The Exim Mail Transfer Agent

1. Introduction
- 1.1 Web site and Mailing list
- 1.2 Availability
- 1.3 Limitations
- 1.4 Features
- 1.5 Support for IPv6
- 1.6 Calling interface
- 1.7 Terminology
2. Incorporated code
3. How Exim delivers mail
- 3.1 Philosophy
- 3.2 Message reception
- 3.3 Life of a message
- 3.4 Drivers
- 3.5 Delivery in detail
- 3.6 Temporary delivery failures
4. Building and installing Exim
- 4.1 Unpacking
- 4.2 Multiple machine architectures and operating systems
- 4.3 DBM libraries
- 4.4 Pre-building configuration
- 4.5 Including TLS/SSL encryption support
- 4.6 Use of tcpwrappers
- 4.7 Including support for IPv6
- 4.8 The building process
- 4.9 Overriding build-time options for Exim
- 4.10 OS-specific header files
- 4.11 Overriding build-time options for the monitor
- 4.12 Installing commands and scripts
- 4.13 Installing info documentation
- 4.14 Setting up the spool directory
- 4.15 Testing
- 4.16 Switching Exim on
- 4.17 Exim on heavily loaded hosts
- 4.18 Stopping Exim on Solaris
5. The Exim command line
- 5.1 Setting options by program name
- 5.2 Trusted and admin users
- 5.3 Command line options
6. File and database lookups
- 6.1 Single-key lookup types
- 6.2 An lsearch file is not an item list
- 6.3 Query-style lookup types
- 6.4 Use of data lookups
- 6.5 Temporary errors in lookups
- 6.6 Default values in single-key lookups
- 6.7 Partial matching in single-key lookups
- 6.8 Lookup caching
- 6.9 Quoting lookup data
- 6.10 More about NIS+
- 6.11 More about LDAP
- 6.12 More about MySQL and PostgreSQL
- 6.13 More about dnsdb
7. The Exim configuration file
- 7.1 Configuration file format
- 7.2 Macros in the configuration file
- 7.3 Common option syntax
- 7.4 Integer
- 7.5 Octal integer
- 7.6 Fixed point number
- 7.7 Time interval
- 7.8 String
- 7.9 Expanded strings
- 7.10 User and group names
- 7.11 List construction
- 7.12 Domain lists
- 7.13 Host lists
- 7.14 Mixing host names and addresses in host lists
- 7.15 Use of RFC 1413 identification in host lists
- 7.16 Address lists
- 7.17 Case of letters in address lists
8. Regular expressions
- 8.1 Testing regular expressions
9. String expansions
- 9.1 Testing string expansions
- 9.2 Expansion items
- 9.3 Expansion operators
- 9.4 Expansion conditions
- 9.5 Expansion variables
10. Embedded Perl
11. Main configuration
12. Driver specifications
13. Environment for running local transports
- 13.1 Uids and gids
- 13.2 Current and home directories
- 13.3 Expansion variables derived from the address
14. Generic options for transports
15. The appendfile transport
- 15.1 Private options for appendfile
- 15.2 Operational details for appending
- 15.3 Operational details for delivery to a new file
16. The autoreply transport
- 16.1 Private options for autoreply
17. The lmtp transport
18. The pipe transport
- 18.1 Returned status and data
- 18.2 How the command is run
- 18.3 Environment variables
- 18.4 Private options for pipe
- 18.5 Using an external local delivery agent
19. The smtp transport
20. Generic options common to both directors and routers
- 20.1 Skipping directors and routers
21. Additional generic options for directors
- 21.1 Skipping directors
22. Options common to the aliasfile and forwardfile directors
23. The aliasfile director
- 23.1 Specifying a transport for aliasfile
- 23.2 Alias file format
- 23.3 Types of alias item
- 23.4 Duplicate addresses
- 23.5 Repeated alias expansion
- 23.6 Errors in alias files
- 23.7 Aliasfile private options
24. The forwardfile director
- 24.1 Forward file items
- 24.2 Repeated forwarding expansion
- 24.3 Errors in forward files
- 24.4 Filter files
- 24.5 The home directory
- 24.6 Special treatment of home_directory and current_directory
- 24.7 Forwardfile private options
25. The localuser director
26. The smartuser director
27. Additional generic options for routers
28. The domainlist router
- 28.1 Routing rules
- 28.2 Host list format
- 28.3 Options format
- 28.4 Application of routing rules
- 28.5 Domainlist examples
29. The ipliteral router
30. The iplookup router
31. The lookuphost router
32. The queryprogram router
33. Retry configuration
- 33.1 Retry rules
- 33.2 Retry rule examples
- 33.3 Timeout of retry data
- 33.4 Long-term failures
- 33.5 Ultimate address timeout
34. Address rewriting
- 34.1 Testing the rewriting rules that apply on input
- 34.2 Rewriting rules
- 34.3 Rewriting patterns
- 34.4 Rewriting replacements
- 34.5 Rewriting flags
- 34.6 Flags specifying which headers and envelope addresses to rewrite
- 34.7 The SMTP-time rewriting flag
- 34.8 Flags controlling the rewriting process
- 34.9 The additional relay checking flag
- 34.10 Rewriting examples
35. SMTP authentication
- 35.1 Generic options for authenticators
- 35.2 Authentication on an Exim server
- 35.3 Testing server authentication
- 35.4 Authenticated senders
- 35.5 Authentication by an Exim client
36. The plaintext authenticator
- 36.1 Using plaintext in a server
  - server_prompts (plaintext)
  - server_condition (plaintext)
- 36.2 Using plaintext in a client
  - client_send (plaintext)
37. The cram_md5 authenticator
- 37.1 Using cram_md5 as a server
  - server_secret (cram_md5)
- 37.2 Using cram_md5 as a client
  - client_name (cram_md5)
  - client_secret (cram_md5)
38. Encrypted SMTP connections using TLS/SSL
- 38.1 Configuring Exim to use TLS as a server
- 38.2 Configuring Exim to use TLS as a client
- 38.3 Multiple messages on the same TCP/IP connection
- 38.4 Certificates and all that
39. Customizing error and warning messages
- 39.1 Customizing error messages
- 39.2 Customizing warning messages
40. The default configuration file
- 40.1 Main configuration settings
- 40.2 Transport configuration settings
- 40.3 Director configuration settings
- 40.4 Router configuration settings
- 40.5 Default retry rule
- 40.6 Rewriting configuration
- 40.7 Authenticators configuration
41. Multiple user mailboxes
42. Using Exim to handle mailing lists
- 42.1 Syntax errors in mailing lists
- 42.2 NFS-mounted mailing lists
- 42.3 Re-expansion of mailing lists
- 42.4 Closed mailing lists
43. Virtual domains
- 43.1 All mail to a given host
- 43.2 Virtual domains not preserving envelopes
- 43.3 Virtual domains preserving envelopes
44. Intermittently connected hosts
- 44.1 Exim on the upstream host
- 44.2 Exim on the intermittently connected host
- 44.3 Handling many intermittently connected hosts
45. Verification of incoming mail
- 45.1 Host verification
- 45.2 Sender verification
- 45.3 Sender verification with callback
- 45.4 Fixing bad senders
- 45.5 Header verification
- 45.6 Receiver verification
46. Other policy controls on incoming mail
- 46.1 Host checking using RBL
- 46.2 Other host checking
- 46.3 Sender checking
- 46.4 Control of relaying
- 46.5 Customizing prohibition messages
47. System-wide message filtering
- 47.1 The system message filter
- 47.2 Additional commands for system filters
- 47.3 Per-address filtering
48. SMTP processing
- 48.1 Outgoing SMTP over TCP/IP
- 48.2 Errors in outgoing SMTP
- 48.3 Variable Envelope Return Paths (VERP)
- 48.4 Incoming SMTP messages over TCP/IP
- 48.5 The VRFY, EXPN, and DEBUG commands
- 48.6 The ETRN command
- 48.7 Incoming local SMTP
- 48.8 Outgoing batched SMTP
- 48.9 Incoming batched SMTP
49. Message processing
- 49.1 Unqualified addresses
- 49.2 The UUCP From line
- 49.3 The Bcc header
- 49.4 The Date header
- 49.5 The Delivery-date header
- 49.6 The Envelope-to header
- 49.7 The From header
- 49.8 The Message-id header
- 49.9 The Received header
- 49.10 The Return-path header
- 49.11 The Sender header
- 49.12 The To header
- 49.13 Adding and removing headers
- 49.14 Constructed addresses
- 49.15 Case of local parts
- 49.16 Dots in local parts
- 49.17 Rewriting addresses
50. Automatic mail processing
- 50.1 System-wide automatic processing
- 50.2 Taking copies of mail
- 50.3 Automatic processing by users
- 50.4 Simplified vacation processing
51. Log files
- 51.1 Logging to local files
- 51.2 Logging to syslog
- 51.3 Logging message reception
- 51.4 Logging deliveries
- 51.5 Deferred deliveries
- 51.6 Delivery failures
- 51.7 Fake deliveries
- 51.8 Completion
- 51.9 Other log entries
- 51.10 Log level
- 51.11 Message log
52. Day-to-day management
- 52.1 The panic log
- 52.2 The reject log
- 52.3 Log cycling
- 52.4 Statistics
- 52.5 What is Exim doing?
- 52.6 Changing the configuration
- 52.7 Watching the queue
- 52.8 Holding domains
53. Exim utilities
- 53.1 Querying Exim processes
- 53.2 Summarising the queue
- 53.3 Extracting log information
- 53.4 Cycling log files
- 53.5 Making DBM files
- 53.6 Individual retry times
- 53.7 Database maintenance
- 53.8 Mail statistics
  - -nt
  - -h<n>
  - -q0
  - -q<n1>
  - -nr
  - -nr/pattern/
  - -t<n>
  - -tnl
  - -ne
- 53.9 Mailbox maintenance
54. The Exim monitor
- 54.1 Running the monitor
- 54.2 The stripcharts
- 54.3 Main action buttons
- 54.4 The log display
- 54.5 The queue display
- 54.6 The queue menu
55. Security considerations
- 55.1 Root privilege
- 55.2 Running Exim without privilege
- 55.3 Alternate configurations and macros
- 55.4 Reading forward files
- 55.5 Delivering to local files
- 55.6 IPv4 source routing
- 55.7 The VRFY, EXPN, and ETRN commands in SMTP
- 55.8 Privileged users
- 55.9 Spool files
- 55.10 Use of argv[0]
- 55.11 Use of %f formatting
- 55.12 Embedded Exim path
- 55.13 Use of sprintf()
- 55.14 Use of debug_printf() and log_write()
- 55.15 Use of strcat() and strcpy()
56. Format of spool files
57. Adding new drivers or lookup types
Concept Index
Function Index

This document was generated on 25 November 2000 using the following hackery. First, a Perl script munged the original marked up text into a Texinfo file, but with some additions for use with HTML that are different from the Texinfo version (e.g. using green colouring for new added material, and numbering the chapters and sections). Then, using the texi2html translator version 1.52, it was turned into HTML. Afterwards, another Perl script post-processed each HTML file. This set the colour scheme, re-enabled some HTML that was passed through with different tag markup (so it wouldn't get escaped), and converted an escape sequence into a full stop in chapter and section headings (because you can't get one of them through in the normal manner). Phew! Amazing it works at all, really.