How to manipulate the Exim Queue
A few tidbits on manipulating the messages in the Exim Queue, courtesy of the Exim book.
In the examples, substitute the correct message id where you see message_id
Adding a recipient to a message:
exim -Mar message_id email@domain.dom
will add email@domain.dom as a recipient of the message and send a copy to that address.
There is no way to actually delete a recipient, but Exim can be told to pretend that delivery for a recipient has been completed. To mark one of the intended recipients as delivered:
exim -Mmd message_id email@domain.dom
will mark the address email@domain.dom as delivered and stop delivery attempts to that address, whereas:
exim -Mmad message_id
will mark all recipients as delivered.
These commands are handy if you need to divert a piece of mail to one or more new recipients. The safest way to do this is:
Freeze the message:
exim -Mf message_id
Use the -Mmad or -Mmd switched to mark all or individual recipients as delivered.
Use the -Mar switches to add as many new recipients as needed.
Thaw the message:
exim -Mt message_id
which will then attempt delivery on the next queue run, or force delivery now:
exim -M message_id
You can also edit the body of the message:
exim -Meb message_id
This runs vi on a copy of the spool file with a lock. No delivery attempts are made while the file is locked. There a few caveats on this and you should look up more info on it before you attempt it.
Summary of queue runner commands:
-M : Force delivery
-Mar : Add recipient
-Meb : Edit message body
-Mes : Edit sender
-Mf : Freeze message
-Mg : Give up (and bounce message)
-Mmad : Mark all recipients as delivered
-Mmd : Mark recipient as delivered
-Mrm : Remove message (no bounce)
-Mt : Thaw message
-Mvb : View message body
-Mvh : View message header
-Mvl : View message log