Exim

exim is a popular mailserver. You can use the exim command to administer, get info from, and other interactions with the exim mailserver.

Command Line Options

exim -Mvh messageID show email header for the specified message

exim -Mvb messageID show the body of the email

exim -Mvc messageID show the compete message, including headers

exim -Mvl messageID show the logs for the specified email

exim -Mrm messageID remove the specified message from the queue

exim -bpc show the number of e-mails in the queue

exim -bp show the e-mails in the queue

exim -bt person@ example. com Sends a "test message" to the specified e-mail address. Kind of a "traceroute for exim".

-v Verbose. Can be used with any other options.

Exim Mail log Notation Guide

(or, What do All These Weird Things in the exim Mainlog Mean?)

<=     message arrival
=>     normal message delivery
->     additional address in same delivery
>>     cutthrough message delivery
*>     delivery suppressed by -N
**     delivery failed; address bounced
==     delivery deferred; temporary problem

A           authenticator name (and optional id and sender)
C           SMTP confirmation on delivery
            command list for "no mail in SMTP session"
CV          certificate verification status
D           duration of "no mail in SMTP session"
DN          distinguished name from peer certificate
DT          on => lines: time taken for a delivery
F           sender address (on delivery lines)q
H           host name and IP address
I           local interface used
id          message id for incoming message
P           on <= lines: protocol used
            on => and ** lines: return path
PRX         on <= and=> lines: proxy address
QT          on => lines: time spent on queue so far
            on "Completed" lines: time spent on queue
R           on <= lines: reference for local bounce
            on =>  >> ** and == lines: router name
S           size of message in bytes
SNI         server name indication from TLS client hello
ST          shadow transport name
T           on <= lines: message subject (topic)
            on => ** and == lines: transport name
U           local user or RFC 1413 identity
X           TLS cipher suite

Exigrep

exigrep grep for mail logs

Example:

exigrep spam@psygen.org /var/log/exim_mainlog

References

1. Exim documentation