RE: [Exim] step by step guide

On Thu, 10 Oct 2002, Boyle Owen wrote:

> Just to chime in as a new and inexperienced exim user; I would be
> sympathetic to the original poster's request for a HOWTO. The various
> RTFM advices are all very nice but the one big problem with exim is that
> the documentation is really just reference material - it presumes
> already you understand a great deal about MTAs and even that you
> understand exim's internal jargon (such as you know what a "director"
> is).
>
> If you compare it with the documentation for apache, there you will
> find a reference section (which is just an alphabetical list of
> directives) but also serveral tutorials on how to set up various
> features
> - CGI, SSI, authentication and so on. As an experienced apache admin, I
> spend most of my time in the reference section, but newbies certainly
> appreciate the tutorials... The exim documentation consists of reference
> only, I fear.
>
> Further, the O'Reilly book for apache consists of one long tutorial
> about how to set up a site which becomes increasing complex as the book
> progresses - the exim book is a walk through all the directives in every
> section - a reference guide.
>
> Exim is a great MTA and I appreciate it greatly, but it would be a
> shame if its uptake in the community was limited by the inaccessibility
> of its documentation.

I agree with you in a way - learning how to use exim from scratch is hard.
However, I managed - without (initially) using the mailing list - so there
must be enough material in the documentation. Certainly there is a great
chapter explaining the exim paradigm, and what directors are and so on.

I think the problem lies in the fact that exim is used in many different
ways. In order to cover what people want, you would need several HOWTOs.
For example, I first used exim at home on a dial-up (a purpose for which
it is not really designed). Now I administer exim in several small
offices. There are people using it in very large, but single domain
situations (eg. universities), and others who use it in ISPs routing for
many different domains. I think there is a big difference between an MTA
out on the internet which has to resolve MX records and avoid being an
open relay (this is what exim was designed for), and what I and many Linux
enthusiasts do, that is, receive mail from one relay or even fetchmail and
deliver mail to a smarthost. Data structures on the backend of exim also
vary hugely (text files, LDAP, databases etc.)

I think if you are going to run exim, you do need an understanding of
internet mail (for which the book is good), and you need to read the exim
overview. After that the documentation and FAQs will get you there
reasonably quickly.

John

--
-Oh help and bother...I'm stuck!-