Bug#392831: exim4-config: colons or semi colons as separators (debconf templates issue)
Wouldn't it be possible to check that there is no lsearch or dsearch
(etc) in front of the ; before replacing it with :? I agree with the
others that this is a very common configuration for virtual domains.
Come release date, I'm sure this will bite a lot of people.
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Internet and Open Source lawyer, IT consultant, actor
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Bug#392831: exim4-config: colons or semi colons as separators (debconf templates issue)
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: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] (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 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#392831: exim4-config: colons or semi colons as separators (debconf templates issue)
tags #392831 confirmed thanks On Fri, Oct 13, 2006 at 09:34:50PM +0200, Alexandre Fayolle wrote: > Severity: grave > Justification: renders package unusable I don't think the package gets entirely unuseable, but I'll leave the severits as-is. > 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. No, you didn't fill in wrong values, the post-processing of the values went wrong. > * "Other destinations for which mail is accepted" says in the help: > "Please enter a semicolon-separated list of recipient domains" > > This does not work: It is nevertheless correct; it's program code that is wrong. > An easy patch is to change the wording of the debconf template and the > translations. Unacceptable for inconsistence. > 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 actual fix will be a little harder, since older installs might actually still use a colon-separated list. We need to detect whether semicolons or colons were used as separator and generate the appropriately correct replacement value. Unfortuantely, dc_other_hostnames gets special handling in update-exim4.conf, and that special handling goes badly wrong. I'll fix that first thing tomorrow. Greetings Marc -- - Marc Haber | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header Mannheim, Germany | lose things."Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 621 72739834 Nordisch by Nature | How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 621 72739835 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#392831: exim4-config: colons or semi colons as separators (debconf templates issue)
severity #392831 important # a workaround is available: use a colon-separated list thanks On Fri, Oct 13, 2006 at 11:42:48PM +0200, Marc Haber wrote: > On Fri, Oct 13, 2006 at 09:34:50PM +0200, Alexandre Fayolle wrote: > > 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 actual fix will be a little harder, since older installs might > actually still use a colon-separated list. We need to detect whether > semicolons or colons were used as separator and generate the > appropriately correct replacement value. Actually, your suggested fix is fine. Domain names can neither contain colons nor semicolons, so we can safely replace and pass colon separated lists to exim regardless of what is entered. It's the most easy way. Sorry for not seeing this last night. Greetings Marc -- - Marc Haber | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header Mannheim, Germany | lose things."Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 621 72739834 Nordisch by Nature | How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 621 72739835 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#392831: exim4-config: colons or semi colons as separators (debconf templates issue)
On Sat, Oct 14, 2006 at 10:09:42AM +0200, Andreas Metzler wrote: > Domain *names* cannot, exim domain *lists* can. > dc_other_hostnames='dsearch; CONFDIR/vdom:m26s25.vlinux.de' That never worked since we are prepending "@:localhost:" So our documentation is wrong. Greetings Marc -- - Marc Haber | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header Mannheim, Germany | lose things."Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 621 72739834 Nordisch by Nature | How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 621 72739835 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#392831: exim4-config: colons or semi colons as separators (debconf templates issue)
On 2006-10-14 Marc Haber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [...] > On Fri, Oct 13, 2006 at 11:42:48PM +0200, Marc Haber wrote: > > On Fri, Oct 13, 2006 at 09:34:50PM +0200, Alexandre Fayolle wrote: > > > 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 actual fix will be a little harder, since older installs might > > actually still use a colon-separated list. We need to detect whether > > semicolons or colons were used as separator and generate the > > appropriately correct replacement value. > Actually, your suggested fix is fine. Domain names can neither contain > colons nor semicolons, so we can safely replace and pass colon > separated lists to exim regardless of what is entered. It's the most > easy way. Domain *names* cannot, exim domain *lists* can. dc_other_hostnames='dsearch; CONFDIR/vdom:m26s25.vlinux.de' cu andreas -- The 'Galactic Cleaning' policy undertaken by Emperor Zhark is a personal vision of the emperor's, and its inclusion in this work does not constitute tacit approval by the author or the publisher for any such projects, howsoever undertaken.(c) Jasper Ffforde -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#392831: exim4-config: colons or semi colons as separators (debconf templates issue)
On Sat, Oct 14, 2006 at 10:37:26AM +0200, Andreas Metzler wrote: > On 2006-10-14 Marc Haber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Sat, Oct 14, 2006 at 10:09:42AM +0200, Andreas Metzler wrote: > > > Domain *names* cannot, exim domain *lists* can. > > > dc_other_hostnames='dsearch; CONFDIR/vdom:m26s25.vlinux.de' > > > That never worked since we are prepending "@:localhost:" > [...] > > @:localhost: dsearch; CONFDIR/vdom:m26s25.vlinux.de > is a valid domainlist, containing four items: > @ > localhost > dsearch; CONFDIR/vdom > m26s25.vlinux.de That works? Ouch! Will "localhost:@:<;foo;bar;baz" work as well? Probably not, right? I am currently inclined to remove the possibility of using constructs that complex via debconf, documenting that only plain lists, semicolon separated, are allowed and that people wanting to do more complex things via Exim macros. What do you think? Greetings Marc -- - Marc Haber | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header Mannheim, Germany | lose things."Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 621 72739834 Nordisch by Nature | How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 621 72739835 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#392831: exim4-config: colons or semi colons as separators (debconf templates issue)
On 2006-10-14 Marc Haber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sat, Oct 14, 2006 at 10:09:42AM +0200, Andreas Metzler wrote: > > Domain *names* cannot, exim domain *lists* can. > > dc_other_hostnames='dsearch; CONFDIR/vdom:m26s25.vlinux.de' > That never worked since we are prepending "@:localhost:" [...] @:localhost: dsearch; CONFDIR/vdom:m26s25.vlinux.de is a valid domainlist, containing four items: @ localhost dsearch; CONFDIR/vdom m26s25.vlinux.de There seems to be something I am missing. cu andreas -- The 'Galactic Cleaning' policy undertaken by Emperor Zhark is a personal vision of the emperor's, and its inclusion in this work does not constitute tacit approval by the author or the publisher for any such projects, howsoever undertaken.(c) Jasper Ffforde -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#392831: exim4-config: colons or semi colons as separators (debconf templates issue)
On 2006-10-14 Marc Haber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 14, 2006 at 10:37:26AM +0200, Andreas Metzler wrote:
> > On 2006-10-14 Marc Haber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > On Sat, Oct 14, 2006 at 10:09:42AM +0200, Andreas Metzler wrote:
> > > > Domain *names* cannot, exim domain *lists* can.
> > > > dc_other_hostnames='dsearch; CONFDIR/vdom:m26s25.vlinux.de'
> >
> > > That never worked since we are prepending "@:localhost:"
> > [...]
> >
> > @:localhost: dsearch; CONFDIR/vdom:m26s25.vlinux.de
> > is a valid domainlist, containing four items:
> > @
> > localhost
> > dsearch; CONFDIR/vdom
> > m26s25.vlinux.de
> That works? Ouch!
Hello,
why the ouch? It is a simple colon-delimited list without any funky
characters. ;-)
> Will "localhost:@:<;foo;bar;baz" work as well? Probably not, right?
No, that is invalid syntax.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:/tmp$ cat tesme
domainlist xxx = localhost:@:<;foo;bar;baz
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:/tmp$ /usr/sbin/exim4 -C tesme \
-be '${if match_domain{baz}{+xxx}{yes}{no}}'
2006-10-14 10:56:06 unknown lookup type "<"
> I am currently inclined to remove the possibility of using constructs
> that complex via debconf, documenting that only plain lists, semicolon
> separated, are allowed and that people wanting to do more complex
> things via Exim macros.
> What do you think?
I would prefer if things continued to work. afaict this has worked
since 2002 and I currently fail to see a compelling reason to remove
it.
There might be compelling reasons the at some point in the future,
e.g. if retaining this feature would block implementation of a more
important feature.
My personal opinion might be biased though, I am used to the whole
thing.
cu andreas
--
The 'Galactic Cleaning' policy undertaken by Emperor Zhark is a personal
vision of the emperor's, and its inclusion in this work does not constitute
tacit approval by the author or the publisher for any such projects,
howsoever undertaken.(c) Jasper Ffforde
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Bug#392831: exim4-config: colons or semi colons as separators (debconf templates issue)
On Sat, Oct 14, 2006 at 11:05:09AM +0200, Andreas Metzler wrote: > On 2006-10-14 Marc Haber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I am currently inclined to remove the possibility of using constructs > > that complex via debconf, documenting that only plain lists, semicolon > > separated, are allowed and that people wanting to do more complex > > things via Exim macros. > > > What do you think? > > I would prefer if things continued to work. afaict this has worked > since 2002 and I currently fail to see a compelling reason to remove > it. Consistency. To spare people from doubling the colons in IP address lists, exim now allows selection of other separator characters. The semicolon as separator for IP address lists was introduced a few months ago. I think it is a good idea to be consistent here and to have all lists semicolon separated now. The change would screw advanced uses who would know to look in NEWS.Debian and find the explanation. I'd prefer screwing advanced users over confusing newbies. The former can cope, the latter will produce hard-to-debug issues. Greetings Marc -- - Marc Haber | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header Mannheim, Germany | lose things."Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 621 72739834 Nordisch by Nature | How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 621 72739835 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#392831: exim4-config: colons or semi colons as separators (debconf templates issue)
On 2006-10-14 Marc Haber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sat, Oct 14, 2006 at 11:05:09AM +0200, Andreas Metzler wrote: >> On 2006-10-14 Marc Haber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> I am currently inclined to remove the possibility of using constructs >>> that complex via debconf, documenting that only plain lists, semicolon >>> separated, are allowed and that people wanting to do more complex >>> things via Exim macros. [...] >> I would prefer if things continued to work. afaict this has worked >> since 2002 and I currently fail to see a compelling reason to remove >> it. > Consistency. > To spare people from doubling the colons in IP address lists, exim now > allows selection of other separator characters. The semicolon as > separator for IP address lists was introduced a few months ago. I > think it is a good idea to be consistent here and to have all lists > semicolon separated now. I just disagree that this is important enough to break working setups. In hindsight ";" was a bad choice as new default. :-( > The change would screw advanced uses who would know to look in > NEWS.Debian and find the explanation. > I'd prefer screwing advanced users over confusing newbies. The former > can cope, the latter will produce hard-to-debug issues. I used to be able to simply extend the Debian setup, now I would suddenly have to actively work around it by using some dummy value in update-exim4.conf.conf and setting a MAIN_LOCAL_DOMAINS manually. cu andreas -- The 'Galactic Cleaning' policy undertaken by Emperor Zhark is a personal vision of the emperor's, and its inclusion in this work does not constitute tacit approval by the author or the publisher for any such projects, howsoever undertaken.(c) Jasper Ffforde -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#392831: exim4-config: colons or semi colons as separators (debconf templates issue)
* Andreas Metzler ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [061014 02:57]: > > To spare people from doubling the colons in IP address lists, exim now > > allows selection of other separator characters. The semicolon as > > separator for IP address lists was introduced a few months ago. I > > think it is a good idea to be consistent here and to have all lists > > semicolon separated now. > > I just disagree that this is important enough to break working setups. > In hindsight ";" was a bad choice as new default. :-( Yep, but now we just have a few bad choices where we have to pick one: 1. Having inconsistent user interface between the two different debconf fields; 2. Breaking usage of debconf very specialised setups for well-experienced users Actually, though I think it is nice to allow expert usage in debconf as well, I agree to having a consistent interface is in this case more important. Cheers, Andi -- http://home.arcor.de/andreas-barth/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#392831: exim4-config: colons or semi colons as separators (debconf templates issue)
On Sat, Oct 14, 2006 at 11:57:17AM +0200, Andreas Metzler wrote: > On 2006-10-14 Marc Haber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Sat, Oct 14, 2006 at 11:05:09AM +0200, Andreas Metzler wrote: > >> On 2006-10-14 Marc Haber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>> I am currently inclined to remove the possibility of using constructs > >>> that complex via debconf, documenting that only plain lists, semicolon > >>> separated, are allowed and that people wanting to do more complex > >>> things via Exim macros. > [...] > >> I would prefer if things continued to work. afaict this has worked > >> since 2002 and I currently fail to see a compelling reason to remove > >> it. > > > Consistency. > > > To spare people from doubling the colons in IP address lists, exim now > > allows selection of other separator characters. The semicolon as > > separator for IP address lists was introduced a few months ago. I > > think it is a good idea to be consistent here and to have all lists > > semicolon separated now. > > I just disagree that this is important enough to break working setups. > In hindsight ";" was a bad choice as new default. :-( What would you have chosen? > > The change would screw advanced uses who would know to look in > > NEWS.Debian and find the explanation. > > > I'd prefer screwing advanced users over confusing newbies. The former > > can cope, the latter will produce hard-to-debug issues. > > I used to be able to simply extend the Debian setup, now I would > suddenly have to actively work around it by using some dummy value in > update-exim4.conf.conf and setting a MAIN_LOCAL_DOMAINS manually. I suspect that you're the only one around who knows exim4-config good enough to come up with an idea as mad as this. Greetings Marc -- - Marc Haber | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header Mannheim, Germany | lose things."Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 621 72739834 Nordisch by Nature | How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 621 72739835 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#392831: exim4-config: colons or semi colons as separators (debconf templates issue)
Marc, Your 'fix' just caused us a few hours of clueless debugging. Using lsearch;/etc/mail/domains in dc_other_domains is a very common method of implementing simple virtual domains. Now, with your update, our existing setup broke, and it just simply didn't occur to us, that the update script could be so stupid as to REPLACE the semicolons, instead of HALTING WITH AN ERROR (or a warning), which would be a reasonable behaviour in such situations. Viktor -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#392831: exim4-config: colons or semi colons as separators (debconf templates issue)
On Tue, Oct 31, 2006 at 11:48:13PM +0100, Binzberger Viktor wrote: > Your 'fix' just caused us a few hours of clueless debugging. Sorry about that. > Using lsearch;/etc/mail/domains in dc_other_domains is a very common > method of implementing simple virtual domains. It was never supported. The value has always only be documented as a list of domains. We actually documented that in NEWS.Debian for exim4 4.62-7, so your debugging session would have been significantly shorter if you had actually read the docs before installing the software. > Now, with your update, our existing setup broke, and it just simply > didn't occur to us, that the update script could be so stupid as to > REPLACE the semicolons, instead of HALTING WITH AN ERROR (or a > warning), which would be a reasonable behaviour in such situations. Halting with an error if semicolons are found in an input field that is supposed to be a semicolon-separated list is kind of a non-option, don't you agree? If you disagree with the maintainer's decision, please take this to debian-devel, and/or to the tech ctte. Greetings Marc -- - Marc Haber | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header Mannheim, Germany | lose things."Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 621 72739834 Nordisch by Nature | How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 621 72739835 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
