Ubuntu Manpage: pmdamailq - mail queue performance metrics domain agent (PMDA)

NAME

       pmdamailq - mail queue performance metrics domain agent (PMDA)

SYNOPSIS

       $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/mailq/pmdamailq [-b binlist] [-d domain] [-l logfile] [-r regex] [-U username] [queuedir]

DESCRIPTION

pmdamailq is a Performance Metrics Domain Agent (PMDA) which extracts performance metrics describing the
state of the e-mail queues managed by sendmail(1) and other mail transfer agents.

The mailq PMDA exports metrics that measure the total number of entries in the mail queue, and the
subtotals for entries that have been queued for various time periods.

A brief description of the pmdamailq command line options follows:

-b The binlist argument specifies a list of delay thresholds used to ``bin'' the entries in the queue
into a a histogram based on how long the entry has been in the mail queue. The default thresholds
are: 1 hour, 4 hours, 8 hours, 1 day, 3 days and 7 days. The entries in binlist are comma separated
time intervals, using the syntax described in PCPIntro(1) for an update or reporting interval, e.g.
the default list could be specified using the value 1hr,4hrs,8hrs,1day,3days,7days.

Values in binlist are assumed to be in ascending order, and mail items in the queue less than the
first threshold are binned into a special bin labeled ``recent''.

-d It is absolutely crucial that the performance metrics domain number specified here is unique and
consistent. That is, domain should be different for every PMDA on the one host, and the same domain
number should be used for the same PMDA on all hosts.

-l Location of the log file. By default, a log file named mailq.log is written in the current
directory of pmcd(1) when pmdamailq is started, i.e. $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd . If the log file cannot be
created or is not writable, output is written to the standard error instead.

-r Use an extended regular expression to match file names in the mail queue directory, rather than
assuming all "df" prefixed files in the directory are mail files (the "df" prefix is the sendmail
convention, but this convention is not followed by other mail daemons). The regex pattern specified
should conform to the POSIX format described in regex(3), and it describes file names that should be
considered mail.

-U User account under which to run the agent. The default is the unprivileged "pcp" account in current
versions of PCP, but in older versions the superuser account ("root") was used by default.

The optional queuedir argument defines the directory in which pmdamailq expects to find the mail queue.
The default is /var/spool/mqueue.

INSTALLATION

       If you want access to the names, help text and values for the mailq performance metrics, do the following
       as root:

            # cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/mailq
            # ./Install

       If you want to undo the installation, do the following as root:

            # cd $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/mailq
            # ./Remove

       pmdamailq  is  launched by pmcd(1) and should never be executed directly.  The Install and Remove scripts
       notify pmcd(1) when the agent is installed or removed.

FILES

       $PCP_PMCDCONF_PATH
                 command line options used to launch pmdamailq
       $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/mailq/help
                 default help text file for the mailq metrics
       $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/mailq/Install
                 installation script for the pmdamailq agent
       $PCP_PMDAS_DIR/mailq/Remove
                 undo installation script for the pmdamailq agent
       $PCP_LOG_DIR/pmcd/mailq.log
                 default log file for error messages and other information from pmdamailq

PCP ENVIRONMENT