path: root/README.EXIM

This is a snapshot of the Exim & Mailman HOWTO document.  The current
original document can be found on the exim web site at
	http://www.exim.org/howto/mailman.html

=======================================================================

                    HOWTO - Using exim and mailman together
                                       
   Mailman is a list manager with web front end and built in archiving
   functions. Details can be found at [1]http://www.list.org/
   
Mailman configuration

   There is no mailman configuration needed other than the standard
   options detailed in the mailman install documentation. The exim
   configuration is transparent to mailman. The uid/gid settings for
   mailman must match those in the config fragments given below.
   
Exim configuration

   The exim configuration is built so that a list created within mailman
   automagically appears to exim without the need for additional alias
   files etc to be changed.
   
   The drawback of this configuration is that it will work poorly on
   systems supporting lists in several different mail domains - for that
   matter mailman itself has poor support for this right now. This may
   change in the future
   
   The configuration file segments included are to be built on top of an
   already functional exim configuration, which accepts mail for the
   domain which the list resides in (ie that domain is already in
   local_domains - should this domain be separate from the others handled
   by this exim, then add the list domain to local_domains, add a
   domains=my.list.domain option to each of the directors and you may
   wish to exclude that domain from the other directors.
   
   Your exim configuration also needs a working alias configuration, with
   entries (within the list domain) for mailman, mailman-request and
   mailman-admin (plus any other global contact addresses for the list
   master). These addresses point to a (or some - not necessarily the
   same for all of these aliases) human rather than being piped into
   mailman. You do not need to put per-list entries into the system alias
   file, and doing so will most likely break things since the user id
   used for delivery is likely to be incorrect or not set (which causes
   an exim delivery time config error).
   
   There are 3 config file sections below which need pasting into the
   appropriate parts of the main exim config file. The first one may also
   need tailoring to your mailman configuration
   
    Main config file section
    
## Top section of config file - macro definitions
## Tailor these to fit your installation
## pretty much everything else should just fit...
##
# home dir for mailman
MAILMAN_HOME=/home/mailman
# wrapper script for mailman
MAILMAN_WRAP=MAILMAN_HOME/mail/wrapper
# user and group for mailman
MAILMAN_UID=exim
MAILMAN_GID=exim

    Transports config file section
    
## Transports section
##
## Three transports for list mail, request mail and admin mail
## respectively
## Mailman is installed in MAILMAN_HOME
## Mailman is configured to be invoked as user exim
list_transport:
           driver = pipe
           command = MAILMAN_WRAP post ${lc:$local_part}
           current_directory = MAILMAN_HOME
           home_directory = MAILMAN_HOME
           user = MAILMAN_UID
           group = MAILMAN_GID

list_request_transport:
           driver = pipe
           command = MAILMAN_WRAP mailcmd ${lc:$local_part}
           current_directory = MAILMAN_HOME
           home_directory = MAILMAN_HOME
           user = MAILMAN_UID
           group = MAILMAN_GID

list_admin_transport:
           driver = pipe
           command = MAILMAN_WRAP mailowner ${lc:$local_part}
           current_directory = MAILMAN_HOME
           home_directory = MAILMAN_HOME
           user = MAILMAN_UID
           group = MAILMAN_GID

### end of transports section fragment

    Directors config file section
    
## Directors section [this deals with local addresses]
##
## First 2 directors rewrite list-owner or owner-list to list-admin
## This is only done if the list exists.
## List existence checks are done by seeing if the file
## MAILMAN_HOME/lists//config.db
## exists.

list_owner_director:
   driver = smartuser
   require_files = MAILMAN_HOME/lists/${lc:$local_part}/config.db
   suffix = "-owner"
   new_address = "${lc:$local_part}-admin@${domain}"

owner_list_director:
   driver = smartuser
   require_files = MAILMAN_HOME/lists/${lc:$local_part}/config.db
   prefix = "owner-"
   new_address = "${lc:$local_part}-admin@${domain}"

##
## Next 3 directors direct admin, request and list mail to the appropriate
## transport.  List existence is checked as above.

list_admin_director:
   driver = smartuser
   suffix = -admin
   require_files = MAILMAN_HOME/lists/${lc:$local_part}/config.db
   transport = list_admin_transport

list_request_director:
   driver = smartuser
   suffix = -request
   require_files = MAILMAN_HOME/lists/${lc:$local_part}/config.db
   transport = list_request_transport

list_director:
   driver = smartuser
   require_files = MAILMAN_HOME/lists/${lc:$local_part}/config.db
   transport = list_transport

## End of directors fragment
## End of config files bits

   Exim should be configured to allow reasonable volume - ie no setting
   max_recipients down to a silly value, and with normal degrees of
   security - ie allowing relaying from 127.0.0.1 (thats vital), but
   pretty much nothing else. Parallel deliveries and other tweaks can
   also be used. Delay warning messages should be switched off or
   configured to only happen for non-list mail - unless you like
   receiving tons of mail when a host is down.
   
  Problems
  
     * Mailman's detection of exim bounces needs improving - it really
       should make use of the extra header information that exim
       provides. It also should recognise and deal with or ignore delay
       warning messages. Mailman 2.0beta does handle exim bounces
       correctly, but still passes delay warnings to the list
       administrator
     * List existence is checked on whether there is a config.db file for
       a list. If you delete lists by foul means, be aware of this.
     * If you are getting exim or mailman complaining about user ids when
       you send mail to a list, check that the MAILMAN_UID and
       MAILMAN_GID match those of mailman itself. Also make sure you do
       not have aliases in the main alias file for the list.
       
Other Tweaks

   One solution passed to me for handling virtual domains was - Since I
   use mailman in a virtual domain configuration with a separate
   installation for each virtual domain, I did a slight modification like
   this:
## transport configurations

command = "/virtual/${domain}/mailman/mail/wrapper post ${lc:$local_part}"
current_directory = /virtual/${domain}/mailman
home_directory = /virtual/${domain}/mailman

## and in the director part:

require_files = /virtual/${domain}/mailman/lists/${lc:$local_part}/config.db

Exim List Efficiency Tweaks

   This is a set of configuration directives I used on the list boxes I
   admin. Some of these are necessary, others are cosmetic, a few are
   probably superfluous - they work for me!
# definition of injecting IP addresses
LOCAL_NETS=127.0.0.1/32
#
# Extra logging data - not necessary but makes the logs more
# useful, but bigger
# lookup all hostnames - puts hostnames into log as well as ips
host_lookup = 0.0.0.0/0
# tweak logging
log_all_parents
log_file_path = /var/log/exim/%s.log
log_received_recipients
log_refused_recipients
log_received_sender
log_smtp_confirmation
#
# RBL settings - these are more severe than I use
rbl_domains = rbl.maps.vix.com/reject:relays.mail-abuse.org/reject:dul.maps.vix
.com/reject:relays.orbs.org=127.0.0.2,127.0.0.3/reject
rbl_hosts = !LOCAL_NETS:0.0.0.0/0
rbl_log_rcpt_count
recipients_reject_except=postmaster@*:*-admin@*
#
# relay control - from our local network only
host_accept_relay = LOCAL_NETS
#
# delay warnings - second line is now default, but earlier versions of
# exim need it setting
delay_warning = 26h
##delay_warning_condition = "${if match{$h_precedence:}{(?i)bulk|list|junk}{no}
{yes}}"
#
# Verify receipient addresses on everything except local injects
# DO NOT verify addresses from mailman - this would slow down
# the acceptance of messages dramatically
receiver_verify_hosts = !127.0.0.1/8:0.0.0.0/0
sender_verify
#
# performance tweaks - 1st is good for linux, maybe less so for others
split_spool_directory
remote_max_parallel = 15

List verification

   This is how a set of address tests for the exim lists look on a
   working system. (command lines start with ">")
> /usr/sbin/exim -v -bt exim-users
exim-users@www.exim.org
  deliver to exim-users in domain www.exim.org
  director = list_director, transport = list_transport

> /usr/sbin/exim -bt exim-users-request
exim-users-request@www.exim.org
  deliver to exim-users in domain www.exim.org
  director = list_request_director, transport = list_request_transport

> /usr/sbin/exim -bt exim-users-admin
exim-users-admin@www.exim.org
  deliver to exim-users in domain www.exim.org
  director = list_admin_director, transport = list_admin_transport


  __________________________________________________________________________




    [2]Nigel Metheringham
    
    $Id: README.EXIM 2858 2000-12-07 16:53:23Z bwarsaw $

References

   1. http://www.list.org/
   2. mailto:Postmaster@exim.org