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

[Jarno P]

## Bug Summary:
Mail send from the localhost to "root" will not follow /etc/aliases in smarthost config due to "dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config" error.

(solution provided in the end)

## Setting: exim4 (4.76-3ubuntu3.1) configured as smarthost without local mail delivery.
// installed packages
root@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: <email address hidden>

/ /etc/exim4/passwd.client
The user account used for mail transport is different from <email address hidden> (<email address hidden> in my case)

## Bug:
mail send from the host to "root" will never go to "<email address hidden>" 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 "<email address hidden>" which is not identified as local address due to "hostX.domainY" missing from "MAIN_LOCAL_DOMAINS"

// 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

[Yolanda Robla (yolanda.robla)]

Thanks for reporting this
I confirmed that as a bug, and with medium priority as it has a workaround.