PMDF User's Guide
UNIX Edition


Previous Contents Index

5.3 qm: Manipulate Your Queued Messages

pmdf qm is a utility program which allows inspection and manipulation of queued messages. While pmdf qm has two modes, maintenance mode and user mode, unprivileged users may only use the user mode. From user mode, you can obtain listings of all "queued" messages which you have sent but which are still on your system awaiting delivery.1 You can read or return any of your queued messages.

Note that this utility merely reports on messages in PMDF's delivery queues. That a message you have sent no longer appears in PMDF's queues, does not imply that it has reached its final destination. All that it means is that the message has left the PMDF system and is no longer under PMDF's control. For example, it is not uncommon for a message to make an intermediate stop on another system such as a mail hub. In such cases, PMDF will consider the message to be "delivered" when it hands the message and responsibility for it off to the intermediate system.

To run pmdf qm, issue the command


% pmdf qm
Use the exit or quit command to exit pmdf qm. The commands accepted by this utility in user mode are summarized in Table 5-2 and described in detail below.

Table 5-2 Summary of pmdf qm user mode commands
date Show current date and time
directory List currently queued messages
exit Exit the utility
help Obtain help
history Display message delivery history information
quit Exit the utility
read Display message envelope and header information
return Return a message to its originator
run Execute file of commands

Note

1 Usually, when you send a message an immediate attempt is made to deliver it. Should that attempt fail owing to a temporary problem such as a network outage, the message will be queued in the mail system's delivery queues. Subsequent, periodic attempts will be made to deliver the message until either it is delivered or it is determined to be undeliverable in which case it is returned to you. Messages are typically returned as undeliverable because the address turns out to be incorrect; e.g., the destination system does not recognize the recipient address or the destination system is unreachable.


Previous Next Contents Index