Exim as default MTA.

[Josh Boyer]

On Wed, Feb 23, 2005 at 12:49:25PM +0000, David Woodhouse wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-02-23 at 06:25 -0600, Josh Boyer wrote:
> > The only suggestion I have for the default config file is to use the
> > defered_ok switch on the malware and spam ACL entries.  I uncommented
> > the acl_smtp_data = acl_check_content line and my server promptly
> > started rejecting mail because I don't have sophie installed.  If
> > defered_ok had been used, the mail would have come through just fine.
> 
> If you really mean 'rejecting' mail then let me know and I'll look into
> it right now. If as I suspect you just mean 'deferring' -- it was giving
> a temporary error and no mail was lost, then I'm less sure.

Yes, I meant deferring.  But in my case, it was continually defering until
I bothered to check the logs, which to a newbie looks like rejecting.  After
I commented the line out and restarted exim, the mail came through fine.

> 
> One might argue that deferral is the correct behaviour -- if you enabled
> the spam checking and your spamd is broken, it's better to keep the mail
> in the queue elsewhere until your spamd is fixed than it is to just
> accept the incoming mail, spam and all.

Maybe.  But I know some list maintainers that get cranky if they notice email
that is stuck in their queue ;).

> 
> If the checking were enabled by default then I'd agree with you -- but
> since you have to actually _ask_ for spam checking, I'm inclined to
> suggest that it's better the way it is.

That's just it.  I _did_ ask for spam checking.  I started spamassassin and
then uncommented that line.  What I didn't expect is for it to defer email
when I don't even have a virus checker installed.  Call it a newbie mistake.

> 
> We can certainly add the defer_ok option to the comments though, so it
> stares you in the face if you do enable the checking. Would that be
> sufficient?

Sure, adding that to the comments would be fine IMHO.  That way newbies will at
least know what happens when they don't have spamassassin or a virus checker
running, and how to work around it if they don't want to do one or the other.

josh