.. _howto-exim_and_dovecot_sasl:

#####################
Exim and Dovecot SASL
#####################

Exim v4.64+ users can use Dovecot :ref:`sasl` instead of Cyrus SASL for
authenticating SMTP clients.

Configuration Example
---------------------

``dovecot.conf``:

.. code-block:: none

  auth_mechanisms = plain login

  service auth {
    ...
    # SASL
    unix_listener auth-client {
      mode = 0660
      user = mail
    }
    ...
  }

``exim.conf``:

.. code-block:: none

  dovecot_login:
    driver = dovecot
    public_name = LOGIN
    server_socket = /var/run/dovecot/auth-client
    # setting server_set_id might break several headers in mails sent by
    # authenticated smtp. So be careful.
    server_set_id = $auth1

  dovecot_plain:
    driver = dovecot
    public_name = PLAIN
    server_socket = /var/run/dovecot/auth-client
    server_set_id = $auth1

If you are having problems with this not working ensure that you are using
version 4.72 or greater of exim. Previous versions of exim have trouble with
the version of the protocol used in Dovecot v2.x.