[exim] vacation filter option once file expected to be a dir…

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Author: Raphael Haas
Date:  
To: exim-users
Subject: [exim] vacation filter option once file expected to be a directory?
Dear list,

I am running an exim4-daemon-heavy (4.90.1-1ubuntu1.10) and

in the context of a userforward "~/.forward" filter file using the
vacation command

> if personal alias raphael.haas@???
> then
>       vacation from raphael.haas@??? subject "Out of
> office notification"
> endif


with no other options changed from the default values given in
https://www.exim.org/exim-html-4.90/doc/html/spec_html/filter_ch-exim_filter_files.html#SECTmail

especially the once option is still the original ".vacation" and citing
from the above link "If a once file is specified, it is used to hold a
database..." I understand the ".vacation" is expected to be a file -

while the user filter/vacation triggering message to
raphael.haas@??? is delivered without problems,

processing the vacation reply message I get this entry in the exim mainlog:

> "...R=userforward T=address_reply defer (0): Failed to open db (v4.1+)
> file .vacation when sending message from address_reply transport: Not
> a directory"


Now that sounds like exim expects the filename ".vacation" to be a
directory?
And after a lot of unfruitful research, I renamed the ".vacation" file
in my home directory and created an empty ".vacation" directory, and voila,
the vacation message gets delivered and a new ".vacation" db file is
created inside the new ".vacation" directory.
(which also rules out any possible problems with setting up the current
or home directories for the transport, obviously the action happens in
the expected place, i.e. the user home dir)

While this is nice in principle,
* I'd like to understand why the vacation filter command expects a
directory when it should (after all I read and understand) be a file.
* and I'd like to avoid having to change the vacation setup in each
home-dir of all the users.

Any hints and explanations would be highly welcome.

Thank you,
Raphael


Some more background:
The setup ran fine for over 10 years before, the last working setup was
with exim 4.86.2-2ubuntu2.
The changes to the /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template file (left file is the
new/current one) are

> 320d319
> < MAIN_KEEP_ENVIRONMENT =
> 943,944c942,943
> < #  warn  demime = *
> <   warn !malware = *
> ---
> >   warn  demime = *
> >         !malware = *
> 947c946,947
> <   warn  malware = */defer_ok
> ---
> >   warn  demime = *
> >         malware = */defer_ok
> 953c953,954
> <    accept malware = */defer_ok
> ---
> >   accept demime = *
> >         malware = */defer_ok





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