Bug#430391: exim4-config: Phantom "non-ascii characters" in update-exim4.conf.conf

[Lee Cremeans]

Marc Haber wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 24, 2007 at 01:44:47AM -0400, Lee Cremeans wrote:
>   
>> /usr/sbin/update-exim4.conf: non-ascii value <; 192.168.0.0/24;192.168.1.0/24 read from /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf, sanitizing to _; 
>> 192.168.0.0/24;192.168.1.0/24
>> /usr/sbin/update-exim4.conf: non-ascii value <; 127.0.0.1;192.168.0.1;192.168.1.1 read from /etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf, sanitizing to _; 
>> 127.0.0.1;192.168.0.1;192.168.1.1
>>
>> This is keeping exim4's other packages from configuring. If I blank the fields in question, exim4-config no longer complains, but I use the fields to make 
>> email work from my other machines. 
>>     
>
> Just remove the "<;" in this case. It is the default list separator
> anyway.
>   
That would be the problem; there's no "<;" *to* remove.

Anyway, I did some extra digging, and it turns out the real problem is 
that the new update-exim4.conf is a bit too aggressive in checking for 
non-ASCII characters. It would seem Exim itself needs the "<; " there in 
the generated config file, so update-exim4.conf puts it in, but 
check_ascii_pipe doesn't like seeing the < character and changes it to 
_, which makes Exim angry.

I'm not sure what the best way to fix this would be (changing 
check_ascii_pipe so it recognises < as OK, or removing the call to 
check_ascii_pipe from the relevant parts of update-exim4.conf); I did 
the latter here and it seems to work.

-lee