Re: [exim] exim command to dump config after macro expansion

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Author: Jan Ingvoldstad
Date:  
To: exim users
Subject: Re: [exim] exim command to dump config after macro expansion
On Fri, Jul 3, 2015 at 2:57 PM, Heiko Schlittermann <hs@???>
wrote:

> Tim Watts <tim.j.watts@???> (Fr 03 Jul 2015 14:43:39 CEST):
> > No matter - I'll write one from scratch - it will take less effort :)
>


When you run the update-exim4.conf command, it creates a regular Exim
configuration, placed in /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated.

This is a standard, monolithic configuration file.

And that is what Exim loads on Debian.

(Technically speaking, Debian would load /etc/exim4/exim4.conf if present,
but you wrote that you had a convoluted split config, so ...)


>
> Use
>
>     /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/examples/example.conf.gz

>
> as an "official" starting point. It's the configuration as supplied by
> the maintainers of Exim (!= maintainers of the Debian Exim package).
>
> It's working out of the box for an internet host (may be some extra
> activated line in the local transport because of the permissions).
>
> Always I use this file to build a more or less specialized site
> configuration. The Debian style may fit the needs of the majority, but
> as soon as you want to use the full power of Exim you're lost. (IMHO).
> You've to understand the Exim configuration syntax PLUS the Macro
> Magic…
>


There is nothing in Debian that prevents you from skipping the macro magic.

With Debian, you have four distinct choices:

1) Do it the default Exim way.
2) Do it with macros, monolithic config.
3) Do it with macros, split config.
4) Roll your own solution.

Choices 2) and 3) are absent in non-Debian style configs, but their
presence in Debian in no means constitute a coercion to use them.

For the original poster, I would recommend the following starting point in
the online Debian documentation:

https://wiki.debian.org/Exim

Included with the Exim 4 package set is the following documentation, which
may also be helpful if more understanding of how Debian does it is required:

http://pkg-exim4.alioth.debian.org/README/update-exim4.conf.8.html
http://pkg-exim4.alioth.debian.org/README/README.Debian.etch.html
--
Jan