Exim Packages for Debian
Exim is the MTA (Mail Transfer Agent) installed by default on new debian installations. On this web page, the Debian exim maintainers would like to deliver information important for users and developers.
The packages are named exim4 for historical reasons.
Debian 7 (stable, codename wheezy) has exim4 4.80-7
Debian 6.0 (oldstable, codename squeeze) has exim4 4.72-6+squeeze3
There are 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 exim configuration found on other systems. This is why it is imperative that one reads 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
- The file "README.Debian" distributed with exim4 has a lot of useful information. Go read it.
README.Debian can be found on your system in /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/README.Debian.gz. This version is guaranteed to fit your installation.
The README.Debian shipped with Debian squeeze (Version 4.72-6+squeeze2) can be found on the Web (html text).
The current README.Debian can be found on the Web (html text). These two files are generated each night from the XML Source in the Subversion Repository and might not be appropriate to any packaged version since Development might be ahead of packaging.
NEWS.Debian (/usr/share/doc/exim4-(base||config||daemon-(light||heavy))/NEWS.Debian.gz) is another must-read which currently contains information that should be moved to the Debconf templates in due time.
User-Level Discussion Mailing List. Please note that you're going to be ignored if you ask questions that are clearly answered in the docs. This especially goes for the information given in README.Debian as mentioned above.
- There is also the IRC channel #exim on the freenode IRC network. When you come there, please say that you're a Debian user and read whatever is mentioned in the channel topic.
Package Hints
To repeat the debconf configuration, use dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config.
Developer Information
BTS with Usertags. The exim4 package maintainers make extensive use of BTS usertags. The link to the BTS gives a suggested view to the BTS page with a user categorization. People more acquainted with BTS user categories are invited to put their suggestions for a BTS query here.
Developer's Discussion
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.
- At the moment, exim4-config-simple and exim4-config-medium are outdated. We appreciate patches that apply against current svn.
Subversion Repository
The Debian Exim 4 packages are developed in Subversion.
Cut&Paste Shortcuts for checkout
- svn co svn://svn.debian.org/svn/pkg-exim4/exim/trunk
- svn co svn://svn.debian.org/svn/pkg-exim4/eximdoc4/trunk
- svn co svn://svn.debian.org/svn/pkg-exim4/exim4-config-simple/trunk
- svn co svn://svn.debian.org/svn/pkg-exim4/exim4-config-medium/trunk
svn co svn+ssh://svn.debian.org/svn/pkg-exim4/eximdoc4/trunk
svn co svn+ssh://svn.debian.org/svn/pkg-exim4/exim4-config-simple/trunk
svn co svn+ssh://svn.debian.org/svn/pkg-exim4/exim4-config-medium/trunk
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. svn-buildpackage and 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 Debian PTS. The svn repository for exim4 is appropriately set up.
See also
*Exim