Mailx queue

A blast from the past!

mailx is a command-line email client that was widely used in the past, especially in Unix-like systems. It's still available in many Linux distributions, although it's not as popular as it used to be.

The queue option in mailx is used to manage the email queue. Here's a brief overview:

What is the email queue?

The email queue is a list of emails that are waiting to be sent. When you use mailx to send an email, it adds the email to the queue. The queue is managed by the mail transfer agent (MTA) on your system, which is responsible for sending the emails to their destinations.

How to use the queue option in mailx

To use the queue option in mailx, you need to specify it along with the mailx command. Here are some examples:

1. List the email queue: mailx -q (or mailx -Q on some systems) lists the emails in the queue, along with their sender, recipient, and status.
2. Remove an email from the queue: mailx -q <email_id> removes the email with the specified ID from the queue.
3. Flush the email queue: mailx -qf sends all emails in the queue immediately, without waiting for the MTA to send them.

Tips and variations

• You can use the mailx command with other options to manage the email queue. For example, mailx -q -s lists the emails in the queue, along with their sender and subject.
• Some systems may have different options or syntax for managing the email queue. Check your system's documentation or man pages for more information.
• If you're using a modern email client or a web-based email service, you may not need to use mailx or manage the email queue manually.