Re: [Bug 3159] New: Exim fails to deliver paniclog email when it contains long lines

On 2025/09/20 11:26 AM, Thomas Hochstein via Exim-dev wrote:
> That's not Exim sending those mails, but a cronjob* from the exim4-base
> Debian package, located at /etc/cron.daily/exim4-base with those lines:
> | if [ "$E4BCD_WATCH_PANICLOG" != "no" ]; then
> |   if [ -s "/var/log/exim4/paniclog" ]; then
> |     if [ -x "/usr/local/lib/exim4/nonzero_paniclog_hook" ]; then
> |       /usr/local/lib/exim4/nonzero_paniclog_hook
> |     fi
> |     if [ -z "$E4BCD_PANICLOG_NOISE" ] || grep -vq "$E4BCD_PANICLOG_NOISE" /var/log/exim4/paniclog; then
> |       log_this "ALERT: exim paniclog /var/log/exim4/paniclog has non-zero size, mail system possibly broken"
> |       if ! printf "Subject: exim paniclog on %s has non-zero size\nTo: %s\n\nexim paniclog /var/log/exim4/paniclog on %s has non-zero size, mail system might be broken. Up to ${E4BCD_PANICLOG_LINES} lines are quoted below.\n\n%s\n" \
> |       "${HOSTNAME}" "${E4BCD_PANICLOG_REPORT_TO}" "${HOSTNAME}" \
> |       "$(if [ -z "$E4BCD_PANICLOG_NOISE" ] ; then tail -n "${E4BCD_PANICLOG_LINES}" /var/log/exim4/paniclog ; else grep -v "$E4BCD_PANICLOG_NOISE" /var/log/exim4/paniclog | tail -n "${E4BCD_PANICLOG_LINES}" ; fi)" \
> |       | exim4 "${E4BCD_PANICLOG_REPORT_TO}"; then
> |         log_this "PANIC: sending out e-mail warning has failed, exim has non-zero return code"

At the very least they could put "  awk '{print substr($0, 0, 998)}'  " into that pipeline.
Or, there exists MIME::QuotedPrint.
-- 
Cheers,
   Jeremy