[exim] Poor documentation on upgrade

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Auteur: Jeremiah Foster
Datum:  
Aan: exim-users
Onderwerp: [exim] Poor documentation on upgrade
If I might suggest that there be more than one short line on where the
problem is in exim's new configuration and not just a long line chastising
users for not reading the documentation:

DEBCONFsomethingDEBCONF found in exim configuration. This is most probably
caused by you upgrading to exim4 4.67-3 or later without accepting the
suggested conffile changes. Please read
/usr/share/doc/exim4-config/NEWS.Debian.gz for 4.67-2 and 4.67-4

Where exactly in the configuration? Does one have to write a new
update.conf.conf file? Or is it the template file that has been changed?
Shouldn't the above line be more specific?

When you decided to do these changes, please make sure there is clear
documentation. Yes I have read the line that the above error message refers
to:

From /usr/share/doc/exim4-config/NEWS.Debian.gz

    Generation of the final exim configuration has changed. The
    configuration no longer has the DEBCONFsomethingDEBCONF
    placeholders. All data from Debconf are put into exim
    configuration macros by update-exim4.conf, which are then
    appropriately picked up by the configuration itself. There should
    be no visible change to people who have not modified their
    configuration, but customized configurations need to adapt.


I also have read:

    Since a lot of users did not read the docs while upgrading and
    filed bug reports about exim4-config failing to install due to a
    "malformed macro definition", update-exim4.conf.conf now checks
    for DEBCONFsomethingDEBCONF strings in the resulting configuration
    file and barfs if such strings are found. It _is_ necessary to
    either accept the offered configuration file change _or_ to
    manually check a manually changed exim config. Exim will _NOT_ run
    if a configuration file of an older version is being used with a
    more recent exim4-config.


There is no actionable instruction to take from this. It just says things
have changed, not what to do about it. I have not modified my configuration
yet exim won't start. I have followed exactly the instructions yet the exim
daemon still complains. This is not a good situation.

My exim config is so broken by these updates that I cannot even remove it.
Why would you do this to your users?

Jeremiah