[Pkg-exim4-users] local mail addressed to root

[Larry Fletcher]

On Nov 04, 2006, Magnus Holmgren wrote:
> On Friday 03 November 2006 22:04, Larry Fletcher took the opportunity to say:
> > I started using Debian about 7 years ago and I have always logged in
> > as root.  
> 
> You will probably hear this from many, but why are you foregoing the
> extra   security a real operating system gives you when you do your
> everyday work as   an unprivileged user? Always logging in as root is
> like running Windows 95.   Microsoft just recently made a decent
> effort encouraging users to create a   normal user account on
> installation. The Debian installer urges you to create   an
> unprivileged account and has probably always done so.

There are a number of reasons, but the bottom line is it's a lot
easier.  At least I thought it was a lot easier when I started using
Debian and it seems like too much trouble to change it now when
everything is working so well.  But if other packages go the way of
exim I'll be forced to change.

> > This worked fine until I had to upgrade to Exim4.  To be 
> > able receive local mail I had to create another user and direct the
> > root mail to it, then create /etc/procmailrc using a symlink from
> > ~/.procmailrc.  This worked fine until I decided to remove the
> > Smartlist package.  Now local mail is is still delivered, but
> > /etc/procmailrc is not checked.  Smartlist never used the exim config,
> > so I don't why removing it causes a problem.
> 
> Exim 4 never delivers mail as root. That's a compilation setting, so
> you can't  change it without recompiling. But you can give the other
> user write  permission to root's mailbox and have Exim or procmail
> deliver it there. But I wouldn't recommend it.

I added the user to the root group, but I don't know what to
do beyond that.  However exim still doesn't use /etc/procmailrc
and that's the big problem.

> Why /etc/procmailrc isn't read any more is a bit of a mystery and
> can't be  determined without more information, I think. But I know
> that smartlist is  procmail-based. Have you customised your Exim
> configuration? What else can  you say about /etc/procmailrc and
> ~/.procmailrc?

/etc/procmailrc was a link to ~/.procmailrc, but I don't think
that's a problem because it would show up in the logs.  And there
was nothing related to smartlist in the exim config.  I couldn't
find any change to system when I removed smartlist, but obviously
something did change.

It seems very strange to me that there is no way to get exim to
use /etc/procmailrc now, even though that's the default in the
config file.

> > I am using Debian stable and can't compile from source.
> 
> Why not? If it's because of lack of knowledge, that problem can be
> solved. But  again, I wouldn't recommend it (meaning, I do recommend
> learning things, but  I don't recommend always running as root).

I thought about mentioning the lack of knowledge, but decided it
was obvious. :-)

I wish there was some way to make it work by just changing the exim
config file, but it doesn't look like that will happen.  However after
working all day yesterday and today I finally did get it work the way
I want without making too many changes.  And I think it's better than
reinstalling smartlist, because that was really bugging me.

I wasn't expecting a response, so thanks for trying to help!

   Larry