The main exim binary (/usr/sbin/exim) is used with various flags to make things happen to messages in the queue. Most of these require one or more message-IDs to be specified in the command line, which is where exiqgrep -i comes in handy.

Start a queue run: root@localhost# exim -q -v Start a queue run for just local deliveries: root@localhost# exim -ql -v Remove a message from the queue: root@localhost# exim -Mrm <message-id> [ <message-id> … ] Freeze a message: root@localhost# exim -Mf <message-id> [ <message-id> … ] Thaw a message: root@localhost# exim -Mt <message-id> [ <message-id> … ] Deliver a message, whether it's frozen or not, whether the retry time has been reached or not: root@localhost# exim -M <message-id> [ <message-id> … ] Deliver a message, but only if the retry time has been reached: root@localhost# exim -Mc <message-id> [ <message-id> … ] Force a message to fail and bounce as “cancelled by administrator”: root@localhost# exim -Mg <message-id> [ <message-id> … ] Remove all frozen messages: root@localhost# exiqgrep -z -i | xargs exim -Mrm Remove all messages older than five days (86400 * 5 = 432000 seconds): root@localhost# exiqgrep -o 432000 -i | xargs exim -Mrm Freeze all queued mail from a given sender: root@localhost# exiqgrep -i -f luser@example.tld | xargs exim -Mf View a message's headers: root@localhost# exim -Mvh <message-id> View a message's body: root@localhost# exim -Mvb <message-id> View a message's logs: root@localhost# exim -Mvl <message-id> Add a recipient to a message: root@localhost# exim -Mar <message-id> <address> [ <address> … ] Edit the sender of a message: root@localhost# exim -Mes <message-id> <address>