macOS
Homebrewverified · 100%
brew install eximprovider-native install command
brew / rank 7350
Install exim with Homebrew
Complete replacement for sendmail. Version 4.99.5 via Homebrew; verified 2026-07-22.
install
Additional install commands
overview
Package summary
Complete replacement for sendmail
Project links
Commands and aliases
- exicyclog
- exigrep
- exim
- exim-4.99.5-2
- exim_checkaccess
- exim_ctl
- exim_dbmbuild
- exim_dumpdb
- exim_fixdb
- exim_id_update
- exim_lock
- exim_msgdate
- exim_tidydb
- eximstats
- exinext
- exipick
- exiqgrep
- exiqsumm
- exiwhat
history
Project history and usage
Exim is a Unix-oriented mail transfer agent from the University of Cambridge, built for Internet-connected hosts and distributed under the GPL. It matters in package-manager culture because it is one of the long-lived sendmail replacements that administrators can install as a real MTA, a queueing mail system, and a command-line-compatible submission tool.
Project history
The current Exim specification describes Exim as an MTA for Unix and Unix-like hosts, designed around permanently connected Internet systems but configurable for intermittent links. Its own introduction explicitly places it in the Smail 3 lineage: many ideas and user interfaces came from Smail, while the Exim codebase was new and later grew beyond that initial model.
Exim's documentation and distribution model are also part of its history. The project has long shipped a large reference specification, command-line man page, filter language documentation, upgrade notes, and per-release change logs. Source releases are published from exim.org, with signed tarballs and a separate public Git repository for people who want to track the source tree directly.
Adoption history
An Exim 3.20 overview from 2000 already described production use at sites handling hundreds of thousands of messages per day. The current documentation points to mailing lists for announcements, user support, development, and automated VCS messages, plus independent mirror sites, which reflects the classic Unix server-project adoption pattern: distro packages, local site policy, mailing-list support, and careful upgrades.
Exim gained popularity as a sendmail-compatible replacement without requiring administrators to learn sendmail configuration. Its current manual says Exim adopts the Sendmail command-line interface so it can replace /usr/lib/sendmail or /usr/sbin/sendmail for message submission, while still producing Exim-specific output for administrative commands such as queue listings.
How it is used
Exim is used to receive, queue, route, and deliver mail over SMTP and related transports. Administrators care about its runtime configuration file, router and transport model, ACLs, queue runner, logs, and privileged execution model because those determine how mail policy, local delivery, forwarding, relaying, and security boundaries behave on a server.
The package exposes a cluster of operational tools around the main exim binary, such as queue inspection, log grepping, database maintenance, and statistics commands. That shape is why it appears in package managers as a service-oriented package rather than a single-purpose CLI utility.
Why package nerds care
For package maintainers, Exim is a security-sensitive daemon with signed upstream releases, build-time paths, runtime privilege rules, and distro-specific defaults. The official manual notes that the runtime configuration filename is compiled in through CONFIGURE_FILE, which explains why packaged Exim builds often differ in configuration paths and default integration details.
Exim is also historically interesting because major policy behavior changed over time. The official DNSBL HOWTO notes that Exim 4.00 moved incoming-mail policy checks to ACLs, making Exim 4 configuration materially different from Exim 3 for common anti-abuse setups.
Timeline
- 2000: Exim 3.20 overview documented production use at high-volume sites.
- 4.00: Incoming mail policy checks moved to ACLs.
- 4.73: Runtime configuration file permission rules were tightened.
- 4.99.4: Current specification documents the modern Exim 4 series.
Related projects
- Smail 3 is the direct design predecessor named by Exim's own documentation.
- Sendmail is the compatibility target for Exim's message-submission command-line interface.
- DNSBL services, TLS libraries, DBM libraries, and content scanners are common integration points documented around Exim deployments.
Sources
- https://www.exim.org/
- https://www.exim.org/exim-html-current/doc/html/spec_html/ch-introduction.html
- https://www.exim.org/download.html
- https://www.exim.org/exim-html-current/doc/html/spec_html/ch-the_exim_runtime_configuration_file.html
- https://www.exim.org/howto/rbl.html
- https://www.exim.org/exim-html-3.20/doc/html/oview.html
security posture
Risk level: yellow
generalized runtime or code generation signal.
Risk classifier
yellow risk · medium confidence · runtime
Why
- generalized runtime or code generation signal
Signals
- text:repl
Install behavior
- No Homebrew bottle metadata was recorded.
Recommended review
Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.
executables
Installed executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
exicyclog | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
exigrep | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
exim | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
exim-4.99.5-2 | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
exim_checkaccess | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
exim_ctl | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
exim_dbmbuild | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
exim_dumpdb | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
exim_fixdb | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
exim_id_update | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
exim_lock | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
exim_msgdate | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
exim_tidydb | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
eximstats | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
exinext | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
exipick | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
exiqgrep | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
exiqsumm | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
exiwhat | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
freshness
Version and freshness
These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.
page generated2026-08-03
manager version4.99.5
manager updated2026-07-22
local dataunknown
upstreamnot available
latest detectednot detected
- okNo freshness warnings were generated.
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:exim |
|---|---|
| Version | 4.99.5 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Homepage | https://exim.org |
| Last updated | 2026-07-22T16:04:55Z |
| Pulse | updated |
| Bottle | not recorded |
| Service | none declared |
source trail
Generated from repository data
This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.
Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub.
Used sources
- Geiger risk classifier
- Nucleus package database
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation