Issues upgrading from exim.conf 2.1x -> 4.5X

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Hi everyone,

I just managed to upgrade from exim.conf 2.1X to 4.5X. I tried to go with these instructions here:

https://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=51

...and thought it would be a smooth ride (I have CB 2.0) but the whole ordeal turned out to be fairly frustrating, and I had to dig out threads from the past three years to make it work:

http://forum.directadmin.com/showthread.php?t=50489
http://forum.directadmin.com/showthread.php?t=52797
http://forum.directadmin.com/showthread.php?t=52825

Can someone please update the help page so it has all the necessary steps - that should keep others from wasting a huge amount of time:

./build set exim yes
./build exim
./build set dovecot_conf yes
./build dovecot_conf

And for completeness sake, depending on the original configuration, you might also want to set these (again) when you're done:

./build set eximconf no
./build set exim no
./build set dovecot_conf no

...as having the next upgrade automatically overwrite all config files again is hardly going to be in everybody's interest. Thanks!
 
Hello,

I guess John is the only person who can modify the help article. So you'd better open a ticket here: https://tickets.directadmin.com/

And yes, when upgrading exim.conf to 4.4 and 4.5 a re-install of exim is required, otherwise it will fail to start due to missing srs support. There is no need to disable exim from updating after all unless you want to stick to the exact exim's version. Upgrade of exim won't effect exim.conf. And even more with exim.conf you have a bunch for customization:

/etc/exim.strings.conf.custom
/etc/exim.acl_check_helo.pre.conf
/etc/exim.acl_check_recipient.pre.conf
/etc/exim.check_mime.conf.custom
/etc/exim.variables.conf.custom

Probably they will be sufficient for your customization.
 
I'm fairly confused right now.

Turns out that running a couple of routine updates last night broke my email. I'm *assuming* dovecot was on the update list as well - then I ran into these issues here:

http://forum.directadmin.com/showthread.php?t=52152

Running ./build dovecot_conf did the trick for me, but of course, to get there, I had to activate updates for dovecot_conf as well. But what does that mean for the future - do I need to keep updates for dovecot_conf activated to avoid similar issues? What about updates for exim_conf? I thought it's accepted practice to keep these updates "off" in order to protect custom changes. (And part of the confusion is that I don't know if I had always set dovecot_conf to OFF, or if that only happened by accident. The default seems to be "ON", so am I good if I keep dovecot_conf ON and eximconf OFF?)

Thanks!
 
so am I good if I keep dovecot_conf ON and eximconf OFF?
Click to expand...
Depending on what you want. I've got them both set to ON.
The newer spamblocker exim.conf are so improved that a lot of manual changes are not needed anymore.
Several others changes can be made in the files mentioned by Zeiter.
So you only have to set eximconf to OFF if you still make manual changes in there which can't be made in the other files and yes then you're fine too.
 
I guess at the end of the day it boils down to the fact that I am using custom ports in my configuration, and to my knowledge, I cannot set those via exim.variables.conf.custom because they are already defined in exim.conf by default, and you cannot redefine variables once they have been set.

But if turning eximconf updates OFF won't break my site when I update other stuff, I'm fine - I just got worried because it happened with the dovecot_conf updates (or lack thereof).
 
I understand, in that case I would update eximconf once so you have the latest version of today, it does not change that often anymore.
Then make your manual changes and set eximconf to NO.

The ./build update_versions command only updates things configured to update in the options.conf file.

So lets assume this is your setting in options.conf:
exim=yes
eximconf=no
eximconf_release=4.5
dovecot=yes
dovecot_conf=yes
Click to expand...
Then exim will be updated, dovecot and dovecot_conf will also be updated, but exim.conf will not be changed or updated (when there are new updates).
So yo don't need to worry.

Don't forget to run ./build update after you made changes to options.conf.
 
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