List of useful commands to manage Exim mail server

The mail server installed on your HostPapa VPS is called Exim. While the mail server doesn’t require much interaction for sending or receiving average volumes of email, there may be times when you need to manage Exim’s settings.

Begin by logging in to your server in a terminal client using Secure Shell (SSH). Use the following Exim commands to manage your mail server.

Display the number of email messages in the queue

exim -bpc

Display information about email messages in the queue

exim -bp

Displays time queued, size, message-id, sender and recipient.

Display a summary of messages in the queue

exim -bp | exiqsumm 

Displays count, volume, oldest, newest, domain, and totals.

Display Exim’s current activity

exiwhat

Test Exim SMTP transaction

exim -bh ipaddress 

This spoofs an SMTP transaction emanating from ipaddress. Exim’s status will be displayed as the transaction runs. Note: the message will not be delivered.

Display Exim settings

exim -bP

Search the mail queue for messages from a specific sender

exiqgrep -f [luser]@domain

Search the mail queue for messages from a specific recipient or domain

exiqgrep -r [luser]@domain

Display messages older than a specified number of seconds

exiqgrep -o seconds [...]

Display messages newer than a specified number of seconds 

exiqgrep -y seconds [...]

Locate messages matching a specific size

exiqgrep -s '^4..$' [...]

For example, 400-499 bytes.

• Use -z to match only frozen messages.
• Use -x to match only unfrozen messages.
• To display just the message-id, use -I.
• -c shows the message count.

Display the message count of the mail queue 

exiqgrep -c ...

Start a queue run

root@localhost# exim -q -v

Start a queue run isolated to local deliveries

root@localhost# exim -ql -v

Remove a message from the queue 

root@localhost# exim -Mrm <message-id> [ <message-id> ... ]

Freeze a message

root@localhost# exim -Mf <message-id> [ <message-id> ... ]

Throw a message

root@localhost# exim -Mt <message-id> [ <message-id> ... ]

Deliver a message

root@localhost# exim -M <message-id> [ <message-id> ... ]

Deliver a message (if the retry time has been reached) 

root@localhost# exim -Mc <message-id> [ <message-id> ... ]

Force a message to fail

root@localhost# exim -Mg <message-id> [ <message-id> ... ]

Remove all frozen messages

root@localhost# exiqgrep -z -i | xargs exim -Mrm

Remove all messages older than a defined number of seconds

root@localhost# exiqgrep -o seconds -i | xargs exim -Mrm

Freeze all queued mail from a named sender

root@localhost# exiqgrep -i -f luser@example.net| xargs exim -Mf

View a message’s mail headers

root@localhost# exim -Mvh <message-id>

View a message’s body

root@localhost# exim -Mvb <message-id>

View a message’s logs 

root@localhost# exim -Mvl <message-id> 

Add a recipient to a message

root@localhost# exim -Mar <message-id> <address> [ <address> ... ]

Edit a message sender

root@localhost# exim -Mes <message-id> <address>