SMTP/Exim4/Commands

From Debuntu

A set of command to help out troubleshooting exim delivery queue.

• exim -bpc : counts the number of messages on the queue
• exim -bp : list the content of the mail queue on the standard output
• exim -bpr : same as above, but output is not sorted chronogically
• exim -M <msg id> <msg id> ... => requests Exim to run a delivery attempt on each message in turn. If any of the messages are frozen, they are automatically thawed before the delivery attempt.
• exim -qf => Force another queue run, will attempt to deliver messages which retry period did not expire yet
• exim -qff => Force another queue run and attempt to flush the frozen message
• exim -Mvl messageID => contents of the message log spool file is written standard output
• exim -Mvb messageID => contents of the message body spool file is written standard output
• exim -Mvh messageID => contents of the message headers spool file is written standard output
• exim -Mrm <msg id> <msg id> ... => Remove message without sending any error message
• exim -Mg <msg id> <msg id> ... => requests Exim to give up trying to deliver the listed messages, including any that are frozen.

If any of the messages are active, their status is not altered

For non-bounce messages, a delivery error message is sent to the sender, containing the text "cancelled by administrator"

Bounce messages are just discarded.

So, for instance:

exim -qff -d9

Will flush the queue, even frozen messages, with debugging.