UPDATE-EXI...F.TEMPLATE(8)

💖 update-exim4.conf.template 💖

ok so bestie, this is the System Manager's Manual page for update-exim4.conf.template, section 8 — the little script that regenerates your exim4 config template. she's a shell script, she's a system manager thing, and she is literally going to rewrite your config file. buckle up 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

update-exim4.conf.template — Regenerate exim4 configuration file template.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

update-exim4.conf.template [-h|--help] [-n|--nobackup] [-o|--output
file] [-r|--run]

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👑 OPTIONS 👑

• -h, --help — shows a short help message and then dips. exit. gone. that's it 💅
• -n, --nobackup — overwrites the existing file instead of keeping it around as /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template.bak.random-number. yes that's a real filename and yes there's a random number in it, she's cute like that 🎀
• -o, --output file — writes the output to file instead of /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template. like, you pick where it goes bestie 💖
• -r, --run — actually do something. no cap: if you don't pass this, update-exim4.conf.template exits immediately and does absolutely nothing. and the reason this option exists at all? because this script overwrites configuration files. so like, safety first, she wants you to mean it 🔥

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so the script update-exim4.conf.template regenerates the main configuration file template /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template from the configuration snippets living in the /etc/exim4/conf.d directory tree. it's giving ✨ assembly line ✨

this process will overwrite all local changes in /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template, and that might genuinely be useful if there are local changes in the /etc/exim4/conf.d directory tree — for example when a new mail related package drops its own configuration snippets in there. new package, new snippets, new template, slay 🌈

⚠️ real talk: local changes to /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template are toast. she's not asking, she's telling 💀

also, update-exim4.conf.template ignores all files in the conf.d directory that have a filename which does not consist only of letters, numbers, underscores and hyphens ([:alnum:]_-), similar to run-parts(8). so weird filenames get vibe checked at the door 🙈

and for easy interaction with packages extending Exim, additionally /etc/exim4/conf.d/foo/bar.rul is used instead of /etc/exim4/conf.d/foo/bar if it exists! the .rul version wins, iykyk 🧚

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🍓 ENVIRONMENT 🍓

if CONFDIR is set, update-exim4.conf.template will search for the input files below $CONFDIR/conf.d instead of /etc/exim4/conf.d/, and will write the output to $CONFDIR/exim4.conf.template instead of to /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template (unless overridden with -o or --output). it's the same script, just living somewhere else ✨

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😭 BUGS 😭

this manual page needs a major re-work. if somebody knows better groff than us and has more experience in writing manual pages, any patches would be greatly appreciated. not me being honest in the BUGS section 😭 bestie the page is aware of its own flaws and that's main character energy fr fr

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

• exim4(8)
• /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/
• and for general notes and details about interaction with debconf: /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/README.Debian.gz

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🌟 AUTHOR 🌟

Marc Haber <mh+debian-packages@zugschlus.de>

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and that's the whole page bestie, we ate and left no crumbs 💅✨ this one shipped under EXIM4 and is dated Feb 27, 2005 — vintage, iconic, still running your mail server. periodt 💖🦋🌸