The default configuration file supplied with Exim as `src/configure.default' is sufficient for a single host with simple mail requirements. It contains comments about options you might want to set, but which it lets default, together with the settings described here.
There are three explicit options in this section:
never_users = root
This prevents Exim from ever running as root when performing a local delivery. Instead, it runs as `nobody'.
host_lookup_nets = 0.0.0.0/0
This specifies the sending IP networks for which a DNS reverse lookup is done, in order to get the host name from the IP address of an incoming message. The default setting matches all IP addresses. The host name appears in the log and in messages' `Received:' headers.
sender_host_reject_relay = *
This prevents all other hosts from using your host as a mail relay. This setting is here because there has been a lot of relay abuse on the Internet. If you want to provide relaying services, you will have to change this option, and/or set `relay_domains'. See chapter "Other policy controls on incoming mail" for more details.
As the `primary_hostname', `qualify_domain', and `local_domains' options are not specified, they will all take the name of the local host, as obtained by the `uname()' function, as their value.
Five local transports and one remote transport are defined. The first one is
local_delivery:
driver = appendfile
file = /var/mail/${local_part}
which is set up to deliver to local mailboxes in a traditional `sticky bit' directory. To deliver into files in users' home directories, a configuration such as
local_delivery:
driver = appendfile
file = /home/${local_part}/inbox
should be substituted. An alternative setting for the `file' option is
file = ${home}/inbox
The second local transport is
address_pipe: driver = pipe return_output
This transport, whose name (`address_pipe') is conventional, is automatically used by Exim when a local part that is expanded via an alias or forward file causes delivery to a pipe. Any output from the pipe is returned to the sender of the message. The third local transport is
address_file: driver = appendfile
This transport, whose name (`address_file') is conventional, is automatically used by Exim when a local part that is expanded via an alias or forward file causes delivery to a specified file (by generating a path name not ending in `/'). The fourth local transport is
address_directory: driver = appendfile no_from_hack prefix = "" suffix = ""
This transport, whose name (`address_directory') is conventional, is automatically used by Exim when a local part that is expanded via an alias or forward file into a path name ending in `/', which causes delivery to a new file in the specified directory. In this case there is no need for the conventional message separators that separate multiple messages in a single file. The final local transport is
address_reply: driver = autoreply
This transport, whose name (`address_reply') is conventional, is automatically used by Exim when a local part that is expanded via a filter file causes an automatic reply to a message to be generated. The only remote transport is
remote_smtp: driver = smtp
This transport is used to do external deliveries over SMTP, with default options.
Three directors are specified for the default configuration. Note that the order of director definitions matters. The first director causes local parts to be checked against the system alias file, which is searched linearly:
system_aliases: driver = aliasfile file = /etc/aliases search_type = lsearch
The second director comes into play if a local part does not match a system alias:
userforward: driver = forwardfile file = .forward no_verify check_ancestor # filter
An attempt is made to look for a file called `.forward' in the home directory of a local user. However, this director is skipped when verifying addresses. The `check_ancestor' option prevents a `.forward' file from turning a login name back into a previously-handled alias name. The `filter' option is commented out in the default configuration. Thus `.forward' files are treated in the conventional manner, but filtering can be enabled by removing the # character. The final director is
localuser: driver = localuser transport = local_delivery
This checks that a local part is the login of a local user, and if so, directs the message to be delivered using the `local_delivery' transport.
Two routers are defined in the default configuration. The first is
lookuphost: driver = lookuphost transport = remote_smtp
and its default settings cause it to look up the domain in the DNS, in order to determine the host to which a message should be sent, using the `remote_smtp' transport. The second router is
literal: driver = ipliteral transport = remote_smtp
This handles `domains' that are actually RFC 822 domain literals, that is, IP addresses enclosed in square brackets.
A single retry rule is given in the default configuration:
* * F,2h,15m; G,16h,2h,1.5; F,4d,8h
This causes any temporarily failing address to be retried every 15 minutes for 2 hours, then at intervals increasing by a factor of 1.5 until 16 hours have passed, then every 8 hours up to 4 days.
There are no rewriting rules in the default configuration file.
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