following
611 Dan Bernstein's advice in http://cr.yp.to/smtp/8bitmime.html by default.
612 Those who disagree, or know that they are talking to mail servers that,
613 even today, are not 8-bit clean, need to turn off this option.
615 9. Exim can now be started with -bw (with an optional timeout, given as
616 -bw<timespec>). With this, stdin at startup is a socket that is
617 already listening for connections. This has a more modern name of
618 "socket activation", but forcing the activated socket to fd 0. We're
619 interested in adding more support for modern variants.
621 10. ${eval } now uses 64-bit values on supporting platforms. A new "G" suffix
622 for numbers indicates multiplication by 1024^3.
624 11. The GnuTLS support has been revamped; the three options gnutls_require_kx,
625 gnutls_require_mac & gnutls_require_protocols are no longer supported.
626 tls_require_ciphers is now parsed by gnutls_priority_init(3) as a priority
627 string, documentation for which is at:
628 http://www.gnutls.org/manual/html_node/Priority-Strings.html
630 SNI support has been added to Exim's GnuTLS integration too.
632 For sufficiently recent GnuTLS libraries, ${randint:..} will now use
633 gnutls_rnd(), asking for GNUTLS_RND_NONCE level randomness.
635 12. With OpenSSL, if built with EXPERIMENTAL_OCSP, a new option tls_ocsp_file
636 is now available. If the contents of the file are valid, then Exim will
637 send that back in response to a TLS status request; this is OCSP Stapling.
638 Exim will not maintain the contents of the file in any way: administrators
639 are responsible for ensuring that it is up-to-date.
641 See "experimental-spec.txt" for more details.
643 13. ${lookup dnsdb{ }} supports now SPF record types. They are handled
644 identically to TXT record lookups.
646 14. New expansion variable $tod_epoch_l for higher-precision time.
648 15. New global option tls_dh_max_bits, defaulting to current value of NSS
649 hard-coded limit of DH ephemeral bits, to fix interop problems caused by
650 GnuTLS 2.12 library recommending a bit count higher than NSS supports.
652 16. tls_dhparam now used by both OpenSSL and GnuTLS, can be path or identifier.
653 Option can now be a path or an identifier for a standard prime.
654 If unset, we use the DH prime from section 2.2 of RFC 5114, "ike23".
655 Set to "historic" to get the old GnuTLS behaviour of auto-generated DH
658 17. SSLv2 now disabled by default in OpenSSL. (Never supported by GnuTLS).
659 Use "openssl_options -no_sslv2" to re-enable support, if your OpenSSL
660 install was not built with OPENSSL_NO_SSL2 ("no-ssl2").
666 1. New options for the ratelimit ACL condition: /count= and /unique=.
667 The /noupdate option has been replaced by a /readonly option.
669 2. The SMTP transport's protocol option may now be set to "smtps", to
670 use SSL-on-connect outbound.
672 3. New variable $av_failed, set true if the AV scanner deferred; ie, when
673 there is a problem talking to the AV scanner, or the AV scanner running.
675 4. New expansion conditions, "inlist" and "inlisti", which take simple lists
676 and check if the search item is a member of the list. This does not
677 support named lists, but does subject the list part to string expansion.
679 5. Unless the new EXPAND_LISTMATCH_RHS build option is set when Exim was
680 built, Exim no longer performs string expansion on the second string of
681 the match_* expansion conditions: "match_address", "match_domain",
682 "match_ip" & "match_local_part". Named lists can still be used.
688 1. The global option "dns_use_edns0" may be set to coerce EDNS0 usage on
689 or off in the resolver library.
695 1. In addition to the existing LDAP and LDAP/SSL ("ldaps") support, there
696 is now LDAP/TLS support, given sufficiently modern OpenLDAP client
697 libraries. The following global options have been added in support of
698 this: ldap_ca_cert_dir, ldap_ca_cert_file, ldap_cert_file, ldap_cert_key,
699 ldap_cipher_suite, ldap_require_cert, ldap_start_tls.
701 2. The pipe transport now takes a boolean option, "freeze_signal", default
702 false. When true, if the external delivery command exits on a signal then
703 Exim will freeze the message in the queue, instead of generating a bounce.
705 3. Log filenames may now use %M as an escape, instead of %D (still available).
706 The %M pattern expands to yyyymm, providing month-level resolution.
708 4. The $message_linecount variable is now updated for the maildir_tag option,
709 in the same way as $message_size, to reflect the real number of lines,
710 including any header additions or removals from transport.
712 5. When contacting a pool of SpamAssassin servers configured in spamd_address,
713 Exim now selects entries randomly, to better scale in a cluster setup.
719 1. SECURITY FIX: privilege escalation flaw fixed. On Linux (and only Linux)
720 the flaw permitted the Exim run-time user to cause root to append to
721 arbitrary files of the attacker's choosing, with the content based
722 on content supplied by the attacker.
724 2. Exim now supports loading some lookup types at run-time, using your
725 platform's dlopen() functionality. This has limited platform support
726 and the intention is not to support every variant, it's limited to
727 dlopen(). This permits the main Exim binary to not be linked against
728 all the libraries needed for all the lookup types.
734 NOTE: this version is not guaranteed backwards-compatible, please read the
735 items below carefully
737 1. A new main configuration option, "openssl_options", is available if Exim
738 is built with SSL support provided by OpenSSL. The option allows
739 administrators to specify OpenSSL options to be used on connections;
740 typically this is to set bug compatibility features which the OpenSSL
741 developers have not enabled by default. There may be security
742 consequences for certain options, so these should not be changed
745 2. A new pipe transport option, "permit_coredumps", may help with problem
746 diagnosis in some scenarios. Note that Exim is typically installed as
747 a setuid binary, which on most OSes will inhibit coredumps by default,
748 so that safety mechanism would have to be overridden for this option to
749 be able to take effect.
751 3. ClamAV 0.95 is now required for ClamAV support in Exim, unless
752 Local/Makefile sets: WITH_OLD_CLAMAV_STREAM=yes
753 Note that this switches Exim to use a new API ("INSTREAM") and a future
754 release of ClamAV will remove support for the old API ("STREAM").
756 The av_scanner option, when set to "clamd", now takes an optional third
757 part, "local", which causes Exim to pass a filename to ClamAV instead of
758 the file content. This is the same behaviour as when clamd is pointed at
759 a Unix-domain socket. For example:
761 av_scanner = clamd:192.0.2.3 1234:local
763 ClamAV's ExtendedDetectionInfo response format is now handled.
765 4. There is now a -bmalware option, restricted to admin users. This option
766 takes one parameter, a filename, and scans that file with Exim's
767 malware-scanning framework. This is intended purely as a debugging aid
768 to ensure that Exim's scanning is working, not to replace other tools.
769 Note that the ACL framework is not invoked, so if av_scanner references
770 ACL variables without a fallback then this will fail.
772 5. There is a new expansion operator, "reverse_ip", which will reverse IP
773 addresses; IPv4 into dotted quad, IPv6 into dotted nibble. Examples:
775 ${reverse_ip:192.0.2.4}
777 ${reverse_ip:2001:0db8:c42:9:1:abcd:192.0.2.3}
778 -> 3.0.2.0.0.0.0.c.d.c.b.a.1.0.0.0.9.0.0.0.2.4.c.0.8.b.d.0.1.0.0.2
780 6. There is a new ACL control called "debug", to enable debug logging.
781 This allows selective logging of certain incoming transactions within
782 production environments, with some care. It takes two options, "tag"
783 and "opts"; "tag" is included in the filename of the log and "opts"
784 is used as per the -d<options> command-line option. Examples, which
785 don't all make sense in all contexts:
788 control = debug/tag=.$sender_host_address
789 control = debug/opts=+expand+acl
790 control = debug/tag=.$message_exim_id/opts=+expand
792 7. It has always been implicit in the design and the documentation that
793 "the Exim user" is not root. src/EDITME said that using root was
794 "very strongly discouraged". This is not enough to keep people from
795 shooting themselves in the foot in days when many don't configure Exim
796 themselves but via package build managers. The security consequences of
797 running various bits of network code are severe if there should be bugs in
798 them. As such, the Exim user may no longer be root. If configured
799 statically, Exim will refuse to build. If configured as ref:user then Exim
800 will exit shortly after start-up. If you must shoot yourself in the foot,
801 then henceforth you will have to maintain your own local patches to strip
804 8. There is a new expansion condition, bool_lax{}. Where bool{} uses the ACL
805 condition logic to determine truth/failure and will fail to expand many
806 strings, bool_lax{} uses the router condition logic, where most strings
808 Note: bool{00} is false, bool_lax{00} is true.
810 9. Routers now support multiple "condition" tests.
812 10. There is now a runtime configuration option "tcp_wrappers_daemon_name".
813 Setting this allows an admin to define which entry in the tcpwrappers
814 config file will be used to control access to the daemon. This option
815 is only available when Exim is built with USE_TCP_WRAPPERS. The
816 default value is set at build time using the TCP_WRAPPERS_DAEMON_NAME
819 11. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The default value for system_filter_user is now
820 the Exim run-time user, instead of root.
822 12. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] ALT_CONFIG_ROOT_ONLY is no longer optional and
823 is forced on. This is mitigated by the new build option
824 TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST which defines a list of configuration files which
825 are trusted; one per line. If a config file is owned by root and matches
826 a pathname in the list, then it may be invoked by the Exim build-time
827 user without Exim relinquishing root privileges.
829 13. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The Exim user is no longer automatically
830 trusted to supply -D<Macro[=Value]> overrides on the command-line. Going
831 forward, we recommend using TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST with shim configs that
832 include the main config. As a transition mechanism, we are temporarily
833 providing a work-around: the new build option WHITELIST_D_MACROS provides
834 a colon-separated list of macro names which may be overridden by the Exim
835 run-time user. The values of these macros are constrained to the regex
836 ^[A-Za-z0-9_/.-]*$ (which explicitly does allow for empty values).
842 1. TWO SECURITY FIXES: one relating to mail-spools which are globally
843 writable, the other to locking of MBX folders (not mbox).
845 2. MySQL stored procedures are now supported.
847 3. The dkim_domain transport option is now a list, not a single string, and
848 messages will be signed for each element in the list (discarding
851 4. The 4.70 release unexpectedly changed the behaviour of dnsdb TXT lookups
852 in the presence of multiple character strings within the RR. Prior to 4.70,
853 only the first string would be returned. The dnsdb lookup now, by default,
854 preserves the pre-4.70 semantics, but also now takes an extended output
855 separator specification. The separator can be followed by a semicolon, to
856 concatenate the individual text strings together with no join character,
857 or by a comma and a second separator character, in which case the text
858 strings within a TXT record are joined on that second character.
859 Administrators are reminded that DNS provides no ordering guarantees
860 between multiple records in an RRset. For example:
862 foo.example. IN TXT "a" "b" "c"
863 foo.example. IN TXT "d" "e" "f"
865 ${lookup dnsdb{>/ txt=foo.example}} -> "a/d"
866 ${lookup dnsdb{>/; txt=foo.example}} -> "def/abc"
867 ${lookup dnsdb{>/,+ txt=foo.example}} -> "a+b+c/d+e+f"
873 1. Native DKIM support without an external library.
874 (Note that if no action to prevent it is taken, a straight upgrade will
875 result in DKIM verification of all signed incoming emails. See spec
876 for details on conditionally disabling)
878 2. Experimental DCC support via dccifd (contributed by Wolfgang Breyha).
880 3. There is now a bool{} expansion condition which maps certain strings to
881 true/false condition values (most likely of use in conjunction with the
882 and{} expansion operator).
884 4. The $spam_score, $spam_bar and $spam_report variables are now available
887 5. exim -bP now supports "macros", "macro_list" or "macro MACRO_NAME" as
888 options, provided that Exim is invoked by an admin_user.
890 6. There is a new option gnutls_compat_mode, when linked against GnuTLS,
891 which increases compatibility with older clients at the cost of decreased
892 security. Don't set this unless you need to support such clients.
894 7. There is a new expansion operator, ${randint:...} which will produce a
895 "random" number less than the supplied integer. This randomness is
896 not guaranteed to be cryptographically strong, but depending upon how
897 Exim was built may be better than the most naive schemes.
899 8. Exim now explicitly ensures that SHA256 is available when linked against
902 9. The transport_filter_timeout option now applies to SMTP transports too.
908 1. Preliminary DKIM support in Experimental.
914 1. The body_linecount and body_zerocount C variables are now exported in the
917 2. When a dnslists lookup succeeds, the key that was looked up is now placed
918 in $dnslist_matched. When the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in
919 this variable (though it is, of course, in the actual lookup). In simple
922 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example
924 the key is also available in another variable (in this case,
925 $sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not
926 true. For example, using a data lookup might generate a dnslists lookup
929 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|...
931 If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be
932 192.168.6.7 (for example).
934 3. Authenticators now have a client_condition option. When Exim is running as
935 a client, it skips an authenticator whose client_condition expansion yields
936 "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for example, to skip plain text
937 authenticators when the connection is not encrypted by a setting such as:
939 client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}}
941 Note that the 4.67 documentation states that $tls_cipher contains the
942 cipher used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it
943 contains the cipher used for the delivery. The same is true for
946 4. There is now a -Mvc <message-id> option, which outputs a copy of the
947 message to the standard output, in RFC 2822 format. The option can be used
948 only by an admin user.
950 5. There is now a /noupdate option for the ratelimit ACL condition. It
951 computes the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update
952 the saved data. This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup
953 the existence of a specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without
954 incrementing the ratelimit counter for that key.
956 In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must set the rate
957 for the same key somewhere (otherwise it will always be zero).
962 # Read the rate; if it doesn't exist or is below the maximum
964 deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate
965 log_message = RATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
966 (max $sender_rate_limit)
968 [... some other logic and tests...]
970 warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd
971 log_message = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
972 (max $sender_rate_limit)
973 condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}}
977 6. The variable $max_received_linelength contains the number of bytes in the
978 longest line that was received as part of the message, not counting the
979 line termination character(s).
981 7. Host lists can now include +ignore_defer and +include_defer, analogous to
982 +ignore_unknown and +include_unknown. These options should be used with
983 care, probably only in non-critical host lists such as whitelists.
985 8. There's a new option called queue_only_load_latch, which defaults true.
986 If set false when queue_only_load is greater than zero, Exim re-evaluates
987 the load for each incoming message in an SMTP session. Otherwise, once one
988 message is queued, the remainder are also.
990 9. There is a new ACL, specified by acl_smtp_notquit, which is run in most
991 cases when an SMTP session ends without sending QUIT. However, when Exim
992 itself is is bad trouble, such as being unable to write to its log files,
993 this ACL is not run, because it might try to do things (such as write to
994 log files) that make the situation even worse.
996 Like the QUIT ACL, this new ACL is provided to make it possible to gather
997 statistics. Whatever it returns (accept or deny) is immaterial. The "delay"
998 modifier is forbidden in this ACL.
1000 When the NOTQUIT ACL is running, the variable $smtp_notquit_reason is set
1001 to a string that indicates the reason for the termination of the SMTP
1002 connection. The possible values are:
1004 acl-drop Another ACL issued a "drop" command
1005 bad-commands Too many unknown or non-mail commands
1006 command-timeout Timeout while reading SMTP commands
1007 connection-lost The SMTP connection has been lost
1008 data-timeout Timeout while reading message data
1009 local-scan-error The local_scan() function crashed
1010 local-scan-timeout The local_scan() function timed out
1011 signal-exit SIGTERM or SIGINT
1012 synchronization-error SMTP synchronization error
1013 tls-failed TLS failed to start
1015 In most cases when an SMTP connection is closed without having received
1016 QUIT, Exim sends an SMTP response message before actually closing the
1017 connection. With the exception of acl-drop, the default message can be
1018 overridden by the "message" modifier in the NOTQUIT ACL. In the case of a
1019 "drop" verb in another ACL, it is the message from the other ACL that is
1022 10. For MySQL and PostgreSQL lookups, it is now possible to specify a list of
1023 servers with individual queries. This is done by starting the query with
1024 "servers=x:y:z;", where each item in the list may take one of two forms:
1026 (1) If it is just a host name, the appropriate global option (mysql_servers
1027 or pgsql_servers) is searched for a host of the same name, and the
1028 remaining parameters (database, user, password) are taken from there.
1030 (2) If it contains any slashes, it is taken as a complete parameter set.
1032 The list of servers is used in exactly the same was as the global list.
1033 Once a connection to a server has happened and a query has been
1034 successfully executed, processing of the lookup ceases.
1036 This feature is intended for use in master/slave situations where updates
1037 are occurring, and one wants to update a master rather than a slave. If the
1038 masters are in the list for reading, you might have:
1040 mysql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw:master/db/name/pw
1042 In an updating lookup, you could then write
1044 ${lookup mysql{servers=master; UPDATE ...}
1046 If, on the other hand, the master is not to be used for reading lookups:
1048 pgsql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw
1050 you can still update the master by
1052 ${lookup pgsql{servers=master/db/name/pw; UPDATE ...}
1054 11. The message_body_newlines option (default FALSE, for backwards
1055 compatibility) can be used to control whether newlines are present in
1056 $message_body and $message_body_end. If it is FALSE, they are replaced by
1063 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
1064 the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
1065 whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
1068 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
1069 addresses, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than
1070 one IP address. This has been solved by the addition of == and =& for "all"
1071 rather than the default "any" matching.
1073 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been
1074 for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the
1075 other parameters to be varied.
1077 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When it is
1078 set, Exim compiles a runtime option called disable_fsync.
1080 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start.
1082 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining.
1084 7. There are two new variables called $sending_ip_address and $sending_port.
1085 These are set whenever an SMTP connection to another host has been set up.
1087 8. The expansion of the helo_data option in the smtp transport now happens
1088 after the connection to the server has been made.
1090 9. There is a new expansion operator ${rfc2047d: that decodes strings that
1091 are encoded as per RFC 2047.
1093 10. There is a new log selector called "pid", which causes the current process
1094 id to be added to every log line, in square brackets, immediately after the
1097 11. Exim has been modified so that it flushes SMTP output before implementing
1098 a delay in an ACL. It also flushes the output before performing a callout,
1099 as this can take a substantial time. These behaviours can be disabled by
1100 obeying control = no_delay_flush or control = no_callout_flush,
1101 respectively, at some earlier stage of the connection.
1103 12. There are two new expansion conditions that iterate over a list. They are
1104 called forany and forall.
1106 13. There's a new global option called dsn_from that can be used to vary the
1107 contents of From: lines in bounces and other automatically generated
1108 messages ("delivery status notifications" - hence the name of the option).
1110 14. The smtp transport has a new option called hosts_avoid_pipelining.
1112 15. By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matches. There is now a -I option
1113 that makes it case-sensitive.
1115 16. A number of new features ("addresses", "map", "filter", and "reduce") have
1116 been added to string expansions to make it easier to process lists of
1117 items, typically addresses.
1119 17. There's a new ACL modifier called "continue". It does nothing of itself,
1120 and processing of the ACL always continues with the next condition or
1121 modifier. It is provided so that the side effects of expanding its argument
1124 18. It is now possible to use newline and other control characters (those with
1125 values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists.
1127 19. The exigrep utility now has a -v option, which inverts the matching
1130 20. The host_find_failed option in the manualroute router can now be set to
1137 No new features were added to 4.66.
1143 No new features were added to 4.65.
1149 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
1150 "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
1151 least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
1154 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
1155 to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
1157 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
1158 authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
1159 number of authentication methods.
1161 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
1162 messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
1163 $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
1165 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
1166 second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
1167 restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
1168 without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
1170 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
1172 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
1173 conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
1174 followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
1175 before doing the expansions.
1177 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
1178 -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
1181 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
1182 is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
1183 subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
1185 10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
1186 shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
1188 11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
1189 as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
1190 relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
1191 available for compatibility.)
1193 12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
1194 to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
1200 1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
1203 2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
1204 start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
1207 3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
1208 or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
1209 start of the message for an SMTP error code.
1211 4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
1212 one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
1214 5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
1216 After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
1217 before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
1219 Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
1221 Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
1223 --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
1224 Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
1225 each messages value for each variable.
1227 Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
1228 same criteria without --not).
1234 1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
1235 as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
1236 the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
1237 name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
1238 IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
1239 This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
1241 ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
1243 Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
1244 one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
1245 a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
1248 2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
1249 incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
1250 one, a batch delivery now occurs.
1252 3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
1253 Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
1254 against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
1255 maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
1261 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
1262 the 4.60 release are:
1264 . An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
1266 . An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
1268 . A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
1269 $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
1270 for other things in complicated expansions.
1272 . The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
1274 . It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
1275 resources used in pipe deliveries.
1277 . A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
1279 . More errors are detectable in retry rules.
1281 There are a number of other additions too.
1287 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.60 release. Major new features since
1288 the 4.50 release are:
1290 . Support for SQLite.
1292 . Support for IGNOREQUOTA in LMTP.
1294 . Extensions to the "submission mode" features.
1296 . Support for Client SMTP Authorization (CSA).
1298 . Support for ratelimiting hosts and users.
1300 . New expansion items to help with the BATV "prvs" scheme.
1302 . A "match_ip" condition, that matches an IP address against a list.
1304 There are many more minor changes.