[exim] How exim handles dynamically assigned addresses

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Author: Alan McConnell
Date:  
To: exim-users
Subject: [exim] How exim handles dynamically assigned addresses
My situation is about the simplest possible. I run a Linux box
at home; Debian Woody, with exim 3.55. I use dial-up access to
my ISP, patriot.net, and exim should relay my messages on to the
world, with return address "alan@???". I bring my
messages home with fetchmail: I dial up 3 or 4 times a day.

My machine's name is alanmcc(why not? it is meaningful to me, and
it is connected nowhere, except through my occasional dial-ups)
Exim delivers my "local mail"(i.e. the occasional messages to
"root" which get passed on to my account "alan" using the info
in /etc/aliases) just fine.

I have done a lot of manual experimenting with the SMTP protocol;
the problem is always in the  mail from:  exchange.  After the
    telnet jefferson.patriot.net 25
call(jefferson.patriot.net being the patriot.net mail server)
and an   ehlo X  , where, it seems, X can be anything -- I usually
use X=alanmcc) --  I have tried
    mail from:<alan@Y>
with a great many different 'Y's. The only ones which "work" are
either  Y=patriot.net -- no surprise there -- or  Y = pool47-82.patriot.net,
where "pool47-82.patriot.net" is the particular dynamic address that
patriot.net has given me for that particular dial-up.


So it seems to me, an exim beginner, that what I need is a router
stanza that will, after I've dialed up, find out what
"poolZ-Q.patriot.net" I've received for that particular dial-up,
and then use that in its mail from: call.

At present I have set my /etc/exim/exim.conf as follows:

1.  I have set:   
        qualify_domain = patriot.net
Not only is this a lie, but it causes any E-mail I might send to e.g.
alpha@??? to fail, since exim correctly looks on my box for
a user "alpha" and fails.


2. Here is my router stanza:
smarthost:
driver = domainlist
transport = remote_smtp
route_list = "* jefferson.patriot.net bydns_a"

end
    I confess to understanding very little about this.  I have
    performed many experiments on this, none with success.  I have
    Read The Fine Manual many times, and have searched the archives
    of this E-list, but have found nothing that tells me about how
    dynamic addresses should be handled.


My sincere apologies for the long-winded description above. It seems
to me that the answer must be easy, since my situation is so simple.
I should add that I have used qmail and postfix -- though never sendmail! --
and have configured them for my very simple situation successfully. But
somehow the "magic" needed to evoke exim successfully has eluded me.

Many thanks in advance for any help!

-- 
Alan McConnell :  http://patriot.net/users/alan
      A man may be in as just possession of truth as of a city, 
      and yet be forced to surrender.(Thomas Browne)