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. PKG_CONFIG_PATH can now be set in Local/Makefile;
13 wildcards will be expanded, values are collapsed.
15 2. The ${readsocket } expansion now takes an option to not shutdown the
16 connection after sending the query string. The default remains to do so.
18 3. An smtp transport option "hosts_noproxy_tls" to control whether multiple
19 deliveries on a single TCP connection can maintain a TLS connection
20 open. By default disabled for all hosts, doing so saves the cost of
21 making new TLS sessions, at the cost of having to proxy the data via
22 another process. Logging is also affected.
24 4. A malware connection type for the FPSCAND protocol.
26 5. An option for recipient verify callouts to hold the connection open for
27 further recipients and for delivery.
29 6. The reproducible build $SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable is now
32 7. Optionally, an alternate format for spool data-files which matches the
33 wire format - meaning more efficient reception and transmission (at the
34 cost of difficulty with standard Unix tools). Only used for messages
35 received using the ESMTP CHUNKING option, and when a new main-section
36 option "spool_wireformat" (false by default) is set.
38 8. New main configuration option "commandline_checks_require_admin" to
39 restrict who can use various introspection options.
41 9. New option modifier "no_check" for quota and quota_filecount
44 10. Variable $smtp_command_history returning a comma-sep list of recent
47 11. Millisecond timetamps in logs, on log_selector "millisec". Also affects
48 log elements QT, DT and D, and timstamps in debug output.
50 12. TCP Fast Open logging. As a server, logs when the SMTP banner was sent
51 while still in SYN_RECV state; as a client logs when the connection
52 is opened with a TFO cookie.
58 1. Allow relative config file names for ".include"
60 2. A main-section config option "debug_store" to control the checks on
61 variable locations during store-reset. Normally false but can be enabled
62 when a memory corrution issue is suspected on a production system.
68 1. The new perl_taintmode option allows to run the embedded perl
69 interpreter in taint mode.
71 2. New log_selector: dnssec, adds a "DS" tag to acceptance and delivery lines.
73 3. Speculative debugging, via a "kill" option to the "control=debug" ACL
76 4. New expansion item ${sha3:<string>} / ${sha3_<N>:<string>}.
77 N can be 224, 256 (default), 384, 512.
78 With GnuTLS 3.5.0 or later, only.
80 5. Facility for named queues: A command-line argument can specify
81 the queue name for a queue operation, and an ACL modifier can set
82 the queue to be used for a message. A $queue_name variable gives
85 6. New expansion operators base32/base32d.
87 7. The CHUNKING ESMTP extension from RFC 3030. May give some slight
88 performance increase and network load decrease. Main config option
89 chunking_advertise_hosts, and smtp transport option hosts_try_chunking
92 8. LMDB lookup support, as Experimental. Patch supplied by Andrew Colin Kissa.
94 9. Expansion operator escape8bit, like escape but not touching newline etc..
96 10. Feature macros, generated from compile options. All start with "_HAVE_"
97 and go on with some roughly recognisable name. Driver macros, for
98 router, transport and authentication drivers; names starting with "_DRIVER_".
99 Option macros, for each configuration-file option; all start with "_OPT_".
100 Use the "-bP macros" command-line option to see what is present.
102 11. Integer values for options can take a "G" multiplier.
104 12. defer=pass option for the ACL control cutthrough_delivery, to reflect 4xx
105 returns from the target back to the initiator, rather than spooling the
108 13. New built-in constants available for tls_dhparam and default changed.
110 14. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_QUEUEFILE, a queuefile transport, for writing
111 out copies of the message spool files for use by 3rd-party scanners.
113 15. A new option on the smtp transport, hosts_try_fastopen. If the system
114 supports it (on Linux it must be enabled in the kernel by the sysadmin)
115 try to use RFC 7413 "TCP Fast Open". No data is sent on the SYN segment
116 but it permits a peer that also supports the facility to send its SMTP
117 banner immediately after the SYN,ACK segment rather then waiting for
118 another ACK - so saving up to one roundtrip time. Because it requires
119 previous communication with the peer (we save a cookie from it) this
120 will only become active on frequently-contacted destinations.
122 16. A new syslog_pid option to suppress PID duplication in syslog lines.
128 1. The ACL conditions regex and mime_regex now capture substrings
129 into numeric variables $regex1 to 9, like the "match" expansion condition.
131 2. New $callout_address variable records the address used for a spam=,
132 malware= or verify= callout.
134 3. Transports now take a "max_parallel" option, to limit concurrency.
136 4. Expansion operators ${ipv6norm:<string>} and ${ipv6denorm:<string>}.
137 The latter expands to a 8-element colon-sep set of hex digits including
138 leading zeroes. A trailing ipv4-style dotted-decimal set is converted
139 to hex. Pure ipv4 addresses are converted to IPv4-mapped IPv6.
140 The former operator strips leading zeroes and collapses the longest
141 set of 0-groups to a double-colon.
143 5. New "-bP config" support, to dump the effective configuration.
145 6. New $dkim_key_length variable.
147 7. New base64d and base64 expansion items (the existing str2b64 being a
148 synonym of the latter). Add support in base64 for certificates.
150 8. New main configuration option "bounce_return_linesize_limit" to
151 avoid oversize bodies in bounces. The default value matches RFC
154 9. New $initial_cwd expansion variable.
160 1. Support for using the system standard CA bundle.
162 2. New expansion items $config_file, $config_dir, containing the file
163 and directory name of the main configuration file. Also $exim_version.
165 3. New "malware=" support for Avast.
167 4. New "spam=" variant option for Rspamd.
169 5. Assorted options on malware= and spam= scanners.
171 6. A command-line option to write a comment into the logfile.
173 7. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_SOCKS feature enabled, the smtp transport can
174 be configured to make connections via socks5 proxies.
176 8. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_INTERNATIONAL, support is included for
177 the transmission of UTF-8 envelope addresses.
179 9. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_INTERNATIONAL, an expansion item for a commonly
180 used encoding of Maildir folder names.
182 10. A logging option for slow DNS lookups.
184 11. New ${env {<variable>}} expansion.
186 12. A non-SMTP authenticator using information from TLS client certificates.
188 13. Main option "tls_eccurve" for selecting an Elliptic Curve for TLS.
189 Patch originally by Wolfgang Breyha.
191 14. Main option "dns_trust_aa" for trusting your local nameserver at the
192 same level as DNSSEC.
198 1. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_DANE feature enabled, Exim will follow the
199 DANE SMTP draft to assess a secure chain of trust of the certificate
200 used to establish the TLS connection based on a TLSA record in the
201 domain of the sender.
203 2. The EXPERIMENTAL_TPDA feature has been renamed to EXPERIMENTAL_EVENT
204 and several new events have been created. The reason is because it has
205 been expanded beyond just firing events during the transport phase. Any
206 existing TPDA transport options will have to be rewritten to use a new
207 $event_name expansion variable in a condition. Refer to the
208 experimental-spec.txt for details and examples.
210 3. The EXPERIMENTAL_CERTNAMES features is an enhancement to verify that
211 server certs used for TLS match the result of the MX lookup. It does
212 not use the same mechanism as DANE.
222 1. If built with the EXPERIMENTAL_PROXY feature enabled, Exim can be
223 configured to expect an initial header from a proxy that will make the
224 actual external source IP:host be used in exim instead of the IP of the
225 proxy that is connecting to it.
227 2. New verify option header_names_ascii, which will check to make sure
228 there are no non-ASCII characters in header names. Exim itself handles
229 those non-ASCII characters, but downstream apps may not, so Exim can
230 detect and reject if those characters are present.
232 3. New expansion operator ${utf8clean:string} to replace malformed UTF8
233 codepoints with valid ones.
235 4. New malware type "sock". Talks over a Unix or TCP socket, sending one
236 command line and matching a regex against the return data for trigger
237 and a second regex to extract malware_name. The mail spoolfile name can
238 be included in the command line.
240 5. The smtp transport now supports options "tls_verify_hosts" and
241 "tls_try_verify_hosts". If either is set the certificate verification
242 is split from the encryption operation. The default remains that a failed
243 verification cancels the encryption.
245 6. New SERVERS override of default ldap server list. In the ACLs, an ldap
246 lookup can now set a list of servers to use that is different from the
249 7. New command-line option -C for exiqgrep to specify alternate exim.conf
250 file when searching the queue.
252 8. OCSP now supports GnuTLS also, if you have version 3.1.3 or later of that.
254 9. Support for DNSSEC on outbound connections.
256 10. New variables "tls_(in,out)_(our,peer)cert" and expansion item
257 "certextract" to extract fields from them. Hash operators md5 and sha1
258 work over them for generating fingerprints, and a new sha256 operator
261 11. PRDR is now supported dy default.
263 12. OCSP stapling is now supported by default.
265 13. If built with the EXPERIMENTAL_DSN feature enabled, Exim will output
266 Delivery Status Notification messages in MIME format, and negotiate
267 DSN features per RFC 3461.
273 1. New command-line option -bI:sieve will list all supported sieve extensions
274 of this Exim build on standard output, one per line.
275 ManageSieve (RFC 5804) providers managing scripts for use by Exim should
276 query this to establish the correct list to include in the protocol's
277 SIEVE capability line.
279 2. If the -n option is combined with the -bP option, then the name of an
280 emitted option is not output, only the value (if visible to you).
281 For instance, "exim -n -bP pid_file_path" should just emit a pathname
282 followed by a newline, and no other text.
284 3. When built with SUPPORT_TLS and USE_GNUTLS, the SMTP transport driver now
285 has a "tls_dh_min_bits" option, to set the minimum acceptable number of
286 bits in the Diffie-Hellman prime offered by a server (in DH ciphersuites)
287 acceptable for security. (Option accepted but ignored if using OpenSSL).
288 Defaults to 1024, the old value. May be lowered only to 512, or raised as
289 far as you like. Raising this may hinder TLS interoperability with other
290 sites and is not currently recommended. Lowering this will permit you to
291 establish a TLS session which is not as secure as you might like.
293 Unless you really know what you are doing, leave it alone.
295 4. If not built with DISABLE_DNSSEC, Exim now has the main option
296 dns_dnssec_ok; if set to 1 then Exim will initialise the resolver library
297 to send the DO flag to your recursive resolver. If you have a recursive
298 resolver, which can set the Authenticated Data (AD) flag in results, Exim
299 can now detect this. Exim does not perform validation itself, instead
300 relying upon a trusted path to the resolver.
302 Current status: work-in-progress; $sender_host_dnssec variable added.
304 5. DSCP support for outbound connections: on a transport using the smtp driver,
305 set "dscp = ef", for instance, to cause the connections to have the relevant
306 DSCP (IPv4 TOS or IPv6 TCLASS) value in the header.
308 Similarly for inbound connections, there is a new control modifier, dscp,
309 so "warn control = dscp/ef" in the connect ACL, or after authentication.
311 Supported values depend upon system libraries. "exim -bI:dscp" to list the
312 ones Exim knows of. You can also set a raw number 0..0x3F.
314 6. The -G command-line flag is no longer ignored; it is now equivalent to an
315 ACL setting "control = suppress_local_fixups". The -L command-line flag
316 is now accepted and forces use of syslog, with the provided tag as the
317 process name. A few other flags used by Sendmail are now accepted and
320 7. New cutthrough routing feature. Requested by a "control = cutthrough_delivery"
321 ACL modifier; works for single-recipient mails which are received on and
322 deliverable via SMTP. Using the connection made for a recipient verify,
323 if requested before the verify, or a new one made for the purpose while
324 the inbound connection is still active. The bulk of the mail item is copied
325 direct from the inbound socket to the outbound (as well as the spool file).
326 When the source notifies the end of data, the data acceptance by the destination
327 is negotiated before the acceptance is sent to the source. If the destination
328 does not accept the mail item, for example due to content-scanning, the item
329 is not accepted from the source and therefore there is no need to generate
330 a bounce mail. This is of benefit when providing a secondary-MX service.
331 The downside is that delays are under the control of the ultimate destination
334 The Received-by: header on items delivered by cutthrough is generated
335 early in reception rather than at the end; this will affect any timestamp
336 included. The log line showing delivery is recorded before that showing
337 reception; it uses a new ">>" tag instead of "=>".
339 To support the feature, verify-callout connections can now use ESMTP and TLS.
340 The usual smtp transport options are honoured, plus a (new, default everything)
341 hosts_verify_avoid_tls.
343 New variable families named tls_in_cipher, tls_out_cipher etc. are introduced
344 for specific access to the information for each connection. The old names
345 are present for now but deprecated.
347 Not yet supported: IGNOREQUOTA, SIZE, PIPELINING.
349 8. New expansion operators ${listnamed:name} to get the content of a named list
350 and ${listcount:string} to count the items in a list.
352 9. New global option "gnutls_allow_auto_pkcs11", defaults false. The GnuTLS
353 rewrite in 4.80 combines with GnuTLS 2.12.0 or later, to autoload PKCS11
354 modules. For some situations this is desirable, but we expect admin in
355 those situations to know they want the feature. More commonly, it means
356 that GUI user modules get loaded and are broken by the setuid Exim being
357 unable to access files specified in environment variables and passed
358 through, thus breakage. So we explicitly inhibit the PKCS11 initialisation
359 unless this new option is set.
361 Some older OS's with earlier versions of GnuTLS might not have pkcs11 ability,
362 so have also added a build option which can be used to build Exim with GnuTLS
363 but without trying to use any kind of PKCS11 support. Uncomment this in the
366 AVOID_GNUTLS_PKCS11=yes
368 10. The "acl = name" condition on an ACL now supports optional arguments.
369 New expansion item "${acl {name}{arg}...}" and expansion condition
370 "acl {{name}{arg}...}" are added. In all cases up to nine arguments
371 can be used, appearing in $acl_arg1 to $acl_arg9 for the called ACL.
372 Variable $acl_narg contains the number of arguments. If the ACL sets
373 a "message =" value this becomes the result of the expansion item,
374 or the value of $value for the expansion condition. If the ACL returns
375 accept the expansion condition is true; if reject, false. A defer
376 return results in a forced fail.
378 11. Routers and transports can now have multiple headers_add and headers_remove
379 option lines. The concatenated list is used.
381 12. New ACL modifier "remove_header" can remove headers before message gets
382 handled by routers/transports.
384 13. New dnsdb lookup pseudo-type "a+". A sequence of "a6" (if configured),
385 "aaaa" and "a" lookups is done and the full set of results returned.
387 14. New expansion variable $headers_added with content from ACL add_header
388 modifier (but not yet added to message).
390 15. New 8bitmime status logging option for received messages. Log field "M8S".
392 16. New authenticated_sender logging option, adding to log field "A".
394 17. New expansion variables $router_name and $transport_name. Useful
395 particularly for debug_print as -bt command-line option does not
396 require privilege whereas -d does.
398 18. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_PRDR, per-recipient data responses per a
399 proposed extension to SMTP from Eric Hall.
401 19. The pipe transport has gained the force_command option, to allow
402 decorating commands from user .forward pipe aliases with prefix
403 wrappers, for instance.
405 20. Callout connections can now AUTH; the same controls as normal delivery
408 21. Support for DMARC, using opendmarc libs, can be enabled. It adds new
409 options: dmarc_forensic_sender, dmarc_history_file, and dmarc_tld_file.
410 It adds new expansion variables $dmarc_ar_header, $dmarc_status,
411 $dmarc_status_text, and $dmarc_used_domain. It adds a new acl modifier
412 dmarc_status. It adds new control flags dmarc_disable_verify and
413 dmarc_enable_forensic. The default for the dmarc_tld_file option is
414 "/etc/exim/opendmarc.tlds" and can be changed via EDITME.
416 22. Add expansion variable $authenticated_fail_id, which is the username
417 provided to the authentication method which failed. It is available
418 for use in subsequent ACL processing (typically quit or notquit ACLs).
420 23. New ACL modifier "udpsend" can construct a UDP packet to send to a given
423 24. New ${hexquote:..string..} expansion operator converts non-printable
424 characters in the string to \xNN form.
426 25. Experimental TPDA (Transport Post Delivery Action) function added.
427 Patch provided by Axel Rau.
429 26. Experimental Redis lookup added. Patch provided by Warren Baker.
435 1. New authenticator driver, "gsasl". Server-only (at present).
436 This is a SASL interface, licensed under GPL, which can be found at
437 http://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/.
438 This system does not provide sources of data for authentication, so
439 careful use needs to be made of the conditions in Exim.
441 2. New authenticator driver, "heimdal_gssapi". Server-only.
442 A replacement for using cyrus_sasl with Heimdal, now that $KRB5_KTNAME
443 is no longer honoured for setuid programs by Heimdal. Use the
444 "server_keytab" option to point to the keytab.
446 3. The "pkg-config" system can now be used when building Exim to reference
447 cflags and library information for lookups and authenticators, rather
448 than having to update "CFLAGS", "AUTH_LIBS", "LOOKUP_INCLUDE" and
449 "LOOKUP_LIBS" directly. Similarly for handling the TLS library support
450 without adjusting "TLS_INCLUDE" and "TLS_LIBS".
452 In addition, setting PCRE_CONFIG=yes will query the pcre-config tool to
453 find the headers and libraries for PCRE.
455 4. New expansion variable $tls_bits.
457 5. New lookup type, "dbmjz". Key is an Exim list, the elements of which will
458 be joined together with ASCII NUL characters to construct the key to pass
459 into the DBM library. Can be used with gsasl to access sasldb2 files as
462 6. OpenSSL now supports TLS1.1 and TLS1.2 with OpenSSL 1.0.1.
464 Avoid release 1.0.1a if you can. Note that the default value of
465 "openssl_options" is no longer "+dont_insert_empty_fragments", as that
466 increased susceptibility to attack. This may still have interoperability
467 implications for very old clients (see version 4.31 change 37) but
468 administrators can choose to make the trade-off themselves and restore
469 compatibility at the cost of session security.
471 7. Use of the new expansion variable $tls_sni in the main configuration option
472 tls_certificate will cause Exim to re-expand the option, if the client
473 sends the TLS Server Name Indication extension, to permit choosing a
474 different certificate; tls_privatekey will also be re-expanded. You must
475 still set these options to expand to valid files when $tls_sni is not set.
477 The SMTP Transport has gained the option tls_sni, which will set a hostname
478 for outbound TLS sessions, and set $tls_sni too.
480 A new log_selector, +tls_sni, has been added, to log received SNI values
481 for Exim as a server.
483 8. The existing "accept_8bitmime" option now defaults to true. This means
484 that Exim is deliberately not strictly RFC compliant. We're following
485 Dan Bernstein's advice in http://cr.yp.to/smtp/8bitmime.html by default.
486 Those who disagree, or know that they are talking to mail servers that,
487 even today, are not 8-bit clean, need to turn off this option.
489 9. Exim can now be started with -bw (with an optional timeout, given as
490 -bw<timespec>). With this, stdin at startup is a socket that is
491 already listening for connections. This has a more modern name of
492 "socket activation", but forcing the activated socket to fd 0. We're
493 interested in adding more support for modern variants.
495 10. ${eval } now uses 64-bit values on supporting platforms. A new "G" suffix
496 for numbers indicates multiplication by 1024^3.
498 11. The GnuTLS support has been revamped; the three options gnutls_require_kx,
499 gnutls_require_mac & gnutls_require_protocols are no longer supported.
500 tls_require_ciphers is now parsed by gnutls_priority_init(3) as a priority
501 string, documentation for which is at:
502 http://www.gnutls.org/manual/html_node/Priority-Strings.html
504 SNI support has been added to Exim's GnuTLS integration too.
506 For sufficiently recent GnuTLS libraries, ${randint:..} will now use
507 gnutls_rnd(), asking for GNUTLS_RND_NONCE level randomness.
509 12. With OpenSSL, if built with EXPERIMENTAL_OCSP, a new option tls_ocsp_file
510 is now available. If the contents of the file are valid, then Exim will
511 send that back in response to a TLS status request; this is OCSP Stapling.
512 Exim will not maintain the contents of the file in any way: administrators
513 are responsible for ensuring that it is up-to-date.
515 See "experimental-spec.txt" for more details.
517 13. ${lookup dnsdb{ }} supports now SPF record types. They are handled
518 identically to TXT record lookups.
520 14. New expansion variable $tod_epoch_l for higher-precision time.
522 15. New global option tls_dh_max_bits, defaulting to current value of NSS
523 hard-coded limit of DH ephemeral bits, to fix interop problems caused by
524 GnuTLS 2.12 library recommending a bit count higher than NSS supports.
526 16. tls_dhparam now used by both OpenSSL and GnuTLS, can be path or identifier.
527 Option can now be a path or an identifier for a standard prime.
528 If unset, we use the DH prime from section 2.2 of RFC 5114, "ike23".
529 Set to "historic" to get the old GnuTLS behaviour of auto-generated DH
532 17. SSLv2 now disabled by default in OpenSSL. (Never supported by GnuTLS).
533 Use "openssl_options -no_sslv2" to re-enable support, if your OpenSSL
534 install was not built with OPENSSL_NO_SSL2 ("no-ssl2").
540 1. New options for the ratelimit ACL condition: /count= and /unique=.
541 The /noupdate option has been replaced by a /readonly option.
543 2. The SMTP transport's protocol option may now be set to "smtps", to
544 use SSL-on-connect outbound.
546 3. New variable $av_failed, set true if the AV scanner deferred; ie, when
547 there is a problem talking to the AV scanner, or the AV scanner running.
549 4. New expansion conditions, "inlist" and "inlisti", which take simple lists
550 and check if the search item is a member of the list. This does not
551 support named lists, but does subject the list part to string expansion.
553 5. Unless the new EXPAND_LISTMATCH_RHS build option is set when Exim was
554 built, Exim no longer performs string expansion on the second string of
555 the match_* expansion conditions: "match_address", "match_domain",
556 "match_ip" & "match_local_part". Named lists can still be used.
562 1. The global option "dns_use_edns0" may be set to coerce EDNS0 usage on
563 or off in the resolver library.
569 1. In addition to the existing LDAP and LDAP/SSL ("ldaps") support, there
570 is now LDAP/TLS support, given sufficiently modern OpenLDAP client
571 libraries. The following global options have been added in support of
572 this: ldap_ca_cert_dir, ldap_ca_cert_file, ldap_cert_file, ldap_cert_key,
573 ldap_cipher_suite, ldap_require_cert, ldap_start_tls.
575 2. The pipe transport now takes a boolean option, "freeze_signal", default
576 false. When true, if the external delivery command exits on a signal then
577 Exim will freeze the message in the queue, instead of generating a bounce.
579 3. Log filenames may now use %M as an escape, instead of %D (still available).
580 The %M pattern expands to yyyymm, providing month-level resolution.
582 4. The $message_linecount variable is now updated for the maildir_tag option,
583 in the same way as $message_size, to reflect the real number of lines,
584 including any header additions or removals from transport.
586 5. When contacting a pool of SpamAssassin servers configured in spamd_address,
587 Exim now selects entries randomly, to better scale in a cluster setup.
593 1. SECURITY FIX: privilege escalation flaw fixed. On Linux (and only Linux)
594 the flaw permitted the Exim run-time user to cause root to append to
595 arbitrary files of the attacker's choosing, with the content based
596 on content supplied by the attacker.
598 2. Exim now supports loading some lookup types at run-time, using your
599 platform's dlopen() functionality. This has limited platform support
600 and the intention is not to support every variant, it's limited to
601 dlopen(). This permits the main Exim binary to not be linked against
602 all the libraries needed for all the lookup types.
608 NOTE: this version is not guaranteed backwards-compatible, please read the
609 items below carefully
611 1. A new main configuration option, "openssl_options", is available if Exim
612 is built with SSL support provided by OpenSSL. The option allows
613 administrators to specify OpenSSL options to be used on connections;
614 typically this is to set bug compatibility features which the OpenSSL
615 developers have not enabled by default. There may be security
616 consequences for certain options, so these should not be changed
619 2. A new pipe transport option, "permit_coredumps", may help with problem
620 diagnosis in some scenarios. Note that Exim is typically installed as
621 a setuid binary, which on most OSes will inhibit coredumps by default,
622 so that safety mechanism would have to be overridden for this option to
623 be able to take effect.
625 3. ClamAV 0.95 is now required for ClamAV support in Exim, unless
626 Local/Makefile sets: WITH_OLD_CLAMAV_STREAM=yes
627 Note that this switches Exim to use a new API ("INSTREAM") and a future
628 release of ClamAV will remove support for the old API ("STREAM").
630 The av_scanner option, when set to "clamd", now takes an optional third
631 part, "local", which causes Exim to pass a filename to ClamAV instead of
632 the file content. This is the same behaviour as when clamd is pointed at
633 a Unix-domain socket. For example:
635 av_scanner = clamd:192.0.2.3 1234:local
637 ClamAV's ExtendedDetectionInfo response format is now handled.
639 4. There is now a -bmalware option, restricted to admin users. This option
640 takes one parameter, a filename, and scans that file with Exim's
641 malware-scanning framework. This is intended purely as a debugging aid
642 to ensure that Exim's scanning is working, not to replace other tools.
643 Note that the ACL framework is not invoked, so if av_scanner references
644 ACL variables without a fallback then this will fail.
646 5. There is a new expansion operator, "reverse_ip", which will reverse IP
647 addresses; IPv4 into dotted quad, IPv6 into dotted nibble. Examples:
649 ${reverse_ip:192.0.2.4}
651 ${reverse_ip:2001:0db8:c42:9:1:abcd:192.0.2.3}
652 -> 3.0.2.0.0.0.0.c.d.c.b.a.1.0.0.0.9.0.0.0.2.4.c.0.8.b.d.0.1.0.0.2
654 6. There is a new ACL control called "debug", to enable debug logging.
655 This allows selective logging of certain incoming transactions within
656 production environments, with some care. It takes two options, "tag"
657 and "opts"; "tag" is included in the filename of the log and "opts"
658 is used as per the -d<options> command-line option. Examples, which
659 don't all make sense in all contexts:
662 control = debug/tag=.$sender_host_address
663 control = debug/opts=+expand+acl
664 control = debug/tag=.$message_exim_id/opts=+expand
666 7. It has always been implicit in the design and the documentation that
667 "the Exim user" is not root. src/EDITME said that using root was
668 "very strongly discouraged". This is not enough to keep people from
669 shooting themselves in the foot in days when many don't configure Exim
670 themselves but via package build managers. The security consequences of
671 running various bits of network code are severe if there should be bugs in
672 them. As such, the Exim user may no longer be root. If configured
673 statically, Exim will refuse to build. If configured as ref:user then Exim
674 will exit shortly after start-up. If you must shoot yourself in the foot,
675 then henceforth you will have to maintain your own local patches to strip
678 8. There is a new expansion condition, bool_lax{}. Where bool{} uses the ACL
679 condition logic to determine truth/failure and will fail to expand many
680 strings, bool_lax{} uses the router condition logic, where most strings
682 Note: bool{00} is false, bool_lax{00} is true.
684 9. Routers now support multiple "condition" tests.
686 10. There is now a runtime configuration option "tcp_wrappers_daemon_name".
687 Setting this allows an admin to define which entry in the tcpwrappers
688 config file will be used to control access to the daemon. This option
689 is only available when Exim is built with USE_TCP_WRAPPERS. The
690 default value is set at build time using the TCP_WRAPPERS_DAEMON_NAME
693 11. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The default value for system_filter_user is now
694 the Exim run-time user, instead of root.
696 12. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] ALT_CONFIG_ROOT_ONLY is no longer optional and
697 is forced on. This is mitigated by the new build option
698 TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST which defines a list of configuration files which
699 are trusted; one per line. If a config file is owned by root and matches
700 a pathname in the list, then it may be invoked by the Exim build-time
701 user without Exim relinquishing root privileges.
703 13. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The Exim user is no longer automatically
704 trusted to supply -D<Macro[=Value]> overrides on the command-line. Going
705 forward, we recommend using TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST with shim configs that
706 include the main config. As a transition mechanism, we are temporarily
707 providing a work-around: the new build option WHITELIST_D_MACROS provides
708 a colon-separated list of macro names which may be overridden by the Exim
709 run-time user. The values of these macros are constrained to the regex
710 ^[A-Za-z0-9_/.-]*$ (which explicitly does allow for empty values).
716 1. TWO SECURITY FIXES: one relating to mail-spools which are globally
717 writable, the other to locking of MBX folders (not mbox).
719 2. MySQL stored procedures are now supported.
721 3. The dkim_domain transport option is now a list, not a single string, and
722 messages will be signed for each element in the list (discarding
725 4. The 4.70 release unexpectedly changed the behaviour of dnsdb TXT lookups
726 in the presence of multiple character strings within the RR. Prior to 4.70,
727 only the first string would be returned. The dnsdb lookup now, by default,
728 preserves the pre-4.70 semantics, but also now takes an extended output
729 separator specification. The separator can be followed by a semicolon, to
730 concatenate the individual text strings together with no join character,
731 or by a comma and a second separator character, in which case the text
732 strings within a TXT record are joined on that second character.
733 Administrators are reminded that DNS provides no ordering guarantees
734 between multiple records in an RRset. For example:
736 foo.example. IN TXT "a" "b" "c"
737 foo.example. IN TXT "d" "e" "f"
739 ${lookup dnsdb{>/ txt=foo.example}} -> "a/d"
740 ${lookup dnsdb{>/; txt=foo.example}} -> "def/abc"
741 ${lookup dnsdb{>/,+ txt=foo.example}} -> "a+b+c/d+e+f"
747 1. Native DKIM support without an external library.
748 (Note that if no action to prevent it is taken, a straight upgrade will
749 result in DKIM verification of all signed incoming emails. See spec
750 for details on conditionally disabling)
752 2. Experimental DCC support via dccifd (contributed by Wolfgang Breyha).
754 3. There is now a bool{} expansion condition which maps certain strings to
755 true/false condition values (most likely of use in conjunction with the
756 and{} expansion operator).
758 4. The $spam_score, $spam_bar and $spam_report variables are now available
761 5. exim -bP now supports "macros", "macro_list" or "macro MACRO_NAME" as
762 options, provided that Exim is invoked by an admin_user.
764 6. There is a new option gnutls_compat_mode, when linked against GnuTLS,
765 which increases compatibility with older clients at the cost of decreased
766 security. Don't set this unless you need to support such clients.
768 7. There is a new expansion operator, ${randint:...} which will produce a
769 "random" number less than the supplied integer. This randomness is
770 not guaranteed to be cryptographically strong, but depending upon how
771 Exim was built may be better than the most naive schemes.
773 8. Exim now explicitly ensures that SHA256 is available when linked against
776 9. The transport_filter_timeout option now applies to SMTP transports too.
782 1. Preliminary DKIM support in Experimental.
788 1. The body_linecount and body_zerocount C variables are now exported in the
791 2. When a dnslists lookup succeeds, the key that was looked up is now placed
792 in $dnslist_matched. When the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in
793 this variable (though it is, of course, in the actual lookup). In simple
796 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example
798 the key is also available in another variable (in this case,
799 $sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not
800 true. For example, using a data lookup might generate a dnslists lookup
803 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|...
805 If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be
806 192.168.6.7 (for example).
808 3. Authenticators now have a client_condition option. When Exim is running as
809 a client, it skips an authenticator whose client_condition expansion yields
810 "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for example, to skip plain text
811 authenticators when the connection is not encrypted by a setting such as:
813 client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}}
815 Note that the 4.67 documentation states that $tls_cipher contains the
816 cipher used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it
817 contains the cipher used for the delivery. The same is true for
820 4. There is now a -Mvc <message-id> option, which outputs a copy of the
821 message to the standard output, in RFC 2822 format. The option can be used
822 only by an admin user.
824 5. There is now a /noupdate option for the ratelimit ACL condition. It
825 computes the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update
826 the saved data. This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup
827 the existence of a specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without
828 incrementing the ratelimit counter for that key.
830 In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must set the rate
831 for the same key somewhere (otherwise it will always be zero).
836 # Read the rate; if it doesn't exist or is below the maximum
838 deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate
839 log_message = RATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
840 (max $sender_rate_limit)
842 [... some other logic and tests...]
844 warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd
845 log_message = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
846 (max $sender_rate_limit)
847 condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}}
851 6. The variable $max_received_linelength contains the number of bytes in the
852 longest line that was received as part of the message, not counting the
853 line termination character(s).
855 7. Host lists can now include +ignore_defer and +include_defer, analagous to
856 +ignore_unknown and +include_unknown. These options should be used with
857 care, probably only in non-critical host lists such as whitelists.
859 8. There's a new option called queue_only_load_latch, which defaults true.
860 If set false when queue_only_load is greater than zero, Exim re-evaluates
861 the load for each incoming message in an SMTP session. Otherwise, once one
862 message is queued, the remainder are also.
864 9. There is a new ACL, specified by acl_smtp_notquit, which is run in most
865 cases when an SMTP session ends without sending QUIT. However, when Exim
866 itself is is bad trouble, such as being unable to write to its log files,
867 this ACL is not run, because it might try to do things (such as write to
868 log files) that make the situation even worse.
870 Like the QUIT ACL, this new ACL is provided to make it possible to gather
871 statistics. Whatever it returns (accept or deny) is immaterial. The "delay"
872 modifier is forbidden in this ACL.
874 When the NOTQUIT ACL is running, the variable $smtp_notquit_reason is set
875 to a string that indicates the reason for the termination of the SMTP
876 connection. The possible values are:
878 acl-drop Another ACL issued a "drop" command
879 bad-commands Too many unknown or non-mail commands
880 command-timeout Timeout while reading SMTP commands
881 connection-lost The SMTP connection has been lost
882 data-timeout Timeout while reading message data
883 local-scan-error The local_scan() function crashed
884 local-scan-timeout The local_scan() function timed out
885 signal-exit SIGTERM or SIGINT
886 synchronization-error SMTP synchronization error
887 tls-failed TLS failed to start
889 In most cases when an SMTP connection is closed without having received
890 QUIT, Exim sends an SMTP response message before actually closing the
891 connection. With the exception of acl-drop, the default message can be
892 overridden by the "message" modifier in the NOTQUIT ACL. In the case of a
893 "drop" verb in another ACL, it is the message from the other ACL that is
896 10. For MySQL and PostgreSQL lookups, it is now possible to specify a list of
897 servers with individual queries. This is done by starting the query with
898 "servers=x:y:z;", where each item in the list may take one of two forms:
900 (1) If it is just a host name, the appropriate global option (mysql_servers
901 or pgsql_servers) is searched for a host of the same name, and the
902 remaining parameters (database, user, password) are taken from there.
904 (2) If it contains any slashes, it is taken as a complete parameter set.
906 The list of servers is used in exactly the same was as the global list.
907 Once a connection to a server has happened and a query has been
908 successfully executed, processing of the lookup ceases.
910 This feature is intended for use in master/slave situations where updates
911 are occurring, and one wants to update a master rather than a slave. If the
912 masters are in the list for reading, you might have:
914 mysql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw:master/db/name/pw
916 In an updating lookup, you could then write
918 ${lookup mysql{servers=master; UPDATE ...}
920 If, on the other hand, the master is not to be used for reading lookups:
922 pgsql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw
924 you can still update the master by
926 ${lookup pgsql{servers=master/db/name/pw; UPDATE ...}
928 11. The message_body_newlines option (default FALSE, for backwards
929 compatibility) can be used to control whether newlines are present in
930 $message_body and $message_body_end. If it is FALSE, they are replaced by
937 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
938 the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
939 whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
942 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
943 addresses, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than
944 one IP address. This has been solved by the addition of == and =& for "all"
945 rather than the default "any" matching.
947 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been
948 for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the
949 other parameters to be varied.
951 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When it is
952 set, Exim compiles a runtime option called disable_fsync.
954 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start.
956 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining.
958 7. There are two new variables called $sending_ip_address and $sending_port.
959 These are set whenever an SMTP connection to another host has been set up.
961 8. The expansion of the helo_data option in the smtp transport now happens
962 after the connection to the server has been made.
964 9. There is a new expansion operator ${rfc2047d: that decodes strings that
965 are encoded as per RFC 2047.
967 10. There is a new log selector called "pid", which causes the current process
968 id to be added to every log line, in square brackets, immediately after the
971 11. Exim has been modified so that it flushes SMTP output before implementing
972 a delay in an ACL. It also flushes the output before performing a callout,
973 as this can take a substantial time. These behaviours can be disabled by
974 obeying control = no_delay_flush or control = no_callout_flush,
975 respectively, at some earlier stage of the connection.
977 12. There are two new expansion conditions that iterate over a list. They are
978 called forany and forall.
980 13. There's a new global option called dsn_from that can be used to vary the
981 contents of From: lines in bounces and other automatically generated
982 messages ("delivery status notifications" - hence the name of the option).
984 14. The smtp transport has a new option called hosts_avoid_pipelining.
986 15. By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matches. There is now a -I option
987 that makes it case-sensitive.
989 16. A number of new features ("addresses", "map", "filter", and "reduce") have
990 been added to string expansions to make it easier to process lists of
991 items, typically addresses.
993 17. There's a new ACL modifier called "continue". It does nothing of itself,
994 and processing of the ACL always continues with the next condition or
995 modifier. It is provided so that the side effects of expanding its argument
998 18. It is now possible to use newline and other control characters (those with
999 values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists.
1001 19. The exigrep utility now has a -v option, which inverts the matching
1004 20. The host_find_failed option in the manualroute router can now be set to
1011 No new features were added to 4.66.
1017 No new features were added to 4.65.
1023 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
1024 "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
1025 least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
1028 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
1029 to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
1031 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
1032 authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
1033 number of authentication methods.
1035 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
1036 messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
1037 $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
1039 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
1040 second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
1041 restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
1042 without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
1044 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
1046 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
1047 conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
1048 followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
1049 before doing the expansions.
1051 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
1052 -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
1055 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
1056 is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
1057 subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
1059 10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
1060 shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
1062 11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
1063 as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
1064 relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
1065 available for compatibility.)
1067 12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
1068 to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
1074 1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
1077 2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
1078 start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
1081 3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
1082 or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
1083 start of the message for an SMTP error code.
1085 4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
1086 one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
1088 5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
1090 After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
1091 before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
1093 Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
1095 Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
1097 --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
1098 Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
1099 each messages value for each variable.
1101 Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
1102 same criteria without --not).
1108 1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
1109 as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
1110 the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
1111 name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
1112 IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
1113 This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
1115 ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
1117 Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
1118 one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
1119 a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
1122 2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
1123 incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
1124 one, a batch delivery now occurs.
1126 3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
1127 Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
1128 against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
1129 maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
1135 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
1136 the 4.60 release are:
1138 . An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
1140 . An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
1142 . A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
1143 $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
1144 for other things in complicated expansions.
1146 . The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
1148 . It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
1149 resources used in pipe deliveries.
1151 . A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
1153 . More errors are detectable in retry rules.
1155 There are a number of other additions too.
1161 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.60 release. Major new features since
1162 the 4.50 release are:
1164 . Support for SQLite.
1166 . Support for IGNOREQUOTA in LMTP.
1168 . Extensions to the "submission mode" features.
1170 . Support for Client SMTP Authorization (CSA).
1172 . Support for ratelimiting hosts and users.
1174 . New expansion items to help with the BATV "prvs" scheme.
1176 . A "match_ip" condition, that matches an IP address against a list.
1178 There are many more minor changes.
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