Bug#421860: exim4-config: confusing wording of configuration question

[Marc Haber]

On Sat, May 26, 2007 at 12:09:27PM -0600, Hans G. Ehrbar wrote:
>    On Wed, May 02, 2007 at 12:30:59AM -0600, Hans G. Ehrbar wrote:
>    > when running dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config, the 5th question is:
>    > 
>    >  Please enter a semicolon-separated list of
>    >  recipient domains for which this machine should consider itself the
>    >  final destination, apart from the local hostname
>    >  (xxx.xxx.xxx) and "localhost". These domains are commonly
>    >  called "local domains".
>    > 
>    > This sounds like xxx.xxx.xxx and localhost should not be in this list,
> 
>    It is not intended to sound this way. If you want local delivery of
>    mail to addresses in "xxx.xxx.xxx" and localhost, the two names need
>    to be in this list.
> 
> Then I would recommend changing the wording.  "Apart from" means:
> "with the exception of".  The reader confronted with the 5th question
> must think he or she is asked to enter all domains *other than*
> the local hostname which should be considered local domains.

New wording is:

 Please enter a semicolon-separated list of recipient domains for
 which this machine should consider itself the final destination.
 These domains are commonly called 'local domains'. The local hostname
 ({fqdn}) and 'localhost' are always added to the list given here.
 .
 By default all local domains will be treated identically. If both
 a.example and b.example are local domains, acc at a.example and
 acc at b.example will be delivered to the same final destination. If
 different domain names should be treated differently, it is
 necessary to edit the config files afterwards.

>    > and indeed the sarge version of this question said that the entry
>    > may be left blank. But the etch version of the text continues:
>    > 
>    > Leaving this list blank will have Exim do no local deliveries.
>    > 
>    > This does not tell the user what to do if you do want
>    > local deliveries but have only one local domain
> 
>    Isn't it clear that in this case the local domain needs to be the only
>    entry in there?
> 
> It wasn't clear to me.  I do not understand much about email therefore
> things which may be obvious to an expert are not clear to me.

The "Leaving this list blank will have Exim do no local deliveries"
misinformation is no longer present.

>    > Here it would be useful to remark that this should usually be left
>    > blank if a mailing list is run on the same computer.
> 
>    What's so special about a mailing list that it needs special
>    mentioning _HERE_?
> 
> Just for idiots like I who run mailman on Debian boxes and do not
> understand that the mail sent out by mailman are for exim
> "incoming SMTP connections" which do not come in through eth0

Sorry, but it is not possible to specifically handle any possible
pitfall of exim with every other of the 10K+ other Debian packages. I
do not intend on even trying to do this job.

Greetings
Marc

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