[Pkg-exim4-users] exim unable to set uid/gid

[Julian Bradfield]

I'm sure this must be a FAQ, but I can't find it after an hour or two
of looking...

I just changed my Woody system from exim3 to exim4. Everything went
smoothly, until I actually started exim. Then when mail came it, it
failed to deliver it, saying:

2006-10-11 15:22:02 unable to set gid=1000 or uid=1000 (euid=104):
stevbrad router (recipient is CENSORED)

In this particular case, it's supposed to be changing uid to 1000 in
order to save a copy of the message in a particular file, via a user
command in the router.

Since exim4 appears to be running with both real and effective uid
Debian-exim (uid 104), it's not surprising that it can't change userid
- but exim needs to change userid all the time, so this can't be
normal. What gives?