[Pkg-exim4-users] two elementary questions

[Marc Haber]

Hi,

On Sun, May 15, 2005 at 11:20:52PM -0700, David Liontooth wrote:
> Hi Mark,
        ^ *growl*

> Marc Haber wrote:
> >On Sun, May 15, 2005 at 08:15:04PM -0700, David Liontooth wrote:
> >>When I try to mail to a local user, I get "R=dnslookup T=remote_smtp
> >>defer (111)"
> >
> >So the system doesn't consider that mail local and tries to send to
> >the smarthost.
> >
> exim 3 has better text guiding naive users towards the "Internet"
> choice, which is what I needed.

"Smarthost" should work for you as well, if configured correctly.

Experience has shown that it is not a good idea to nudge people
towards some choice, since there are always configurations in which
the "default" choice won't work. This actually is something we have
learned from exim3 nudging people towards the "internet" choice, which
will fall in pieces in a firewalled setup where usage of a smarthost
is absolutely mandated - for example in most corporate environments
and on ISP networks employing port 25 blocking.

> A hint indicating that "if you're
> not sure, try this one" is very useful for naive users, and what
> exim3 does was good enough in my case.

In your case, yes.

> >>dc_eximconfig_configtype='smarthost'
> >>dc_other_hostnames=''
> >>dc_local_interfaces='127.0.0.1'
> >>dc_readhost='mymachine.subnet.edu'
> >
> >Looks like you have been bitten by a change that was introduced in
> >4.50-5. The local hostname is no longer automatically considered a
> >local domain, see /usr/share/doc/exim4-config/NEWS.Debian.gz, first
> >paragraph. Solution: Add all domain names which should have their
> >e-mail locally delivered to dc_other_hostnames.
> >  
> >
> I don't think I understand the details here -- after selecting
> "Internet", I do get prompted for system name, and it then
> appears as dc_other_hostnames='chianti' -- great!

"This name will also be used by other programs; it should be the
single, full domain name (FQDN) from which mail will appear to
originate." "chianti" is not a fully qualified domain name. This is
one of the first changes that will be done to the Debconf templates
once the strings have been unfrozen after sarge's release.

> I suspect
> my problem was that I kept chosing 'satellite' at the start --

No, satellite is fine.

> but in fairness, it would have been extremely useful for me
> to be warned that this would deprive me of getting mail from
> cronjobs etc.

Your problem was that you didn't configure any local domains, hence
all mail was considered non-local. I tried to explain that in my first
message.

> On packages I track regularly, I always read the new docs,
> but on a core package like exim4, when I have no unusual or
> special needs, I expect it to just work. Oh well.

Mail is - unfortunately - a little more complex than your average core
package, and the debconf templates have been frozen for too long time.

> I appreciate your help and hope exim4 can be made somewhat
> more user-friendly!

We are open to your suggestions.

May I suggest that you trim down your quoting to what you really are
referencing?

Greetings
Marc

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marc Haber         | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header
Mannheim, Germany  |  lose things."    Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 621 72739834
Nordisch by Nature |  How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 621 72739835