-$Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.97 2006/03/16 11:51:09 ph10 Exp $
+$Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.157 2007/08/23 11:01:49 ph10 Exp $
New Features in Exim
--------------------
-This file contains descriptions of new features that have been added to Exim,
-but have not yet made it into the main manual (which is most conveniently
-updated when there is a relatively large batch of changes). The doc/ChangeLog
-file contains a listing of all changes, including bug fixes.
+This file contains descriptions of new features that have been added to Exim.
+Before a formal release, there may be quite a lot of detail so that people can
+test from the snapshots or the CVS before the documentation is updated. Once
+the documentation is updated, this file is reduced to a short list.
+
+Version 4.68
+------------
+
+ 1. The body_linecount and body_zerocount C variables are now exported in the
+ local_scan API.
+
+ 2. When a dnslists lookup succeeds, the key that was looked up is now placed
+ in $dnslist_matched. When the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in
+ this variable (though it is, of course, in the actual lookup). In simple
+ cases, for example:
+
+ deny dnslists = spamhaus.example
+
+ the key is also available in another variable (in this case,
+ $sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not
+ true. For example, using a data lookup might generate a dnslists lookup
+ like this:
+
+ deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|...
+
+ If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be
+ 192.168.6.7 (for example).
+
+ 3. Authenticators now have a client_condition option. When Exim is running as
+ a client, it skips an authenticator whose client_condition expansion yields
+ "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for example, to skip plain text
+ authenticators when the connection is not encrypted by a setting such as:
+
+ client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}}
+
+ Note that the 4.67 documentation states that $tls_cipher contains the
+ cipher used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it
+ contains the cipher used for the delivery. The same is true for
+ $tls_peerdn.
+
+ 4. There is now a -Mvc <message-id> option, which outputs a copy of the
+ message to the standard output, in RFC 2822 format. The option can be used
+ only by an admin user.
+
+ 5. There is now a /noupdate option for the ratelimit ACL condition. It
+ computes the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update
+ the saved data. This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup
+ the existence of a specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without
+ incrementing the ratelimit counter for that key.
+
+ In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must set the rate
+ for the same key somewhere (otherwise it will always be zero).
+
+ Example:
+
+ acl_check_connect:
+ # Read the rate; if it doesn't exist or is below the maximum
+ # we update it below
+ deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate
+ log_message = RATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
+ (max $sender_rate_limit)
+
+ [... some other logic and tests...]
+
+ warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd
+ log_message = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
+ (max $sender_rate_limit)
+ condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}}
+
+ accept
+
+ 6. The variable $max_received_linelength contains the number of bytes in the
+ longest line that was received as part of the message, not counting the
+ line termination character(s).
+
+ 7. Host lists can now include +ignore_defer and +include_defer, analagous to
+ +ignore_unknown and +include_unknown. These options should be used with
+ care, probably only in non-critical host lists such as whitelists.
+
+ 8. There's a new option called queue_only_load_latch, which defaults true.
+ If set false when queue_only_load is greater than zero, Exim re-evaluates
+ the load for each incoming message in an SMTP session. Otherwise, once one
+ message is queued, the remainder are also.
+
+ 9. There is a new ACL, specified by smtp_notquit_acl, which is run in most
+ cases when an SMTP session ends without sending QUIT. However, when Exim
+ itself is is bad trouble, such as being unable to write to its log files,
+ this ACL is not run, because it might try to do things (such as write to
+ log files) that make the situation even worse.
+
+ Like the QUIT ACL, this new ACL is provided to make it possible to gather
+ statistics. Whatever it returns (accept or deny) is immaterial. The "delay"
+ modifier is forbidden in this ACL.
+
+ When the NOTQUIT ACL is running, the variable $smtp_notquit_reason is set
+ to a string that indicates the reason for the termination of the SMTP
+ connection. The possible values are:
+
+ acl-drop Another ACL issued a "drop" command
+ bad-commands Too many unknown or non-mail commands
+ command-timeout Timeout while reading SMTP commands
+ connection-lost The SMTP connection has been lost
+ data-timeout Timeout while reading message data
+ local-scan-error The local_scan() function crashed
+ local-scan-timeout The local_scan() function timed out
+ signal-exit SIGTERM or SIGINT
+ synchronization-error SMTP synchronization error
+ tls-failed TLS failed to start
+
+ In most cases when an SMTP connection is closed without having received
+ QUIT, Exim sends an SMTP response message before actually closing the
+ connection. With the exception of acl-drop, the default message can be
+ overridden by the "message" modifier in the NOTQUIT ACL. In the case of a
+ "drop" verb in another ACL, it is the message from the other ACL that is
+ used.
+
+10. For MySQL and PostgreSQL lookups, it is now possible to specify a list of
+ servers with individual queries. This is done by starting the query with
+ "servers=x:y:z;", where each item in the list may take one of two forms:
+
+ (1) If it is just a host name, the appropriate global option (mysql_servers
+ or pgsql_servers) is searched for a host of the same name, and the
+ remaining parameters (database, user, password) are taken from there.
+
+ (2) If it contains any slashes, it is taken as a complete parameter set.
+
+ The list of servers is used in exactly the same was as the global list.
+ Once a connection to a server has happened and a query has been
+ successfully executed, processing of the lookup ceases.
+
+ This feature is intended for use in master/slave situations where updates
+ are occurring, and one wants to update a master rather than a slave. If the
+ masters are in the list for reading, you might have:
+
+ mysql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw:master/db/name/pw
+
+ In an updating lookup, you could then write
+
+ ${lookup mysql{servers=master; UPDATE ...}
+
+ If, on the other hand, the master is not to be used for reading lookups:
+
+ pgsql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw
+
+ you can still update the master by
+
+ ${lookup pgsql{servers=master/db/name/pw; UPDATE ...}
+
+11. The message_body_newlines option (default FALSE, for backwards
+ compatibility) can be used to control whether newlines are present in
+ $message_body and $message_body_end. If it is FALSE, they are replaced by
+ spaces.
+
+
+Version 4.67
+------------
+
+ 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
+ the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
+ whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
+ MAIL command.
+
+ 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
+ addresses, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than
+ one IP address. This has been solved by the addition of == and =& for "all"
+ rather than the default "any" matching.
+
+ 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been
+ for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the
+ other parameters to be varied.
+
+ 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When it is
+ set, Exim compiles a runtime option called disable_fsync.
+
+ 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start.
+
+ 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining.
+
+ 7. There are two new variables called $sending_ip_address and $sending_port.
+ These are set whenever an SMTP connection to another host has been set up.
+
+ 8. The expansion of the helo_data option in the smtp transport now happens
+ after the connection to the server has been made.
+
+ 9. There is a new expansion operator ${rfc2047d: that decodes strings that
+ are encoded as per RFC 2047.
+
+10. There is a new log selector called "pid", which causes the current process
+ id to be added to every log line, in square brackets, immediately after the
+ time and date.
+
+11. Exim has been modified so that it flushes SMTP output before implementing
+ a delay in an ACL. It also flushes the output before performing a callout,
+ as this can take a substantial time. These behaviours can be disabled by
+ obeying control = no_delay_flush or control = no_callout_flush,
+ respectively, at some earlier stage of the connection.
+
+12. There are two new expansion conditions that iterate over a list. They are
+ called forany and forall.
+
+13. There's a new global option called dsn_from that can be used to vary the
+ contents of From: lines in bounces and other automatically generated
+ messages ("delivery status notifications" - hence the name of the option).
+
+14. The smtp transport has a new option called hosts_avoid_pipelining.
+
+15. By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matches. There is now a -I option
+ that makes it case-sensitive.
+
+16. A number of new features ("addresses", "map", "filter", and "reduce") have
+ been added to string expansions to make it easier to process lists of
+ items, typically addresses.
+
+17. There's a new ACL modifier called "continue". It does nothing of itself,
+ and processing of the ACL always continues with the next condition or
+ modifier. It is provided so that the side effects of expanding its argument
+ can be used.
+
+18. It is now possible to use newline and other control characters (those with
+ values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists.
+
+19. The exigrep utility now has a -v option, which inverts the matching
+ condition.
+
+20. The host_find_failed option in the manualroute router can now be set to
+ "ignore".
+
+
+Version 4.66
+------------
+
+No new features were added to 4.66.
+
+
+Version 4.65
+------------
+
+No new features were added to 4.65.
+
+
+Version 4.64
+------------
+
+ 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
+ "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
+ least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
+ an underscore.
+
+ 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
+ to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
+
+ 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
+ authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
+ number of authentication methods.
+
+ 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
+ messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
+ $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
+
+ 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
+ second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
+ restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
+ without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
+
+ 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
+
+ 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
+ conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
+ followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
+ before doing the expansions.
+
+ 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
+ -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
+ message.
+
+ 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
+ is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
+ subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
+
+10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
+ shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
+
+11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
+ as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
+ relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
+ available for compatibility.)
+
+12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
+ to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
+
+
+Version 4.63
+------------
+
+1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
+ router.
+
+2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
+ start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
+ read.
+
+3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
+ or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
+ start of the message for an SMTP error code.
+
+4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
+ one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
+
+5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
+ --reverse
+ After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
+ before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
+ --random
+ Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
+ --size
+ Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
+ of their sizes.
+ --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
+ Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
+ each messages value for each variable.
+ --not
+ Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
+ same criteria without --not).
+
+
+Version 4.62
+------------
+
+1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
+ as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
+ the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
+ name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
+ IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
+ This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
+
+ ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
+
+ Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
+ one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
+ a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
+ domain socket.
+
+2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
+ incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
+ one, a batch delivery now occurs.
+
+3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
+ Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
+ against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
+ maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
+
Version 4.61
------------
-PH/01 There is a new global option called disable_ipv6, which does exactly what
- its name implies. If set true, even if the Exim binary has IPv6 support,
- no IPv6 activities take place. AAAA records are never looked up for host
- names given in manual routing data or elsewhere. AAAA records that are
- received from the DNS as additional data for MX records are ignored. Any
- IPv6 addresses that are listed in local_interfaces, manualroute route
- data, etc. are also ignored. If IP literals are enabled, the ipliteral
- router declines to handle IPv6 literal addresses.
-
-PH/02 There are now 20 of each type of ACL variable by default (instead of 10).
- It is also possible to change the numbers by setting ACL_CVARS and/or
- ACL_MVARS in Local/Makefile. Backward compatibility is maintained if you
- upgrade to this release with existing messages containing ACL variable
- settings on the queue. However, going in the other direction
- (downgrading) will not be compatible; the values of ACL variables will be
- lost.
-
-PH/03 If quota_warn_message contains a From: header, Exim now refrains from
- adding the default one. Similarly, if it contains a Reply-To: header, the
- errors_reply_to option, if set, is not used.
-
-PH/04 The variables $auth1, $auth2, $auth3 are now available in authenticators,
- containing the same values as $1, $2, $3. The new variables are provided
- because the numerical variables can be reset during string expansions
- (for example, during a "match" operation) and so may lose the
- authentication data. The preferred variables are now the new ones, with
- the use of the numerical ones being deprecated, though the support will
- not be removed, at least, not for a long time.
-
-PH/05 The "control=freeze" ACL modifier can now be followed by /no_tell. If
- the global option freeze_tell is set, it is ignored for the current
- message (that is, nobody is told about the freezing), provided all the
- "control=freeze" modifiers that are obeyed in the current message have
- the /no_tell option.
-
-PH/06 In both GnuTLS and OpenSSL, an expansion of tls_privatekey that results
- in an empty string is now treated as unset.
-
-PH/07 There is a new log selector called sender_verify_fail, which is set by
- default. If it is unset, the separate log line that gives details of a
- sender verification failure is not written. Log lines for the rejection
- of SMTP commands (e.g. RCPT) contain just "sender verify failed", so some
- detail is lost.
-
-PH/08 The default for dns_check_names_pattern now allows slashes within names,
- as there are now some PTR records that contain slashes. This check is
- only to protect against broken name servers that fall over on strange
- characters, so the fact that it applies to all lookups doesn't matter.
-
-PH/09 The default for rfc4131_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
-
-PH/10 When compiled on FreeBSD, NetBSD, or BSD/OS, the pipe transport has a new
- Boolean option called use_classresources, defaulting false. If it is set
- true, the setclassresources() function is used to set resource limits
- when a pipe transport is run to perform a delivery. The limits for the
- uid under which the pipe is to run are obtained from the login class
- database.
-
-PH/11 If retry_interval_max is set greater than 24 hours, it is quietly reset
- to 24 hours. This avoids potential overflow problems when processing G
- and H retry rules, and it seems reasonable to require a retry at least
- once a day.
-
-PH/12 When the plaintext authenticator is running as a client, the server
- challenges are now checked to ensure they are valid base64 strings. The
- default action on failure is to abort the authentication. However, if
- client_ignore_invalid_base64 is set true, invalid responses are ignored.
-
-PH/13 When the plaintext authenticator is running as a client, the challenges
- from the server are placed in $auth1, $auth2, etc. as they are received.
- Thus, the challege that is received in response to sending the first
- string (with the AUTH command) can be used in the expansion of the second
- string, and so on. Currently, up to 3 challenge strings are available in
- this way. If an invalid base64 string is received when client_ignore_
- invalid_base64 is set, an empty string is put in the $auth<n> variable.
-
-PH/14 Messages created by the autoreply transport now contain a References:
- header. This is constructed in accordance with rules that are described
- in section 3.64 of RFC 2822, which states that replies should contain
- such a header line, and section 3.14 of RFC 3834, which states that
- automatic responses are not different in this respect. However, because
- some mail processing software does not cope well with very long header
- lines, no more than 12 message IDs are copied from the References: header
- line in the incoming message. If there are more than 12, the first one
- and then the final 11 are copied, before adding the message ID of the
- incoming message.
-
-PH/15 The smtp transport has a new option called authenticated_sender_force.
- When set true, it allows the authenticated_sender option's value to be
- used, even if Exim has not authenticated as a client.
-
-PH/16 The expansion ${time_eval:<string>} converts an Exim time string such as
- 2d4h1m into a number of seconds.
-
-PH/17 The ACL modifier control=allow_auth_unadvertised can be used to permit a
- client host to use the SMTP AUTH command even when it has not been
- advertised in response to EHLO. Furthermore, because there are apparently
- some really broken clients that do this, Exim will even accept AUTH after
- HELO when this control is set. It should only be used if you really need
- it, and you should limit its use to those broken hosts that do not work
- without it. For example:
-
- warn hosts = 192.168.34.25
- control = allow_auth_unadvertised
-
- This control is permitted only in the connection and HELO ACLs.
-
-PH/18 There is a new ACL modifier called "add_header" which does what its name
- implies. It specifies one of more header lines that are to be added to an
- incoming message, assuming, of course, that the message is ultimately
- accepted.
-
- This modifier is permitted in the MAIL, RCPT, PREDATA, DATA, MIME, and
- non-SMTP ACLs (in other words, those that are concerned with accepting a
- message). Added header lines are accumulated during the MAIL, RCPT, and
- PREDATA ACLs, with any duplicates being discarded. They are then added to
- the message before processing the DATA and MIME ACLs, during which
- further added header lines are accumulated, again with duplicates
- discarded. Thus, it is possible to add two identical header lines to an
- SMTP message, but only if one is added before DATA and one after.
-
- In the case of non-SMTP messages, new headers are accumulated during the
- non-SMTP ACL, and added to the message at the end.
-
- The add_header modifier is available for use with all ACL verbs. In the
- case of the WARN verb, add_header supersedes the use of "message" for
- this purpose; for the other verbs, it provides a new facility. If both
- add_header and "message" are present on a WARN verb, both are processed
- according to their specifications.
-
- The add_header modifier acts immediately it is encountered during the
- processing of an ACL. This is different to the (now-deprecated) use of
- "message" on a WARN verb, where the action is taken only if all the
- conditions are true. Notice the difference between these two cases on a
- RCPT ACL:
-
- deny add_header = ADDED: some text
- <some condition>
-
- deny <some condition>
- add_header = ADDED: some text
-
- In the first case, the header is always added, whether or not the current
- recipient is rejected. In the second case, the header is added only if
- the recipient is rejected.
-
- If add_header appears more than once on an ACL statement, multiple
- headers are added, provided that they have different content. (In the
- case of WARN with "message", only the last value of "message" is used.)
-
- The facility for specifying where the new header is to be inserted, as
- described for WARN with "message" in section 39.19 of the 4.60 manual, is
- supported.
-
-PH/19 The following errors can now be detected in retry rules:
-
- mail_4xx This is like rcpt_4xx, but applies to MAIL commands
-
- data_4xx This is like rcpt_4xx, but applies to DATA commands and the
- response code after the end of the data
-
- lost_connection This error occurs when the server unexpectedly closes
- the SMTP connection. There may, of course, legitmate reasons
- for this (host died, network died), but if it repeats a lot
- for the same host, it indicates something odd.
-
- tls_required The server was required to use TLS (hosts_require_tls),
- but either did not offer it, or responded with 4xx to
- STARTTLS, or there was a problem setting up the TLS connection
-
- Note that a 5xx response to STARTTLS is a permanent error.
-
-PH/20 There are now two options for the exicyclog script:
-
- -k <days> specifies the number of old logs to keep, overriding the
- default that is set when Exim is built.
-
- -l <path> specifies the log file path, in the same format as the
- log_file_path option (e.g. /var/log/exim_%slog), again,
- overriding the script's default - which is to find the setting
- from Exim's configuration.
+The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
+the 4.60 release are:
+
+. An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
+
+. An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
+
+. A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
+ $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
+ for other things in complicated expansions.
+
+. The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
+
+. It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
+ resources used in pipe deliveries.
+
+. A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
+
+. More errors are detectable in retry rules.
+
+There are a number of other additions too.
Version 4.60
git://git.exim.org / users / jgh / exim.git / blobdiff