Bug#176772: Default exim configuration should NOT call procmail with -d (produces bad >From headers)

["H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh@quickfur.ath.cx>]

Package: exim
Version: 3.36-4
Severity: important
Justification: can cause breakage in unrelated/minimally-related packages

Please see bugs #128160 and #95924. The default exim configuration
generated during installation defines the following:

	procmail_pipe:
	  driver = pipe
	  command = "/usr/bin/procmail -d ${local_part}"
	  [...]

Calling procmail with -d causes it to use explicit delivery mode, which
produces a non-RFC822-compliant message containing ">From" headers (see
above mentioned bugs). This causes a lot of problems with the delivered
message: libraries that expect RFC822-compliant messages, such as
libmailtools-perl, will break (#128160); messages processed by
spamassassin will get X-Mail-Format-Warning headers; and if the message is
bounced from mutt, it will be mangled (#95924). There are probably other
breakages in mail-related software.

Furthermore, since exim already uses a delivery process with the UID of
the recipient, the -d passed to procmail is unnecessary. I've tested exim
+ procmail with the procmail command simply set to "/usr/bin/procmail"
(without the -d), and everything works fine.

This may be construed as a procmail problem (#128160 has already been
reassigned to procmail), nevertheless, I'm filing this bug against exim
because at the very least, the default Exim configuration should NOT call
procmail with -d.


T

-- 
"I'm running Windows '98." "Yes." "My computer isn't working now." "Yes, you
already said that." -- User-Friendly