[Evolution-users] Evolution and exim4

[Pete Biggs]

On Wed, 2026-04-15 at 23:32 +1000, rob stone via evolution-users wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I use Evolution for receiving and sending e-mails.
> 
> I also want to generate and send e-mails programmatically bypassing
> Evolution.
> 
> To do this I understand I need to make a change to the exim4
> configuration changing dc_eximconfig_configtype='local' to read 
> dc_eximconfig_configtype='internet'.
> 
> If I do this, will it affect Evolution?
> 

I doubt it will affect Evolution, but it depends on how you have
configured your account. TBH, if your Evolution is receiving and
sending emails from the internet, and exim is set to be local only,
then Evolution is not using anything to do with exim.

The bottom line is this: I used Exim for many years and I've configured
it for large mail systems - and I know people who have used it for
extremely large systems; in retirement, when I wanted to setup my own
MTA (for fun) I used exim. I would never, ever, programmatically talk
directly to it! It's just not worth the hassle of forming all your own
headers and making sure everything is syntactically correct.  As
Patrick says, use one of the many programs designed specifically for
what you want to do.

Also, and as an (ex-)mail admin can I just say: if you have to ask this
question, then please don't do it - there are far too many security and
privacy pitfalls in exposing a mailer to the outside world: when I
exposed an SMTP port recently I had my first open-relay probe in a few
minutes; I run fail2ban on it and it's currently banning between 4 and
20 hosts a day, and this is not an advertised address or a known
domain.

P.