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Diffstat (limited to 'debian/README.system_aliases')
-rw-r--r-- | debian/README.system_aliases | 44 |
1 files changed, 44 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/debian/README.system_aliases b/debian/README.system_aliases new file mode 100644 index 0000000..baa19bd --- /dev/null +++ b/debian/README.system_aliases @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +How to use pipe deliveries from alias files +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Using pipes in the /etc/aliases file is disabled by default in the +Debian exim 4 packages, because the program would run as the exim +admin-user Debian-exim, which might open up security holes. + +Invoking pipes from /etc/aliases file is widely considered obsolete +and deprecated. The Debian exim package maintainers would like to +suggest using a dedicated router/transport pair to invoke local +processes for mail processing. For example, the Debian mailman package +contains a /usr/share/doc/mailman/README.EXIM file that gives a good +example how to implement this. Using a dedicated router/transport +pairs have the following advantages: + + * The router/transport pair can be put in place by another package, + giving a well-defined transaction point between exim4 and $PACKAGE. + * Not allowing pipe deliveries from alias files makes it harder to + accidentally run programs with wrong privileges. + * It is possible to run different pipe processes under different + accounts is possible with this setup. + * Even if only invoking a single local program, it is easier to do + with your dedicated router/transport since you won't need to change + this file, making automatic updates of this file possible for future + versions of the exim4 packages. If you do local changes here, dpkg + conffile handling will bother you on future updates. + +If you insist on using /etc/aliases in the traditional way, you will need +to activate the "pipe_transport = ..." entry manually for the +system_aliases-router in /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template (or if you are +using split-configuration - dc_use_split_config='true' in +/etc/exim4/update-exim4.conf.conf - +/etc/exim4/conf.d/router/400_exim4-config_system_aliases. + +If any of your aliases expand to pipes or files or directories you +should set up a user and a group for these deliveries to run under. +You can do this by uncommenting the "user" option below (changing the +user name as appropriate) and adding a "group" option if necessary. +Alternatively, you can specify "user" on the transports that are used. +Note that the transports listed in the system_aliases router are the +same as are used for .forward files; you might want to set up +different ones for pipe and file deliveries from aliases. + +# vim:tabstop=3:expandtab:shiftwidth=3:textwidth=73 |