[Exim] exim 3.952 -- sender reject issue

ok, now i'm working on trying to get the sender_reject equivalent working
in exim 3.952. partial-lsearch for rejecting senders in mail from:<> lines
isn't behaving consistently with traditional exim 3.

my old exim 3 sender reject was as follows:

sender_reject_recipients=partial-lsearch;/etc/exim.d/sender_reject

which works perfectly so far as i know, with contents such as

*.em5000.com
*.em5000.net
*.twistedhumor.com
*.emsiweb.com
*.sandbox.com
*.sandbox.net
*.network60.com
euphony.net
accxx-telecom.net

the convert4r4 script converted this to an entry in the new check_recipient
ACL (this not the complete ACL, just the part from the start to the
relevant deny):

#!!# ACL that is used after the RCPT command
check_recipient:
  # Exim 3 had no checking on -bs messages
  accept  hosts = :
#  deny    !encrypted = HIGH:MEDIUM:LOW:EXPORT
  deny    message = host is listed in $dnslist_domain
          dnslists = kbl.krusty-motorsports.com:relays.visi.com:spamhaus.relays.osirusoft.com:dialups.relays.osirusoft.com
  deny    senders = partial-lsearch;/etc/exim.d/sender_reject
<snip>

here is the output from ./exim -bh 149.19.1.1 -v -d all
with

helo balltown.cma.com
mail from:<fred@???>
rcpt to:<rwelty@???>

this is the ACL check only; everything else in the debug stream is
as-expected.

using ACL "check_recipient"
processing "accept"
check hosts = :
host in ":"? no (end of list)
accept: condition test failed
processing "deny"
check dnslists = kbl.krusty-motorsports.com:relays.visi.com:spamhaus.relays.osirusoft.com:dialups.relays.osirusoft.com

<snip -- dnslist lookup that behaved as desired removed>

deny: condition test failed
processing "deny"
check senders = partial-lsearch;/etc/exim.d/sender_reject
address match: subject=fred@??? pattern=partial-lsearch;/etc/exim.d/sender_reject
search_open: lsearch "/etc/exim.d/sender_reject"
search_find: file="/etc/exim.d/sender_reject"
key="fred@???" partial=-1
LRU list:
8/etc/exim.d/sender_reject
End
internal_search_find: file="/etc/exim.d/sender_reject"
type=lsearch key="fred@???"
file lookup required for fred@???
in /etc/exim.d/sender_reject
lookup failed
fred@??? in "partial-lsearch;/etc/exim.d/sender_reject"? no (end of list)
deny: condition test failed
processing "deny"
check !verify = recipient

<snip>

anybody got any ideas?

richard
--
Richard Welty
rwelty@???                                 Averill Park Networking
rwelty@???           Unix, Linux, IP Network Engineering, Security
rwelty@???                                     518-573-7592