[Bug 1094984] Re: /etc/aliases does not work (dpkg-reconfigure error)

[Jarno Pelkonen]

** Description changed:

- (solution in the end)
+ ## Bug Summary:
+ Mail send from the localhost to "root" will not follow /etc/aliases in smarthost config due to "dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config" error. 
  
- ## Setting: exim4 (4.76-3ubuntu3.1) configured as smarthost without local mail delivery. 
+ (solution provided in the end)
+ 
+ ## Setting: exim4 (4.76-3ubuntu3.1) configured as smarthost without local mail delivery.
  // installed packages
  root at hostX (0)# dpkg-query -l 'exim4*'                                                                 /etc
  Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
  | Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
  |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
  ||/ Name                  Version               Description
  +++-=====================-=====================-==========================================================
  ii  exim4                 4.76-3ubuntu3.1       metapackage to ease Exim MTA (v4) installation
  ii  exim4-base            4.76-3ubuntu3.1       support files for all Exim MTA (v4) packages
  ii  exim4-config          4.76-3ubuntu3.1       configuration for the Exim MTA (v4)
  un  exim4-config-2        <none>                (no description available)
  un  exim4-daemon-custom   <none>                (no description available)
  un  exim4-daemon-heavy    <none>                (no description available)
  ii  exim4-daemon-light    4.76-3ubuntu3.1       lightweight Exim MTA (v4) daemon
  un  exim4-doc-html        <none>                (no description available)
  un  exim4-doc-info        <none>                (no description available)
  un  exim4-localscanapi-1. <none>                (no description available)
  un  exim4-localscanapi-1. <none>                (no description available)
  
  // dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config (relevant ones)
  mail server configuration type: "mail sent by smarthost; no local mail"
  mail name: "hostX.domainY"     ## same as ´hostname -A´
  ...
  Other destinations for which mail is accepted: "hostX.domainZ;hostX.domainA"
  
  // nano /etc/aliases
  mailer-daemon: postmaster
  postmaster: root
  nobody: root
  root: me at example.org
  
- / /etc/exim4/passwd.client 
+ / /etc/exim4/passwd.client
  The user account used for mail transport is different from me at example.org (something at gmail.com in my case)
  
- ## Bug: 
+ ## Bug:
  mail send from the host to "root" will never go to "me at example.org" regardless of /etc/aliases config
  
  ## Root cause:
  dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config does not add "mailname" ("hostX.domainY") into "MAIN_LOCAL_DOMAINS". This causes exim4 to skip /etc/aliases since "root" is automatically expanded to "root at hostX.domainY" which is not identified as local address due to "hostX.domainY" missing from "MAIN_LOCAL_DOMAINS"
  
- // less /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated  
+ // less /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated
  (search " MAIN_LOCAL_DOMAINS")
  
  .ifndef MAIN_LOCAL_DOMAINS
  MAIN_LOCAL_DOMAINS=@:localhost:hostX.domainZ:hostX.domainA  ("mail name" "hostX.domainY" is missing!)
  .endif
  
  FYI: "@" denotes hostname without domain part
  
  ## Solution
  
  1) Automatically add "mail name" ("hostX.domainY" in this example) into
  MAIN_LOCAL_DOMAINS in dpkg-reconfigure
  
  2) Change the text in dpkg-reconfigure to explain that for some reason
  (???) user needs to re-type "mail name" (hostname -A) into the field.
  The current text misleadingly mentions only "_other_ destinations".
  
  PS. It seems the issue has been here long:
  http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-exim4-users/2009-June/001636.html

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1094984

Title:
  /etc/aliases does not work (dpkg-reconfigure error)

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