Manage the postfix mailqueue with postsuper, postqueue und mailq

Postfix provides with postsuper, postqueue and mailq some  shell utilitys to manage the mailqueue.

Here are some examples for common tasks:

List all messages that are in the mailqueue

postqueue -p

The output looks like this:

root@server:/# postqueue -p
-Queue ID- –Size– —-Arrival Time—- -Sender/Recipient——-
501CA23B43DB     2182 Thu Dec  3 14:24:39  test@yourdomain.com
(Host or domain name not found. Name service error for name=otherdomain.com type=MX: Host not found, try again)
info@otherdomain.com

– 8 Kbytes in 1 Requests.

Delete a message by message ID

postsuper -d MessageID

replace MessageID with the ID of the message, e.g. 501CA23B43DB

root@server:/# postsuper -d 501CA23B43DB
postsuper: 501CA23B43DB: removed
postsuper: Deleted: 1 message

Remove emails by sender

mailq | tail +2 | awk ‘BEGIN { RS = “” }
# $7=sender, $8=recipient1, $9=recipient2
{ if ($7 == “info@otherdomain.com” && $9 == “”)
print $1 }
‘ | tr -d ‘*!’ | postsuper -d -

replace “info@otherdomain.com” with the sender email address.

Remove emails by recipient

mailq | tail +2 | awk ‘BEGIN { RS = “” }
# $7=sender, $8=recipient1, $9=recipient2
{ if ($8 == “you@yourdomain.com” && $9 == “”)
print $1 }
‘ | tr -d ‘*!’ | postsuper -d -

replace you@yourdomain.com with the recipient email address.

Remove emails by sender hostname

mailq | grep senderhostname | awk ‘{ print $1′} | postsuper -d -

replace the word “senderhostname” with the hostname of the email sender.

If your server has very high load and you want to temporarily move all message from the incoming queue to the hold queue, use the command:

postsuper -h ALL

to move the messages back to the incoming queue, use the command:

postsuper -r ALL

Instead of the word “ALL” you can also provide a specific message ID to move only one message to or from the hold queue. Message in the hold queue will not processed by postfix until they were requeued with postsuper -r.

 or

 /opt/zimbra/postfix/sbin/postsuper [-parameter ALL or queue_id]
example remove all deferred :
[root@mail ~]#/opt/zimbra/postfix/sbin/postsuper -d ALL deffered
example move all from requeue to hold :
[root@mail ~]#/opt/zimbra/postfix/sbin/postsuper -r ALL hold
output
postsuper: Requeued: 63 messages

Synopsis

postsuper [-psv] [-c config_dir] [-d queue_id] [-h queue_id] [-H queue_id] [-r queue_id] [directory ...]

 By default, postsuper(1) performs the operations requested with the -s and -pcommand-line options on all Postfix queue directories - this includes the incoming,active and deferred directories with mail files and the bounce, defer, trace and flushdirectories with log files.

Options:

-c config_dir

The main.cf configuration file is in the named directory instead of the default configuration directory. See also the MAIL_CONFIG environment setting below.

-d queue_id

Delete one message with the named queue ID from the named mail queue(s) (default: hold, incoming, active and deferred).If a queue_id of - is specified, the program reads queue IDs from standard input. For example, to delete all mail with exactly one recipient user@example.com:

mailq | tail +2 | grep -v '^ *(' | awk  'BEGIN { RS = "" }
    # $7=sender, $8=recipient1, $9=recipient2
    { if ($8 == "user@example.com" && $9 == "")
          print $1 }
' | tr -d '*!' | postsuper -d -

Specify "-d ALL" to remove all messages; for example, specify "-d ALL deferred" to delete all mail in the deferred queue. As a safety measure, the word ALL must be specified in upper case.Warning: Postfix queue IDs are reused. There is a very small possibility that postsuper deletes the wrong message file when it is executed while the Postfix mail system is delivering mail.
The scenario is as follows:

1)The Postfix queue manager deletes the message that postsuper(1) is asked to delete, because Postfix is finished with the message (it is delivered, or it is returned to the sender).
2)
New mail arrives, and the new message is given the same queue ID as the message that postsuper(1) is supposed to delete. The probability for reusing a deleted queue ID is about 1 in 2**15 (the number of different microsecond values that the system clock can distinguish within a second).
3)
postsuper(1) deletes the new message, instead of the old message that it should have deleted.

-h queue_id

Put mail "on hold" so that no attempt is made to deliver it. Move one message with the named queue ID from the named mail queue(s) (default: incoming, active anddeferred) to the hold queue.If a queue_id of - is specified, the program reads queue IDs from standard input.
Specify "-h ALL" to hold all messages; for example, specify "-h ALL deferred" to hold all mail in the deferred queue. As a safety measure, the word ALL must be specified in upper case.
Note: while mail is "on hold" it will not expire when its time in the queue exceeds the maximal_queue_lifetime or bounce_queue_lifetime setting. It becomes subject to expiration after it is released from "hold".
This feature is available in Postfix 2.0 and later.

-H queue_id

Release mail that was put "on hold". Move one message with the named queue ID from the named mail queue(s) (default: hold) to the deferred queue.If a queue_id of - is specified, the program reads queue IDs from standard input.
Note: specify "postsuper -r" to release mail that was kept on hold for a significant fraction of $maximal_queue_lifetime or $bounce_queue_lifetime, or longer.
Specify "-H ALL" to release all mail that is "on hold". As a safety measure, the word ALL must be specified in upper case.
This feature is available in Postfix 2.0 and later.

-pPurge old temporary files that are left over after system or software crashes.

-r queue_id

Requeue the message with the named queue ID from the named mail queue(s) (default: hold, incoming, active and deferred). To requeue multiple messages, specify multiple -r command-line options.Alternatively, if a queue_id of - is specified, the program reads queue IDs from standard input.
Specify "-r ALL" to requeue all messages. As a safety measure, the word ALL must be specified in upper case.
A requeued message is moved to the maildrop queue, from where it is copied by the pickup(8) and cleanup(8) daemons to a new queue file. In many respects its handling differs from that of a new local submission.

• The message is not subjected to the smtpd_milters or non_smtpd_milters settings. When mail has passed through an external content filter, this would produce incorrect results with Milter applications that depend on original SMTP connection state information.• The message is subjected again to mail address rewriting and substitution. This is useful when rewriting rules or virtual mappings have changed.

The address rewriting context (local or remote) is the same as when the message was received.

• The message is subjected to the same content_filter settings (if any) as used for new local mail submissions. This is useful when content_filter settings have changed.

Warning: Postfix queue IDs are reused. There is a very small possibility that postsuper(1) requeues the wrong message file when it is executed while the Postfix mail system is running, but no harm should be done.This feature is available in Postfix 1.1 and later.

-s     Structure check and structure repair. This should be done once before Postfix startup.

 

• Rename files whose name does not match the message file inode number. This operation is necessary after restoring a mail queue from a different machine, or from backup media

• Move queue files that are in the wrong place in the file system hierarchy and remove subdirectories that are no longer needed. File position rearrangements are necessary after a change in the hash_queue_names and/or hash_queue_depth configuration parameters.

-v    Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes. Multiple -v

options make the software increasingly verbose.

source :

 http://www.faqforge.com/linux/server/manage-the-postfix-mailqueue-with-postsuper-postqueue-und-mailq/

http://linux.die.net/man/1/postsuper