Well, first of all auth-userdb and auth-client are completely different things.
exim must connect to auth-client and _not_ auth-userdb.
2nd: If the config does not enlist auth-client, look at the full config:
doveconf -a
There you see all effective settings. hence, I guess you need to replicate the setting from your running server into your local.conf in order to get exim access permissions.
Thank you.
What I don't understand is how unix_listener works and how to specify independently the socket file used and the protocol spoken on the socket.
For example, to get postfix to work (I was using postfix before I used exim), we configure the auth service this way:
service auth { unix_listener /var/spool/postfix/private/auth { ... } }
What I deduced from this is that the unix_listener command took a file path as argument and the permissions inside the {} block.
Now, when I look at the configuration for auth-userdb and auth-client, I see:
service auth { unix_listener auth-client {... } unix_listener auth-userdb { ... } }
Using the rule deduced above, I see two sockets being declared. auth-client is a path relative to /var/run/dovecot, and auth-userdb is also a path in /var/run/dovecot. I see no difference between the two, except the file path. I deduce then that those two sockets respond to the same protocol provided by the service auth.
Obviously, I am wrong.
Then, how does the auth service knows which protocol to speak on /var/run/dovecot/auth-userdb, /var/run/dovecot/auth-client and /var/spool/postfix/private/auth? This is not specified in the configuration (even doveconf -a).
If I specify:
service auth { unix_listener some-socket-file {... } }
I suppose I'll find a socket in /var/run/dovecot/some-socket-file. Which protocol does it speak?
More generally, is there somewhere when the configuration file is documented? I always wondered what happened when I redefined a section ("service auth" for example). Will it replace completely the previous section or will it only overwrite the variables specified?
Thank you
Mildred