Re: [exim] Running exim as a user with no username

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Autor: Mike Cardwell
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Para: exim-users
Assunto: Re: [exim] Running exim as a user with no username
Bill Hacker wrote:

>>>> I *could* leave LDAP on, but it seems like a waste of resources to be
>>>> constantly querying the AD, unless I can get this one last thing
>>>> working...
>>> I think you should leave LDAP on. It's unsurprising that things break
>>> when
>>> your user database isn't available.
>> You think I should put up with the overhead caused by ldap queries
>> against the Active Directory and reliance on the AD being available,
>> so that the default return path and sender is set correctly?
> 'making the best of a bad situation', that's the obvious way...


Yes. It *is* the obvious way, and the current configuration, and what I
am attempting to change.

>> That is an option yes,
>> but the point of my email was to try and find an alternative solution
>> that would allow me to turn it off.
> Why not, periodically or on-change, export a copy of the relevent fields
> of the AD to a flat-file or CDB (optionally via LDAP) whenever AD *is*
> working
> (if it can be said to *ever* work) ... and set to Exim use that file/DB?


That would probably work yes. Sounds like more of a nasty hack than I
was wanting to go with though.

>> Any other ideas?
> This is not an Exim problem.


I never said it was. However exim *can* be configured/modified
appropriately to solve the problem.

> Exim will quite happily draw needed information from *whatever*
> sort of storage you point it towards, including every mainstream or
> minority form of RDBMS or ODB a script can 'legally' access, liteweight
> B+Tree, DB, GDB, Berkeley DB, LDAP, flat files in a variety of formats
> ...you name it, Exim's got it.
> With a bit of coding it can searching substrings, or use internal or
> external
> scripts to convert codes from Fieldata, EBCDIC, or the Pick Operating
> System.


Yes. It can...

> But - regardless of derivation - Exim *does* need to have the information
> available if it is to act on it. It guesses only at smtp'ish things -
> not account info.


Exim *demands* to be run under a uid that has a username. It took me
about 3 lines of code changes in exim.c to remove the dependency. Note,
sendmail behaves differently. It does bitch about this scenario, but it
still accepts and delivers the mail. *All* I need is a method to set the
default sender and return paths using information from an environment
variable. Please don't suggest "use sendmail" now I've mentioned it, as
a solution to my problem. :)

> 'Appropriate choice' of methodology to make that happen the way you
> want it to happen is up to the sysadmin.
> - or to quote your own good self from your own juvenile website at:
> http://rbl.souphost.com/
> "Also, I'm not going to help you to configure up Exim or any other mail
> servers. If you want to use this service rtfm."


I've been accused of worse things than being juvenile. If you don't wish
to assist that's ok by me. The answer I was hoping for would have been
something along the lines of:

"You need to take a look at the section of code starting at line xxx of
the file foo.c. You can probably set the return-path by setting the
variable xx to it at this point."

> ...and "..we piss on your fish" ?? Not mine, in Hong Kong, you don't.
> We have our own ways..,


It's a personal joke for the people who the site was intended to be seen
by. I didn't expect people I don't know to actually go hunting for it. I
guess some people have more time on their hands than they know what to
do with.

Mike