Bug#392831: exim4-config: colons or semi colons as separators (debconf templates issue)

[Alexandre Fayolle]

Package: exim4-config
Version: 4.63-5
Severity: grave
Justification: renders package unusable

Hi,

I'm having to reinstall my mail server (HD died on the previous one), and the debconf 
questions in exim4-config caused me to fill in wrong values, which broke the mail server. I'm 
using an RC severity because this will certainly bite users installing a fresh mail server 
with Debian/etch. 

The problematic templates are the one which ask for a list of values:

 * "IP adresses to listen on for incoming SMTP connections" says in the help:
"Please enter a semicolon-separated list of IP addresses."

This is correct.

 * "Other destinations for which mail is accepted" says in the help:
"Please enter a semicolon-separated list of recipient domains"

This does not work: the destinations should be a colon-separated list of recipient domains. 
The symptom is undeliverable mails with lines like 
2006-10-13 21:03:41 1GYSJp-0003Su-JV unknown lookup type "fayauffre.org"
in paniclog.

An easy patch is to change the wording of the debconf template and the translations. But it 
is probably better to have both lists use the same separator. If exim4 expects colons, the 
config script could sed s/;/:/ that line before writing it in the update-exim4.conf.conf 
file. 

The attached update-exim4.conf.conf was generated using a semicolon separated list at the 
debconf prompt.

Thanks for your time and work. 

-- Package-specific info:
Exim version 4.63 #1 built 10-Oct-2006 16:53:10
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
# /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf
#
# Edit this file and /etc/mailname by hand and execute update-exim4.conf
# yourself or use 'dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config'

dc_eximconfig_configtype='smarthost'
dc_other_hostnames=''fayauffre.org;merlin;merlin.fayauffre.org'
dc_local_interfaces='127.0.0.1;192.168.74.101'
dc_readhost=''
dc_relay_domains=''
dc_minimaldns='false'
dc_relay_nets='192.168.74.0/24'
dc_smarthost='smtp.free.fr'
CFILEMODE='644'
dc_use_split_config='true'
dc_hide_mailname='false'
dc_mailname_in_oh='true'
dc_localdelivery='mail_spool'
mailname:fayauffre.org

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.17-2-686
Locale: LANG=fr_FR at euro, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR at euro (charmap=ISO-8859-15)

Versions of packages exim4-config depends on:
ii  adduser                       3.95       Add and remove users and groups
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]         1.5.2      Debian configuration management sy

exim4-config recommends no packages.

-- debconf-show failed