Package: sympa Version: 5.3.3-5 Followup-For: Bug #169102 The bug is still present although the paths to resolution seem to be a bit clearer.
If nothing changes to the way the sympa aliases are created in /etc/aliases and /etc/mail/sympa.aliases in the packaging, I think the following piece could be detailed enough to help an administrator setup some basic exim4 config. Other options could also be documented of course, like the specific transports definitions proposed by Eric Deplagne, which no longer require aliases. Until some agreement is reached on the best way to do the configuration (automatic or not), I suggest to improve the docs in the following way. Hope this helps, Best regards, -- System Information: Debian Release: lenny/sid APT prefers testing APT policy: (500, 'testing') Architecture: i386 (i686) Kernel: Linux 2.6.22-3-vserver-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Versions of packages sympa depends on: ii adduser 3.105 add and remove users and groups ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.17 Debian configuration management sy ii exim4-daemon-light [mail-tran 4.68-2 lightweight Exim MTA (v4) daemon pn libarchive-zip-perl <none> (no description available) ii libc6 2.6.1-1+b1 GNU C Library: Shared libraries pn libcgi-fast-perl <none> (no description available) pn libcrypt-ciphersaber-perl <none> (no description available) ii libdbd-mysql-perl 4.005-1 A Perl5 database interface to the ii libdbi-perl 1.601-1 Perl5 database interface by Tim Bu ii libfcgi-perl 0.67-2 FastCGI Perl module ii libintl-perl 1.16-3 Uniforum message translations syst ii libio-stringy-perl 2.110-2 Perl5 modules for IO from scalars ii libmailtools-perl 1.77-1 Manipulate email in perl programs pn libmd5-perl <none> (no description available) ii libmime-perl 5.420-2 Perl5 modules for MIME-compliant m pn libmsgcat-perl <none> (no description available) pn libnet-ldap-perl <none> (no description available) pn libtemplate-perl <none> (no description available) ii libxml-libxml-perl 1.63-1.1 Perl module for using the GNOME li pn mhonarc <none> (no description available) ii perl [libmime-base64-perl] 5.8.8-12 Larry Wall's Practical Extraction pn perl-suid <none> (no description available) ii sysklogd [system-log-daemon] 1.5-1 System Logging Daemon Versions of packages sympa recommends: ii doc-base 0.8.6 utilities to manage online documen ii logrotate 3.7.1-3 Log rotation utility
-- Sympa and Exim4 : manual configuration required Most Debian users will probably have installed exim4 as the default MTA. Unfortunately the default configuration of Exim4 will not allow Sympa to work completely as it is configured at the moment (see bug #169102) : And no automatic configuration of exim4 is done by Sympa either, so you will have to do it manually. Two problems exist at the present time : 1) The 'sympa' and 'sympa-*' aliases defined in /etc/aliases are using pipes but that's disabled in exim4 configuration in Debian (see "2.9. Using more complex deliveries from alias files" in /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/README.Debian.gz) It is then advised to check /var/log/exim4/mainlog for potential errors after Sympa has been installed. The symptoms for pipe transport not working looks like : == |/usr/lib/sympa/bin/queue sympa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> R=system_aliases defer (-30): pipe_transport unset in system_aliases router One easy way to fix this problem is to enable pipes in /etc/aliases, even though it may lead to security risks (note that the author of the present guidelines is no exim4 specialist, so there may be better ways to do so). We will provide guidelines on how to enable those pipes in /etc/aliases, but YOU MAY ONLY APPLY THEM AT YOUR OWN RISKS. 2) The mailing lists aliases are created by alias_manager (see 'Automatic mailing-lists alias management' bellow) in /etc/mail/sympa.aliases, but Exim has no clue it has to use /etc/mail/sympa.aliases to find lists alias there. A solution can be to add a 'router' in the configuration similar to the one for /etc/aliases. Other solutions exist, no longer relying on /etc/mail/sympa.aliases pipe aliases, but which won't be detailed here. There are many options for configuration of Exim4. See http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=169102 for discussion on such options and also http://www.sympa.org/wiki/faq/exim) Depending on the way Exim4 is configured, different steps are necessary. Exim4 can be installed either with "non-split" configuration, which means that the file /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template is used as a template for the Exim4 configuration, or in "split configuration", which means that the contents of the files in /etc/exim4/conf.d/ are used as model for its configuration. ---- Configuring pipe aliases for Exim4 in "non-split" mode 1) pipe transport for system aliases (aliases in /etc/aliases) The administrator will have to modify /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template, by adding the following macro definition (somewhere near the start of the file, for instance between "end main/01_exim4-config_listmacrosdefs" and "main/02_exim4-config_options" comments blocks) : # Activating pipe transport in system_aliases router (pipes in /etc/aliases) .ifndef SYSTEM_ALIASES_PIPE_TRANSPORT SYSTEM_ALIASES_PIPE_TRANSPORT = address_pipe .endif .ifndef SYSTEM_ALIASES_USER SYSTEM_ALIASES_USER = sympa .endif .ifndef SYSTEM_ALIASES_GROUP SYSTEM_ALIASES_GROUP = sympa .endif This will define 'address_pipe' as the transport for the 'system_aliases' router (which handles /etc/aliases in which the 'sympa' alias is defined). 2) new router for lists aliases (pipe aliases in /etc/mail/sympa.aliases) The following snippet should be added right bellow the 'system_aliases' definition : # Using alias pipe definitions for the Sympa lists in /etc/mail/sympa.aliases sympa_aliases: debug_print = "R: system_aliases for [EMAIL PROTECTED]" driver = redirect domains = +local_domains allow_fail allow_defer data = ${lookup{$local_part}lsearch{/etc/mail/sympa.aliases}} user = sympa group = sympa pipe_transport = address_pipe Once /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template is modified you will need to run the '/usr/sbin/update-exim4.conf' command (man 8 update-exim4.conf) to apply the template changes to the current exim config. ---- Configuring pipe aliases for Exim4 in "split" mode 1) pipe transport for system aliases (aliases in /etc/aliases) The administrator will have to create a file such as '/etc/exim4/conf.d/main/20_local-config_macros' containing : # Activating pipe transport in system_aliases router (pipes in /etc/aliases) .ifndef SYSTEM_ALIASES_PIPE_TRANSPORT SYSTEM_ALIASES_PIPE_TRANSPORT = address_pipe .endif .ifndef SYSTEM_ALIASES_USER SYSTEM_ALIASES_USER = sympa .endif .ifndef SYSTEM_ALIASES_GROUP SYSTEM_ALIASES_GROUP = sympa .endif 2) new router for lists aliases (pipe aliases in /etc/mail/sympa.aliases) A file such as '/etc/exim4/conf.d/router/450_local-config_sympa_aliases' should be created, containing : # Using alias pipe definitions for the Sympa lists in /etc/mail/sympa.aliases sympa_aliases: debug_print = "R: system_aliases for [EMAIL PROTECTED]" driver = redirect domains = +local_domains allow_fail allow_defer data = ${lookup{$local_part}lsearch{/etc/mail/sympa.aliases}} user = sympa group = sympa pipe_transport = address_pipe Then running the '/usr/sbin/update-exim4.conf' command (man 8 update-exim4.conf) will apply the changes to the current exim config.
