Bug#432229: exim4-config: colon / semicolon confusion for one single IPv6 relay address

[Frederic Daniel Luc LEHOBEY]

Package: exim4-config
Version: 4.67-5
Severity: normal

Hi,

When dealing with the debconf template about 'Machines to relay mail
for', the wording says 'Please enter a semicolon-separated list of IP
address ranges for which this system will unconditionally relay mail,
functioning as a smarthost.'

But in the (rare) case a single IPv6 address (with no semicolon in the
input) is given (like, as an example,
2002:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001/128), it seems to be
understood by the debconf machinery as an old-style colon separated
list. (I have not yet identified the responsible piece of code.)

The /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated has then:

.ifndef MAIN_RELAY_NETS
MAIN_RELAY_NETS=2002:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001/128 : 127.0.0.1 : ::::1
.endif

(and the relay does not work -- with a real address, obviously --).

One workaround I have found is to add a semicolon in the template
field (like '2002:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001/128;') and then
/var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated has:

.ifndef MAIN_RELAY_NETS
MAIN_RELAY_NETS=<; 2002:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001/128; ; 127.0.0.1 ; ::1
.endif

(that works.)

I suppose doubling the colons might work too (I have not tried it).

As the setting of having one single IPv6 address to relay might be
quite uncommon, the main purpose of this bug report is to properly
report and document this weird behaviour. (Maybe add a sentence to the
debconf template?)

Thanks for your work on exim4.

Best regards,
Frédéric Lehobey

-- Package-specific info:
Exim version 4.67 #1 built 28-Jun-2007 13:09:54
Copyright (c) University of Cambridge 2006
Berkeley DB: Sleepycat Software: Berkeley DB 4.3.29: (September  6, 2005)
Support for: crypteq iconv() IPv6 GnuTLS move_frozen_messages
Lookups: lsearch wildlsearch nwildlsearch iplsearch cdb dbm dbmnz dsearch nis nis0 passwd
Authenticators: cram_md5 plaintext
Routers: accept dnslookup ipliteral manualroute queryprogram redirect
Transports: appendfile/maildir/mailstore autoreply lmtp pipe smtp
Fixed never_users: 0
Size of off_t: 8
Configuration file is /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.21-1-k7 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages exim4-config depends on:
ii  adduser                       3.103      Add and remove users and groups
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]         1.5.13     Debian configuration management sy

exim4-config recommends no packages.

-- debconf information excluded