how to check for number of messages in queue?

[dwcasey]

I am working on a script to monitor the number of messages in the mail-queue.

Currently, I check the /var/spool/mqueue for the number of files and have set a threshold.

Of course, this number is very realistic because of all the different file types.

Is there a sendmail command that will return the number of messages in the queue?

I've run sendmail -q -v and can get the number of messages (sequence 1 of 134), but it "hangs" the screen and does not return a prompt.

 

[drtrinidad]

I think 'mailq' would be a more useful command. It might still be simpler to do what you are already doing, but restrict your search to the 'q' file type. In other words

ls /var/spool/mqueue/q* 2>/dev/null | wc -l

should give you the number of messages in the queue.

 

[dwcasey]

That's the command I needed. I put it into a nice little script to show me the number give at the top of the output from that command.

Thanks.