UPDATE-EXIM4.CONF(8)

NAME
update-exim4.conf - Generate exim4 configuration files.

SYNOPSIS
update-exim4.conf [-v|--verbose] [-h|--help] [--keepcomments] [--removecomments] [-o|--output file]

OPTIONS

-v|--verbose
    Enable verbose mode, tell about ignored, user modified files

-h|--help
    Show short help message and exit

--keepcomments
    Do not remove comment lines from the output file.

--removecomments
    Remove comment lines from the output file. [Default]

-o|--output file
    Write output to file instead of /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated.

-d|--confdir directory
    Read input from directory instead of /etc/exim4.

DESCRIPTION
The script update-exim4.conf generates the main configuration files /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated for Exim v4 by merging the data in the template file /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template or the ones in the /etc/exim4/conf.d directory tree respectively and /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf to the output file /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated.

Depending on the setting of dc_use_split_config in /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf update-exim4.conf either sorts the files in the subdirectories main, acl, router, transport, retry, rewrite and auth of /etc/exim4/conf.d in the lexical sort order, concatenates them and replaces the patterns DEBCONFsomethingDEBCONF or only replaces the patterns DEBCONFsomethingDEBCONF listed in /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template. It does not change the other contents of these files. This makes it very simple to make small changes to the configuration and still have the benefits of debconf. On the other hand if you don't want to manage exim4.conf with debconf install your own handcrafted version as /etc/exim4/exim4.conf. Exim will use this file if it exists and ignore the autogenerated one. Additionally you might want to set dc_eximconfig_configtype=none in /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf to stop debconf from asking you questions about exim4. update-exim4.conf exits silently and does nothing if /etc/exim4/exim4.conf exists and -o was not used to direct the output to a different file than /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated. update-exim4.conf will only use files in the conf.d directory that have a filename which consists only of letters, numbers, underscores and hyphens ([:alnum:]_-), similar to run-parts(8). Additionally, update-exim4.conf will use /etc/exim4/conf.d/foo/bar.rul instead of /etc/exim4/conf.d/foo/bar if the .rul file exists. This is meant to be helpful for easy interaction with packages extending Exim. If update-exim4.conf is called without the option -o, it checks the validity of the freshly generated configuration file and exits with an error. In that case, the new file is not installed to /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated. However, there are still possible invalidities that can only be detected at run time. This most notably applies to errors in expressions that are expanded at run time.

EXAMPLES
You want to be able to check exim's queue as normal user: Generate a new file, e.g. /etc/exim4/conf.d/main/40_local_mailq, containing only the line queue_list_requires_admin = false

NOTES
update-exim4.conf changes the file permissions of the output file to the value of the environment variable CFILEMODE. If CFILEMODE is neither set in /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf nor in the environment it defaults to 0644. Change this to 0640 if you're keeping sensible information (LDAP credentials et. al.) in there.

FILES
update-exim4.conf manages these files:

/var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated
    Exim's main configuration file

REPLACEMENT PATTERNS
update-exim4.conf know about these identifiers:

DEBCONFrelay_domainsDEBCONF
    is replaced by the contents of dc_relay_domains in /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf

DEBCONFrelay_netsDEBCONF
    is replaced by the contents of dc_relay_nets in /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf

DEBCONFvisiblenameDEBCONF
    holds the contents of (the first line of) /etc/mailname

DEBCONFreadhostDEBCONF
    corresponds to dc_readhost in /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf and holds the visible mailname for satellite-systems.

DEBCONFsmarthostDEBCONF
    corresponds to dc_smarthost in /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf and contains the name of the SMTP smarthost that takes care of outgoing mail.

DEBCONFconfigtypeDEBCONF
    dc_eximconfig_configtype in /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf.

DEBCONFpackageversionDEBCONF
    contains the complete Debian version-number of the exim4-config package. You could use this in smtp_banner or received_header_text.

DEBCONFlistenonpublicDEBCONF
    This is replaced with “local_interfaces = <value of dc_local_interfaces>” if dc_local_interfaces is set to a non-empty value. Otherwise, it is replaced with an empty string, causing exim to listen on all local interfaces. If dc_local_interfaces is set to a non-empty value,

DEBCONFminimaldnsDEBCONF
    is replaced with “DC_minimaldns = 1” if dc_minimaldns is set to true and to an empty string otherwise.

DEBCONFnever_usersDEBCONF
    is deleted. (In versions prior 4.30-7 it was used to set the never_users option.)

DEBCONF_hardcode_primary_hostname_DEBCONF
    If dc_minimaldns is set to true update-exim4.conf tries to guess the primary hostname using hostname --fqdn and replaces this pattern with “primary_hostname = <guessed value>”.

DEBCONFlocaldeliveryDEBCONF
    is replaced by the contents of dc_localdelivery in /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf. It should be set to the default transport for local delivery, i.e. usually mail_spool or maildir_home. It defaults to mail_spool if dc_localdelivery is unset.

DEBCONFrewriteemailaddresses_mailnameDEBCONF
    is replaced with this rewriting rule:
    *@mailname${lookup{${local_part}}lsearch{/etc/email-addresses}{$value}fail} Ffrs
    with mailname being replaced by the contents of /etc/mailname.

CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
update-exim4.conf evaluates these patterns in /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf:

dc_eximconfig_configtype
    The main configration type. One of “internet”, “smarthost”, “satellite”, “local”, “exim3manual” or “none”.

dc_local_interfaces
    Used as the value for Exim's main configuration option local_interfaces.

dc_other_hostnames
    is used to build the local_domains hostlist, together with “localhost” and the mailname. This is the list of domains for which this machine should consider itself the final destination.

dc_readhost
    For “smarthost” and “satellite” it is possible to hide the local mailname in the headers of outgoing mail and replace it with this value instead, using rewriting.

dc_relay_domains
    is used to populate the relay_to_domains domainlist, a list of domains for which we accept mail from anywhere on the Internet but which are not delvered locally, e.g. because this machine serves as secondary MX for these domains.

dc_relay_nets
    A list of machines (hostlist) for which we serve as smarthost. Used to populate the relay_from_hosts hostlists.

dc_smarthost
    List of hosts to which all outgoing mail is passed to and that takes care of delivering it. Multiple hosts are colon separated. Each of the hosts is tried, in the order specified (See exim specification, chapter 20.5). All deliveries go out to TCP port 25. Specifying different ports is not (yet) possible due to upstream restrictions. Used as value of the DCsmarthost macro.

dc_minimaldns
    Boolean option to activate some option to minimize DNS lookups, if set to “true” a macro DC_minimaldns is defined.

CFILEMODE
    The octal file mode of the generated file.

dc_use_split_config
    Boolean option that controls whether update-exim4.conf uses /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template (“false”) or the multiple files below /etc/exim4/conf.d (“true”) as input.

dc_hide_mailname
    Boolean option that controls whether the local mailname in the headers of outgoing mail should be hidden. (Only effective for “smarthost” and “satellite”.

dc_localdelivery
    name of the default transport for local mail delivery. Defaults to mail_spool if unset, use maildir_home for delivery to ~/Maildir/. This setting does not correspond to a Debconf question and needs to be set manually.

ue4c_keepcomments
    Boolean option that controls whether update-exim4.conf strips the comments from the target configuration file (default) or leaves them in. This can be overridden by the command line options --keepcomments and --removecomments.

RECOMMENDED USAGE
If you are running exim as daemon (as it is in the default setup of the Debian packages) you should not invoke update-exim4.conf directly when exim is running. For SMTP receiving or queue running, exim forks, and the new processes would use the new configuration file, while the original main exim daemon would still use the old configuration file. You should use invoke-rc.d exim4 restart instead.

SEE ALSO
exim(8), /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/ and for general notes and details about interaction with debconf /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/README.Debian.gz

AUTHOR
Andreas Metzler <ametzler at downhill.at.eu.org> Marc Haber <mh+debian-packages@zugschlus.de>