#839102 nullmailer: Update to 1:1.13-1+deb8u1 corrupts entry in "remotes"

Package:
nullmailer
Source:
nullmailer
Description:
simple relay-only mail transport agent
Submitter:
Michael Bemmerl
Date:
2026-03-04 23:25:01 UTC
Severity:
normal
Tags:
#839102#5
Date:
2016-09-28 22:07:07 UTC
From:
To:
The latest update (installed by apt) from 1:1.13-1 to 1:1.13-1+deb8u1
corrupted my nullmailer remotes configuration.

I'm using a somewhat cryptic password with special chars. Something
during the update process replaced a colon in the password by a new
line. This caused nullmailer to stop operating and all emails queued up
(obviously), since it could not login to the SMTP server.

Here's an anonymized diff of the remotes before and after the update
(glad I have /etc in VCS by etckeeper):

diff --git a/nullmailer/remotes b/nullmailer/remotes
index debc368..71ef120 100644
--- a/nullmailer/remotes
+++ b/nullmailer/remotes
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
-server.example.com smtp --port=465 --pass=something:#6 --user=123 --ssl
+server.example.com smtp --port=465 --pass=something
+#6 --user=123 --ssl
#839102#18
Date:
2018-04-29 21:30:04 UTC
From:
To:
FYI: This bug is also present in Version 1:1.13-1.2 (stretch).
#839102#25
Date:
2020-01-11 20:54:35 UTC
From:
To:
FYI: This bug is also present in Version 1:2.2-3 (updating from stretch
to buster).
#839102#30
Date:
2020-01-12 00:12:24 UTC
From:
To:
Michael Bemmerl <debian@mx-server.de> writes:
replacement for newline when storing /etc/nullmailer/remotes in the
debconf database.

It all looks like a pretty bad idea to me, but I don't know how easy it
is to change.

d
#839102#35
Date:
2020-01-12 00:35:34 UTC
From:
To:
David Bremner schrieb:

I can confirm it is the sed command in postinst, line 36.
https://sources.debian.org/src/nullmailer/1:2.2-3/debian/postinst/#L36

I just executed that command manually on a dummy remotes file and it
exactly corrupted the config as described above.

Regards,
Michael
#839102#40
Date:
2020-01-12 13:38:47 UTC
From:
To:
Michael Bemmerl <debian@mx-server.de> writes:

Yes, that sounds right. Leaving aside for the moment that the sed is
pretty unmaintainable, the underlying problem seems to be the
roundtripping of /etc/nullmailer/remotes via a colon separated list in
debconf. Probably this should be reworked to use debconf multiline
support. For my own use just deleting the whole "magic" (re)creation of
/etc/nullmailer/remotes would work fine, but I tend to have a minimalist
view of what debian packages should do.

d
#839102#45
Date:
2026-02-22 01:44:04 UTC
From:
To:
So just FYI, this issue is present in version 1:2.2+10~g7ed88a0-6.1 when
updating from bookworm to trixie.
#839102#50
Date:
2026-02-22 06:01:31 UTC
From:
To:
Michael Bemmerl <debian@mx-server.de> writes:

Hi Michael;

What do you think about just messing with /etc/nullmailer/remotes from
the postinst ?  Maybe not ideal, but I guess better than the status quo

d
#839102#55
Date:
2026-03-04 23:10:09 UTC
From:
To:
Am 22.02.2026 um 07:01 schrieb David Bremner:

Sorry, but I'm (yet) too incompetent for package internals like that.
I'm just a happy Debian & nullmailer user! :-)