This is where you can manage the postfix mail queue.
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| deferred | When all the deliverable recipients for a message are delivered, and for some recipients delivery failed for a transient reason (it might succeed later), the message is placed in the "deferred" queue. |
| hold | The administrator can cause messages to be automatically diverted from normal processing and placed indefinitely in the "hold" queue. Messages placed in the "hold" queue stay there until the administrator intervenes. No periodic delivery attempts are made for messages in the "hold" queue. |
| incoming | All new mail entering the Postfix queue is written by the cleanup service into the "incoming" queue. Once a queue file is ready for further processing the cleanup service notifies the queue manager of new mail arrival. |
| active | The "active" queue is somewhat analogous to an operating system's process run queue. Messages in the "active" queue are ready to be sent (runnable), but are not necessarily in the process of being sent (running). While most Postfix administrators think of the "active" queue as a directory on disk, the real "active" queue is a set of data structures in the memory of the queue manager process. |
| maildrop | Messages that have been submitted via the Postfix sendmail command, but not yet brought into the main Postfix queue by the pickup service, await processing in the "maildrop" queue. Messages can be added to the "maildrop" queue even when the Postfix system is not running. They will begin to be processed once Postfix is started. |
| corrupt | Unreadable or damaged queue files are moved here for inspection. |
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Deliver | Schedule immediate delivery of deferred mail. |
| Expire | Request forced expiration for the mail. This will re-attempt delivery and send it back to the sender if delivery fails. |
| Hold | Put mail "on hold" so that no attempt is made to deliver it. |
| Release | Release mail that was put "on hold". |
| Delete | Delete mail from the hold, incoming, active, and deferred queues. |
| Flush | Attempt to deliver all queued mail. |
| Clear | Delete all mail from all queues (except corrupt). You can remove all corrupted messages using the command: rm -rf /var/spool/postfix/corrupt/* |