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 CVS before the documentation is updated. Once
7 the documentation is updated, this file is reduced to a short list.
12 1. New options for the ratelimit ACL condition: /count= and /unique=.
13 The /noupdate option has been replaced by a /readonly option.
15 2. The SMTP transport's protocol option may now be set to "smtps", to
16 use SSL-on-connect outbound.
22 1. The global option "dns_use_edns0" may be set to coerce EDNS0 usage on
23 or off in the resolver library.
29 1. In addition to the existing LDAP and LDAP/SSL ("ldaps") support, there
30 is now LDAP/TLS support, given sufficiently modern OpenLDAP client
31 libraries. The following global options have been added in support of
32 this: ldap_ca_cert_dir, ldap_ca_cert_file, ldap_cert_file, ldap_cert_key,
33 ldap_cipher_suite, ldap_require_cert, ldap_start_tls.
35 2. The pipe transport now takes a boolean option, "freeze_signal", default
36 false. When true, if the external delivery command exits on a signal then
37 Exim will freeze the message in the queue, instead of generating a bounce.
39 3. Log filenames may now use %M as an escape, instead of %D (still available).
40 The %M pattern expands to yyyymm, providing month-level resolution.
42 4. The $message_linecount variable is now updated for the maildir_tag option,
43 in the same way as $message_size, to reflect the real number of lines,
44 including any header additions or removals from transport.
46 5. When contacting a pool of SpamAssassin servers configured in spamd_address,
47 Exim now selects entries randomly, to better scale in a cluster setup.
53 1. SECURITY FIX: privilege escalation flaw fixed. On Linux (and only Linux)
54 the flaw permitted the Exim run-time user to cause root to append to
55 arbitrary files of the attacker's choosing, with the content based
56 on content supplied by the attacker.
58 2. Exim now supports loading some lookup types at run-time, using your
59 platform's dlopen() functionality. This has limited platform support
60 and the intention is not to support every variant, it's limited to
61 dlopen(). This permits the main Exim binary to not be linked against
62 all the libraries needed for all the lookup types.
68 NOTE: this version is not guaranteed backwards-compatible, please read the
71 1. A new main configuration option, "openssl_options", is available if Exim
72 is built with SSL support provided by OpenSSL. The option allows
73 administrators to specify OpenSSL options to be used on connections;
74 typically this is to set bug compatibility features which the OpenSSL
75 developers have not enabled by default. There may be security
76 consequences for certain options, so these should not be changed
79 2. A new pipe transport option, "permit_coredumps", may help with problem
80 diagnosis in some scenarios. Note that Exim is typically installed as
81 a setuid binary, which on most OSes will inhibit coredumps by default,
82 so that safety mechanism would have to be overridden for this option to
83 be able to take effect.
85 3. ClamAV 0.95 is now required for ClamAV support in Exim, unless
86 Local/Makefile sets: WITH_OLD_CLAMAV_STREAM=yes
87 Note that this switches Exim to use a new API ("INSTREAM") and a future
88 release of ClamAV will remove support for the old API ("STREAM").
90 The av_scanner option, when set to "clamd", now takes an optional third
91 part, "local", which causes Exim to pass a filename to ClamAV instead of
92 the file content. This is the same behaviour as when clamd is pointed at
93 a Unix-domain socket. For example:
95 av_scanner = clamd:192.0.2.3 1234:local
97 ClamAV's ExtendedDetectionInfo response format is now handled.
99 4. There is now a -bmalware option, restricted to admin users. This option
100 takes one parameter, a filename, and scans that file with Exim's
101 malware-scanning framework. This is intended purely as a debugging aid
102 to ensure that Exim's scanning is working, not to replace other tools.
103 Note that the ACL framework is not invoked, so if av_scanner references
104 ACL variables without a fallback then this will fail.
106 5. There is a new expansion operator, "reverse_ip", which will reverse IP
107 addresses; IPv4 into dotted quad, IPv6 into dotted nibble. Examples:
109 ${reverse_ip:192.0.2.4}
111 ${reverse_ip:2001:0db8:c42:9:1:abcd:192.0.2.3}
112 -> 3.0.2.0.0.0.0.c.d.c.b.a.1.0.0.0.9.0.0.0.2.4.c.0.8.b.d.0.1.0.0.2
114 6. There is a new ACL control called "debug", to enable debug logging.
115 This allows selective logging of certain incoming transactions within
116 production environments, with some care. It takes two options, "tag"
117 and "opts"; "tag" is included in the filename of the log and "opts"
118 is used as per the -d<options> command-line option. Examples, which
119 don't all make sense in all contexts:
122 control = debug/tag=.$sender_host_address
123 control = debug/opts=+expand+acl
124 control = debug/tag=.$message_exim_id/opts=+expand
126 7. It has always been implicit in the design and the documentation that
127 "the Exim user" is not root. src/EDITME said that using root was
128 "very strongly discouraged". This is not enough to keep people from
129 shooting themselves in the foot in days when many don't configure Exim
130 themselves but via package build managers. The security consequences of
131 running various bits of network code are severe if there should be bugs in
132 them. As such, the Exim user may no longer be root. If configured
133 statically, Exim will refuse to build. If configured as ref:user then Exim
134 will exit shortly after start-up. If you must shoot yourself in the foot,
135 then henceforth you will have to maintain your own local patches to strip
138 8. There is a new expansion operator, bool_lax{}. Where bool{} uses the ACL
139 condition logic to determine truth/failure and will fail to expand many
140 strings, bool_lax{} uses the router condition logic, where most strings
142 Note: bool{00} is false, bool_lax{00} is true.
144 9. Routers now support multiple "condition" tests,
146 10. There is now a runtime configuration option "tcp_wrappers_daemon_name".
147 Setting this allows an admin to define which entry in the tcpwrappers
148 config file will be used to control access to the daemon. This option
149 is only available when Exim is built with USE_TCP_WRAPPERS. The
150 default value is set at build time using the TCP_WRAPPERS_DAEMON_NAME
153 11. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The default value for system_filter_user is now
154 the Exim run-time user, instead of root.
156 12. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] ALT_CONFIG_ROOT_ONLY is no longer optional and
157 is forced on. This is mitigated by the new build option
158 TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST which defines a list of configuration files which
159 are trusted; one per line. If a config file is owned by root and matches
160 a pathname in the list, then it may be invoked by the Exim build-time
161 user without Exim relinquishing root privileges.
163 13. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The Exim user is no longer automatically
164 trusted to supply -D<Macro[=Value]> overrides on the command-line. Going
165 forward, we recommend using TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST with shim configs that
166 include the main config. As a transition mechanism, we are temporarily
167 providing a work-around: the new build option WHITELIST_D_MACROS provides
168 a colon-separated list of macro names which may be overridden by the Exim
169 run-time user. The values of these macros are constrained to the regex
170 ^[A-Za-z0-9_/.-]*$ (which explicitly does allow for empty values).
176 1. TWO SECURITY FIXES: one relating to mail-spools which are globally
177 writable, the other to locking of MBX folders (not mbox).
179 2. MySQL stored procedures are now supported.
181 3. The dkim_domain transport option is now a list, not a single string, and
182 messages will be signed for each element in the list (discarding
185 4. The 4.70 release unexpectedly changed the behaviour of dnsdb TXT lookups
186 in the presence of multiple character strings within the RR. Prior to 4.70,
187 only the first string would be returned. The dnsdb lookup now, by default,
188 preserves the pre-4.70 semantics, but also now takes an extended output
189 separator specification. The separator can be followed by a semicolon, to
190 concatenate the individual text strings together with no join character,
191 or by a comma and a second separator character, in which case the text
192 strings within a TXT record are joined on that second character.
193 Administrators are reminded that DNS provides no ordering guarantees
194 between multiple records in an RRset. For example:
196 foo.example. IN TXT "a" "b" "c"
197 foo.example. IN TXT "d" "e" "f"
199 ${lookup dnsdb{>/ txt=foo.example}} -> "a/d"
200 ${lookup dnsdb{>/; txt=foo.example}} -> "def/abc"
201 ${lookup dnsdb{>/,+ txt=foo.example}} -> "a+b+c/d+e+f"
207 1. Native DKIM support without an external library.
208 (Note that if no action to prevent it is taken, a straight upgrade will
209 result in DKIM verification of all signed incoming emails. See spec
210 for details on conditionally disabling)
212 2. Experimental DCC support via dccifd (contributed by Wolfgang Breyha).
214 3. There is now a bool{} expansion condition which maps certain strings to
215 true/false condition values (most likely of use in conjunction with the
216 and{} expansion operator).
218 4. The $spam_score, $spam_bar and $spam_report variables are now available
221 5. exim -bP now supports "macros", "macro_list" or "macro MACRO_NAME" as
222 options, provided that Exim is invoked by an admin_user.
224 6. There is a new option gnutls_compat_mode, when linked against GnuTLS,
225 which increases compatibility with older clients at the cost of decreased
226 security. Don't set this unless you need to support such clients.
228 7. There is a new expansion operator, ${randint:...} which will produce a
229 "random" number less than the supplied integer. This randomness is
230 not guaranteed to be cryptographically strong, but depending upon how
231 Exim was built may be better than the most naive schemes.
233 8. Exim now explicitly ensures that SHA256 is available when linked against
236 9. The transport_filter_timeout option now applies to SMTP transports too.
242 1. Preliminary DKIM support in Experimental.
248 1. The body_linecount and body_zerocount C variables are now exported in the
251 2. When a dnslists lookup succeeds, the key that was looked up is now placed
252 in $dnslist_matched. When the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in
253 this variable (though it is, of course, in the actual lookup). In simple
256 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example
258 the key is also available in another variable (in this case,
259 $sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not
260 true. For example, using a data lookup might generate a dnslists lookup
263 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|...
265 If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be
266 192.168.6.7 (for example).
268 3. Authenticators now have a client_condition option. When Exim is running as
269 a client, it skips an authenticator whose client_condition expansion yields
270 "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for example, to skip plain text
271 authenticators when the connection is not encrypted by a setting such as:
273 client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}}
275 Note that the 4.67 documentation states that $tls_cipher contains the
276 cipher used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it
277 contains the cipher used for the delivery. The same is true for
280 4. There is now a -Mvc <message-id> option, which outputs a copy of the
281 message to the standard output, in RFC 2822 format. The option can be used
282 only by an admin user.
284 5. There is now a /noupdate option for the ratelimit ACL condition. It
285 computes the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update
286 the saved data. This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup
287 the existence of a specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without
288 incrementing the ratelimit counter for that key.
290 In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must set the rate
291 for the same key somewhere (otherwise it will always be zero).
296 # Read the rate; if it doesn't exist or is below the maximum
298 deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate
299 log_message = RATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
300 (max $sender_rate_limit)
302 [... some other logic and tests...]
304 warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd
305 log_message = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
306 (max $sender_rate_limit)
307 condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}}
311 6. The variable $max_received_linelength contains the number of bytes in the
312 longest line that was received as part of the message, not counting the
313 line termination character(s).
315 7. Host lists can now include +ignore_defer and +include_defer, analagous to
316 +ignore_unknown and +include_unknown. These options should be used with
317 care, probably only in non-critical host lists such as whitelists.
319 8. There's a new option called queue_only_load_latch, which defaults true.
320 If set false when queue_only_load is greater than zero, Exim re-evaluates
321 the load for each incoming message in an SMTP session. Otherwise, once one
322 message is queued, the remainder are also.
324 9. There is a new ACL, specified by acl_smtp_notquit, which is run in most
325 cases when an SMTP session ends without sending QUIT. However, when Exim
326 itself is is bad trouble, such as being unable to write to its log files,
327 this ACL is not run, because it might try to do things (such as write to
328 log files) that make the situation even worse.
330 Like the QUIT ACL, this new ACL is provided to make it possible to gather
331 statistics. Whatever it returns (accept or deny) is immaterial. The "delay"
332 modifier is forbidden in this ACL.
334 When the NOTQUIT ACL is running, the variable $smtp_notquit_reason is set
335 to a string that indicates the reason for the termination of the SMTP
336 connection. The possible values are:
338 acl-drop Another ACL issued a "drop" command
339 bad-commands Too many unknown or non-mail commands
340 command-timeout Timeout while reading SMTP commands
341 connection-lost The SMTP connection has been lost
342 data-timeout Timeout while reading message data
343 local-scan-error The local_scan() function crashed
344 local-scan-timeout The local_scan() function timed out
345 signal-exit SIGTERM or SIGINT
346 synchronization-error SMTP synchronization error
347 tls-failed TLS failed to start
349 In most cases when an SMTP connection is closed without having received
350 QUIT, Exim sends an SMTP response message before actually closing the
351 connection. With the exception of acl-drop, the default message can be
352 overridden by the "message" modifier in the NOTQUIT ACL. In the case of a
353 "drop" verb in another ACL, it is the message from the other ACL that is
356 10. For MySQL and PostgreSQL lookups, it is now possible to specify a list of
357 servers with individual queries. This is done by starting the query with
358 "servers=x:y:z;", where each item in the list may take one of two forms:
360 (1) If it is just a host name, the appropriate global option (mysql_servers
361 or pgsql_servers) is searched for a host of the same name, and the
362 remaining parameters (database, user, password) are taken from there.
364 (2) If it contains any slashes, it is taken as a complete parameter set.
366 The list of servers is used in exactly the same was as the global list.
367 Once a connection to a server has happened and a query has been
368 successfully executed, processing of the lookup ceases.
370 This feature is intended for use in master/slave situations where updates
371 are occurring, and one wants to update a master rather than a slave. If the
372 masters are in the list for reading, you might have:
374 mysql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw:master/db/name/pw
376 In an updating lookup, you could then write
378 ${lookup mysql{servers=master; UPDATE ...}
380 If, on the other hand, the master is not to be used for reading lookups:
382 pgsql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw
384 you can still update the master by
386 ${lookup pgsql{servers=master/db/name/pw; UPDATE ...}
388 11. The message_body_newlines option (default FALSE, for backwards
389 compatibility) can be used to control whether newlines are present in
390 $message_body and $message_body_end. If it is FALSE, they are replaced by
397 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
398 the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
399 whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
402 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
403 addresses, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than
404 one IP address. This has been solved by the addition of == and =& for "all"
405 rather than the default "any" matching.
407 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been
408 for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the
409 other parameters to be varied.
411 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When it is
412 set, Exim compiles a runtime option called disable_fsync.
414 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start.
416 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining.
418 7. There are two new variables called $sending_ip_address and $sending_port.
419 These are set whenever an SMTP connection to another host has been set up.
421 8. The expansion of the helo_data option in the smtp transport now happens
422 after the connection to the server has been made.
424 9. There is a new expansion operator ${rfc2047d: that decodes strings that
425 are encoded as per RFC 2047.
427 10. There is a new log selector called "pid", which causes the current process
428 id to be added to every log line, in square brackets, immediately after the
431 11. Exim has been modified so that it flushes SMTP output before implementing
432 a delay in an ACL. It also flushes the output before performing a callout,
433 as this can take a substantial time. These behaviours can be disabled by
434 obeying control = no_delay_flush or control = no_callout_flush,
435 respectively, at some earlier stage of the connection.
437 12. There are two new expansion conditions that iterate over a list. They are
438 called forany and forall.
440 13. There's a new global option called dsn_from that can be used to vary the
441 contents of From: lines in bounces and other automatically generated
442 messages ("delivery status notifications" - hence the name of the option).
444 14. The smtp transport has a new option called hosts_avoid_pipelining.
446 15. By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matches. There is now a -I option
447 that makes it case-sensitive.
449 16. A number of new features ("addresses", "map", "filter", and "reduce") have
450 been added to string expansions to make it easier to process lists of
451 items, typically addresses.
453 17. There's a new ACL modifier called "continue". It does nothing of itself,
454 and processing of the ACL always continues with the next condition or
455 modifier. It is provided so that the side effects of expanding its argument
458 18. It is now possible to use newline and other control characters (those with
459 values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists.
461 19. The exigrep utility now has a -v option, which inverts the matching
464 20. The host_find_failed option in the manualroute router can now be set to
471 No new features were added to 4.66.
477 No new features were added to 4.65.
483 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
484 "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
485 least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
488 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
489 to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
491 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
492 authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
493 number of authentication methods.
495 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
496 messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
497 $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
499 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
500 second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
501 restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
502 without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
504 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
506 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
507 conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
508 followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
509 before doing the expansions.
511 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
512 -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
515 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
516 is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
517 subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
519 10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
520 shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
522 11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
523 as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
524 relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
525 available for compatibility.)
527 12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
528 to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
534 1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
537 2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
538 start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
541 3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
542 or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
543 start of the message for an SMTP error code.
545 4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
546 one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
548 5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
550 After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
551 before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
553 Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
555 Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
557 --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
558 Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
559 each messages value for each variable.
561 Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
562 same criteria without --not).
568 1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
569 as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
570 the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
571 name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
572 IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
573 This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
575 ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
577 Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
578 one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
579 a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
582 2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
583 incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
584 one, a batch delivery now occurs.
586 3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
587 Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
588 against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
589 maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
595 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
596 the 4.60 release are:
598 . An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
600 . An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
602 . A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
603 $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
604 for other things in complicated expansions.
606 . The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
608 . It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
609 resources used in pipe deliveries.
611 . A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
613 . More errors are detectable in retry rules.
615 There are a number of other additions too.
621 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.60 release. Major new features since
622 the 4.50 release are:
624 . Support for SQLite.
626 . Support for IGNOREQUOTA in LMTP.
628 . Extensions to the "submission mode" features.
630 . Support for Client SMTP Authorization (CSA).
632 . Support for ratelimiting hosts and users.
634 . New expansion items to help with the BATV "prvs" scheme.
636 . A "match_ip" condition, that matches an IP address against a list.
638 There are many more minor changes.