$Cambridge: exim/exim-doc/doc-txt/NewStuff,v 1.164 2010/06/01 11:21:30 pdp Exp $ New Features in Exim -------------------- This file contains descriptions of new features that have been added to Exim. Before a formal release, there may be quite a lot of detail so that people can test from the snapshots or the CVS before the documentation is updated. Once the documentation is updated, this file is reduced to a short list. Version 4.72 ------------ 1. TWO SECURITY FIXES: one relating to mail-spools which are globally writable, the other to locking of MBX folders (not mbox). 2. MySQL stored procedures are now supported. 3. The dkim_domain transport option is now a list, not a single string, and messages will be signed for each element in the list (discarding duplicates). 4. The 4.70 release unexpectedly changed the behaviour of dnsdb TXT lookups in the presence of multiple character strings within the RR. Prior to 4.70, only the first string would be returned. The dnsdb lookup now, by default, preserves the pre-4.70 semantics, but also now takes an extended output separator specification. The separator can be followed by a semicolon, to concatenate the individual text strings together with no join character, or by a comma and a second separator character, in which case the text strings within a TXT record are joined on that second character. Administrators are reminded that DNS provides no ordering guarantees between multiple records in an RRset. For example: foo.example. IN TXT "a" "b" "c" foo.example. IN TXT "d" "e" "f" ${lookup dnsdb{>/ txt=foo.example}} -> "a/d" ${lookup dnsdb{>/; txt=foo.example}} -> "def/abc" ${lookup dnsdb{>/,+ txt=foo.example}} -> "a+b+c/d+e+f" Version 4.70 / 4.71 ------------------- 1. Native DKIM support without an external library. 2. Experimental DCC support via dccifd (contributed by Wolfgang Breyha). 3. There is now a bool{} expansion condition which maps certain strings to true/false condition values (most likely of use in conjuction with the and{} expansion operator). 4. The $spam_score, $spam_bar and $spam_report variables are now available at delivery time. 5. exim -bP now supports "macros", "macro_list" or "macro MACRO_NAME" as options, provided that Exim is invoked by an admin_user. 6. There is a new option gnutls_compat_mode, when linked against GnuTLS, which increases compatibility with older clients at the cost of decreased security. Don't set this unless you need to support such clients. 7. There is a new expansion operator, ${randint:...} which will produce a "random" number less than the supplied integer. This randomness is not guaranteed to be cryptographically strong, but depending upon how Exim was built may be better than the most naive schemes. 8. Exim now explicitly ensures that SHA256 is available when linked against OpenSSL. 9. The transport_filter_timeout option now applies to SMTP transports too. Version 4.68 ------------ 1. The body_linecount and body_zerocount C variables are now exported in the local_scan API. 2. When a dnslists lookup succeeds, the key that was looked up is now placed in $dnslist_matched. When the key is an IP address, it is not reversed in this variable (though it is, of course, in the actual lookup). In simple cases, for example: deny dnslists = spamhaus.example the key is also available in another variable (in this case, $sender_host_address). In more complicated cases, however, this is not true. For example, using a data lookup might generate a dnslists lookup like this: deny dnslists = spamhaus.example/<|192.168.1.2|192.168.6.7|... If this condition succeeds, the value in $dnslist_matched might be 192.168.6.7 (for example). 3. Authenticators now have a client_condition option. When Exim is running as a client, it skips an authenticator whose client_condition expansion yields "0", "no", or "false". This can be used, for example, to skip plain text authenticators when the connection is not encrypted by a setting such as: client_condition = ${if !eq{$tls_cipher}{}} Note that the 4.67 documentation states that $tls_cipher contains the cipher used for incoming messages. In fact, during SMTP delivery, it contains the cipher used for the delivery. The same is true for $tls_peerdn. 4. There is now a -Mvc option, which outputs a copy of the message to the standard output, in RFC 2822 format. The option can be used only by an admin user. 5. There is now a /noupdate option for the ratelimit ACL condition. It computes the rate and checks the limit as normal, but it does not update the saved data. This means that, in relevant ACLs, it is possible to lookup the existence of a specified (or auto-generated) ratelimit key without incrementing the ratelimit counter for that key. In order for this to be useful, another ACL entry must set the rate for the same key somewhere (otherwise it will always be zero). Example: acl_check_connect: # Read the rate; if it doesn't exist or is below the maximum # we update it below deny ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / noupdate log_message = RATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \ (max $sender_rate_limit) [... some other logic and tests...] warn ratelimit = 100 / 5m / strict / per_cmd log_message = RATE UPDATE: $sender_rate / $sender_rate_period \ (max $sender_rate_limit) condition = ${if le{$sender_rate}{$sender_rate_limit}} accept 6. The variable $max_received_linelength contains the number of bytes in the longest line that was received as part of the message, not counting the line termination character(s). 7. Host lists can now include +ignore_defer and +include_defer, analagous to +ignore_unknown and +include_unknown. These options should be used with care, probably only in non-critical host lists such as whitelists. 8. There's a new option called queue_only_load_latch, which defaults true. If set false when queue_only_load is greater than zero, Exim re-evaluates the load for each incoming message in an SMTP session. Otherwise, once one message is queued, the remainder are also. 9. There is a new ACL, specified by acl_smtp_notquit, which is run in most cases when an SMTP session ends without sending QUIT. However, when Exim itself is is bad trouble, such as being unable to write to its log files, this ACL is not run, because it might try to do things (such as write to log files) that make the situation even worse. Like the QUIT ACL, this new ACL is provided to make it possible to gather statistics. Whatever it returns (accept or deny) is immaterial. The "delay" modifier is forbidden in this ACL. When the NOTQUIT ACL is running, the variable $smtp_notquit_reason is set to a string that indicates the reason for the termination of the SMTP connection. The possible values are: acl-drop Another ACL issued a "drop" command bad-commands Too many unknown or non-mail commands command-timeout Timeout while reading SMTP commands connection-lost The SMTP connection has been lost data-timeout Timeout while reading message data local-scan-error The local_scan() function crashed local-scan-timeout The local_scan() function timed out signal-exit SIGTERM or SIGINT synchronization-error SMTP synchronization error tls-failed TLS failed to start In most cases when an SMTP connection is closed without having received QUIT, Exim sends an SMTP response message before actually closing the connection. With the exception of acl-drop, the default message can be overridden by the "message" modifier in the NOTQUIT ACL. In the case of a "drop" verb in another ACL, it is the message from the other ACL that is used. 10. For MySQL and PostgreSQL lookups, it is now possible to specify a list of servers with individual queries. This is done by starting the query with "servers=x:y:z;", where each item in the list may take one of two forms: (1) If it is just a host name, the appropriate global option (mysql_servers or pgsql_servers) is searched for a host of the same name, and the remaining parameters (database, user, password) are taken from there. (2) If it contains any slashes, it is taken as a complete parameter set. The list of servers is used in exactly the same was as the global list. Once a connection to a server has happened and a query has been successfully executed, processing of the lookup ceases. This feature is intended for use in master/slave situations where updates are occurring, and one wants to update a master rather than a slave. If the masters are in the list for reading, you might have: mysql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw:master/db/name/pw In an updating lookup, you could then write ${lookup mysql{servers=master; UPDATE ...} If, on the other hand, the master is not to be used for reading lookups: pgsql_servers = slave1/db/name/pw:slave2/db/name/pw you can still update the master by ${lookup pgsql{servers=master/db/name/pw; UPDATE ...} 11. The message_body_newlines option (default FALSE, for backwards compatibility) can be used to control whether newlines are present in $message_body and $message_body_end. If it is FALSE, they are replaced by spaces. Version 4.67 ------------ 1. There is a new log selector called smtp_no_mail, which is not included in the default setting. When it is set, a line is written to the main log whenever an accepted SMTP connection terminates without having issued a MAIL command. 2. When an item in a dnslists list is followed by = and & and a list of IP addresses, the behaviour was not clear when the lookup returned more than one IP address. This has been solved by the addition of == and =& for "all" rather than the default "any" matching. 3. Up till now, the only control over which cipher suites GnuTLS uses has been for the cipher algorithms. New options have been added to allow some of the other parameters to be varied. 4. There is a new compile-time option called ENABLE_DISABLE_FSYNC. When it is set, Exim compiles a runtime option called disable_fsync. 5. There is a new variable called $smtp_count_at_connection_start. 6. There's a new control called no_pipelining. 7. There are two new variables called $sending_ip_address and $sending_port. These are set whenever an SMTP connection to another host has been set up. 8. The expansion of the helo_data option in the smtp transport now happens after the connection to the server has been made. 9. There is a new expansion operator ${rfc2047d: that decodes strings that are encoded as per RFC 2047. 10. There is a new log selector called "pid", which causes the current process id to be added to every log line, in square brackets, immediately after the time and date. 11. Exim has been modified so that it flushes SMTP output before implementing a delay in an ACL. It also flushes the output before performing a callout, as this can take a substantial time. These behaviours can be disabled by obeying control = no_delay_flush or control = no_callout_flush, respectively, at some earlier stage of the connection. 12. There are two new expansion conditions that iterate over a list. They are called forany and forall. 13. There's a new global option called dsn_from that can be used to vary the contents of From: lines in bounces and other automatically generated messages ("delivery status notifications" - hence the name of the option). 14. The smtp transport has a new option called hosts_avoid_pipelining. 15. By default, exigrep does case-insensitive matches. There is now a -I option that makes it case-sensitive. 16. A number of new features ("addresses", "map", "filter", and "reduce") have been added to string expansions to make it easier to process lists of items, typically addresses. 17. There's a new ACL modifier called "continue". It does nothing of itself, and processing of the ACL always continues with the next condition or modifier. It is provided so that the side effects of expanding its argument can be used. 18. It is now possible to use newline and other control characters (those with values less than 32, plus DEL) as separators in lists. 19. The exigrep utility now has a -v option, which inverts the matching condition. 20. The host_find_failed option in the manualroute router can now be set to "ignore". Version 4.66 ------------ No new features were added to 4.66. Version 4.65 ------------ No new features were added to 4.65. Version 4.64 ------------ 1. ACL variables can now be given arbitrary names, as long as they start with "acl_c" or "acl_m" (for connection variables and message variables), are at least six characters long, with the sixth character being either a digit or an underscore. 2. There is a new ACL modifier called log_reject_target. It makes it possible to specify which logs are used for messages about ACL rejections. 3. There is a new authenticator called "dovecot". This is an interface to the authentication facility of the Dovecot POP/IMAP server, which can support a number of authentication methods. 4. The variable $message_headers_raw provides a concatenation of all the messages's headers without any decoding. This is in contrast to $message_headers, which does RFC2047 decoding on the header contents. 5. In a DNS black list, if two domain names, comma-separated, are given, the second is used first to do an initial check, making use of any IP value restrictions that are set. If there is a match, the first domain is used, without any IP value restrictions, to get the TXT record. 6. All authenticators now have a server_condition option. 7. There is a new command-line option called -Mset. It is useful only in conjunction with -be (that is, when testing string expansions). It must be followed by a message id; Exim loads the given message from its spool before doing the expansions. 8. Another similar new command-line option is called -bem. It operates like -be except that it must be followed by the name of a file that contains a message. 9. When an address is delayed because of a 4xx response to a RCPT command, it is now the combination of sender and recipient that is delayed in subsequent queue runs until its retry time is reached. 10. Unary negation and the bitwise logical operators and, or, xor, not, and shift, have been added to the eval: and eval10: expansion items. 11. The variables $interface_address and $interface_port have been renamed as $received_ip_address and $received_port, to make it clear that they relate to message reception rather than delivery. (The old names remain available for compatibility.) 12. The "message" modifier can now be used on "accept" and "discard" acl verbs to vary the message that is sent when an SMTP command is accepted. Version 4.63 ------------ 1. There is a new Boolean option called filter_prepend_home for the redirect router. 2. There is a new acl, set by acl_not_smtp_start, which is run right at the start of receiving a non-SMTP message, before any of the message has been read. 3. When an SMTP error message is specified in a "message" modifier in an ACL, or in a :fail: or :defer: message in a redirect router, Exim now checks the start of the message for an SMTP error code. 4. There is a new parameter for LDAP lookups called "referrals", which takes one of the settings "follow" (the default) or "nofollow". 5. Version 20070721.2 of exipick now included, offering these new options: --reverse After all other sorting options have bee processed, reverse order before displaying messages (-R is synonym). --random Randomize order of matching messages before displaying. --size Instead of displaying the matching messages, display the sum of their sizes. --sort [,...] Before displaying matching messages, sort the messages according to each messages value for each variable. --not Negate the value for every test (returns inverse output from the same criteria without --not). Version 4.62 ------------ 1. The ${readsocket expansion item now supports Internet domain sockets as well as Unix domain sockets. If the first argument begins "inet:", it must be of the form "inet:host:port". The port is mandatory; it may be a number or the name of a TCP port in /etc/services. The host may be a name, or it may be an IP address. An ip address may optionally be enclosed in square brackets. This is best for IPv6 addresses. For example: ${readsocket{inet:[::1]:1234}{}... Only a single host name may be given, but if looking it up yield more than one IP address, they are each tried in turn until a connection is made. Once a connection has been made, the behaviour is as for ${readsocket with a Unix domain socket. 2. If a redirect router sets up file or pipe deliveries for more than one incoming address, and the relevant transport has batch_max set greater than one, a batch delivery now occurs. 3. The appendfile transport has a new option called maildirfolder_create_regex. Its value is a regular expression. For a maildir delivery, this is matched against the maildir directory; if it matches, Exim ensures that a maildirfolder file is created alongside the new, cur, and tmp directories. Version 4.61 ------------ The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.61 release. Major new features since the 4.60 release are: . An option called disable_ipv6, to disable the use of IPv6 completely. . An increase in the number of ACL variables to 20 of each type. . A change to use $auth1, $auth2, and $auth3 in authenticators instead of $1, $2, $3, (though those are still set) because the numeric variables get used for other things in complicated expansions. . The default for rfc1413_query_timeout has been changed from 30s to 5s. . It is possible to use setclassresources() on some BSD OS to control the resources used in pipe deliveries. . A new ACL modifier called add_header, which can be used with any verb. . More errors are detectable in retry rules. There are a number of other additions too. Version 4.60 ------------ The documentation is up-to-date for the 4.60 release. Major new features since the 4.50 release are: . Support for SQLite. . Support for IGNOREQUOTA in LMTP. . Extensions to the "submission mode" features. . Support for Client SMTP Authorization (CSA). . Support for ratelimiting hosts and users. . New expansion items to help with the BATV "prvs" scheme. . A "match_ip" condition, that matches an IP address against a list. There are many more minor changes. ****