Exim cheat sheet

Exim is a powerful mail transfer agent (MTA) used on many Linux servers. When emails can't be delivered immediately, they get put into a "queue." Managing this queue is crucial for server health and ensuring mail delivery. This guide provides quick commands for common Exim queue tasks.

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CLEARING THE EXIM MAIL QUEUE

Sometimes, you need to clear out stuck or unwanted emails from the queue.

• Remove All Mails: This command directly deletes all files from the input directory of the Exim spool, effectively clearing the entire queue. rm -rf /var/spool/exim/input/*

• Delete All Frozen Mails: Frozen emails are those that Exim has temporarily stopped trying to deliver due to issues. exim -bpr | grep frozen | awk {'print $3'} | xargs exim -Mrm Alternatively, a more concise command: exiqgrep -z -i | xargs exim -Mrm

• Delete Frozen Mails Older Than a Day: This is useful for clearing old, stalled messages without affecting newer ones. The 86400 represents seconds (1 day). exiqgrep -zi -o 86400 | xargs exim -Mrm You can change 86400 to any number of seconds for a different time frame.

• Clear Spam Mails: If your logs indicate messages are marked as [SPAM]. grep -R -l [SPAM] /var/spool/exim/msglog/*|cut -b26-|xargs exim -Mrm

• Clear Frozen Mails (Based on Log Entry): grep -R -l '*** Frozen' /var/spool/exim/msglog/*|cut -b26-|xargs exim -Mrm

• Clear Mails for Unverified Recipients: grep -R -l 'The recipient cannot be verified' /var/spool/exim/msglog/*|cut -b26-|xargs exim -Mrm

• Remove Mails from a Specific Sender (e.g., 'root'): Replace "" with the sender's email address or username, for example, root@yourhostname. exim -bp |grep ""|awk '{print $3}'|xargs exim -Mrm

• Remove 'nobody' Mails: These often come from scripts. Replace HOSTNAME with your server's hostname.

  • From a specific sender (nobody@HOSTNAME): exiqgrep -i -f nobody@HOSTNAME | xargs exim -Mrm

  • For a specific recipient/domain (nobody@HOSTNAME): exiqgrep -i -r nobody@HOSTNAME | xargs exim -Mrm

• Delete Mails for a Specific Domain: Replace yourdomain.com with the actual domain. exim -bp | grep "yourdomain.com" | awk {'print $3'} | xargs exim -Mrm

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DELIVERING MAILS FROM THE QUEUE

If emails are stuck but should be delivered, you can force a delivery attempt.

• Force Deliver All Mails: This command attempts to deliver all messages in the queue. The -P 40 option attempts 40 deliveries in parallel. exim -bpru |awk '{print $3}' | xargs -n 1 -P 40 exim -v -M

• Flush the Mail Queue (Force Another Run): This tells Exim to process the queue again. exim -qff Alternatively: /usr/sbin/exim -qff exim -qf

• Force Deliver Mails of a Particular Domain: Replace domain.com with the target domain. exim -v -Rff domain.com

• Force Deliver a Specific Message: Replace MSGID with the message's unique ID. exim -M MSGID To view the transaction during delivery: exim -v -M MSGID

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CHECKING THE EXIM MAIL QUEUE STATUS

These commands help you monitor the queue and inspect individual messages.

• Exim Queue Summary: Provides details like count, volume, oldest, newest message, and domain breakdown. exim -bp | exiqsumm

• Number of Frozen Mails: exim -bpr | grep frozen | wc -l

• Total Number of Mails in Queue: exim -bpr | grep "<" | wc -l A simpler alternative: exim -bpc

• View Mail in Queue for a User/Sender: Replace $name with the username or email address. exim -bp|grep $name

• Check All Mails in the Queue: This lists all messages and their IDs. exim -bp

• View Log for a Message: Replace message ID with the actual ID. exim -Mvl message ID

• View Message Header: Replace $MSGID with the message ID. exim -Mvh $MSGID

• View Message Body: Replace $MSGID with the message ID. exim -Mvb $MSGID

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ADVANCED EXIM TOOLS

• Simulate SMTP Transaction: This command helps debug Exim's checks, ACLs (Access Control Lists), and filters without actually sending a mail. Replace 127.0.0.1 with the IP you want to simulate from. exim -bh 127.0.0.1

• Most Used Mailing Script Locations: This can help identify scripts sending a lot of mail. grep cwd /var/log/exim_mainlog | grep -v /var/spool | awk -F"cwd=" '{print $2}' | awk '{print $1}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -n

• Check Syntactic Errors in Configuration: Use this when modifying Exim's configuration file. exim -C /config/file.new -bV