Arrange for output from Perl's "warn" to go to the mainlog by default.

2 files changed, 34 insertions, 16 deletions

diff --git a/doc/doc-src/spec.src b/doc/doc-src/spec.src
index 5ecbd9e9e..69ebca07d 100644
--- a/doc/doc-src/spec.src
+++ b/doc/doc-src/spec.src
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-. $Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-src/spec.src,v 1.5 2005/01/27 10:25:35 ph10 Exp $
+. $Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-src/spec.src,v 1.6 2005/01/27 15:00:38 ph10 Exp $
 .
 .set version "4.50"
 .set previousversion "4.40"
@@ -10673,21 +10673,29 @@ terminating newline.
 
 .em
 .section Use of standard output and error by Perl
+.index Perl||standard output and error
 You should not write to the standard error or output streams from within your 
-Perl code, as it is not defined how these are set up. In versions of Exim up to 
-at least 4.50, it is possible for the standard output or error to refer to the 
-SMTP connection during message reception. Writing to this stream is likely to 
-cause chaos. Something may be done about this in later releases.
-
-Unfortunately, the Perl \warn\ statment writes to the standard error stream, 
-and this may be embedded in Perl modules that you use, but over which you have 
-no control. One way round this is to ensure that the following Perl magic is 
-obeyed before \warn\ is used:
-.display asis
-$SIG{__WARN__} = sub { Exim::log_write($_[0]) };
-.endd
-This causes the output of the \warn\ statement to be written to Exim's log 
-file.
+Perl code, as it is not defined how these are set up. In versions of Exim  
+before 4.50, it is possible for the standard output or error to refer to the 
+SMTP connection during message reception via the daemon. Writing to this stream
+is certain to cause chaos. From Exim 4.50 onwards, the standard output and
+error streams are connected to \(/dev/null)\ in the daemon. The chaos is 
+avoided, but the output is lost.
+
+.index Perl||\warn\, use of
+The Perl \warn\ statement writes to the standard error stream by default. Calls 
+to \warn\ may be embedded in Perl modules that you use, but over which you have
+no control. When Exim starts up the Perl interpreter, it arranges for output
+from the \warn\ statement to be written to the Exim main log. You can change 
+this by including appropriate Perl magic somewhere in your Perl code. For 
+example, to discard \warn\ output completely, you need this:
+.display asis
+$SIG{__WARN__} = sub { };
+.endd
+Whenever a \warn\ is obeyed, the anonymous subroutine is called. In this 
+example, the code for the subroutine is empty, so it does nothing, but you can
+include any Perl code that you like. The text of the \warn\ message is passed
+as the first subroutine argument.
 .nem
 
 
diff --git a/doc/doc-txt/ChangeLog b/doc/doc-txt/ChangeLog
index 799999e70..eaec31c78 100644
--- a/doc/doc-txt/ChangeLog
+++ b/doc/doc-txt/ChangeLog
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-$Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/ChangeLog,v 1.75 2005/01/27 10:26:14 ph10 Exp $
+$Cambridge: exim/doc/doc-txt/ChangeLog,v 1.76 2005/01/27 15:00:39 ph10 Exp $
 
 Change log file for Exim from version 4.21
 -------------------------------------------
@@ -351,6 +351,16 @@ Exim version 4.50
 
       verify = header_sender/callout=defer_ok
 
+75. A backgrounded daemon closed stdin/stdout/stderr on entry; this meant that
+    those file descriptors could be used for SMTP connections. If anything
+    wrote to stderr (the example that came up was "warn" in embedded Perl), it
+    could be sent to the SMTP client, causing chaos. The daemon now opens
+    stdin, stdout, and stderr to /dev/null when it puts itself into the
+    background.
+
+76. Arrange for output from Perl's "warn" command to be written to Exim's main
+    log by default. The user can override this with suitable Perl magic.
+
 
 ----------------------------------------------------
 See the note above about the 4.44 and 4.50 releases.