NAME
cancelmsg - Cancel an E-mail message
SYNOPSIS
cancelmsg {msgid} ["reason"]
DESCRIPTION
cancelmsg removes a message from the mail queue. There will be no more
attempts to deliver this message, and a standard delivery failure
notice is sent to the return address listed on the message. You can
only cancel your own messages. The superuser can cancel any message. An
attempt to cancel a message will fail if the message has already been
sent (of course), or if a delivery attempt is currently in progress.
Because a delivery attempt is usually started as soon as an E-mail
message is added to the mail queue, a cancellation attempt is only
effective if the message cannot be immediately delivered for some
reason, or if the system is very busy and is working on a mail backlog.
cancelmsg works by marking all pending recipients as undeliverable. A
non-delivery report is then generated and sent in the normal fashion.
msgid is the message queue id that can be obtained from the
mailq(1)[1], command. A reason is optional. The message does not
disappear into a black void. The message will be returned as
undeliverable, citing reason. A generic error message will be used if
reason is not specified.
BUGS
A non-delivery report may not be sent immediately, but delayed until
the message´s turn comes up in the scheduling queue.
There is no immediate indication if the message cancellation worked. A
subsequent non-delivery report is the only indication of a successful
cancel. If it doesn´t come, it means the message wasn´t cancelled in
time.
A non-delivery report will not be sent for recipients whose delivery
status notification does not include the FAIL notice.
SEE ALSO
mailq(1)[1], courier(8)[2].
NOTES
1. mailq(1)
[set $man.base.url.for.relative.links]/mailq.html
2. courier(8)
[set $man.base.url.for.relative.links]/courier.html