The package as shipped ensures that the configuration file is not a
symbolic link.  This is most likely unnecessary, as I don't believe
there is any security risk in reading from a symlink.

Changing 'lstat' to 'stat' on line 170 of parser.y fixes this.  I've
attached a patch.

I keep my configuration files in a version-controlled directory,
~/etc, and symlink them into ~/.  esmtp is the only package I use that
complains about this arrangement.

(This is the first bug I've reported to Debian.  Please let me know if
I've messed up somehow.)

Hi Duncan

Congratulation for your first report :)

I'm not ignoring you request, but need to find time to check if it is
realy safe to allow symlinks for the configuration file.

Thanks for using esmtp!

Regards,
Salvatore

p.s.: I have merged the two created reports.