1. Quite a lot of development has happened since the 1.92 release, and I
think the time has come to start pulling together the next main release.
To this end, I will be putting out a "first beta" (probably 1.950)
fairly soon. This will be the proposed code for 2.00, and will get only
bug-fix changes. While it is being tested, I will update the
documentation, which normally takes about a month. This should mean a
proper release before end of July.
2. I am beginning to feel that the time has come to try to wind down the
rate of development. Exim can do what most people want now, and I don't
want to go on adding esoteric special features for ever. There are over
200 items on the various "wish lists" I've kept, of varying sizes and
various ages. I don't really have a feel for how important any of them
are to the Exim community. If anyone on this list feels strongly that a
certain feature is missing, perhaps they could post to the list, and
people could argue over the importance (or otherwise) of it. I'll attach
below the changes that have been made since the 1.929 alpha release so
you all know the current base point.
3. What I would like to do after 2.00 is released is spend time working
on introductory documentation. I have a couple of chapters written, but
there is plenty more to do. An FAQ is also needed. Obviously there are
likely to be bug fixes required for 2.00 and there wouldn't be a
complete moratorium on development, but I'd want to keep it to a minimum
for a while.
Comments? Opinions? Objections?
--
Philip Hazel University Computing Service,
P.Hazel@??? New Museums Site, Cambridge CB2 3QG,
ph10@??? (sic) England. Phone: +44 1223 334714
Version 1.930
-------------
1. The queue_list_requires_admin option, default TRUE, restricts the use of the
-bp option to admin users. If a non-admin user uses it, only messages that that
user has submitted are displayed.
2. The temp_errors option of the pipe transport can list a number of return
codes that are to be treated as temporary. The default list contains
EX_TEMPFAIL and EX_CANTCREAT.
3. Sometimes the fact that Exim re-evaluates aliases and forward files each
time it tries to deliver a message causes problems. This is particularly true
in the case of mailing lists. The aliasfile and forwardfile directors now have
an option called one_time. If this is set and any addresses generated by the
director fail to deliver at the first attempt, the failing addresses are added
to the message as "top level" addresses, and the parent address that generated
them is marked "delivered". Thus the alias or forwarding expansion does not
happen again. The original top-level address is remembered with each of these
addresses and is output in any log messages. However, any intermediate parent
addresses are not recorded. This makes a difference to the log only if
log_all_parents is set. It is expected that one_time will typically be used for
mailing lists, where there is normally just one level of expansion.
When one_time is set on a director it must generate addresses (as opposed to
file names or pipe commands) only; forbid_file, forbid_pipe (and, for
forwardfile, forbid_reply) must also be set.
4. Added fallback_hosts as a generic router/director option, applicable when
the driver queues an address for a remote transport. These fallback hosts
override any that are specified on the transport (cf normal hosts).
5. The transport options envelope_to_add, delivery_date_add, and
return_path_add are now generic options, defaulting FALSE. The default
configuration file has been changed to to turn them on for instances of the
appendfile transport. Note that these headers are normally removed from
incoming mail (see envelope_to_remove etc.)
6. Added check_secondary_mx to lookuphost. This causes it to fail if the local
host was not removed from the list of hosts generated by the lookup. Can be
used to process domains for which one is secondary differently to other
domains.
7. Appendfile: quota now works for deliveries as single files in a given
directory, but it is expensive. It could also be defeated by
simultaneous deliveries.
8. If hosts_treat_as_local (a domainlist) is set, any hosts that match the list
are treated as if they were the local host for the purposes of getting excluded
from MX lists, etc.
--
*** Exim information can be found at
http://www.exim.org/ ***
