Bug#990344: exim 4.94.2 update default configuration option breaks MTA

[Andreas Metzler]

On 2021-06-26 sawbona at xsmail.com wrote:
> On 26 Jun 2021 at 15:12, Andreas Metzler wrote:
> > I think that assumption is not correct. dpkg will (should) only ask
> > about the confffile if it *was* locally changed, otherwise the files are
> > overwritten without asking.
> I see ...

> The thing is that I don't remember *ever* changing any exim 
> configuration.

> Unfortunately I cannot be categorical about it.
> ie: I am not absolutely certain.

> Right.

> Please bear with me, I'll try to be as brief as possible.

> Let us assume for the sake of the argument that I (on purpose or 
> inadvertently) changed something in the configuration.

> What could I have possibly changed?
> Is there any user/userland configurable setting which would be then 
> reflected or change *anything* in the exim4.conf.template file 
> itself?

Hello,

the exim packages do not change/edit the file, if it was changed then
manually.

> Specifically, any of the settings mentioned in the readme.updating 
> file:

> https://git.exim.org/exim.git/blob/HEAD:/src/README.UPDATING 

> --- snip --->

> Exim version 4.94
> ---------------------------
> Some Transports now refuse to use tainted data in constructing their 
> delivery location; this WILL BREAK configurations which are not 
> updated accordingly. In particular: any Transport use of $local_part 
> which has been relying upon check_local_user far away in the Router 
> to make it safe, should be updated to replace $local_part with 
> $local_part_data.

> <--- snip ---

> eg: $local_part

> I have checked and my pre-4.94.2 version reads *$local_part* and the 
> 4.94.2 version reads *$local_part_data*. 

> So, if the original configuration file *was* changed by me (on 
> purpose or inadvertently), whatever change I could have made does not 
> seem to be related to (at least one) of the settings that need to be 
> changed for the exim4 configuration to be compatible with exim 
> 4.94.2.

Sounds reasonable, yes.

If you are not sure what you did change, you can download older versions
of exim4-config from https://snapshot.debian.org/binary/exim4-config/
extract the file with e.g.
ametzler at argenau:~$ dpkg --fsys-tarfile /path/to/exim4-config_4.91-9_all.deb | tar -f - --one-top-level=/tmp -v -x ./etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template

and use e.g. diff or tkdiff to find local changes.

cu Andreas
-- 
`What a good friend you are to him, Dr. Maturin. His other friends are
so grateful to you.'
`I sew his ears on from time to time, sure'