---
name: "update-exim4.conf.template"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "exim4-config"
version: "4.98.2-1+deb13u4"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/update-exim4.conf.template"
---

# update-exim4.conf.template(8)

Regenerate exim4 configuration file template.

## NAME

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

## SYNOPSIS

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

## OPTIONS

- *-h\|--help*

  Show short help message and exit

- *-n\|--nobackup*

  Overwrite existing file, instead of keeping it as /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template.bak.random-number

- *-o\|--output file*

  Write output to file instead of /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template.

- *-r\|--run*

  Actually do something. If this option is not specified **update-exim4.conf.template** will exit immediately. This option was introduced because **update-exim4.conf.template** overwrites configuration files.

## DESCRIPTION

The script **update-exim4.conf.template** regenerates the main configuration file template */etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template* from the configuration snippets in the */etc/exim4/conf.d* directory tree.

This process will overwrite all local changes in */etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template* and might be useful if there are local changes in the */etc/exim4/conf.d* directory tree, for example by a new mail related package dropping its own configuration snippets in there.

**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)](/run-parts/8.md).** 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!

## 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).

## 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.

## SEE ALSO

[**exim4**(8)](/exim4/8.md), /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/ and for general notes and details about interaction with debconf /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/README.Debian.gz

## AUTHOR

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