This is my quick guide to do an install and basic setup of exim on CentOS. This is not meant as a fully inclusive guide but it will get you on the way. Following this you should get a working exim install.
I will assume you have built a CentOS 4 / 5 Server, have yum working and have logged in as root.
You may want to make sure your up to date…
yum update
Install exim and mail switching tools
yum install exim
yum install system-switch-mail
Switch your MTA & set exim to start on boot
system-switch-mail
service sendmail stop
service exim start
chkconfig exim on
chkconfig sendmail off
Add a root alias, eg: “root: me@example.com”
vi /etc/aliases
You may also wish to add some config to your routers section like this, if you want to relay through a smart host.
vi /etc/exim/exim.conf
Then add this before the “dnslookup:” section.
to_smart_host:
driver = manualroute
domains = ! +local_domains
transport = remote_smtp
route_list = “* mail1.example.com:mail2.example.com;”
Restart exim
service exim restart
To test, send an email
echo “test” |mail -s “$HOSTNAME” me@example.com
Then you can flush the Exim Que and watch the log like this
exim -qff ; tail -f /var/log/exim/main.log
Good luck!