How do I delete the pending mail in the Exim queue?

exim -bp

This command lists all the messages currently in the queue.

Delete All Messages in the Queue: To delete all pending emails in the queue, use:

exim -bp | exiqgrep -i | xargs exim -Mrm

• • exim -bp lists the queue.
  • exiqgrep -i extracts the message IDs.
  • xargs exim -Mrm removes the messages with the extracted IDs.

Delete Specific Messages: If you want to delete specific messages, first get their IDs using:

exim -bp

Then delete them individually using:

exim -Mrm <message-id>

Replace <message-id> with the actual ID of the message you want to delete.

Delete Frozen Messages: Sometimes you may want to delete only frozen messages (emails that couldn’t be delivered and are not being retried).

exim -bp | grep frozen | awk '{print $3}' | xargs exim -Mrm

This command pipeline finds all frozen messages and removes them.

Additional Tips

• Check for Exim Version: Ensure you are using the correct commands for your version of Exim. Some commands might slightly differ.
• Automation with Scripts: If you need to perform this task regularly, consider writing a script and scheduling it with cron.

Here’s an example script to delete all frozen messages, which you can save as clean_exim_queue.sh:

#!/bin/bash
# Script to clean up Exim mail queue

# Delete frozen messages
exim -bp | grep frozen | awk '{print $3}' | xargs exim -Mrm

# Optionally, delete all messages (uncomment the following lines if needed)
# exim -bp | exiqgrep -i | xargs exim -Mrm

Make the script executable:

chmod +x clean_exim_queue.sh

You can then set up a cron job to run this script periodically. For example, to run it every day at midnight, add the following line to your crontab:

0 0 * * * /path/to/clean_exim_queue.sh

By following these steps, you can effectively manage and clean the pending mail in the Exim queue.

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