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. ${l_header:<name>} and ${l_h:<name>} expansion items, giving a colon-sep
13 list when there are multiple headers having a given name. This matters
14 when individual headers are wrapped onto multiple lines; with previous
15 facilities hard to parse.
17 2. The ${readsocket } expansion item now takes a "tls" option, doing the
20 3. EXPERIMENTAL_REQUIRETLS. See the experimental.spec file.
22 4. If built with SUPPORT_I18N a "utf8_downconvert" option on the smtp transport.
24 5. A "pipelining" log_selector.
26 6. Builtin macros for supported log_selector and openssl_options values.
28 7. JSON variants of the ${extract } expansion item.
33 1. Dual-certificate stacks on servers now support OCSP stapling, under GnuTLS
34 version 3.5.6 or later.
36 2. DANE is now supported under GnuTLS version 3.0.0 or later. Both GnuTLS and
37 OpenSSL versions are moved to mainline support from Experimental.
38 New SMTP transport option "dane_require_tls_ciphers".
40 3. Feature macros for the compiled-in set of malware scanner interfaces.
42 4. SPF support is promoted from Experimental to mainline status. The template
43 src/EDITME makefile does not enable its inclusion.
45 5. Logging control for DKIM verification. The existing DKIM log line is
46 controlled by a "dkim_verbose" selector which is _not_ enabled by default.
47 A new tag "DKIM=<domain>" is added to <= lines by default, controlled by
48 a "dkim" log_selector.
50 6. Receive duration on <= lines, under a new log_selector "receive_time".
52 7. Options "ipv4_only" and "ipv4_prefer" on the dnslookup router and on
53 routing rules in the manualroute router.
55 8. Expansion item ${sha3:<string>} / ${sha3_<N>:<string>} now also supported
56 under OpenSSL version 1.1.1 or later.
58 9. DKIM operations can now use the Ed25519 algorithm in addition to RSA, under
59 GnuTLS 3.6.0 or OpenSSL 1.1.1 or later.
61 10. Builtin feature-macros _CRYPTO_HASH_SHA3 and _CRYPTO_SIGN_ED25519, library
64 11. "exim -bP macro <name>" returns caller-usable status.
66 12. Expansion item ${authresults {<machine>}} for creating an
67 Authentication-Results: header.
69 13. EXPERIMENTAL_ARC. See the experimental.spec file.
70 See also new util/renew-opendmarc-tlds.sh script for use with DMARC/ARC.
72 14: A dane:fail event, intended to facilitate reporting.
74 15. "Lightweight" support for Redis Cluster. Requires redis_servers list to
75 contain all the servers in the cluster, all of which must be reachable from
76 the running exim instance. If the cluster has master/slave replication, the
77 list must contain all the master and slave servers.
79 16. Add an option to the Avast scanner interface: "pass_unscanned". This
80 allows to treat unscanned files as clean. Files may be unscanned for
81 several reasons: decompression bombs, broken archives.
87 1. PKG_CONFIG_PATH can now be set in Local/Makefile;
88 wildcards will be expanded, values are collapsed.
90 2. The ${readsocket } expansion now takes an option to not shutdown the
91 connection after sending the query string. The default remains to do so.
93 3. An smtp transport option "hosts_noproxy_tls" to control whether multiple
94 deliveries on a single TCP connection can maintain a TLS connection
95 open. By default disabled for all hosts, doing so saves the cost of
96 making new TLS sessions, at the cost of having to proxy the data via
97 another process. Logging is also affected.
99 4. A malware connection type for the FPSCAND protocol.
101 5. An option for recipient verify callouts to hold the connection open for
102 further recipients and for delivery.
104 6. The reproducible build $SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable is now
107 7. Optionally, an alternate format for spool data-files which matches the
108 wire format - meaning more efficient reception and transmission (at the
109 cost of difficulty with standard Unix tools). Only used for messages
110 received using the ESMTP CHUNKING option, and when a new main-section
111 option "spool_wireformat" (false by default) is set.
113 8. New main configuration option "commandline_checks_require_admin" to
114 restrict who can use various introspection options.
116 9. New option modifier "no_check" for quota and quota_filecount
117 appendfile transport.
119 10. Variable $smtp_command_history returning a comma-sep list of recent
122 11. Millisecond timetamps in logs, on log_selector "millisec". Also affects
123 log elements QT, DT and D, and timstamps in debug output.
125 12. TCP Fast Open logging. As a server, logs when the SMTP banner was sent
126 while still in SYN_RECV state; as a client logs when the connection
127 is opened with a TFO cookie.
129 13. DKIM support for multiple signing, by domain and/or key-selector.
130 DKIM support for multiple hashes, and for alternate-identity tags.
131 Builtin macro with default list of signed headers.
132 Better syntax for specifying oversigning.
133 The DKIM ACL can override verification status, and status is visible in
136 14. Exipick understands -C|--config for an alternative Exim
139 15. TCP Fast Open used, with data-on-SYN, for client SMTP via SOCKS5 proxy,
140 for ${readsocket } expansions, and for ClamAV.
142 16. The "-be" expansion test mode now supports macros. Macros are expanded
143 in test lines, and new macros can be defined.
145 17. Support for server-side dual-certificate-stacks (eg. RSA + ECDSA).
151 1. Allow relative config file names for ".include"
153 2. A main-section config option "debug_store" to control the checks on
154 variable locations during store-reset. Normally false but can be enabled
155 when a memory corrution issue is suspected on a production system.
161 1. The new perl_taintmode option allows to run the embedded perl
162 interpreter in taint mode.
164 2. New log_selector: dnssec, adds a "DS" tag to acceptance and delivery lines.
166 3. Speculative debugging, via a "kill" option to the "control=debug" ACL
169 4. New expansion item ${sha3:<string>} / ${sha3_<N>:<string>}.
170 N can be 224, 256 (default), 384, 512.
171 With GnuTLS 3.5.0 or later, only.
173 5. Facility for named queues: A command-line argument can specify
174 the queue name for a queue operation, and an ACL modifier can set
175 the queue to be used for a message. A $queue_name variable gives
178 6. New expansion operators base32/base32d.
180 7. The CHUNKING ESMTP extension from RFC 3030. May give some slight
181 performance increase and network load decrease. Main config option
182 chunking_advertise_hosts, and smtp transport option hosts_try_chunking
185 8. LMDB lookup support, as Experimental. Patch supplied by Andrew Colin Kissa.
187 9. Expansion operator escape8bit, like escape but not touching newline etc..
189 10. Feature macros, generated from compile options. All start with "_HAVE_"
190 and go on with some roughly recognisable name. Driver macros, for
191 router, transport and authentication drivers; names starting with "_DRIVER_".
192 Option macros, for each configuration-file option; all start with "_OPT_".
193 Use the "-bP macros" command-line option to see what is present.
195 11. Integer values for options can take a "G" multiplier.
197 12. defer=pass option for the ACL control cutthrough_delivery, to reflect 4xx
198 returns from the target back to the initiator, rather than spooling the
201 13. New built-in constants available for tls_dhparam and default changed.
203 14. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_QUEUEFILE, a queuefile transport, for writing
204 out copies of the message spool files for use by 3rd-party scanners.
206 15. A new option on the smtp transport, hosts_try_fastopen. If the system
207 supports it (on Linux it must be enabled in the kernel by the sysadmin)
208 try to use RFC 7413 "TCP Fast Open". No data is sent on the SYN segment
209 but it permits a peer that also supports the facility to send its SMTP
210 banner immediately after the SYN,ACK segment rather then waiting for
211 another ACK - so saving up to one roundtrip time. Because it requires
212 previous communication with the peer (we save a cookie from it) this
213 will only become active on frequently-contacted destinations.
215 16. A new syslog_pid option to suppress PID duplication in syslog lines.
221 1. The ACL conditions regex and mime_regex now capture substrings
222 into numeric variables $regex1 to 9, like the "match" expansion condition.
224 2. New $callout_address variable records the address used for a spam=,
225 malware= or verify= callout.
227 3. Transports now take a "max_parallel" option, to limit concurrency.
229 4. Expansion operators ${ipv6norm:<string>} and ${ipv6denorm:<string>}.
230 The latter expands to a 8-element colon-sep set of hex digits including
231 leading zeroes. A trailing ipv4-style dotted-decimal set is converted
232 to hex. Pure ipv4 addresses are converted to IPv4-mapped IPv6.
233 The former operator strips leading zeroes and collapses the longest
234 set of 0-groups to a double-colon.
236 5. New "-bP config" support, to dump the effective configuration.
238 6. New $dkim_key_length variable.
240 7. New base64d and base64 expansion items (the existing str2b64 being a
241 synonym of the latter). Add support in base64 for certificates.
243 8. New main configuration option "bounce_return_linesize_limit" to
244 avoid oversize bodies in bounces. The default value matches RFC
247 9. New $initial_cwd expansion variable.
253 1. Support for using the system standard CA bundle.
255 2. New expansion items $config_file, $config_dir, containing the file
256 and directory name of the main configuration file. Also $exim_version.
258 3. New "malware=" support for Avast.
260 4. New "spam=" variant option for Rspamd.
262 5. Assorted options on malware= and spam= scanners.
264 6. A command-line option to write a comment into the logfile.
266 7. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_SOCKS feature enabled, the smtp transport can
267 be configured to make connections via socks5 proxies.
269 8. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_INTERNATIONAL, support is included for
270 the transmission of UTF-8 envelope addresses.
272 9. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_INTERNATIONAL, an expansion item for a commonly
273 used encoding of Maildir folder names.
275 10. A logging option for slow DNS lookups.
277 11. New ${env {<variable>}} expansion.
279 12. A non-SMTP authenticator using information from TLS client certificates.
281 13. Main option "tls_eccurve" for selecting an Elliptic Curve for TLS.
282 Patch originally by Wolfgang Breyha.
284 14. Main option "dns_trust_aa" for trusting your local nameserver at the
285 same level as DNSSEC.
291 1. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_DANE feature enabled, Exim will follow the
292 DANE SMTP draft to assess a secure chain of trust of the certificate
293 used to establish the TLS connection based on a TLSA record in the
294 domain of the sender.
296 2. The EXPERIMENTAL_TPDA feature has been renamed to EXPERIMENTAL_EVENT
297 and several new events have been created. The reason is because it has
298 been expanded beyond just firing events during the transport phase. Any
299 existing TPDA transport options will have to be rewritten to use a new
300 $event_name expansion variable in a condition. Refer to the
301 experimental-spec.txt for details and examples.
303 3. The EXPERIMENTAL_CERTNAMES features is an enhancement to verify that
304 server certs used for TLS match the result of the MX lookup. It does
305 not use the same mechanism as DANE.
315 1. If built with the EXPERIMENTAL_PROXY feature enabled, Exim can be
316 configured to expect an initial header from a proxy that will make the
317 actual external source IP:host be used in exim instead of the IP of the
318 proxy that is connecting to it.
320 2. New verify option header_names_ascii, which will check to make sure
321 there are no non-ASCII characters in header names. Exim itself handles
322 those non-ASCII characters, but downstream apps may not, so Exim can
323 detect and reject if those characters are present.
325 3. New expansion operator ${utf8clean:string} to replace malformed UTF8
326 codepoints with valid ones.
328 4. New malware type "sock". Talks over a Unix or TCP socket, sending one
329 command line and matching a regex against the return data for trigger
330 and a second regex to extract malware_name. The mail spoolfile name can
331 be included in the command line.
333 5. The smtp transport now supports options "tls_verify_hosts" and
334 "tls_try_verify_hosts". If either is set the certificate verification
335 is split from the encryption operation. The default remains that a failed
336 verification cancels the encryption.
338 6. New SERVERS override of default ldap server list. In the ACLs, an ldap
339 lookup can now set a list of servers to use that is different from the
342 7. New command-line option -C for exiqgrep to specify alternate exim.conf
343 file when searching the queue.
345 8. OCSP now supports GnuTLS also, if you have version 3.1.3 or later of that.
347 9. Support for DNSSEC on outbound connections.
349 10. New variables "tls_(in,out)_(our,peer)cert" and expansion item
350 "certextract" to extract fields from them. Hash operators md5 and sha1
351 work over them for generating fingerprints, and a new sha256 operator
354 11. PRDR is now supported dy default.
356 12. OCSP stapling is now supported by default.
358 13. If built with the EXPERIMENTAL_DSN feature enabled, Exim will output
359 Delivery Status Notification messages in MIME format, and negotiate
360 DSN features per RFC 3461.
366 1. New command-line option -bI:sieve will list all supported sieve extensions
367 of this Exim build on standard output, one per line.
368 ManageSieve (RFC 5804) providers managing scripts for use by Exim should
369 query this to establish the correct list to include in the protocol's
370 SIEVE capability line.
372 2. If the -n option is combined with the -bP option, then the name of an
373 emitted option is not output, only the value (if visible to you).
374 For instance, "exim -n -bP pid_file_path" should just emit a pathname
375 followed by a newline, and no other text.
377 3. When built with SUPPORT_TLS and USE_GNUTLS, the SMTP transport driver now
378 has a "tls_dh_min_bits" option, to set the minimum acceptable number of
379 bits in the Diffie-Hellman prime offered by a server (in DH ciphersuites)
380 acceptable for security. (Option accepted but ignored if using OpenSSL).
381 Defaults to 1024, the old value. May be lowered only to 512, or raised as
382 far as you like. Raising this may hinder TLS interoperability with other
383 sites and is not currently recommended. Lowering this will permit you to
384 establish a TLS session which is not as secure as you might like.
386 Unless you really know what you are doing, leave it alone.
388 4. If not built with DISABLE_DNSSEC, Exim now has the main option
389 dns_dnssec_ok; if set to 1 then Exim will initialise the resolver library
390 to send the DO flag to your recursive resolver. If you have a recursive
391 resolver, which can set the Authenticated Data (AD) flag in results, Exim
392 can now detect this. Exim does not perform validation itself, instead
393 relying upon a trusted path to the resolver.
395 Current status: work-in-progress; $sender_host_dnssec variable added.
397 5. DSCP support for outbound connections: on a transport using the smtp driver,
398 set "dscp = ef", for instance, to cause the connections to have the relevant
399 DSCP (IPv4 TOS or IPv6 TCLASS) value in the header.
401 Similarly for inbound connections, there is a new control modifier, dscp,
402 so "warn control = dscp/ef" in the connect ACL, or after authentication.
404 Supported values depend upon system libraries. "exim -bI:dscp" to list the
405 ones Exim knows of. You can also set a raw number 0..0x3F.
407 6. The -G command-line flag is no longer ignored; it is now equivalent to an
408 ACL setting "control = suppress_local_fixups". The -L command-line flag
409 is now accepted and forces use of syslog, with the provided tag as the
410 process name. A few other flags used by Sendmail are now accepted and
413 7. New cutthrough routing feature. Requested by a "control = cutthrough_delivery"
414 ACL modifier; works for single-recipient mails which are received on and
415 deliverable via SMTP. Using the connection made for a recipient verify,
416 if requested before the verify, or a new one made for the purpose while
417 the inbound connection is still active. The bulk of the mail item is copied
418 direct from the inbound socket to the outbound (as well as the spool file).
419 When the source notifies the end of data, the data acceptance by the destination
420 is negotiated before the acceptance is sent to the source. If the destination
421 does not accept the mail item, for example due to content-scanning, the item
422 is not accepted from the source and therefore there is no need to generate
423 a bounce mail. This is of benefit when providing a secondary-MX service.
424 The downside is that delays are under the control of the ultimate destination
427 The Received-by: header on items delivered by cutthrough is generated
428 early in reception rather than at the end; this will affect any timestamp
429 included. The log line showing delivery is recorded before that showing
430 reception; it uses a new ">>" tag instead of "=>".
432 To support the feature, verify-callout connections can now use ESMTP and TLS.
433 The usual smtp transport options are honoured, plus a (new, default everything)
434 hosts_verify_avoid_tls.
436 New variable families named tls_in_cipher, tls_out_cipher etc. are introduced
437 for specific access to the information for each connection. The old names
438 are present for now but deprecated.
440 Not yet supported: IGNOREQUOTA, SIZE, PIPELINING.
442 8. New expansion operators ${listnamed:name} to get the content of a named list
443 and ${listcount:string} to count the items in a list.
445 9. New global option "gnutls_allow_auto_pkcs11", defaults false. The GnuTLS
446 rewrite in 4.80 combines with GnuTLS 2.12.0 or later, to autoload PKCS11
447 modules. For some situations this is desirable, but we expect admin in
448 those situations to know they want the feature. More commonly, it means
449 that GUI user modules get loaded and are broken by the setuid Exim being
450 unable to access files specified in environment variables and passed
451 through, thus breakage. So we explicitly inhibit the PKCS11 initialisation
452 unless this new option is set.
454 Some older OS's with earlier versions of GnuTLS might not have pkcs11 ability,
455 so have also added a build option which can be used to build Exim with GnuTLS
456 but without trying to use any kind of PKCS11 support. Uncomment this in the
459 AVOID_GNUTLS_PKCS11=yes
461 10. The "acl = name" condition on an ACL now supports optional arguments.
462 New expansion item "${acl {name}{arg}...}" and expansion condition
463 "acl {{name}{arg}...}" are added. In all cases up to nine arguments
464 can be used, appearing in $acl_arg1 to $acl_arg9 for the called ACL.
465 Variable $acl_narg contains the number of arguments. If the ACL sets
466 a "message =" value this becomes the result of the expansion item,
467 or the value of $value for the expansion condition. If the ACL returns
468 accept the expansion condition is true; if reject, false. A defer
469 return results in a forced fail.
471 11. Routers and transports can now have multiple headers_add and headers_remove
472 option lines. The concatenated list is used.
474 12. New ACL modifier "remove_header" can remove headers before message gets
475 handled by routers/transports.
477 13. New dnsdb lookup pseudo-type "a+". A sequence of "a6" (if configured),
478 "aaaa" and "a" lookups is done and the full set of results returned.
480 14. New expansion variable $headers_added with content from ACL add_header
481 modifier (but not yet added to message).
483 15. New 8bitmime status logging option for received messages. Log field "M8S".
485 16. New authenticated_sender logging option, adding to log field "A".
487 17. New expansion variables $router_name and $transport_name. Useful
488 particularly for debug_print as -bt command-line option does not
489 require privilege whereas -d does.
491 18. If built with EXPERIMENTAL_PRDR, per-recipient data responses per a
492 proposed extension to SMTP from Eric Hall.
494 19. The pipe transport has gained the force_command option, to allow
495 decorating commands from user .forward pipe aliases with prefix
496 wrappers, for instance.
498 20. Callout connections can now AUTH; the same controls as normal delivery
501 21. Support for DMARC, using opendmarc libs, can be enabled. It adds new
502 options: dmarc_forensic_sender, dmarc_history_file, and dmarc_tld_file.
503 It adds new expansion variables $dmarc_ar_header, $dmarc_status,
504 $dmarc_status_text, and $dmarc_used_domain. It adds a new acl modifier
505 dmarc_status. It adds new control flags dmarc_disable_verify and
506 dmarc_enable_forensic. The default for the dmarc_tld_file option is
507 "/etc/exim/opendmarc.tlds" and can be changed via EDITME.
509 22. Add expansion variable $authenticated_fail_id, which is the username
510 provided to the authentication method which failed. It is available
511 for use in subsequent ACL processing (typically quit or notquit ACLs).
513 23. New ACL modifier "udpsend" can construct a UDP packet to send to a given
516 24. New ${hexquote:..string..} expansion operator converts non-printable
517 characters in the string to \xNN form.
519 25. Experimental TPDA (Transport Post Delivery Action) function added.
520 Patch provided by Axel Rau.
522 26. Experimental Redis lookup added. Patch provided by Warren Baker.
528 1. New authenticator driver, "gsasl". Server-only (at present).
529 This is a SASL interface, licensed under GPL, which can be found at
530 http://www.gnu.org/software/gsasl/.
531 This system does not provide sources of data for authentication, so
532 careful use needs to be made of the conditions in Exim.
534 2. New authenticator driver, "heimdal_gssapi". Server-only.
535 A replacement for using cyrus_sasl with Heimdal, now that $KRB5_KTNAME
536 is no longer honoured for setuid programs by Heimdal. Use the
537 "server_keytab" option to point to the keytab.
539 3. The "pkg-config" system can now be used when building Exim to reference
540 cflags and library information for lookups and authenticators, rather
541 than having to update "CFLAGS", "AUTH_LIBS", "LOOKUP_INCLUDE" and
542 "LOOKUP_LIBS" directly. Similarly for handling the TLS library support
543 without adjusting "TLS_INCLUDE" and "TLS_LIBS".
545 In addition, setting PCRE_CONFIG=yes will query the pcre-config tool to
546 find the headers and libraries for PCRE.
548 4. New expansion variable $tls_bits.
550 5. New lookup type, "dbmjz". Key is an Exim list, the elements of which will
551 be joined together with ASCII NUL characters to construct the key to pass
552 into the DBM library. Can be used with gsasl to access sasldb2 files as
555 6. OpenSSL now supports TLS1.1 and TLS1.2 with OpenSSL 1.0.1.
557 Avoid release 1.0.1a if you can. Note that the default value of
558 "openssl_options" is no longer "+dont_insert_empty_fragments", as that
559 increased susceptibility to attack. This may still have interoperability
560 implications for very old clients (see version 4.31 change 37) but
561 administrators can choose to make the trade-off themselves and restore
562 compatibility at the cost of session security.
564 7. Use of the new expansion variable $tls_sni in the main configuration option
565 tls_certificate will cause Exim to re-expand the option, if the client
566 sends the TLS Server Name Indication extension, to permit choosing a
567 different certificate; tls_privatekey will also be re-expanded. You must
568 still set these options to expand to valid files when $tls_sni is not set.
570 The SMTP Transport has gained the option tls_sni, which will set a hostname
571 for outbound TLS sessions, and set $tls_sni too.
573 A new log_selector, +tls_sni, has been added, to log received SNI values
574 for Exim as a server.
576 8. The existing "accept_8bitmime" option now defaults to true. This means
577 that Exim is deliberately not strictly RFC compliant. We're following
578 Dan Bernstein's advice in http://cr.yp.to/smtp/8bitmime.html by default.
579 Those who disagree, or know that they are talking to mail servers that,
580 even today, are not 8-bit clean, need to turn off this option.
582 9. Exim can now be started with -bw (with an optional timeout, given as
583 -bw<timespec>). With this, stdin at startup is a socket that is
584 already listening for connections. This has a more modern name of
585 "socket activation", but forcing the activated socket to fd 0. We're
586 interested in adding more support for modern variants.
588 10. ${eval } now uses 64-bit values on supporting platforms. A new "G" suffix
589 for numbers indicates multiplication by 1024^3.
591 11. The GnuTLS support has been revamped; the three options gnutls_require_kx,
592 gnutls_require_mac & gnutls_require_protocols are no longer supported.
593 tls_require_ciphers is now parsed by gnutls_priority_init(3) as a priority
594 string, documentation for which is at:
595 http://www.gnutls.org/manual/html_node/Priority-Strings.html
597 SNI support has been added to Exim's GnuTLS integration too.
599 For sufficiently recent GnuTLS libraries, ${randint:..} will now use
600 gnutls_rnd(), asking for GNUTLS_RND_NONCE level randomness.
602 12. With OpenSSL, if built with EXPERIMENTAL_OCSP, a new option tls_ocsp_file
603 is now available. If the contents of the file are valid, then Exim will
604 send that back in response to a TLS status request; this is OCSP Stapling.
605 Exim will not maintain the contents of the file in any way: administrators
606 are responsible for ensuring that it is up-to-date.
608 See "experimental-spec.txt" for more details.
610 13. ${lookup dnsdb{ }} supports now SPF record types. They are handled
611 identically to TXT record lookups.
613 14. New expansion variable $tod_epoch_l for higher-precision time.
615 15. New global option tls_dh_max_bits, defaulting to current value of NSS
616 hard-coded limit of DH ephemeral bits, to fix interop problems caused by
617 GnuTLS 2.12 library recommending a bit count higher than NSS supports.
619 16. tls_dhparam now used by both OpenSSL and GnuTLS, can be path or identifier.
620 Option can now be a path or an identifier for a standard prime.
621 If unset, we use the DH prime from section 2.2 of RFC 5114, "ike23".
622 Set to "historic" to get the old GnuTLS behaviour of auto-generated DH
625 17. SSLv2 now disabled by default in OpenSSL. (Never supported by GnuTLS).
626 Use "openssl_options -no_sslv2" to re-enable support, if your OpenSSL
627 install was not built with OPENSSL_NO_SSL2 ("no-ssl2").
633 1. New options for the ratelimit ACL condition: /count= and /unique=.
634 The /noupdate option has been replaced by a /readonly option.
636 2. The SMTP transport's protocol option may now be set to "smtps", to
637 use SSL-on-connect outbound.
639 3. New variable $av_failed, set true if the AV scanner deferred; ie, when
640 there is a problem talking to the AV scanner, or the AV scanner running.
642 4. New expansion conditions, "inlist" and "inlisti", which take simple lists
643 and check if the search item is a member of the list. This does not
644 support named lists, but does subject the list part to string expansion.
646 5. Unless the new EXPAND_LISTMATCH_RHS build option is set when Exim was
647 built, Exim no longer performs string expansion on the second string of
648 the match_* expansion conditions: "match_address", "match_domain",
649 "match_ip" & "match_local_part". Named lists can still be used.
655 1. The global option "dns_use_edns0" may be set to coerce EDNS0 usage on
656 or off in the resolver library.
662 1. In addition to the existing LDAP and LDAP/SSL ("ldaps") support, there
663 is now LDAP/TLS support, given sufficiently modern OpenLDAP client
664 libraries. The following global options have been added in support of
665 this: ldap_ca_cert_dir, ldap_ca_cert_file, ldap_cert_file, ldap_cert_key,
666 ldap_cipher_suite, ldap_require_cert, ldap_start_tls.
668 2. The pipe transport now takes a boolean option, "freeze_signal", default
669 false. When true, if the external delivery command exits on a signal then
670 Exim will freeze the message in the queue, instead of generating a bounce.
672 3. Log filenames may now use %M as an escape, instead of %D (still available).
673 The %M pattern expands to yyyymm, providing month-level resolution.
675 4. The $message_linecount variable is now updated for the maildir_tag option,
676 in the same way as $message_size, to reflect the real number of lines,
677 including any header additions or removals from transport.
679 5. When contacting a pool of SpamAssassin servers configured in spamd_address,
680 Exim now selects entries randomly, to better scale in a cluster setup.
686 1. SECURITY FIX: privilege escalation flaw fixed. On Linux (and only Linux)
687 the flaw permitted the Exim run-time user to cause root to append to
688 arbitrary files of the attacker's choosing, with the content based
689 on content supplied by the attacker.
691 2. Exim now supports loading some lookup types at run-time, using your
692 platform's dlopen() functionality. This has limited platform support
693 and the intention is not to support every variant, it's limited to
694 dlopen(). This permits the main Exim binary to not be linked against
695 all the libraries needed for all the lookup types.
701 NOTE: this version is not guaranteed backwards-compatible, please read the
702 items below carefully
704 1. A new main configuration option, "openssl_options", is available if Exim
705 is built with SSL support provided by OpenSSL. The option allows
706 administrators to specify OpenSSL options to be used on connections;
707 typically this is to set bug compatibility features which the OpenSSL
708 developers have not enabled by default. There may be security
709 consequences for certain options, so these should not be changed
712 2. A new pipe transport option, "permit_coredumps", may help with problem
713 diagnosis in some scenarios. Note that Exim is typically installed as
714 a setuid binary, which on most OSes will inhibit coredumps by default,
715 so that safety mechanism would have to be overridden for this option to
716 be able to take effect.
718 3. ClamAV 0.95 is now required for ClamAV support in Exim, unless
719 Local/Makefile sets: WITH_OLD_CLAMAV_STREAM=yes
720 Note that this switches Exim to use a new API ("INSTREAM") and a future
721 release of ClamAV will remove support for the old API ("STREAM").
723 The av_scanner option, when set to "clamd", now takes an optional third
724 part, "local", which causes Exim to pass a filename to ClamAV instead of
725 the file content. This is the same behaviour as when clamd is pointed at
726 a Unix-domain socket. For example:
728 av_scanner = clamd:192.0.2.3 1234:local
730 ClamAV's ExtendedDetectionInfo response format is now handled.
732 4. There is now a -bmalware option, restricted to admin users. This option
733 takes one parameter, a filename, and scans that file with Exim's
734 malware-scanning framework. This is intended purely as a debugging aid
735 to ensure that Exim's scanning is working, not to replace other tools.
736 Note that the ACL framework is not invoked, so if av_scanner references
737 ACL variables without a fallback then this will fail.
739 5. There is a new expansion operator, "reverse_ip", which will reverse IP
740 addresses; IPv4 into dotted quad, IPv6 into dotted nibble. Examples:
742 ${reverse_ip:192.0.2.4}
744 ${reverse_ip:2001:0db8:c42:9:1:abcd:192.0.2.3}
745 -> 3.0.2.0.0.0.0.c.d.c.b.a.1.0.0.0.9.0.0.0.2.4.c.0.8.b.d.0.1.0.0.2
747 6. There is a new ACL control called "debug", to enable debug logging.
748 This allows selective logging of certain incoming transactions within
749 production environments, with some care. It takes two options, "tag"
750 and "opts"; "tag" is included in the filename of the log and "opts"
751 is used as per the -d<options> command-line option. Examples, which
752 don't all make sense in all contexts:
755 control = debug/tag=.$sender_host_address
756 control = debug/opts=+expand+acl
757 control = debug/tag=.$message_exim_id/opts=+expand
759 7. It has always been implicit in the design and the documentation that
760 "the Exim user" is not root. src/EDITME said that using root was
761 "very strongly discouraged". This is not enough to keep people from
762 shooting themselves in the foot in days when many don't configure Exim
763 themselves but via package build managers. The security consequences of
764 running various bits of network code are severe if there should be bugs in
765 them. As such, the Exim user may no longer be root. If configured
766 statically, Exim will refuse to build. If configured as ref:user then Exim
767 will exit shortly after start-up. If you must shoot yourself in the foot,
768 then henceforth you will have to maintain your own local patches to strip
771 8. There is a new expansion condition, bool_lax{}. Where bool{} uses the ACL
772 condition logic to determine truth/failure and will fail to expand many
773 strings, bool_lax{} uses the router condition logic, where most strings
775 Note: bool{00} is false, bool_lax{00} is true.
777 9. Routers now support multiple "condition" tests.
779 10. There is now a runtime configuration option "tcp_wrappers_daemon_name".
780 Setting this allows an admin to define which entry in the tcpwrappers
781 config file will be used to control access to the daemon. This option
782 is only available when Exim is built with USE_TCP_WRAPPERS. The
783 default value is set at build time using the TCP_WRAPPERS_DAEMON_NAME
786 11. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The default value for system_filter_user is now
787 the Exim run-time user, instead of root.
789 12. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] ALT_CONFIG_ROOT_ONLY is no longer optional and
790 is forced on. This is mitigated by the new build option
791 TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST which defines a list of configuration files which
792 are trusted; one per line. If a config file is owned by root and matches
793 a pathname in the list, then it may be invoked by the Exim build-time
794 user without Exim relinquishing root privileges.
796 13. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The Exim user is no longer automatically
797 trusted to supply -D<Macro[=Value]> overrides on the command-line. Going
798 forward, we recommend using TRUSTED_CONFIG_LIST with shim configs that
799 include the main config. As a transition mechanism, we are temporarily
800 providing a work-around: the new build option WHITELIST_D_MACROS provides
801 a colon-separated list of macro names which may be overridden by the Exim
802 run-time user. The values of these macros are constrained to the regex
803 ^[A-Za-z0-9_/.-]*$ (which explicitly does allow for empty values).
809 1. TWO SECURITY FIXES: one relating to mail-spools which are globally
810 writable, the other to locking of MBX folders (not mbox).
812 2. MySQL stored procedures are now supported.
814 3. The dkim_domain transport option is now a list, not a single string, and
815 messages will be signed for each element in the list (discarding
818 4. The 4.70 release unexpectedly changed the behaviour of dnsdb TXT lookups
819 in the presence of multiple character strings within the RR. Prior to 4.70,
820 only the first string would be returned. The dnsdb lookup now, by default,
821 preserves the pre-4.70 semantics, but also now takes an extended output
822 separator specification. The separator can be followed by a semicolon, to
823 concatenate the individual text strings together with no join character,
824 or by a comma and a second separator character, in which case the text
825 strings within a TXT record are joined on that second character.
826 Administrators are reminded that DNS provides no ordering guarantees
827 between multiple records in an RRset. For example:
829 foo.example. IN TXT "a" "b" "c"
830 foo.example. IN TXT "d" "e" "f"
832 ${lookup dnsdb{>/ txt=foo.example}} -> "a/d"
833 ${lookup dnsdb{>/; txt=foo.example}} -> "def/abc"
834 ${lookup dnsdb{>/,+ txt=foo.example}} -> "a+b+c/d+e+f"
840 1. Native DKIM support without an external library.
841 (Note that if no action to prevent it is taken, a straight upgrade will
842 result in DKIM verification of all signed incoming emails. See spec
843 for details on conditionally disabling)
845 2. Experimental DCC support via dccifd (contributed by Wolfgang Breyha).
847 3. There is now a bool{} expansion condition which maps certain strings to
848 true/false condition values (most likely of use in conjunction with the
849 and{} expansion operator).
851 4. The $spam_score, $spam_bar and $spam_report variables are now available
854 5. exim -bP now supports "macros", "macro_list" or "macro MACRO_NAME" as
855 options, provided that Exim is invoked by an admin_user.
857 6. There is a new option gnutls_compat_mode, when linked against GnuTLS,
858 which increases compatibility with older clients at the cost of decreased
859 security. Don't set this unless you need to support such clients.
861 7. There is a new expansion operator, ${randint:...} which will produce a
862 "random" number less than the supplied integer. This randomness is
863 not guaranteed to be cryptographically strong, but depending upon how
864 Exim was built may be better than the most naive schemes.
866 8. Exim now explicitly ensures that SHA256 is available when linked against
869 9. The transport_filter_timeout option now applies to SMTP transports too.
875 1. Preliminary DKIM support in Experimental.
881 1. The body_linecount and body_zerocount C variables are now exported in the
884 2. When a dnslists lookup succeeds, the key that was looked up is now placed
885 in $dnslist_matched. When the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in
886 this variable (though it is, of course, in the actual lookup). In simple
889 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example
891 the key is also available in another variable (in this case,
892 $sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not
893 true. For example, using a data lookup might generate a dnslists lookup
896 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|...
898 If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be
899 192.168.6.7 (for example).
901 3. Authenticators now have a client_condition option. When Exim is running as
902 a client, it skips an authenticator whose client_condition expansion yields
903 "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for example, to skip plain text
904 authenticators when the connection is not encrypted by a setting such as:
906 client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}}
908 Note that the 4.67 documentation states that $tls_cipher contains the
909 cipher used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it
910 contains the cipher used for the delivery. The same is true for
913 4. There is now a -Mvc <message-id> option, which outputs a copy of the
914 message to the standard output, in RFC 2822 format. The option can be used
915 only by an admin user.
917 5. There is now a /noupdate option for the ratelimit ACL condition. It
918 computes the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update
919 the saved data. This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup
920 the existence of a specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without
921 incrementing the ratelimit counter for that key.
923 In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must set the rate
924 for the same key somewhere (otherwise it will always be zero).
929 # Read the rate; if it doesn't exist or is below the maximum
931 deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate
932 log_message = RATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
933 (max $sender_rate_limit)
935 [... some other logic and tests...]
937 warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd
938 log_message = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
939 (max $sender_rate_limit)
940 condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}}
944 6. The variable $max_received_linelength contains the number of bytes in the
945 longest line that was received as part of the message, not counting the
946 line termination character(s).
948 7. Host lists can now include +ignore_defer and +include_defer, analagous to
949 +ignore_unknown and +include_unknown. These options should be used with
950 care, probably only in non-critical host lists such as whitelists.
952 8. There's a new option called queue_only_load_latch, which defaults true.
953 If set false when queue_only_load is greater than zero, Exim re-evaluates
954 the load for each incoming message in an SMTP session. Otherwise, once one
955 message is queued, the remainder are also.
957 9. There is a new ACL, specified by acl_smtp_notquit, which is run in most
958 cases when an SMTP session ends without sending QUIT. However, when Exim
959 itself is is bad trouble, such as being unable to write to its log files,
960 this ACL is not run, because it might try to do things (such as write to
961 log files) that make the situation even worse.
963 Like the QUIT ACL, this new ACL is provided to make it possible to gather
964 statistics. Whatever it returns (accept or deny) is immaterial. The "delay"
965 modifier is forbidden in this ACL.
967 When the NOTQUIT ACL is running, the variable $smtp_notquit_reason is set
968 to a string that indicates the reason for the termination of the SMTP
969 connection. The possible values are:
971 acl-drop Another ACL issued a "drop" command
972 bad-commands Too many unknown or non-mail commands
973 command-timeout Timeout while reading SMTP commands
974 connection-lost The SMTP connection has been lost
975 data-timeout Timeout while reading message data
976 local-scan-error The local_scan() function crashed
977 local-scan-timeout The local_scan() function timed out
978 signal-exit SIGTERM or SIGINT
979 synchronization-error SMTP synchronization error
980 tls-failed TLS failed to start
982 In most cases when an SMTP connection is closed without having received
983 QUIT, Exim sends an SMTP response message before actually closing the
984 connection. With the exception of acl-drop, the default message can be
985 overridden by the "message" modifier in the NOTQUIT ACL. In the case of a
986 "drop" verb in another ACL, it is the message from the other ACL that is
989 10. For MySQL and PostgreSQL lookups, it is now possible to specify a list of
990 servers with individual queries. This is done by starting the query with
991 "servers=x:y:z;", where each item in the list may take one of two forms:
993 (1) If it is just a host name, the appropriate global option (mysql_servers
994 or pgsql_servers) is searched for a host of the same name, and the
995 remaining parameters (database, user, password) are taken from there.
997 (2) If it contains any slashes, it is taken as a complete parameter set.
999 The list of servers is used in exactly the same was as the global list.
1000 Once a connection to a server has happened and a query has been
1001 successfully executed, processing of the lookup ceases.
1003 This feature is intended for use in master/slave situations where updates
1004 are occurring, and one wants to update a master rather than a slave. If the
1005 masters are in the list for reading, you might have:
1007 mysql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw:master/db/name/pw
1009 In an updating lookup, you could then write
1011 ${lookup mysql{servers=master; UPDATE ...}
1013 If, on the other hand, the master is not to be used for reading lookups:
1015 pgsql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw
1017 you can still update the master by
1019 ${lookup pgsql{servers=master/db/name/pw; UPDATE ...}
1021 11. The message_body_newlines option (default FALSE, for backwards
1022 compatibility) can be used to control whether newlines are present in
1023 $message_body and $message_body_end. If it is FALSE, they are replaced by
1030 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
1031 the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
1032 whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
1035 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
1036 addresses, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than
1037 one IP address. This has been solved by the addition of == and =& for "all"
1038 rather than the default "any" matching.
1040 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been
1041 for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the
1042 other parameters to be varied.
1044 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When it is
1045 set, Exim compiles a runtime option called disable_fsync.
1047 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start.
1049 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining.
1051 7. There are two new variables called $sending_ip_address and $sending_port.
1052 These are set whenever an SMTP connection to another host has been set up.
1054 8. The expansion of the helo_data option in the smtp transport now happens
1055 after the connection to the server has been made.
1057 9. There is a new expansion operator ${rfc2047d: that decodes strings that
1058 are encoded as per RFC 2047.
1060 10. There is a new log selector called "pid", which causes the current process
1061 id to be added to every log line, in square brackets, immediately after the
1064 11. Exim has been modified so that it flushes SMTP output before implementing
1065 a delay in an ACL. It also flushes the output before performing a callout,
1066 as this can take a substantial time. These behaviours can be disabled by
1067 obeying control = no_delay_flush or control = no_callout_flush,
1068 respectively, at some earlier stage of the connection.
1070 12. There are two new expansion conditions that iterate over a list. They are
1071 called forany and forall.
1073 13. There's a new global option called dsn_from that can be used to vary the
1074 contents of From: lines in bounces and other automatically generated
1075 messages ("delivery status notifications" - hence the name of the option).
1077 14. The smtp transport has a new option called hosts_avoid_pipelining.
1079 15. By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matches. There is now a -I option
1080 that makes it case-sensitive.
1082 16. A number of new features ("addresses", "map", "filter", and "reduce") have
1083 been added to string expansions to make it easier to process lists of
1084 items, typically addresses.
1086 17. There's a new ACL modifier called "continue". It does nothing of itself,
1087 and processing of the ACL always continues with the next condition or
1088 modifier. It is provided so that the side effects of expanding its argument
1091 18. It is now possible to use newline and other control characters (those with
1092 values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists.
1094 19. The exigrep utility now has a -v option, which inverts the matching
1097 20. The host_find_failed option in the manualroute router can now be set to
1104 No new features were added to 4.66.
1110 No new features were added to 4.65.
1116 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
1117 "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
1118 least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
1121 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
1122 to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
1124 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
1125 authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
1126 number of authentication methods.
1128 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
1129 messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
1130 $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
1132 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
1133 second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
1134 restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
1135 without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
1137 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
1139 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
1140 conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
1141 followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
1142 before doing the expansions.
1144 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
1145 -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
1148 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
1149 is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
1150 subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
1152 10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
1153 shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
1155 11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
1156 as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
1157 relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
1158 available for compatibility.)
1160 12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
1161 to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
1167 1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
1170 2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
1171 start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
1174 3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
1175 or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
1176 start of the message for an SMTP error code.
1178 4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
1179 one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
1181 5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
1183 After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
1184 before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
1186 Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
1188 Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
1190 --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
1191 Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
1192 each messages value for each variable.
1194 Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
1195 same criteria without --not).
1201 1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
1202 as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
1203 the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
1204 name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
1205 IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
1206 This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
1208 ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
1210 Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
1211 one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
1212 a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
1215 2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
1216 incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
1217 one, a batch delivery now occurs.
1219 3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
1220 Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
1221 against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
1222 maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
1228 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
1229 the 4.60 release are:
1231 . An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
1233 . An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
1235 . A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
1236 $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
1237 for other things in complicated expansions.
1239 . The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
1241 . It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
1242 resources used in pipe deliveries.
1244 . A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
1246 . More errors are detectable in retry rules.
1248 There are a number of other additions too.
1254 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.60 release. Major new features since
1255 the 4.50 release are:
1257 . Support for SQLite.
1259 . Support for IGNOREQUOTA in LMTP.
1261 . Extensions to the "submission mode" features.
1263 . Support for Client SMTP Authorization (CSA).
1265 . Support for ratelimiting hosts and users.
1267 . New expansion items to help with the BATV "prvs" scheme.
1269 . A "match_ip" condition, that matches an IP address against a list.
1271 There are many more minor changes.
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