Author: W B Hacker Date: To: exim users Subject: Re: [exim] re move recipient address from envelope?
antip wrote: > Your right. I'll try to use accounts for each user. Fortunally I only need
> about 20 acoounts, what is not that much. But I hate this webform clicking
> in the ISP's frontend.
> Perhaps in future i gonne try to cut out the getmail pop3 stuff und use exim
> directly, but I'm very affraid of doing it wrong.
>
> thx a lot
> Christian
>
Being 'afraid of doing it wrong' is a very welcome virtue in an age when sooo
many folks think all they need to do is tick a few boxes and voila! their laptop
is a mail server...
The basics:
- you will want a fixed-IP, moreover one that is NOT in a block labelled as
'dynamically allocated'. Pay no attention to the the 'dyn' services that try to
get around that, as many of us block those also on principle as
spammer-friendly. If not available, look to authorized relay thru your
upstream's submission port.
- presuming you DO have a fixed-IP, you will need that netblock-owner to publish
*at least* a PTR RR (pointer record - for reverse DNS) that ties that IP to your
MTA's domain.tld. Nice if the same entity also holds your 'A' and 'MX' records,
but those *can* be elsewhere, so long as they are correct.
- from that point on, 'mine' the web and the archives of this list for examples
of Exim configuration and discussion of the pros and cons of each.
One size does not fit all - but a great many 'sizes' have been covered here, and
more than once.
If Debian or Ubuntu is all you have, then you WILL have some 'box tick freindly'
tools - but also a different world-view than most of the rest of us have. Check
the Debian-specific mailing list for how to deal with those.
If another Linux or a *BSD or Unix, the examples on this list should fit well.
CAVEAT - few acl's, routers, or transports stand in isolation. Don't expect a
snippet to work the same for you as it did for someone else unless the general
environment is at least 'close'.
Take your time. Undoing damage is more work than avoiding it.
The default configure file is the best starting point.
Use Exim's built-in debug suite and a mini-DNS from entries in your /etc/hosts
file to test to before you even need a network connection.
Next, you can 'allow_domain_literals' and run test traffic back and forth by IP
between two boxes or two instances of Exim under separate IP on the SAME box,
over a local LAN - or just into and out of your own IP stack.
Still w/o need of any outside-world connection.
Keep your logging at full blast (log_selector = +all).
Number/code your acl's and put the codes into logwrite = <code> some message as
you adopt them, to show mere traversal, and log_message = <code> some message to
show when they actually 'trigger'. That way you will know who is doign what,
with which, at what point, and to whom.
Conditionals and their behaviour are consistent and well documented in Exim, but
there are *many* and not all work the same way.
ACl clauses are also consistent, but not 'intuitive' unless you are au fait with
forth 'case of' structures. And no, Exim was not written in forth - but it is
cleanly planned to the extent that it could have been...
In short order you will catch on to the nuances, cause, and effect - and 'gotcha's'.
Within 'minute one' of going 'live' run one or more of the publically available
open-relay tests. Fix if need be.
The rest is just paying attention to the logs and investing time. It gets more
enjoyable as problem after problem falls to the superb tools you will have at
hand - and the vast wealth of giant's shoulder's on which to stand.
