apt-get produces the error; exim: failed to find uid for user name "Debian-exim". Exim is an MTA or mail transport agent. Do not suggest I use Postfix please.

[Tom H]

On Mon, Dec 12, 2016 at 6:37 PM, Nate Homier <purplenate26 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The meta package exim4 creates the user Debian-exim, so exim should
> know that user. When removing exim, I think the user Debian-exim get's
> left behind, meaning it's not removed when removing exim4 package.

"should"?! "think"?!

Check whether that user exists with the command that I posted up-thread!

I've just downloaded and unpacked exim4-base_4.87-3ubuntu2_amd64.deb.

Its postinst has:

 if ! getent passwd Debian-exim > /dev/null ; then
 echo 'Adding system-user for exim (v4)' 1>&2
 adduser --system --group --quiet --home /var/spool/exim4 \
 --no-create-home --disabled-login --force-badname Debian-exim
 fi

Debian-exim shouldn't have been removed when you uninstalled exim
because there's a Debian policy preventing the removal of system
accounts.