Useful Exim Commands for Dedicated & VPS Linux Servers

Applies to: Dedicated server and VPS customers with root SSH access.

Exim is the default mail transfer agent (MTA) used on cPanel/WHM servers. These commands help you manage the mail queue, diagnose mail issues, and monitor mail activity directly from SSH.

Queue overview & monitoring

Count the number of messages in the queue

exim -bpc

List all messages in the queue (ID, size, sender, recipient, time)

exim -bp

Print a summary of the queue (counts, volume, domains)

exim -bp | exiqsumm

Check what Exim is doing right now

exiwhat

Routing & configuration

Test how Exim will route a specific address

exim -bt user@domain.com

Display Exim configuration parameters

exim -bP

Searching the mail queue

Find messages from a specific sender

exiqgrep -f user@domain.com

Find messages to a specific recipient or domain

exiqgrep -r user@domain.com

Find messages older than X seconds (example: older than 1 hour)

exiqgrep -o 3600

Find messages newer than X seconds

exiqgrep -y 3600

Match messages by size using a regex (example: 500–599 bytes)

exiqgrep -s '^5..$'

Match only frozen messages

exiqgrep -z

Match only unfrozen (non-frozen) messages

exiqgrep -x

Print only message IDs from the queue

exiqgrep -i

Queue management & message control

Start a full queue run

exim -q -v

Start a queue run for local deliveries only

exim -ql -v

Remove a message from the queue

exim -Mrm <message-id>

Freeze a message

exim -Mf <message-id>

Thaw (unfreeze) a message

exim -Mt <message-id>

Force delivery of a message regardless of retry time or frozen state

exim -M <message-id>

Deliver a message only if its retry time has been reached

exim -Mc <message-id>

Force a message to fail and bounce as "cancelled by administrator"

exim -Mg <message-id>

Bulk message operations

Remove all frozen messages

exiqgrep -z -i | xargs exim -Mrm

Remove all messages older than five days
(5 days × 24 hours × 3600 seconds = 432000 seconds)

exiqgrep -o 432000 -i | xargs exim -Mrm

Freeze all queued mail from a given sender

exiqgrep -f user@example.com -i | xargs exim -Mf

Viewing message content

View a message's headers

exim -Mvh <message-id>

View a message's body

exim -Mvb <message-id>

View a message's logs

exim -Mvl <message-id>

Editing queued messages

Add a recipient to a message

exim -Mar <message-id>

Edit the sender of a message

exim -Mes <message-id>

Admin notes & best practices

• Never clear a large mail queue without first investigating possible spam or compromised accounts.
• Use WHM's “Mail Queue Manager” for a graphical overview and then SSH for advanced control.
• Exim logs are usually located at:

  /var/log/exim_mainlog
  /var/log/exim_rejectlog
  /var/log/exim_paniclog

• If the mail queue grows rapidly, check for hacked CMS installs, compromised passwords, or vulnerable scripts.