Bug#304838: exim4-config: "mail sent by smarthost; no local mail" causes weird behavior wrt local delivery

[Andrew Pimlott]

[I was left out of the loop on replies to this bug that I filed.]

Marc Haber <mh+debian-packages@zugschlus.de> wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 15, 2005 at 09:14:35PM -0700, Andrew Pimlott wrote:
> > I have just installed a Debian unstable machine and configured exim4 for
> > "mail sent by smarthost; no local mail".  This has two weird effects
> > (which I don't think are the same as bug 297841):  (Throughout this
> > message, I have replaced my domain with example.com.)
> > 
> > 1.  Mail to real-andrew is not delivered locally; instead, exim tries to
> >     deliver to real-andrew@example.com.
> 
> This is unreproducible here, it delivers fine to the smarthost:

Maybe you misunderstood my example.  I ran "mail real-andrew", with no
"@domain", and it tried to deliver to real-andrew@example.com.  But the
whole puprose (I thought) of real- addresses is that they will always be
delivered locally, not sent to a smarthost or anywhere else.  This is
what the debconf question exim4/dc_postmaster says:

    Note that postmaster's mail should be read on the system to which it
    is directed, rather than being forwarded elsewhere, so (at least one
    of) the users you choose should not redirect their mail off this
    machine. Use a "real-" prefix to force local delivery.

> No. "no local mail" does really mean, "no local mail", and the
> templates cannot be changed before sarge release.

First, this puts the user in a difficult spot, because the debconf
templates contain contradictory statements.  I realize that changing
templates has a high cost, but I would consider it worthwhile because
the current wording is so confusing.

Second, please consider supporting real- addresses in all
configurations.  Since people have to ask for local delivery explicitly,
it seems unlikely that it would cause problems.  Moreover, I think many
users would like a "no local mail except for system messages" option,
and this change would provide it.  If you will not make this change, I
would at least clarify in Debconf that "no local mail" means "even
system messages".  And what will you recommend that users enter for
dc_postmaster?

Andrew