One way I could envision it being would be like this:
First debconf question: "Please choose a level of configuration. For
most users setting up mail to work with their ISP's mail server the
"Simple" method should be sufficient. Choose "Advanced" if you are
setting up your own mailer or intend to do things like mail relaying.
Choosing "Simple" would then ask:
"Please enter the name of your provider's mail server"
user enters mail.isp.com
(At this point would it be a good idea to do a HELO or EHLO of the
server to probe its capabilities? If so, subsequent questions could
be like "This server appears to support TLS encryption, should it be
used?" But based on your comment below it should use TLS if
available. However, based on this doc:
http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/280 it seemed that one
has to create /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.localmacros and add
"MAIN_TLS_ENABLE = true" to it to get TLS.
I do not know enough about CRAM-MD5 and the merits of using or not
using it or other auth mechanisms, only that it would of course be
preferable to have it used when TLS is not available. I don't have
any hard data about how many smarthosts don't support TLS but do support
CRAM-MD5 but I think the number is high based on my experience.
Again, this is all relative to whether TLS or an encrypted auth
mechanism would simply be used if they are detected.
(after questions settling the use of TLS and auth method (if need to be
asked)
"Please enter the mail username for your provider"
"Please enter the password for this account"
At this point it would finish with a note to the effect "Exim should now
be configured to send mail. If there are problems or you need to
configure it you can run "dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config" as root."
Re: having a more simply named command to access the configuration,
didn't Exim v.3 have it (eximconfig or something like that)? Not sure
why it did not continue with v.4.
Re: the "Hide local mail name in outgoing mail" If this is answered "No" it is
definitely a problem with gmx.net which will reject the mail. This is the
exact message:
======================================================================
SMTP error from remote mail server after MAIL FROM:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
SIZE=1562 [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
host mail.gmx.net [213.165.64.20]: 550 5.7.0 Sender address does not
belong to logged in user {mp030}
------ This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. ------
Return-path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Received: from djo by maxi.alay.net with local (Exim 4.63)
(envelope-from <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>)
id 1HGtWZ-0001Td-U4
for [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Tue, 13 Feb 2007 01:00:31 -0800
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 01:00:31 -0800
From: Daniel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: test2
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11)
======================================================================
If I use the simple mail program nbsmtp to send mail (this is all it
does, just send mail through a smarthost) it sends correctly. The
headers of a received message look like this (in comparison with above):
=======================================================================
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tue Feb 13 00:57:49 2007
>From djo Tue Feb 13 00:57:49 2007
Return-Path: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Delivered-To: GMX delivery to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Received: from pop.gmx.net
by maxi.alay.net with POP3 (fetchmail-6.3.6)
for <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (single-drop); Tue, 13 Feb 2007 00:57:49
-0800 (PST)
Received: (qmail invoked by alias); 13 Feb 2007 08:55:27 -0000
46gw==
Received: by maxi (nbSMTP-1.01-cvs) for uid 1000
(using TLSv1/SSLv3 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256
bits))
[EMAIL PROTECTED]; Tue, 13 Feb 2007 00:55:52 -0800 (PST)
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 00:55:30 -0800
From: Daniel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: test
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: Daniel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11)
===========================================================================
In the first instance of the failed message through Exim, the problem
stems from From: being [EMAIL PROTECTED] I'm not sure which of the 2
From:'s this is. But with the successful send via nbsmtp there are:
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>From djo
I'm guessing the first one is the envelope from which is the important
one for the mail server, the second one is just my local username, which
apparently the GMX mail server doesn't care at all about.
Why isn't it possible for Exim to know that, if its sending an outgoing
message through a smarthost (as opposed to local mail) that it should
set the envelope From: accordingly? In the instance that the mail is
local, then it should not have to do this. In fact it would be
confusing if local mail had an envelope From: using the ISP's mailer
domain.
nbsmtp, as simple as it is, works every time with every ISP mailer, once
you know the server name, your credentials, and the type of auth
mechanism to use. Why should Exim be more complicated than this for the
end user?
Getting back to the original debconf question "Hide local mail name in
outgoing mail" I think that it should not be necessary to ask this, as
nbsmtp, a much simpler program, does not have to ask it.
Regards,
--
Daniel O'Neill
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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