Translation(s): English - Italiano

• Contents

  1. Exim Overview
  2. Installation
  3. Configuration
     1. Single file
     2. Split file
     3. Your own file
     4. Location of the auto-generated config
     5. Example stand-alone example
  4. Things you might want to configure
     1. TLS and authentication
     2. SPF filtering
     3. Email sub-addressing (plus-signs as in Gmail)
     4. Install diagnostic tools
     5. User authentication
     6. Spam scanning
     7. Exim access control lists (ACLs)
  5. Debian Exim4 User FAQ
  6. See also

Exim Overview

Exim is a message transfer agent (MTA).

Installation

Exim generally comes with default Debian installation. If you need to use ACL and other features you may need to install exim4-daemon-heavy

#apt-get install exim4-daemon-heavy

Configuration

The README.Debian.gz file included in the exim4 packages details Debian style configuration exhaustively.

#zless /usr/share/doc/exim4-config/README.Debian.gz

Generally, the Debian Exim 4 packages are configured through debconf. The install prompts for questions during package installation, and your initial Exim configuration is created from your answers. You can repeat the configuration process at any time by invoking:

 dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config

Despite the default configuration being extended somewhat from the original upstream, chances are that you'll need to manually change the Exim configuration with an editor if you intend to do something that is not covered by the debconf-driven configuration. It has never been the packages' intention to offer all possible configuration methods through debconf.

There are three ways you can configure exim4. The first is a single monolithic file, the second is split file, and the third is your own file.

The configuration file is generated from these config files using the command (yes it has .conf in the name)

update-exim4.conf

After which you should restart exim4 with something like

service exim4 restart

Single file

If you select this option in debconf, configuration will be generated from the /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template file.

The default file is rich with features which can be enabled and controlled merely by setting the values of various macros.

Incidentally, the /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.localmacros file will be read in first, which makes it the ideal place to put any macros you may want to set. Using this file you can control various features (DKIM for example) and still gain the benefits of not touching the debian provided files, so hopefully having more seamless upgrades.

Split file

In this scenarios the configuration is split across lots of smaller files stored in /etc/exim4/conf.d/ which are then assembled in to one file for you by the update-exim4.conf command. Each section of the configuration file has its own subdirectory and the files therein are concatenated in alphabetical order. As such its probably a good idea that your custom files be named something like 00_exim4-my-config so they are included first.

This mode of operation allows for your own sections of configuration to be inserted at any location in the final config file, without touching any of the package provided files. The idea being that upgrades become very reliable.

Your own file

Simply install your own file in /etc/exim/exim4.conf and exim will use that file verbatim.

To have something to start with, you can either take /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template, run update-exim4.conf --keepcomments --output /etc/exim4/exim4.conf, or use upstream's default configuration file that is installed as /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/examples/example.conf.gz.

You are going to lose all magic you get from packaging though, so you need to be familiar with Exim to build an actually working config.

Note that /etc/exim4/exim4.conf is read directly by exim4 every time exim forks. So if you edit it in place, each smtp connection will actually read a different configuration file!

Location of the auto-generated config

For reference, the file generated by update-exim4.conf is /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated

Avoid editing this file in place!

Example stand-alone example

This configuration has been tested on a server and ought to be suitable for internal use:

#dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config

General type of mail configuration:  internet site; mail is sent and received directly using SMTP.
System mail name: yourdomain.com
IP-addresses to listen on for incomming SMTP connections: // leave blank
Other destinations for which mail is accepted: yourdomain.com
Domains to relay mail for: // leave blank
Machines to relay mail for: // leave blank
Keep number of DNS-queries minimal (Dial-on-Demand) ?: No
Delivery method for local mail: Maildir format in home directory
Split configuration into small files ? : No

This writes the configuration to /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf.

Things you might want to configure

TLS and authentication

Generate a certificate using:

#bash /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/examples/exim-gencert

It will generate exim.crt and exim.key in /etc/exim4/

Instead of generating a certificate, you may simply copy certificates that you have purchased or generated previously.

Edit /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template

add the following line before .ifdef MAIN_TLS_ENABLE

MAIN_TLS_ENABLE = yes

Now restart exim.

SPF filtering

This is provided via the macro CHECK_RCPT_SPF, set it to true.

Exim uses a helper tool, which you will need to install...

# apt-get install spf-tools-perl

You should then run update-exim4.conf and restart exim.

Email sub-addressing (plus-signs as in Gmail)

These can easily be achieved by adding something similar to the following in one of more of your router definitions

local_part_suffix = +* : -* : _*
local_part_suffix_optional

The above example would deliver user+example@domain.com, user-example@domain.com and user_example@domain.com to user@domain.com.

Similarly, you could use a prefix instead with these similarly named options

local_part_prefix = *+ : *- : *_
local_part_prefix_optional

The above example would deliver example+user@domain.com, example-user@domain.com and example_user@domain.com to user@domain.com.

In either case, you could then use sieve filtering, config tricks or your email client to apply delivery rules.

Install diagnostic tools

#apt-get install swaks libnet-ssleay-perl

Test the connection:

$swaks -a -tls -q HELO -s localhost -au your_user -ap '<>'
 === Trying localhost:25...
 === Connected to localhost.
 <-  220 debianwb ESMTP Exim 4.76 Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:22:02 +0600
  -> EHLO debianwb
 <-  250-debianwb Hello localhost [127.0.0.1]
 <-  250-SIZE 52428800
 <-  250-PIPELINING
 <-  250-STARTTLS
 <-  250 HELP
  -> STARTTLS
 <-  220 TLS go ahead
 === TLS started w/ cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA
  ~> EHLO debianwb
 <~  250-debianwb Hello localhost [127.0.0.1]
 <~  250-SIZE 52428800
 <~  250-PIPELINING
 <~  250 HELP
  ~> QUIT
 <~  221 evie closing connection

Note that above we are sending an empty password while testing with the swaks tool.

Some ISPs may block connecting to port 25, and also some broken clients insist TLS on Port 465.

To support these, change /etc/default/exim4 as:

SMTPLISTENEROPTIONS='-oX 465:25 -oP /var/run/exim4/exim.pid'

Also edit /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template:

#####################################################
### main/03_exim4-config_tlsoptions
#####################################################
tls_on_connect_ports=465
### main/03_exim4-config_tlsoptions
#################################

Check pkg-exim4.alioth.debian.org README for details.

User authentication

Now, we will add an authentication schema. For shell users we are using SASL, which uses PAM for password authentication:

#apt-get install sasl2-bin

Edit /etc/default/saslauthd to enable saslauth:

START=yes

Start the deamon:

#/etc/init.d/saslauthd start

In /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template, uncomment the following lines to enable authentication via saslauthd:

 plain_saslauthd_server:
    driver = plaintext
    public_name = PLAIN
    server_condition = ${if saslauthd{{$auth2}{$auth3}}{1}{0}}
    server_set_id = $auth2
    server_prompts = :
    .ifndef AUTH_SERVER_ALLOW_NOTLS_PASSWORDS
    server_advertise_condition = ${if eq{$tls_cipher}{}{}{*}}
    .endif

Add exim to the sasl group:

#adduser Debian-exim sasl

Restart exim:

#/etc/init.d/exim4 restart

Test the connection using your username:

#swaks -a -tls -q AUTH -s localhost -au your_user
Password:

Enable IMAP access by installing Courier-Imap or a similar MTA.

Spam scanning

There are several ways to detect spam.

Exim has default configuration for spamassassin (exim4-daemon-heavy required).

#apt-get install spamassassin

If you are using Debian Jessie or later (with systemd enabled by default), enable and start the service using systemctl;

#systemctl enable spamassassin.service

On earlier Debian releases, edit /etc/default/spamassassin ...

ENABLED=1

...and then start the daemon.

#/etc/init.d/spamassassin start

On all systems, edit /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template as required for your system.

First, if necessary, set the spamd_address:

# For spam scanning, there is a similar option that defines the interface to
# SpamAssassin. You do not need to set this if you are using the default, which
# is shown in this commented example. As for virus scanning, you must also
# modify the acl_check_data access control list to enable spam scanning.

# spamd_address = 127.0.0.1 783

Next, edit the acl_check_data section to add suitable spam headers:

### acl/40_exim4-config_check_data
#################################

# This ACL is used after the contents of a message have been received. This
# is the ACL in which you can test a message's headers or body, and in
# particular, this is where you can invoke external virus or spam scanners.

acl_check_data:
...
...
...
# See the exim docs and the exim wiki for more suitable examples.
#
# warn
#   spam = Debian-exim:true
#   add_header = X-Spam_score: $spam_score\n\
#             X-Spam_score_int: $spam_score_int\n\
#             X-Spam_bar: $spam_bar\n\
#             X-Spam_report: $spam_report

# put headers in all messages (no matter if spam or not)
 warn  spam = nobody:true
     add_header = X-Spam-Score: $spam_score ($spam_bar)
     add_header = X-Spam-Report: $spam_report

# add second subject line with *SPAM* marker when message
# is over threshold
  warn  spam = nobody
      add_header = Subject: ***SPAM (score:$spam_score)*** $h_Subject:

For more information about configuring spam filters, see the exim wiki.

To test your spamassassin setup follow spamassassin test and gtube.

Exim access control lists (ACLs)

Exim provides flexible way to set access control list. For detailed information, see the ACL documentation on the exim wiki.

For example, if we are trying to deny all mail from three free email service providers (domain1.com, domain2.com, domain3.com) based on Received headers from the servers, we can use the following lines:

deny
     condition = ${if match{$h_Received:}{\N\.(domain1|domain2|domain3)\.com\N}{yes}{no}}
     message = This mailbox does not support free e-mail services.

Debian Exim4 User FAQ

There is a Wiki page with Debian Exim4 User FAQ.

See also

• Exim HomePage

• blog.edseek.com/~jasonb/

• library.linode.com

• koivi.com/exim4-config/

• Exim Access control lists

• Exim Content scanning at ACL time

• http://spamassassin.apache.org/

• pr0d.planetlarg.com

• pkg-exim4.alioth.debian.org README