Re: [Exim] Feature Request

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Author: Philip Hazel
Date:  
To: Tom Daly
CC: exim-users
Subject: Re: [Exim] Feature Request
On Wed, 6 Aug 2003, Tom Daly wrote:

> I'd like to see the smtp transport option port become an expanding string.
> This way, I can select a transport port number based upon a variable.


This has been on the Wish List for a long time, since Exim 3 in fact:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(139) 20-Apr-2000 M Expand the "port" option

There are cases where this could be useful. Patch supplied by Milan Kocian.
However, making this change really means that the waiting database must be
keyed by port too (see also 56).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The last sentence gives the clue as to why I haven't tackled this. It
indicates an infelicity in the way Exim currently works. If it fails to
connect to an IP address, it just remembers the IP address, not the
port. This is probably not too bad for genuine "fail to connect" because
that would probably apply to all ports. However, a temporary SMTP error
(e.g. 4xx on connection) is handled the same way, and that *could* be
port-specific.

I should probably grit my teeth and get on with tidying this up. Then
expanding "port" would be straightforward. However, I'm now starting to
pull things together for a 4.21 release fairly soon, so I won't do
anything this big till after that.

> On a side note, I've been setting up and configuring Exim for a couple
> weeks now, and by far, its well written, documented, and functional.


Thank you.

Philip

--
Philip Hazel            University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@???      Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.
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