Check pending mail
To check how many pending mail, type the following command
# mailq
This will give you example output like this:
/var/spool/mqueue (2 requests)
-----Q-ID----- --Size-- -----Q-Time----- ------------Sender/Recipient-----------
p4BHPCuP002174 105 Thu May 12 00:25 mualaco
(host map: lookup (nixonbox.com): deferred)
[email protected]
p4B8uNPZ023735 1000 Wed May 11 15:56 saigonlab
(host map: lookup (gmail.com.vn): deferred)
[email protected]
Total requests: 2
There are several techniques to delete sendmail queue
Manually removed pending mails
Type the following commands
# rm -rf /var/spool/mqueue # rm -rf /var/spool/clientmqueue
Final, restart mail service with the following command
# /etc/init.d/sendmail restart
Output like this
Shutting down sm-client: [ OK ] Shutting down sendmail: [ OK ] Starting sendmail: [ OK ] Starting sm-client: [ OK ]
You can also use find command to remove “Deferred: Connection refused” queues
# find /var/spool/mqueue -type f -exec grep "Deferred: Connection refused" {} \; -exec rm -rf {} \;