## View the Sendmail or Postfix mail queue ##

[Author](authors.html): Cezary Morga cm@therek.net FreeBSD

[Reviewer](technical_reviewers.html): _name_ _[[contact]]_ _[[BSD_flavour]]_

[Reviewer](technical_reviewers.html): _name_ _[[contact]]_ _[[BSD_flavour]]_

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### Concept ###

Be able to view the mail queue to determine
if any mail is stuck in the queue, and if necessary, ask the MTA to
reprocess or flush the queue.


### Introduction ###

As noted in section [[Determine_which_MTA_is_being_used_on_the_system]],
the BSD systems use Sendmail or Postfix by default for handling mail.

The mail queue can be displayed using the **mailq(1)** utility. The queue
listing identifies messages that are still queued (not successfully sent
or delivered yet). The output includes MTA's internal message identifier,
the size of the message, the date and time the message was accepted into
the queue, the sender's envelope address, and the recipient address(es),
as well as a reason of failure for messages that have permanently failed.

When using Postfix, if the **mailq(1)** utility is not setup, use
**`postqueue -p`** to display the traditional sendmail-style queue listing.
To make MTA attempt to deliver all queued mail issue commands:
**`sendmail -q`** for Sendmail and **`postqueue -f`** for Posftix.

### Examples ###

Following are two examples of **mailq(1)** output. First when used with
Sendmail:

""# mailq
""/var/spool/mqueue (1 request)
""-----Q-ID----- --Size-- -----Q-Time----- ------------Sender/Recipient-----------
""l0ID36a2085983      524 Thu Jan 18 14:03 &lt;sender@mydomain.net&gt;
""                 (Deferred: Operation timed out with otherdomain.com.)
""                                          &lt;recipient@otherdomain.com&gt;
""                Total requests: 1

And an example when used with Postfix:

""# mailq
""-Queue ID- --Size-- ----Arrival Time---- -Sender/Recipient-------
""D184ACAB55      709 Fri Jan 19 20:50:08  sender@mydomain.net
""(delivery temporarily suspended: connect to mail.otherdomain.com[10.0.0.11]: Connection refused)
""                                          recipient@otherdomain.com
""
""-- 709 bytes in 1 Request.

### Practice Exercises ###

1. When logged into your mail server, see the output of **postqueue(1)**
and/or **mailq(1)** commands (depending on which MTA is used).

### More information ###

mailq(1), postqueue(1)


