Configuring Exim for different Operating Systems ------------------------------------------------ These notes describe the way in which Exim is configured at the C program level for different operating systems. The normal configuration options that apply independently of the operating system are specified by creating files in the Local directory, as described in chapter 4 of the manual. These notes cover the os.* files in the OS directory, and contain information for people who want to port the program to some new OS, or to modify the configuration for an existing port. If you are just wanting to compile Exim on a system that it already knows about, you do not need to read further unless there are problems. The os.c-<ostype> files ----------------------- There may be an os.c-<ostype> file for each operating system, but for many of them it is not necessary. No error occurs is there isn't one. There is a generic file called os.c which contains code that is common to two or more OS for setting a restarting or a non-restarting signal, for computing the load average, and for finding all the network interface addresses. A few OS have their own individual code for one or more of these. When they do, the code is put into an os.c-<ostype> file, which also defines a macro such as OS_RESTARTING_SIGNAL (for example) to cut out the common code in the generic os.c. The os.h-<ostype> files ----------------------- For each OS that Exim knows about, there is an os.h-<ostype> file, where <ostype> is the OS name. The relevant file is included as a C header file for all Exim compilation by pointing a symbolic link called os.h at it from the build directory. The settings are as follows: The select() function --------------------- There is a difference in the data type for the second argument to the select() function in some OS. The macro SELECT_ARG2_TYPE can be used to define the type. If it is not defined in os.h, then it is defaulted to fs_set in exim.h. The dn_expand() function ------------------------ There is a difference in the data type for the fourth argument to the dn_expand() function in some OS. The macro DN_EXPAND_ARG4_TYPE can be used to define the type. If it is not defined in os.h, then it is defaulted to char * in exim.h. The h_errno variable -------------------- If NEED_H_ERRNO is defined, then a definition of the form extern int h_errno is included in the compiled code of Exim. The strerror() function ----------------------- Most systems provide the ANSI standard strerror() function; older systems may instead have an errlist[] variable in which to look up error texts. Defining STRERROR_FROM_ERRLIST causes Exim to build its own strerror() function that mimics the ANSI function by lookup up the error code in errlist. Truncating files ---------------- The fcntl() option for truncating the length of a file is called F_FREESP in most systems; in some, however, it is called O_TRUNC. Some os.h files define F_FREESP to be O_TRUNC for this reason. Finding local interfaces ------------------------ The SIOCGIFCONF ioctl for finding local interfaces behaves differently on BSD systems. It returns a vector of ifreq blocks containing sockaddr structures that can be longer than their sizeof definition, making the returned ifreq blocks longer than their sizeof definitions. BSD sockaddrs structures contain an sa_len field giving the actual size. To cope with difference, there is a macro called HAVE_SA_LEN. If it is defined, code that works on BSD systems is used. Otherwise, the objects returned by SIOCGIFCONF are assumed to be of length sizeof(struct ifreq). On some operating systems, the SIOCGIFCONF ioctl returns the IP addresses with the list of interfaces, and there is no need to call SIOCGIFADDR for each individual address. Mostly, making the second call does no harm, but on Linux when there are IP aliases, it causes things to go wrong. This also happens on BSDI and GNU Hurd. Therefore, there is now a macro to cut it out, called SIOCGIFCONF_GIVES_ADDR. Note that, if IPv6 support is configured, Exim cannot find the IPv6 addresses on local interfaces by itself. You need to set the local_interfaces option in this situation. Computing load averages ----------------------- There are several different ways that load averages are computed. One-off code is put in the os.c-<ostype>, but several OS use similar methods, and these are coded in the generic os.c, using a number of parameters to make variations between OS. Sometimes the load average is not available to unprivileged callers. If LOAD_AVG_NEEDS_ROOT is set, Exim ensures that it is root before trying to obtain a load average value. (1) If HAVE_BSD_GETLOADAVG is defined, Exim uses a simple call to the getloadavg() function. (2) If HAVE_KSTAT is defined, Exim uses the kstat package as found in Solaris 2 (but nowhere else as yet). It uses some supplementary definitions: LOAD_AVG_KSTAT the kstat to use LOAD_AVG_KSTAT_MODULE the module to access LOAD_AVG_KSTAT_SYMBOL the symbol containing the value we want LOAD_AVG_KSTAT_FIELD the field identity (3) If HAVE_DEV_KMEM is defined, Exim reads load average values from the /dev/kmem device. It uses some supplementary definitions: LOAD_AVG_TYPE the data type LOAD_AVG_SYMBOL the symbol to look up KERNEL_PATH the name of the kernel FSCALE a scaling factor Sometimes FSCALE is defined in system headers so need not be defined in the os.h-<ostype> file. Glibc systems and IP options ---------------------------- The code for inspecting IP options is the same in all OS except for systems using glibc (e.g. Linux), which uses a different structure to return data from getsockopt(). To handle this, there is a macro called GLIBC_IP_OPTIONS which should be set for Linux (in os.h-Linux) and any other operating system that uses glibc. Options for statvfs() --------------------- The following settings apply to the compilation of the Exim monitor as well as to the main Exim binary. #undefine HAVE_STATFS Exim has options for checking the amount of space in the spool partition before accepting a message, and the monitor has the ability to display a stripchart of the percentage fullness of a particular disc partition, usually /var/spool/mail. The standard way of finding out the data is to call the statvfs() function, but some operating systems use statfs() and some may not have the ability at all. The Exim code uses STATVFS() for this function and this gets defined appropriately. HAVE_STATFS is defined before including the os.h file; undefining it suppresses the code for checking a partition in the main binary, and for monitoring disc partition in the monitor. When HAVE_STATFS is defined, the distinction between statvfs() and statfs() is made by checking HAVE_SYS_STATVFS_H. If it is defined, then sys/statvfs.h is included. Otherwise, STATVFS() is defined as a macro for statfs(), and some further includes are done, according to the following definitions: #define HAVE_SYS_MOUNT_H #define HAVE_VFS_H Each of those definitions causes the inclusion of the corresponding system header file in the Exim monitor compilation. For example, the first one causes #include <sys/mount.h> to be obeyed. Different systems may require different combinations of these headers. The sys/resource.h header ------------------------- One OS does not have the sys/resource.h header. If NO_SYS_RESOURCE_H is defined in an os.h-<ostype> file, then the #include for this header is skipped in exim.h. Support for login_cap functions ------------------------------- Some of the BSD systems support functions for controlling the resources that user processes can use (e.g. login_getpwclass). If HAVE_SETCLASSRESOURCES is defined, Exim supports this feature for running pipe deliveries, using the setclassresources() function. The crypt_h header ------------------ Some OS require crypt.h to be included to get a prototype for the crypt() function. This is needed only when compiling with AUTH support. If CRYPT_H is defined, then this header is included. mmap() support -------------- The CDB support includes the option of handling file operations by using mmap()/munmap(). This gives a reasonable performance increase which will probably scale over multiple processes (since the files are mapped read-only shared). The vast majority of modern operating systems will support mmap (certainly in the simplified way that it is being used here). For example any BSD 4.x derived or POSIX compliant system will support it, as will pretty much any system using dynamically shared link libraries. If the OS is believed to support mmap() then the symbol HAVE_MMAP is defined. Not all systems that support mmap will have had their config files updated to reflect this. Currently Linux, Sun, BSD and SGI/mips systems have been updated. *** End ***