[exim] Re: tracing SMTP conversations

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Author: Jasen Betts
Date:  
To: exim-users
Subject: [exim] Re: tracing SMTP conversations
On 2024-02-24, graeme vetterlein via Exim-users <exim-users@???> wrote:

> What I REALLY REALLY would like to do is watch the SMTP conversation
> between my exim4 and its smarterhost
>
> (it's probably something I'm sending, so I want as much to see *my* side
> of the conversation)
>
> I can see over many years people have been asking to do this and been
> told to use wireshark.


really?

> ...which I eventually did. However , in the past this was fine but nowadays it does a STARTTLS
> and I can see no more. Is there really no way I can see the SMTP conversation? If I could just
> see what I sent it before said "error"
> I feel I could save another block of long nights.


There is a way to tell exim (well the crypto library actually) to save
the decryption keys so that wireshark can see inside the encryption.


However my normal approach is different.

turn off immediate deliveries by setting 'queue_only=yes' in main
config

Then send a test email, and record its ID (you can find that in exim
main log)

then do

exim -v -M Messag-eIdentifier-Here

and exim will attempt delivery and emit a cleartext transcript of the SMTP session.


--
Jasen.
🇺🇦 Слава Україні

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