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 * [http://shearer.org/MTA_Comparison Do you really need exim? Find a MTA Comparision here.]

Exim v4 Packages for Debian

Exim4 is the MTA (Mail Transfer Agent) installed by default on new debian installations. On this web page, the Debian exim4 maintainers would like to deliver information important for users and developers.

Debian 3.1 (stable, codename sarge) has exim4 4.50-8sarge2.

There is lots of excellent documentation for exim. The first file to read under debian is README.Debian (linked below) Then one ought to read the specification file; /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/spec.txt

Please note that the debian configuration is different from the default exim4 configuration found on other systems. This is why it is imperative that one read the debian documentation when setting up exim.

This page is accessible via http://pkg-exim4.alioth.debian.org/. This URL will not change even if the actual page might move out of the Debian wiki at a later time. Please bookmark http://pkg-exim4.alioth.debian.org/. Do not bookmark this page under http://wiki.debian.org/.

User Information

Package Hints

  • [wiki:?PkgExim4KnownBugsInSarge Known Issues and Bugs in the Packages for Debian Sarge]

  • To repeat the debconf configuration, use dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config.

Developer Information

Developer's Discussion

  • [wiki:EtcMailName Discussion and attempt of a Definition to handle /etc/mailname]

Current information

  • The documentation we deliver seems to be overwhelming for the novice user. We'd appreciate patches simplifying the docs, and/or adding information that is missing.
  • The Debconf templates are kind of misleading with regard to the behavior of the mailname and other_hostnames questions. The time to improve them is _right_ _now_. We'd appreciate any input.
  • Since the room for explanation in the debconf template is kind of limited (must fit on an 80x24 screen during installation), we need independent documentation for the README ffile and/or this web page explaining the options in more detail. If somebody wants to write these docs, please feel free to do so.
  • At the moment, exim4-config-simple and exim4-config-medium are outdated. We appreciate patches that apply against current svn.
  • We are in dire need of help from somebody who is familiar with GnuTLS. There are numerous bugs concerning TLS behavior of the Exim daemon, and upstream seems to have lost their GnuTLS knowledge when the helper who delivered the GnuTLS code vanished.

Subversion Repository

The Debian Exim 4 packages are developed in [http://packages.debian.org/subversion Subversion.]

For Tags and Branches, replace trunk with tags or branches. Especially for exim4, the tags directory is huge!

The svn repository only holds the debian/ subdir of the source package. [http://packages.debian.org/svn-buildpackage svn-buildpackage] and [http://packages.debian.org/dpatch dpatch] can handle this case, allowing nearly transparent work with a much smaller repository.

You can subscribe to repository change notifications through the CVS feature in the [http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/developers-reference/ch-resources.en.html#s-pkg-tracking-system Debian PTS]. The svn repository for exim4 is appropriately set up.

Historic CVS Repository

The exim 4 packages were originally maintained on CVS but has migrated to Subversion these days. The CVS links are listed for reference and historic reasons only. The CVS repository has been imported to SVN, but since the SVN holds only the debian/ subdir, you need to reference the CVS if you want the full history.

  • cvs -d:pserver:anonymous\@cvs.alioth.debian.org:/cvsroot/pkg-exim4 login
  • cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous\@cvs.alioth.debian.org:/cvsroot/pkg-exim4 co exim
  • cvs -z3 -d:ext:$ALIOTHUSER\@cvs.alioth.debian.org:/cvsroot/pkg-exim4 co exim