#766293 exim4: dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config: question about root/postmaster user not asked any more

Package:
exim4
Source:
exim4
Submitter:
"teo8976@gmail.com"
Date:
2014-10-23 08:48:14 UTC
Severity:
important
#766293#5
Date:
2014-10-22 00:07:05 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,
*** Please consider answering these questions, where appropriate ***

   * What led up to the situation?
   * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
     ineffective)?
After a fresh install of Debian 7,
I ran dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config once
I selected "internet site; mail is sent and received directly using SMTP"
as the answer to the first question
then entered all the most common values for send-only email from localhost only.

There was one question that asked for a list of real users to deliver all email
for root and postmaster.
At first, I only entered "root" here.

After ending the process, I realized I should have also added a real email address,
such as myrealname@gmail.com.

So I ran dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config again.

   * What was the outcome of this action?

I was presented all the same questions again. So far so good.
All fields were pre-filled with the answers I had given the first time,
i.e. current configuration; so far so good.
BUT the question about the root users was missing!!!!!!


   * What outcome did you expect instead?

I should have been asked ALL the same questions as before.
I should be given an opportunity to change the value for that particular question.
It's actually the only one I wanted to change and it was the one that I was not asked.


*** End of the template - remove these lines ***
#766293#10
Date:
2014-10-22 06:40:21 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

thanks for your bug report.

The question about root/postmaster is only asked if /etc/aliases does
not exist. I guess this is for historical reasons. /etc/aliases is not
a conffile belonging to exim, so we can create it if it does not
exist, but must not mess with it once it exists because it is not our
conffile.

I agree that this is not pretty, but I don't have an idea about how to
solve this dilemma.

Workaround is to edit /etc/aliases with an editor.

Greetings
Marc
#766293#15
Date:
2014-10-22 23:38:45 UTC
From:
To:
I see.
- at the time when the check is done, if the file exists, instead of
silently skipping the question, show a notice saying that /etc/aliases
already exists and suggest how to edit it in order to change
postmaster/root settings.

2014-10-22 8:40 GMT+02:00 Marc Haber <mh+debian-packages@zugschlus.de>:
#766293#20
Date:
2014-10-22 23:40:35 UTC
From:
To:
Did exim put ALL this stuff into /etc/aliases??

# /etc/aliases
mailer-daemon: postmaster
postmaster: root
nobody: root
hostmaster: root
usenet: root
news: root
webmaster: root
www: root
ftp: root
abuse: root
noc: root
security: root
root: root


2014-10-23 1:38 GMT+02:00 Teo Tei <teo8976@gmail.com>:
#766293#25
Date:
2014-10-23 08:35:15 UTC
From:
To:
Debconf notices are frowned upon in Debian. I won't advise doing so
for such a simple issue that everybody who runs a Mail system on Unix
knows anyway.

Greetings
Marc
#766293#30
Date:
2014-10-23 08:46:35 UTC
From:
To:
Yes, see the writealiases() function in
/var/lib/dpkg/info/exim4-config.postinst
on your system.

Greetings
Marc