NAME
exim_db - Manage Exim's hint databases (exim_dumpdb, exim_fixdb,
exim_tidydb)
SYNOPSIS
exim_dumpdb spooldir database
exim_fixdb spooldir database
exim_tidydb [-f] [-t time] spooldir database
DESCRIPTION
Three utility programs are provided for maintaining the DBM files that
Exim uses to contain its delivery hint information. Each program
requires two arguments. The first specifies the name of Exim's spool
directory, and the second is the name of the database it is to operate
on. These are as follows:
retry the database of retry information
wait-<transport name>
databases of information about messages waiting for remote hosts
misc other hints data (for example, for serializing ETRN runs)
The entire contents of a database are written to the standard output by
the exim_dumpdb program, which has no options or arguments other than
the spool and database names. For example, to dump the retry database:
exim_dumpdb /var/spool/exim retry
Two lines of output are produced for each entry:
T:mail.ref.example:192.168.242.242 146 77 Connection refused
31-Oct-1995 12:00:12 02-Nov-1995 12:21:39 02-Nov-1995 20:21:39 *
The first item on the first line is the key of the record. It starts
with one of the letters R, or T, depending on whether it refers to a
routing or transport retry. For a local delivery, the next part is the
local address; for a remote delivery it is the name of the remote host,
followed by its failing IP address (unless
"no_retry_include_ip_address" is set on the smtp transport). Then
there follows an error code, an additional error code, and a textual
description of the error.
The three times on the second line are the time of first failure, the
time of the last delivery attempt, and the computed time for the next
attempt. The line ends with an asterisk if the cutoff time for the
last retry rule has been exceeded.
Each output line from exim_dumpdb for the wait-xxx databases consists
of a host name followed by a list of ids for messages that are or were
waiting to be delivered to that host. If there are a very large number
for any one host, continuation records, with a sequence number added to
the host name, may be seen. The data in these records is often out of
date, because a message may be routed to several alternative hosts, and
Exim makes no effort to keep cross-references.
The exim_tidydb utility program is used to tidy up the contents of the
hints databases. If run with no options, it removes all records from a
database that are more than 30 days old. The cutoff date can be
altered by means of the -t option, which must be followed by a time.
For example, to remove all records older than a week from the retry
database:
exim_tidydb -t 7d /var/spool/exim retry
Both the wait-xxx and retry databases contain items that involve
message ids. In the former these appear as data in records keyed by
host - they were messages that were waiting for that host - and in the
latter they are the keys for retry information for messages that have
suffered certain types of error. When "exim_tidydb" is run, a check is
made to ensure that message ids in database records are those of
messages that are still on the queue. Message ids for messages that no
longer exist are removed from "wait-"xxx records, and if this leaves
any records empty, they are deleted. For the "retry" database, records
whose keys are non-existent message ids are removed. The exim_tidydb
utility outputs comments on the standard output whenever it removes
information from the database.
Removing records from a DBM file does not normally make the file
smaller, but all the common DBM libraries are able to re-use the space
that is released. It is therefore suggested that exim_tidydb be run
periodically on all the hints databases, but at a quiet time of day,
because it requires a database to be locked (and therefore inaccessible
to Exim) while it does its work.
The exim_fixdb program is a utility for interactively modifying
databases. Its main use is for testing Exim, but it might also be
occasionally useful for getting round problems in a live system. It
has no options, and its interface is somewhat crude. On entry, it
prompts for input with a right angle-bracket. A key of a database
record can then be entered, and the data for that record is displayed.
If 'd' is typed at the next prompt, the entire record is deleted. For
all except the retry database, that is the only operation that can be
carried out. For the retry database, each field is output preceded by
a number, and data for individual fields can be changed by typing the
field number followed by new data, for example:
> 4 951102:1000
resets the time of the next delivery attempt. Time values are given as
a sequence of digit pairs for year, month, day, hour, and minute.
Colons can be used as optional separators.
BUGS
This manual page needs a major re-work. If somebody knows better groff
than us and has more experience in writing manual pages, any patches
would be greatly appreciated.
SEE ALSO
exim(8), /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/
AUTHOR
This manual page was stitched together from spec.txt by Andreas Metzler
<ametzler at downhill.at.eu.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but
may be used by others).
March 26, 2003