mailstat

Additional Notes

mailstat parses the system mail log (typically /var/log/maillog or /var/log/mail.log) and displays summary statistics about mail delivery. It shows counts of messages sent, received, bounced, forwarded, and rejected.

It is useful for monitoring mail server activity, detecting problems like excessive bounces or spam rejection, and generating daily mail statistics.

Syntax

mailstat [options] [logfile]

Parameters

• logfile: Path to the mail log file. Defaults to the system mail log.

Common Options

• -a: Show all statistics, including individual recipient details.
• -d: Show daily summary breakdown.
• -f: Show only failed deliveries.
• -h: Show summary by hour.
• -k: Keep a running total across invocations.
• -l: Show only local deliveries.
• -m: Show statistics for the current month.
• -o: Show only remote deliveries.
• -p: Show statistics in a parsable format.
• -r: Reset the running total.
• -s: Show simple one-line summary.
• -t: Show statistics for the current day (today).

Examples

mailstat

Show a summary of mail activity from the default log.

mailstat -t

Show mail statistics for today only.

mailstat -a /var/log/mail.log

Show detailed per-recipient statistics.

mailstat -f

Show only failed deliveries.

mailstat -s

Show a one-line summary suitable for monitoring.

Practical Notes

• mailstat is commonly available as a Perl script on systems using Sendmail or Postfix.
• The specific log file path varies by distribution: /var/log/maillog on RHEL/CentOS, /var/log/mail.log on Debian/Ubuntu.
• Running mailstat -k after -r allows tracking cumulative statistics over time.