[TAG] More spam than content?

[Rick Moen]

A couple of afterthoughts to my earlier post, and then comments back in
reply to Ben.

I wrote:

> Tied into this Exim 3.x base setup was automatic parsing of Mailman
> control files by the MTA (no need to edit /etc/aliases when you add or
> remove a list), likewise a neat hack.

I should add that the standard prototype Exim (3.x or 4.x) configuration
files do _not_ include this "neat hack", anywhere that I've seen.  The
required stanzas to implement Exim routers and transports to
automagically handle Mailman lists is always a manual hack.  One wonders
why package maintainers haven't been cluebatted into fixing this.

> With Exim 4.x, by contrast...., well, at first it didn't seem as if
> there were a configuration file at all.  Slowly, I started figuring
> out that the Debian package maintainer had moved the package's
> installation default from a unitary /etc/exim4/exim4.conf file to one
> that gets automagically assembled from configuration _fragment_ files
> stored within a /etc/exim4/conf.d/ tree.

Actually, there was an additional reason for my initial puzzlement and
dismay that I hadn't mentioned:  I kept making tweaks to
/etc/exim4/exim4.conf to do things like reimplement the backup MX
service I had long provided to friends and, agonizingly, nothing seemed
to happen when I restarted the daemon.  It took me a long time to
realise that the damned daemon was checking _first_ in, of all places, 
/var/lib/exim4 for the exim4.conf.  It checked in /etc/exim4 only if the
file didn't exist in /var/lib.  By the time I chased down that nasty
surprise, I was frazzled and ready to quit while I was ahead.

> Thus, for example, /etc/exim4/domains/relaytodomains contains just the
> one line "loyalty.org", because I'd agreed to MX for Seth David
> Schoen's domain of that name.
[...]
> I _think_ making Exim4 be willing to handle LG.net is as simple as
> adding a line directly underneath the one for loyalty.org .  I can do
> that in a flash.

And have done so.  To the best of my knowledge, linuxmafia.com now is
eminently willing to handle mail addressed to linuxgazette.net, i.e.,
relay for it (at least).  I see a change necessary (I think) to also 
make the system recognise mail to linuxgazette.net as being for itself,
and could do that, but see below.

> That conffile is bewilderingly difficult to read.

It was mostly the shock of a highly unfamiliar layout, plus the /var/lib
thing, plus the assemble-from-fragments thing, plus the dereferencing of
files in /etc/exim4/acls and /etc/exim4/domains thing.  All at once.

I've just put a copy of my current /etc/exim4/exim4.conf file here for
your perusal:

http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/exim4.conf 

I'm also printing the fool thing out to read.

> There's also some small amount of magic having to do with ensuring
> that Mailman supports multiple domains.  I need to find, read, and
> master that -- and then set up mailing lists in parallel to the
> existing ones, build replicas of the archived back posts, and schedule
> a cutover.

OK, here's the unfortunate part:  It's probably not that simple.
Googling for "multiple domains" + Mailman, one finds such things as
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-users/2001-November/015186.html
.

The person quoted says:
o  Configure your MTA to handle the new domain
o  Configure Mailman to use the defined virtual addresses for the 
   new domain's lists.
o  Configure your Web server to do likewise (because of the Web 
   interface to the mailing lists).

See the joker in that pack?  It's the last item.  If I were to make
Apache virthost for linuxgazette.net's mailing lists as host
"linuxgazette.net", that would work -- but only if my Web server also
hosted all of linuxgazette.net's _other_ Web content.

So, we're back to an observation I made quite a few months ago -- that,
I realise we were rushed, and we did quite well with the new server
setup under the circumstances, but it's a damned shame nobody though to
have the mailing lists defined as being on "lists.linuxgazette.net" via
an additional "A" record, rather than "linuxgazette.net", because then 
we could easily re-point that "A" record to wherever we want, without
the public even noticing the switchover.

Unless I'm (still) missing something, we now are in a situation where
addresses have to change, and so we might as well set up
"lists.linuxgazette.net" belatedly -- pointing to my 198.144.195.186 IP.



Quoting Ben Okopnik (ben at callahans.org):

> Eeep. In that case, as long as I'm not forced to switch, I won't.
> Exim's conffile and its logical approach are, IMO, its best features;
> every other MTA I've tried required tons and tons of study before I
> figured out that I had no clue of what to do with it. :) 

Problem is, I've never actually studied Exim (any version), really at
all.  Anyone know a _good_ guide?

I'm a little embarrassed that I'm still unclear on what Exim routers,
transports, and directors are, and how they fit together.  Apparently,
directors disappeared with 4.x, but I have no idea why -- which is
probably fine, since I didn't know what they were in the first place.

> OK, then, let's try this: since your comfort level with Exim4 is
> increasing (at least that's what I'm getting), and it sounds like you
> already _are_ doing something similar to hosting LG, it sounds like an
> easy, non-stressful version of a transfer isn't too far off. 

Probably.  If someone can point me to something to study (other than my
own /etc/exim4/ tree and
/usr/share/doc/{exim4|exim4-config|exim4-doc-html|exim4-base|exim4-daemon-heavy},
I would be grateful.

> I don't know enough about it to say, but is there any kind of testing
> you can do to find out?

See if you can relay mail to LG.net via linuxmafia.com.  Should now
work -- worth knowing, either way.