Change the default for system_filter_user.
[exim.git] / doc / doc-txt / NewStuff
1 $Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.176 2010/06/14 18:51:10 pdp Exp $
2
3 New Features in Exim
4 --------------------
5
6 This file contains descriptions of new features that have been added to Exim.
7 Before a formal release, there may be quite a lot of detail so that people can
8 test from the snapshots or the CVS before the documentation is updated. Once
9 the documentation is updated, this file is reduced to a short list.
10
11
12 Version 4.73
13 ------------
14
15 1. A new main configuration option, "openssl_options", is available if Exim
16 is built with SSL support provided by OpenSSL. The option allows
17 administrators to specify OpenSSL options to be used on connections;
18 typically this is to set bug compatibility features which the OpenSSL
19 developers have not enabled by default. There may be security
20 consequences for certain options, so these should not be changed
21 frivolously.
22
23 2. A new pipe transport option, "permit_coredumps", may help with problem
24 diagnosis in some scenarios. Note that Exim is typically installed as
25 a setuid binary, which on most OSes will inhibit coredumps by default,
26 so that safety mechanism would have to be overriden for this option to
27 be able to take effect.
28
29 3. ClamAV 0.95 is now required for ClamAV support in Exim, unless
30 Local/Makefile sets: WITH_OLD_CLAMAV_STREAM=yes
31 Note that this switches Exim to use a new API ("INSTREAM") and a future
32 release of ClamAV will remove support for the old API ("STREAM").
33
34 The av_scanner option, when set to "clamd", now takes an optional third
35 part, "local", which causes Exim to pass a filename to ClamAV instead of
36 the file content. This is the same behaviour as when clamd is pointed at
37 a Unix-domain socket. For example:
38
39 av_scanner = clamd:192.0.2.3 1234:local
40
41 ClamAV's ExtendedDetectionInfo response format is now handled.
42
43 4. There is now a -bmalware option, restricted to admin users. This option
44 takes one parameter, a filename, and scans that file with Exim's
45 malware-scanning framework. This is intended purely as a debugging aid
46 to ensure that Exim's scanning is working, not to replace other tools.
47 Note that the ACL framework is not invoked, so if av_scanner references
48 ACL variables without a fallback then this will fail.
49
50 5. There is a new expansion operator, "reverse_ip", which will reverse IP
51 addresses; IPv4 into dotted quad, IPv6 into dotted nibble. Examples:
52
53 ${reverse_ip:192.0.2.4}
54 -> 4.2.0.192
55 ${reverse_ip:2001:0db8:c42:9:1:abcd:192.0.2.3}
56 -> 3.0.2.0.0.0.0.c.d.c.b.a.1.0.0.0.9.0.0.0.2.4.c.0.8.b.d.0.1.0.0.2
57
58 6. There is a new ACL control called "debug", to enable debug logging.
59 This allows selective logging of certain incoming transactions within
60 production environments, with some care. It takes two options, "tag"
61 and "opts"; "tag" is included in the filename of the log and "opts"
62 is used as per the -d<options> command-line option. Examples, which
63 don't all make sense in all contexts:
64
65 control = debug
66 control = debug/tag=.$sender_host_address
67 control = debug/opts=+expand+acl
68 control = debug/tag=.$message_exim_id/opts=+expand
69
70 7. It has always been implicit in the design and the documentation that
71 "the Exim user" is not root. src/EDITME said that using root was
72 "very strongly discouraged". This is not enough to keep people from
73 shooting themselves in the foot in days when many don't configure Exim
74 themselves but via package build managers. The security consequences of
75 running various bits of network code are severe if there should be bugs in
76 them. As such, the Exim user may no longer be root. If configured
77 statically, Exim will refuse to build. If configured as ref:user then Exim
78 will exit shortly after start-up. If you must shoot yourself in the foot,
79 then henceforth you will have to maintain your own local patches to strip
80 the safeties off.
81
82 8. There is a new expansion operator, bool_lax{}. Where bool{} uses the ACL
83 condition logic to determine truth/failure and will fail to expand many
84 strings, bool_lax{} uses the router condition logic, where most strings
85 do evaluate true.
86 Note: bool{00} is false, bool_lax{00} is true.
87
88 9. Routers now support multiple "condition" tests,
89
90 10. There is now a runtime configuration option "tcp_wrappers_daemon_name".
91 Setting this allows an admin to define which entry in the tcpwrappers
92 config file will be used to control access to the daemon. This option
93 is only available when Exim is built with USE_TCP_WRAPPERS. The
94 default value is set at build time using the TCP_WRAPPERS_DAEMON_NAME
95 build option.
96
97 11. [POSSIBLE CONFIG BREAKAGE] The default value for system_filter_user is now
98 the Exim run-time user, instead of root.
99
100
101 Version 4.72
102 ------------
103
104 1. TWO SECURITY FIXES: one relating to mail-spools which are globally
105 writable, the other to locking of MBX folders (not mbox).
106
107 2. MySQL stored procedures are now supported.
108
109 3. The dkim_domain transport option is now a list, not a single string, and
110 messages will be signed for each element in the list (discarding
111 duplicates).
112
113 4. The 4.70 release unexpectedly changed the behaviour of dnsdb TXT lookups
114 in the presence of multiple character strings within the RR. Prior to 4.70,
115 only the first string would be returned. The dnsdb lookup now, by default,
116 preserves the pre-4.70 semantics, but also now takes an extended output
117 separator specification. The separator can be followed by a semicolon, to
118 concatenate the individual text strings together with no join character,
119 or by a comma and a second separator character, in which case the text
120 strings within a TXT record are joined on that second character.
121 Administrators are reminded that DNS provides no ordering guarantees
122 between multiple records in an RRset. For example:
123
124 foo.example. IN TXT "a" "b" "c"
125 foo.example. IN TXT "d" "e" "f"
126
127 ${lookup dnsdb{>/ txt=foo.example}} -> "a/d"
128 ${lookup dnsdb{>/; txt=foo.example}} -> "def/abc"
129 ${lookup dnsdb{>/,+ txt=foo.example}} -> "a+b+c/d+e+f"
130
131
132 Version 4.70 / 4.71
133 -------------------
134
135 1. Native DKIM support without an external library.
136 (Note that if no action to prevent it is taken, a straight upgrade will
137 result in DKIM verification of all signed incoming emails. See spec
138 for details on conditionally disabling)
139
140 2. Experimental DCC support via dccifd (contributed by Wolfgang Breyha).
141
142 3. There is now a bool{} expansion condition which maps certain strings to
143 true/false condition values (most likely of use in conjunction with the
144 and{} expansion operator).
145
146 4. The $spam_score, $spam_bar and $spam_report variables are now available
147 at delivery time.
148
149 5. exim -bP now supports "macros", "macro_list" or "macro MACRO_NAME" as
150 options, provided that Exim is invoked by an admin_user.
151
152 6. There is a new option gnutls_compat_mode, when linked against GnuTLS,
153 which increases compatibility with older clients at the cost of decreased
154 security. Don't set this unless you need to support such clients.
155
156 7. There is a new expansion operator, ${randint:...} which will produce a
157 "random" number less than the supplied integer. This randomness is
158 not guaranteed to be cryptographically strong, but depending upon how
159 Exim was built may be better than the most naive schemes.
160
161 8. Exim now explicitly ensures that SHA256 is available when linked against
162 OpenSSL.
163
164 9. The transport_filter_timeout option now applies to SMTP transports too.
165
166
167 Version 4.69
168 ------------
169
170 1. Preliminary DKIM support in Experimental.
171
172
173 Version 4.68
174 ------------
175
176 1. The body_linecount and body_zerocount C variables are now exported in the
177 local_scan API.
178
179 2. When a dnslists lookup succeeds, the key that was looked up is now placed
180 in $dnslist_matched. When the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in
181 this variable (though it is, of course, in the actual lookup). In simple
182 cases, for example:
183
184 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example
185
186 the key is also available in another variable (in this case,
187 $sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not
188 true. For example, using a data lookup might generate a dnslists lookup
189 like this:
190
191 deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|...
192
193 If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be
194 192.168.6.7 (for example).
195
196 3. Authenticators now have a client_condition option. When Exim is running as
197 a client, it skips an authenticator whose client_condition expansion yields
198 "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for example, to skip plain text
199 authenticators when the connection is not encrypted by a setting such as:
200
201 client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}}
202
203 Note that the 4.67 documentation states that $tls_cipher contains the
204 cipher used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it
205 contains the cipher used for the delivery. The same is true for
206 $tls_peerdn.
207
208 4. There is now a -Mvc <message-id> option, which outputs a copy of the
209 message to the standard output, in RFC 2822 format. The option can be used
210 only by an admin user.
211
212 5. There is now a /noupdate option for the ratelimit ACL condition. It
213 computes the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update
214 the saved data. This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup
215 the existence of a specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without
216 incrementing the ratelimit counter for that key.
217
218 In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must set the rate
219 for the same key somewhere (otherwise it will always be zero).
220
221 Example:
222
223 acl_check_connect:
224 # Read the rate; if it doesn't exist or is below the maximum
225 # we update it below
226 deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate
227 log_message = RATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
228 (max $sender_rate_limit)
229
230 [... some other logic and tests...]
231
232 warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd
233 log_message = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \
234 (max $sender_rate_limit)
235 condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}}
236
237 accept
238
239 6. The variable $max_received_linelength contains the number of bytes in the
240 longest line that was received as part of the message, not counting the
241 line termination character(s).
242
243 7. Host lists can now include +ignore_defer and +include_defer, analagous to
244 +ignore_unknown and +include_unknown. These options should be used with
245 care, probably only in non-critical host lists such as whitelists.
246
247 8. There's a new option called queue_only_load_latch, which defaults true.
248 If set false when queue_only_load is greater than zero, Exim re-evaluates
249 the load for each incoming message in an SMTP session. Otherwise, once one
250 message is queued, the remainder are also.
251
252 9. There is a new ACL, specified by acl_smtp_notquit, which is run in most
253 cases when an SMTP session ends without sending QUIT. However, when Exim
254 itself is is bad trouble, such as being unable to write to its log files,
255 this ACL is not run, because it might try to do things (such as write to
256 log files) that make the situation even worse.
257
258 Like the QUIT ACL, this new ACL is provided to make it possible to gather
259 statistics. Whatever it returns (accept or deny) is immaterial. The "delay"
260 modifier is forbidden in this ACL.
261
262 When the NOTQUIT ACL is running, the variable $smtp_notquit_reason is set
263 to a string that indicates the reason for the termination of the SMTP
264 connection. The possible values are:
265
266 acl-drop Another ACL issued a "drop" command
267 bad-commands Too many unknown or non-mail commands
268 command-timeout Timeout while reading SMTP commands
269 connection-lost The SMTP connection has been lost
270 data-timeout Timeout while reading message data
271 local-scan-error The local_scan() function crashed
272 local-scan-timeout The local_scan() function timed out
273 signal-exit SIGTERM or SIGINT
274 synchronization-error SMTP synchronization error
275 tls-failed TLS failed to start
276
277 In most cases when an SMTP connection is closed without having received
278 QUIT, Exim sends an SMTP response message before actually closing the
279 connection. With the exception of acl-drop, the default message can be
280 overridden by the "message" modifier in the NOTQUIT ACL. In the case of a
281 "drop" verb in another ACL, it is the message from the other ACL that is
282 used.
283
284 10. For MySQL and PostgreSQL lookups, it is now possible to specify a list of
285 servers with individual queries. This is done by starting the query with
286 "servers=x:y:z;", where each item in the list may take one of two forms:
287
288 (1) If it is just a host name, the appropriate global option (mysql_servers
289 or pgsql_servers) is searched for a host of the same name, and the
290 remaining parameters (database, user, password) are taken from there.
291
292 (2) If it contains any slashes, it is taken as a complete parameter set.
293
294 The list of servers is used in exactly the same was as the global list.
295 Once a connection to a server has happened and a query has been
296 successfully executed, processing of the lookup ceases.
297
298 This feature is intended for use in master/slave situations where updates
299 are occurring, and one wants to update a master rather than a slave. If the
300 masters are in the list for reading, you might have:
301
302 mysql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw:master/db/name/pw
303
304 In an updating lookup, you could then write
305
306 ${lookup mysql{servers=master; UPDATE ...}
307
308 If, on the other hand, the master is not to be used for reading lookups:
309
310 pgsql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw
311
312 you can still update the master by
313
314 ${lookup pgsql{servers=master/db/name/pw; UPDATE ...}
315
316 11. The message_body_newlines option (default FALSE, for backwards
317 compatibility) can be used to control whether newlines are present in
318 $message_body and $message_body_end. If it is FALSE, they are replaced by
319 spaces.
320
321
322 Version 4.67
323 ------------
324
325 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in
326 the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log
327 whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a
328 MAIL command.
329
330 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP
331 addresses, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than
332 one IP address. This has been solved by the addition of == and =& for "all"
333 rather than the default "any" matching.
334
335 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been
336 for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the
337 other parameters to be varied.
338
339 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When it is
340 set, Exim compiles a runtime option called disable_fsync.
341
342 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start.
343
344 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining.
345
346 7. There are two new variables called $sending_ip_address and $sending_port.
347 These are set whenever an SMTP connection to another host has been set up.
348
349 8. The expansion of the helo_data option in the smtp transport now happens
350 after the connection to the server has been made.
351
352 9. There is a new expansion operator ${rfc2047d: that decodes strings that
353 are encoded as per RFC 2047.
354
355 10. There is a new log selector called "pid", which causes the current process
356 id to be added to every log line, in square brackets, immediately after the
357 time and date.
358
359 11. Exim has been modified so that it flushes SMTP output before implementing
360 a delay in an ACL. It also flushes the output before performing a callout,
361 as this can take a substantial time. These behaviours can be disabled by
362 obeying control = no_delay_flush or control = no_callout_flush,
363 respectively, at some earlier stage of the connection.
364
365 12. There are two new expansion conditions that iterate over a list. They are
366 called forany and forall.
367
368 13. There's a new global option called dsn_from that can be used to vary the
369 contents of From: lines in bounces and other automatically generated
370 messages ("delivery status notifications" - hence the name of the option).
371
372 14. The smtp transport has a new option called hosts_avoid_pipelining.
373
374 15. By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matches. There is now a -I option
375 that makes it case-sensitive.
376
377 16. A number of new features ("addresses", "map", "filter", and "reduce") have
378 been added to string expansions to make it easier to process lists of
379 items, typically addresses.
380
381 17. There's a new ACL modifier called "continue". It does nothing of itself,
382 and processing of the ACL always continues with the next condition or
383 modifier. It is provided so that the side effects of expanding its argument
384 can be used.
385
386 18. It is now possible to use newline and other control characters (those with
387 values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists.
388
389 19. The exigrep utility now has a -v option, which inverts the matching
390 condition.
391
392 20. The host_find_failed option in the manualroute router can now be set to
393 "ignore".
394
395
396 Version 4.66
397 ------------
398
399 No new features were added to 4.66.
400
401
402 Version 4.65
403 ------------
404
405 No new features were added to 4.65.
406
407
408 Version 4.64
409 ------------
410
411 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with
412 "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at
413 least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or
414 an underscore.
415
416 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible
417 to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections.
418
419 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the
420 authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a
421 number of authentication methods.
422
423 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the
424 messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to
425 $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents.
426
427 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the
428 second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value
429 restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used,
430 without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record.
431
432 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option.
433
434 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in
435 conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be
436 followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool
437 before doing the expansions.
438
439 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like
440 -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a
441 message.
442
443 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it
444 is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in
445 subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached.
446
447 10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and
448 shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items.
449
450 11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed
451 as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they
452 relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain
453 available for compatibility.)
454
455 12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs
456 to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted.
457
458
459 Version 4.63
460 ------------
461
462 1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect
463 router.
464
465 2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the
466 start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been
467 read.
468
469 3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL,
470 or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the
471 start of the message for an SMTP error code.
472
473 4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes
474 one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow".
475
476 5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options:
477 --reverse
478 After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order
479 before displaying messages (-R is synonym).
480 --random
481 Randomize order of matching messages before displaying.
482 --size
483 Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum
484 of their sizes.
485 --sort <variable>[,<variable>...]
486 Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to
487 each messages value for each variable.
488 --not
489 Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the
490 same criteria without --not).
491
492
493 Version 4.62
494 ------------
495
496 1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well
497 as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of
498 the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the
499 name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an
500 IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets.
501 This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example:
502
503 ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{<request data>}...
504
505 Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than
506 one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once
507 a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix
508 domain socket.
509
510 2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one
511 incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than
512 one, a batch delivery now occurs.
513
514 3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex.
515 Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched
516 against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a
517 maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories.
518
519
520 Version 4.61
521 ------------
522
523 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since
524 the 4.60 release are:
525
526 . An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely.
527
528 . An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type.
529
530 . A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1,
531 $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used
532 for other things in complicated expansions.
533
534 . The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s.
535
536 . It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the
537 resources used in pipe deliveries.
538
539 . A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb.
540
541 . More errors are detectable in retry rules.
542
543 There are a number of other additions too.
544
545
546 Version 4.60
547 ------------
548
549 The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.60 release. Major new features since
550 the 4.50 release are:
551
552 . Support for SQLite.
553
554 . Support for IGNOREQUOTA in LMTP.
555
556 . Extensions to the "submission mode" features.
557
558 . Support for Client SMTP Authorization (CSA).
559
560 . Support for ratelimiting hosts and users.
561
562 . New expansion items to help with the BATV "prvs" scheme.
563
564 . A "match_ip" condition, that matches an IP address against a list.
565
566 There are many more minor changes.
567
568 ****