i have copied ~/exim<version>/src/EDITME ~/exim<version>/Local/Makefile
when i make in the top level directory i get this error

*** EXIM_USER is defined as an empty string in one of the files
in the "Local" directory. Please review your build-time
configuration.

make[1]: *** [config.h] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/bm/exim-4.43/build-Linux-i386'
make: *** [go] Error 2

so i define a EXIM_USER e.g.

EXIM_USER=exim

then i get this error

*** EXIM_USER contains the control character 0x0D in one of the files
in the "Local" directory. Please review your build-time
configuration.

make[1]: *** [config.h] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/bm/exim-4.43/build-Linux-i386'
make: *** [go] Error 2

thank you in advance
bm1

do man ascii then look for the 0x0d value (or just 0d), you will find
"cr" that mean carriage return( can be specified as \r) .
So you have to change the files which have a carriage return instead of
a new line char (0x0a, nl, \n)

The tr command could solve this like
cat file_2_change | tr '\r' '\n' > file_changed