qmail on SME server - newbie needs help

[booleangeneral]

Hi all !
I am a real newbie and I apologize for this. I started with an e-smith SME server v5.5 and I need to know how to eliminate the pending emails ( in queue). I chequed the /var/qmail/queue/mess and found many directories ( 0,1,2,3,4,... 22 ) containing lots of files ( probably one per message sent ).

I couldn't find information on how the qmail program works. I only found "how to's" and install info but a document or manual explaining the file structure of this program could be of much use. Do I have to stop the mail service first ? How do I erase the whole queue without damaging the mail system ?

Thanks in advance !

Robert

[oubipaws]

http://www.lifewithqmail.org/lwq.html

its kind of long :p
It covers pretty much everything there is for qmail though.

this link takes you directly to the file structure section:
http://www.lifewithqmail.org/lwq.html#file-structure

[booleangeneral]

Thank a lot. Seems that I have to issue a qmail-clean command , right ?

Robert

[oubipaws]

that should empty the queue out for you

[booleangeneral]

Do I have to stop the mailer first ? I used the command and it seems to hang ... I had to type ctrl-D to get the prompt back ... no program messages or activity signals !

[oubipaws]

I believe you do, but I'm not positive... try it and see how it goes

[booleangeneral]

How do I stop the mailer ? I only see qmail-start. I don't find help on these commands ...

[oubipaws]

i think it is something like qmailctl stop

[booleangeneral]

I can't find that command ... I'll check the literature you suggested and see what I can do. Thanks a lot for your help.

[oubipaws]

sorry I couldn't be of more help, its just that I am not on unix right now so I can't check the commands