On Wed, 24 Nov 1999, Graham Leggett wrote:
> When you're looking for something so small and stupid as trying to
> figure out how to specify multiple IP addresses on a single line,
> RTFMing from the beginning is *huge* overkill. The manual is huge
> already, and trying to dredge up some small detail like that is an
> exersize in enourmous frustration.
I have made a note to add "lists, format of" into the index; "format,
host list" is already there, but it doesn't mention the colons. I have
made a note to make it do so in future. [Sadly, a new edition has just
come out, so it will be some time.]
> A list to me looks like this:
>
> Eggs
> Milk
> Bread
> Newspaper
... while to other people it might look like
eggs, milk, bread, newspaper
or
eggs; milk; bread; newspaper
eggs - milk - bread - newspaper
or, for Perl hackers
("eggs", "milk", "bread", "newspaper")
In other words, "list" does not have (IMHO) any general meaning in
English other than "a number of things written down in order". That is
why whenever you meet lists in connection with computers, you have to
find out how that particular kind of list is delimited. Exim uses only
one delimiter, and I defined this in the section "string lists".
However, it is clear that I should repeat "colon-separated" more often
in the manual, and I will do so in future (making it even bigger, of
course). Colon was chosen because Smail uses it, and shells use it.
> Using such "lists" as you call them in examples in your documentation
> will go a long way in making Exim easier to get to grips with, not an
> easy task as it is, because then it makes it obvious how it's done from
> the start.
Plenty of examples already. Indeed, under "Host lists" there is
receiver_unqualified_hosts = "172.16.0.0/12: \
5f03::1200::836f::::/48"
OK, it's got a weird IPv6 address, but does give a hint...
> Another idea is an "Exim quickstart howto" which defines a standard
> setup from beginning to end, incorporating anti-spam measures, and all
> the other things that are needed in a typical installation.
I just haven't had the time to do this, and I'm not the right person to
do it anyway (I know too much :-) but I hear a rumour that somebody else
may be attempting it.
--
Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@??? Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.
