Exim 4 configuration/package problems

[Paul Duncan <paul.d@soi-team.org>]

Hello,

I'm having a problem which stems from me accidentally deleting the 
/etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template file.

I figured it would be a simple matter of removing and re-installing the 
package, but it does not seem to be. I have even tried purging. 
Currently, if I try to do a purge of exim4, this is what happens:

# apt-get purge exim4
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package 'exim4' is not installed, so not removed
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 81 not upgraded.
3 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up exim4-config (4.80-7+deb7u1) ...
2014-10-27 10:51:41 Exim configuration error in line 169 of 
/var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated.tmp:
  authenticator name missing
Invalid new configfile /var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated.tmp, not 
installing
/var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated.tmp to 
/var/lib/exim4/config.autogenerated
dpkg: error processing exim4-config (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of exim4-base:
 exim4-base depends on exim4-config (>= 4.30) | exim4-config-2; however:
  Package exim4-config is not configured yet.
  Package exim4-config-2 is not installed.
  Package exim4-config which provides exim4-config-2 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing exim4-base (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of exim4-daemon-light:
 exim4-daemon-light depends on exim4-base (>= 4.80); however:
  Package exim4-base is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing exim4-daemon-light (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 exim4-config
 exim4-base
 exim4-daemon-light
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
#

Please tell me how to sort this mess out! :-)

Thanks!

Paul
~~~~ (hoping it does not involve a complete OS re-install!)