Below when you see # it means from the unix shell. When you see mysql> it means from a MySQL prompt after logging into MySQL.

To login (from unix shell) use -h only if needed.

# [mysql dir]/bin/mysql -h hostname -u root -p

Create a database on the sql server.

mysql> create database [databasename];

List all databases on the sql server.

mysql> show databases;

Switch to a database.

mysql> use [db name];

To see all the tables in the db.

mysql> show tables;

To see database’s field formats.

mysql> describe [table name];

To delete a db.

mysql> drop database [database name];

To delete a table.

mysql> drop table [table name];

Show all data in a table.

mysql> SELECT * FROM [table name];

Returns the columns and column information pertaining to the designated table.

mysql> show columns from [table name];

Show certain selected rows with the value “whatever”.

mysql> SELECT * FROM [table name] WHERE [field name] = “whatever”;

Show all records containing the name “Bob” AND the phone number ‘3444444′.

mysql> SELECT * FROM [table name] WHERE name = “Bob” AND phone_number = ‘3444444′;

Show all records not containing the name “Bob” AND the phone number ‘3444444′ order by the phone_number field.

mysql> SELECT * FROM [table name] WHERE name != “Bob” AND phone_number = ‘3444444′ order by phone_number;

Show all records starting with the letters ‘bob’ AND the phone number ‘3444444′.

mysql> SELECT * FROM [table name] WHERE name like “Bob%” AND phone_number = ‘3444444′;

Show all records starting with the letters ‘bob’ AND the phone number ‘3444444′ limit to records 1 through 5.

mysql> SELECT * FROM [table name] WHERE name like “Bob%” AND phone_number = ‘3444444′ limit 1,5;

Use a regular expression to find records. Use “REGEXP BINARY” to force case-sensitivity. This finds any record beginning with a.

mysql> SELECT * FROM [table name] WHERE rec RLIKE “^a”;

Show unique records.

mysql> SELECT DISTINCT [column name] FROM [table name];

Show selected records sorted in an ascending (asc) or descending (desc).

mysql> SELECT [col1],[col2] FROM [table name] ORDER BY [col2] DESC;

Return number of rows.

mysql> SELECT COUNT(*) FROM [table name];

Sum column.

mysql> SELECT SUM(*) FROM [table name];

Join tables on common columns.

mysql> select lookup.illustrationid, lookup.personid,person.birthday from lookup left join person on lookup.personid=person.personid=statement to join birthday in person table with primary illustration id;

Creating a new user. Login as root. Switch to the MySQL db. Make the user. Update privs.

# mysql -u root -p
mysql> use mysql;
mysql> INSERT INTO user (Host,User,Password) VALUES(‘%’,'username’,PASSWORD(‘password’));
mysql> flush privileges;

Change a users password from unix shell.

# [mysql dir]/bin/mysqladmin -u username -h hostname.blah.org -p password ‘new-password’

Change a users password from MySQL prompt. Login as root. Set the password. Update privs.

# mysql -u root -p
mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR ‘user’@'hostname’ = PASSWORD(‘passwordhere’);
mysql> flush privileges;

Recover a MySQL root password. Stop the MySQL server process. Start again with no grant tables. Login to MySQL as root. Set new password. Exit MySQL and restart MySQL server.

# /etc/init.d/mysql stop
# mysqld_safe –skip-grant-tables &
# mysql -u root
mysql> use mysql;
mysql> update user set password=PASSWORD(“newrootpassword”) where User=’root’;
mysql> flush privileges;
mysql> quit
# /etc/init.d/mysql stop
# /etc/init.d/mysql start

Set a root password if there is on root password.

# mysqladmin -u root password newpassword

Update a root password.

# mysqladmin -u root -p oldpassword newpassword

Allow the user “bob” to connect to the server from localhost using the password “passwd”. Login as root. Switch to the MySQL db. Give privs. Update privs.

# mysql -u root -p
mysql> use mysql;
mysql> grant usage on *.* to bob@localhost identified by ‘passwd’;
mysql> flush privileges;

Give user privilages for a db. Login as root. Switch to the MySQL db. Grant privs. Update privs.

# mysql -u root -p
mysql> use mysql;
mysql> INSERT INTO user (Host,Db,User,Select_priv,Insert_priv,Update_priv,Delete_priv,Create_priv,Drop_priv) VALUES (‘%’,'databasename’,'username’,'Y’,'Y’,'Y’,'Y’,'Y’,'N’);
mysql> flush privileges;

or

mysql> grant all privileges on databasename.* to username@localhost;
mysql> flush privileges;

To update info already in a table.

mysql> UPDATE [table name] SET Select_priv = ‘Y’,Insert_priv = ‘Y’,Update_priv = ‘Y’ where [field name] = ‘user’;

Delete a row(s) from a table.

mysql> DELETE from [table name] where [field name] = ‘whatever’;

Update database permissions/privilages.

mysql> flush privileges;

Delete a column.

mysql> alter table [table name] drop column [column name];

Add a new column to db.

mysql> alter table [table name] add column [new column name] varchar (20);

Change column name.

mysql> alter table [table name] change [old column name] [new column name] varchar (50);

Make a unique column so you get no dupes.

mysql> alter table [table name] add unique ([column name]);

Make a column bigger.

mysql> alter table [table name] modify [column name] VARCHAR(3);

Delete unique from table.

mysql> alter table [table name] drop index [colmn name];

Load a CSV file into a table.

mysql> LOAD DATA INFILE ‘/tmp/filename.csv’ replace INTO TABLE [table name] FIELDS TERMINATED BY ‘,’ LINES TERMINATED BY ‘\n’ (field1,field2,field3);

Dump all databases for backup. Backup file is sql commands to recreate all db’s.

# [mysql dir]/bin/mysqldump -u root -ppassword –opt >/tmp/alldatabases.sql

Dump one database for backup.

# [mysql dir]/bin/mysqldump -u username -ppassword –databases databasename >/tmp/databasename.sql

Dump a table from a database.

# [mysql dir]/bin/mysqldump -c -u username -ppassword databasename tablename > /tmp/databasename.tablename.sql

Restore database (or database table) from backup.

# [mysql dir]/bin/mysql -u username -ppassword databasename < /tmp/databasename.sql

Create Table Example 1.

mysql> CREATE TABLE [table name] (firstname VARCHAR(20), middleinitial VARCHAR(3), lastname VARCHAR(35),suffix VARCHAR(3),officeid VARCHAR(10),userid VARCHAR(15),username VARCHAR(8),email VARCHAR(35),phone VARCHAR(25), groups VARCHAR(15),datestamp DATE,timestamp time,pgpemail VARCHAR(255));

Create Table Example 2.

mysql> create table [table name] (personid int(50) not null auto_increment primary key,firstname varchar(35),middlename varchar(50),lastnamevarchar(50) default ‘bato’);

ALTER DATABASE

ALTER TABLE

ALTER VIEW

ANALYZE TABLE

BACKUP TABLE

CACHE INDEX

CHANGE MASTER TO

CHECK TABLE

CHECKSUM TABLE

COMMIT

CREATE DATABASE

CREATE INDEX

CREATE TABLE

CREATE VIEW

DELETE

DESCRIBE

DO

DROP DATABASE

DROP INDEX

DROP TABLE

DROP USER

DROP VIEW

EXPLAIN

FLUSH

GRANT

HANDLER

INSERT

JOIN

KILL

LOAD DATA FROM MASTER

LOAD DATA INFILE

LOAD INDEX INTO CACHE

LOAD TABLE...FROM MASTER

LOCK TABLES

OPTIMIZE TABLE

PURGE MASTER LOGS

RENAME TABLE

REPAIR TABLE

REPLACE

RESET

RESET MASTER

RESET SLAVE

RESTORE TABLE

REVOKE

ROLLBACK

ROLLBACK TO SAVEPOINT

SAVEPOINT

SELECT

SET

SET PASSWORD

SET SQL_LOG_BIN

SET TRANSACTION

SHOW BINLOG EVENTS

SHOW CHARACTER SET

SHOW COLLATION

SHOW COLUMNS

SHOW CREATE DATABASE

SHOW CREATE TABLE

SHOW CREATE VIEW

SHOW DATABASES

SHOW ENGINES

SHOW ERRORS

SHOW GRANTS

SHOW INDEX

SHOW INNODB STATUS

SHOW LOGS

SHOW MASTER LOGS

SHOW MASTER STATUS

SHOW PRIVILEGES

SHOW PROCESSLIST

SHOW SLAVE HOSTS

SHOW SLAVE STATUS

SHOW STATUS

SHOW TABLE STATUS

SHOW TABLES

SHOW VARIABLES

SHOW WARNINGS

START SLAVE

START TRANSACTION

STOP SLAVE

TRUNCATE TABLE

UNION

UNLOCK TABLES

USE

AES_DECRYPT

AES_ENCRYPT

ASCII

BIN

BINARY

BIT_LENGTH

CHAR

CHAR_LENGTH

CHARACTER_LENGTH

COMPRESS

CONCAT

CONCAT_WS

CONV

DECODE

DES_DECRYPT

DES_ENCRYPT

ELT

ENCODE

ENCRYPT

EXPORT_SET

FIELD

FIND_IN_SET

HEX

INET_ATON

INET_NTOA

INSERT

INSTR

LCASE

LEFT

LENGTH

LOAD_FILE

LOCATE

LOWER

LPAD

LTRIM

MAKE_SET

MATCH    AGAINST

MD5

MID

OCT

OCTET_LENGTH

OLD_PASSWORD

ORD

PASSWORD

POSITION

QUOTE

REPEAT

REPLACE

REVERSE

RIGHT

RPAD

RTRIM

SHA

SHA1

SOUNDEX

SPACE

STRCMP

SUBSTRING

SUBSTRING_INDEX

TRIM

UCASE

UNCOMPRESS

UNCOMPRESSED_LENGTH

UNHEX

UPPER

ADDDATE

ADDTIME

CONVERT_TZ

CURDATE

CURRENT_DATE

CURRENT_TIME

CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

CURTIME

DATE

DATE_ADD

DATE_FORMAT

DATE_SUB

DATEDIFF

DAY

DAYNAME

DAYOFMONTH

DAYOFWEEK

DAYOFYEAR

EXTRACT

FROM_DAYS

FROM_UNIXTIME

GET_FORMAT

HOUR

LAST_DAY

LOCALTIME

LOCALTIMESTAMP

MAKEDATE

MAKETIME

MICROSECOND

MINUTE

MONTH

MONTHNAME

NOW

PERIOD_ADD

PERIOD_DIFF

QUARTER

SEC_TO_TIME

SECOND

STR_TO_DATE

SUBDATE

SUBTIME

SYSDATE

TIME

TIMEDIFF

TIMESTAMP

TIMESTAMPDIFF

TIMESTAMPADD

TIME_FORMAT

TIME_TO_SEC

TO_DAYS

UNIX_TIMESTAMP

UTC_DATE

UTC_TIME

UTC_TIMESTAMP

WEEK

WEEKDAY

WEEKOFYEAR

YEAR

YEARWEEK

ABS

ACOS

ASIN

ATAN

ATAN2

AVG

BIT_AND

BIT_OR

BIT_XOR

CEIL

CEILING

COS

COT

COUNT

CRC32

DEGREES

EXP

FLOOR

FORMAT

GREATEST

GROUP_CONCAT

LEAST

LN

LOG

LOG2

LOG10

MAX

MIN

MOD

PI

POW

POWER

RADIANS

RAND

ROUND

SIGN

SIN

SQRT

STD

STDDEV

SUM

TAN

TRUNCATE

VARIANCE

CASE

IF

IFNULL

NULLIF

comp_err

isamchk

make_binary_distribution

msql2mysql

my_print_defaults

myisamchk

myisamlog

myisampack

mysqlaccess

mysqladmin

mysqlbinlog

mysqlbug

mysqlcheck

mysqldump

mysqldumpslow

mysqlhotcopy

mysqlimport

mysqlshow

perror

available_drivers

begin_work

bind_col

bind_columns

bind_param

bind_param_array

bind_param_inout

can

clone

column_info

commit

connect

connect_cached

data_sources

disconnect

do

dump_results

err

errstr

execute

execute_array

execute_for_fetch

fetch

fetchall_arrayref

fetchall_hashref

fetchrow_array

fetchrow_arrayref

fetchrow_hashref

finish

foreign_key_info

func

get_info

installed_versions

last_insert_id

looks_like_number

neat

neat_list

parse_dsn

parse_trace_flag

parse_trace_flags

ping

prepare

prepare_cached

primary_key

primary_key_info

quote

quote_identifier

rollback

rows

selectall_arrayref

selectall_hashref

selectcol_arrayref

selectrow_array

selectrow_arrayref

selectrow_hashref

set_err

state

table_info

table_info_all

tables

trace

trace_msg

type_info

type_info_all

Attributes for Handles

mysql_affected_rows

mysql_change_user

mysql_client_encoding

mysql_close

mysql_connect

mysql_create_db

mysql_data_seek

mysql_db_name

mysql_db_query

mysql_drop_db

mysql_errno

mysql_error

mysql_escape_string

mysql_fetch_array

mysql_fetch_assoc

mysql_fetch_field

mysql_fetch_lengths

mysql_fetch_object

mysql_fetch_row

mysql_field_flags

mysql_field_len

mysql_field_name

mysql_field_seek

mysql_field_table

mysql_field_type

mysql_free_result

mysql_get_client_info

mysql_get_host_info

mysql_get_proto_info

mysql_get_server_info

mysql_info

mysql_insert_id

mysql_list_dbs

mysql_list_fields

mysql_list_processes

mysql_list_tables

mysql_num_fields

mysql_num_rows

mysql_pconnect

mysql_ping

mysql_query

mysql_real_escape_string

mysql_result

mysql_select_db

mysql_stat

mysql_tablename

mysql_thread_id

mysql_unbuffered_query

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• MySQL Change root Password (0)

MySQL Change root Password

by Vivek Gite

Q. How do I change MySQL root password under Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and UNIX like operating system over ssh / telnet session?

A. Setting up mysql password is one of the essential tasks. root user is MySQL admin account. Please note that Linux / UNIX login root account for your operating system and MySQL root are different. They are separate and nothing to do with each other (indeed some admin removes root account and setup admin as mysql super user).

mysqladmin command to change root password

If you have never set a root password for MySQL, the server does not require a password at all for connecting as root. To setup root password for first time, use mysqladmin command at shell prompt as follows:

$ mysqladmin -u root password NEWPASSWORD

However, if you want to change (or update) a root password, then you need to use following command

$ mysqladmin -u root -p oldpassword newpass

Enter password:

Change MySQL password for other user

To change a normal user password you need to type (let us assume you would like to change password for vivek):

$ mysqladmin -u vivek -p oldpassword newpass

Changing MySQL root user password using mysql sql command

This is another method. MySQL stores username and passwords in user table inside MySQL database. You can directly update password using the following method to update or change password for user vivek:

1) Login to mysql server, type following command at shell prompt:

$ mysql -u root -p

2) Use mysql database (type command at mysql> prompt):

mysql> use mysql;

3) Change password for user vivek:

mysql> update user set password=PASSWORD("NEWPASSWORD") where User='vivek';

4) Reload privileges:

mysql> flush privileges;
mysql> quit

This method you need to use while using PHP or Perl scripting.

With Directadmin:

mysql --user=`grep "^user=" /usr/local/directadmin/conf/mysql.conf | cut -d= -f2` --password=`grep "^passwd=" /usr/local/directadmin/conf/mysql.conf | cut -d= -f2`
use mysql;
UPDATE user SET password=PASSWORD('newpass') WHERE user='root';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
quit

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Any web hosting provider would like to secure SSH root access on their dedicated web servers, to achieve this, my little contribution to you all. I hope this helps you all.

Add a user on the dedicated server

To begin, SSH into your server as root. Once you’re logged in, you should see a shell prompt similar to:

root@server[~]#

The command to add a user is as below. I will be using the username as “support”.

root@server[~]# /usr/sbin/adduser support

Once the user is added you can verify by using the below command:

root@server[~]# cat /etc/passwd | grep support

Set a password for the user (support)

Use the below command to set password for the user “support”:

root@server[~]# passwd support

Note: Make sure you pick a secure password which will consist between 6-8 characters, and will contain letters, numbers, and punctuation marks.

To make sure this user account that you have created works, open another SSH window and proceed to log in with the user “support”. Once you’ve successfully verified that this account works, you may exit the session.

Verifying su’s command permissions, and ownership

Verifying “su” command is owned by root and the wheel group is suggested. At the same time check the permissions are set correctly.
This can be checked by the below command:

root@server [~]# ls -la /bin/su

The output should be:

-rwsr-x---  1 root wheel 61168 Nov 18 07:17 /bin/su*

If the output is as above you can skip this below command:

—
Su user ownership, permission can be set by the below command:
root@server [~]# chmod 4750 /bin/su
root@server [~]# chown root:wheel /bin/su
root@server [~]# chmod +s /bin/su
—

Now, add the user to the wheel group

We will have to add our new user “support” to the wheel group in order to allow it to gain root access, with *NO* root privileges. That means that this user will be able to log into the server, but won’t be able to perform any root tasks until the user switches to the root user.

In SSH you have to type the below command:

root@server[~]# /usr/sbin/usermod –G wheel support

Before proceeding, re-login to your server using the “support” account. At the SSH prompt, type “su” followed by the Enter key, and then enter in the root password. If you were successful, you should be at a root prompt:

root@server [~]#

To confirm that you are root, at the SSH prompt type the command whoami , which should display your root account.

Editing the sshd_config file, and restarting SSH daemon

Now we have to disable direct root access to your dedicated web server. Use the below command:

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Scroll down until you see the following come across the screen:

#LoginGraceTime 600
#PermitRootLogin yes
#StrictModes yes

To disable SSH root login, remove the hash symbol (#) before PermitRootLogin , and change the “yes” next to PermitRootLogin to “no” so now it looks like:

#LoginGraceTime 120
PermitRootLogin no
#StrictModes yes

Note: If you see the value of LoginGraceTime different from my value of 120, you do not need to worry as it does not affect the functionality.

Restarting SSH daemon

Finally, to make the changes take effect, you have to restart SSH by running the following command (as root):

root@server [~]# service sshd restart

Best of luck!

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Below is some of the example a typically use command syntax for ‘netstat’ to check and show the number of connections a server has. Users can also use ‘man netstat’ command to get detailed netstat help and manual where there are lots of configurable options and flags to get meaningful lists and results.

netstat -na
Display all active Internet connections to the servers and only established connections are included.

netstat -an | grep :80 | sort

Show only active Internet connections to the server at port 80 and sort the results. Useful in detecting single flood by allowing users to recognize many connections coming from one IP.

netstat -n -p|grep SYN_REC | wc -l
Let users know how many active SYNC_REC are occurring and happening on the server. The number should be pretty low, preferably less than 5. On DoS attack incident or mail bombed, the number can jump to twins. However, the value always depends on system, so a high value may be average in another server.

netstat -n -p | grep SYN_REC | sort -u
List out the all IP addresses involved instead of just count.

netstat -n -p | grep SYN_REC | awk '{print $5}' | awk -F: '{print $1}'
List all the unique IP addresses of the node that are sending SYN_REC connection status.

netstat -ntu | awk '{print $5}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c | sort -n
Use netstat command to calculate and count the number of connections each IP address makes to the server.

netstat -anp |grep 'tcp\|udp' | awk '{print $5}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c | sort -n
List count of number of connections the IPs are connected to the server using TCP or UDP protocol.

netstat -ntu | grep ESTAB | awk '{print $5}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr
Check on ESTABLISHED connections instead of all connections, and displays the connections count for each IP.

netstat -plan|grep :80|awk {'print $5'}|cut -d: -f 1|sort|uniq -c|sort -nk 1
Show and list IP address and its connection count that connect to port 80 on the server. Port 80 is used mainly by HTTP web page request.

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WordPress 2.6 Video Collection via ithemes.com

· WordPress Overview › (Basic).
· How to edit Posts/Pages › (Basic).
· How widgets work › (Basic).
· How to Upgrade WordPress Using the Automatic Plugin › (Basic).
· How to Add new Users › (Basic).
· How to Change/Activate Themes › (Basic).
· WordPress Settings Overview › (Basic).
· How to login to WP Dashboard › (Basic).

WordPress Video Collection from siteground.com

· How to install WordPress › (Basic).
· Getting started with WordPress › (Basic).
· Arrange your blog posts in categories › (Basic).
· Manage comments in WordPress › (Basic).
· How to change the theme › (Basic).
· How to install WordPress plugins › (Basic).
· Create a backup of WordPress › (Advanced).
· How to upgrade the WordPress version (Basic).

WordPress Video Collection from killersites.com

· Installing Wordpress › (Basic).
· Configuring Wordpress Part 1-8 (Advanced).
· Customizing the Wordpress Text Editor › (Basic).
· Introduction to building Wordpress themes ›. (Advanced).
· Building a Wordpress Template Part 1 of 3 ›. (Advanced).
· Building a Wordpress Template Part 2 of 3 themes ›. (Advanced).
· Building a Wordpress Template Part 3 of 3 ›. (Advanced).

WordPress Video Collection from www.likoma.com

· Adding a new user in WordPress and adding Extra User Data ›.
· Insert an image in PHP List ›(Advanced).
· Your Extended Profile (more info than Name, Email, etc.) ›.
· Random Quotes › (Advanced).
· Using CSS and Blockquotes ›(Advanced).
· Simple Page Edit in WordPress ›(Advanced).
· Lost Password, Update User Info ›(Advanced).
· PodPress and Podcasting › (Advanced).
· “Clean up messy code” and “Remove formatting” › (Advanced).
· Adding Content, Images (G2 also), Files, changing Timestamp › (Advanced).
· Email this to a Friend › (Advanced).
· Explanation of Categories, Posts, and Pages ›.
· Sending out an email to all WP users (members) › (Advanced).

WordPress Video Collection from wordpressacademy.net

· Creating Thumbnail Images (Custom Fields) › (Advanced).
· How to Use the WordPress Optional Excerpt › (Advanced).
· How to Manage Your WordPress Posts › (Advanced).
· Working With Images in WordPress › (Advanced).
· Creating Pretty Permalinks in WordPress › (Advanced).
· Changing Your WordPress General Settings › (Advanced).
· Changing Your WordPress Reading Settings › (Advanced).
· Changing Your WordPress Discussion Settings › (Advanced).

WordPress Video Collection from css-tricks.com

This is a very good video series from installing WP to designing a theme from an image template to a finished WP theme. Essential viewing.
You can download all required files here: Designing for WordPress.
· Part One: Download, Install, “Reset” Theme ›(Advanced).
· Part Two: Structure ›.
· Part 3: Finishing Touches, Extra Stuff › (Advanced).

WordPress Video Collection from web2whizzing.com

This video collection focuses on Search Engine Optimization, your Google ranking and keywords.
· WordPress blog administration guide ›(Basic).
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· Google sitemap configuration › (Basic).
· Related posts plugin › (Basic).
· Tag plugin setup. › (Basic).
· Work with WordPress CSS Style Sheet › (Advanced).
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WordPress Video Collection from wordpresstraining.com

I haven’t listed all the basic videos here, to view the full WP Video Collection from WP Training visit here: wordpresstraining.com.
· Best Practices for Upgrading WordPress › (Basic).
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· Importing and Exporting Data › (Basic).
· Managing WordPress Users › (Basic).
· Managing WordPress Users › (Basic).
· WordPress User Roles Explained › (Basic).
· Managing Files › (Basic).

WordPress Video Collection from weblogtoolsvideos.com

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· Manual Wordpres Install › (Advanced).
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· How to make a wordpress plugin › (Advanced).

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1. Pay attention to your Headlines

Many great articles go unnoticed on social bookmarking sites because their headline is not catchy enough. Your headline is the first (and very often the only) thing users will see from your article, so if you don’t make the effort to provide a catchy headline, your chances of getting to the front page are small.
Here are some examples to start with :-

Original headline : The Two Types of Cognition
Modified Headline : Learn to Understand Your Own Intelligence

Original headline: Neat way to organize and find anything in your purse instantly!
Modified Headline : How to Instantly Find Anything in Your Purse

Here is a good blog post that should help you with your headlines.

2. Write a meaningful & short description

The headline is very important to draw attention but if you want to keep that attention, a meaningful description is vital. The description must be slightly provocative because this draws more attention but still, never use lies and false facts to provoke interest. For instance, if your write “This article will reveal to you the 10 sure ways to deal with stress once and forever and live like a king from now on.” visitors will hardly think that your story is true and facts-based.

You also might be tempted to use a long tell-it-all paragraph to describe your great masterpiece but have in mind that many users will not bother to read anything over 100-150 characters. Additionally, some of the social bookmarking sites limit descriptions, so you’d better think in advance how to describe your article as briefly as possible.

3. Have a great first paragraph

This is a rule that is always true but for successful social bookmarking it is even more important. If you have successfully passed Level 1 (headlines) and Level 2 (description) in the Catch the User’s Attraction game, don’t let a bad first paragraph make them leave your site.

4. Content is king

However, the first paragraph is not everything. Going further along the chain of drawing (and retaining) users’ attention, we reach the Content is King Level. If your articles are just trash, bookmarking them is useless. You might cheat users once but don’t count on repetitive visits. What is more, you can get your site banned from social bookmarking sites, when you persistently post junk.

5. Make it easy for others to vote / bookmark your site

It is best when other people, not you, bookmark your site. Therefore, you must make your best to make it easier for them to do it. You can put a bookmarking button at the end of the article, so if users like your content, they can easily post it. If you are using a CMS, check if there is an extension that allows to add Digg, Del.icio.us, and other buttons but if you are using static HTML, you can always go to the social bookmarking site and copy the code that will add their button to your pages.
Here is a link that should help you add Links for Del.icio.us, Digg, and More to your pages.

6. Know when to submit

The time when you submit can be crucial for your attempts to get to the front page. On most social bookmarking sites you have only 24 hours to get to the front page and stay there. So, if you post when most users (and especially your supporters) are still sleeping, you are wasting valuable time. By the time they get up, you might have gone to the tenth page. You’d better try it for yourself and see if it works for you but generally posting earlier than 10 a.m. US Central Time is not good. Many people say that they get more traffic around 3 p.m. US Central Time. Also, workdays are generally better in terms of traffic but the downside is that you have more competitors for the front page than on weekends.

7. Submit to the right category

Sometimes a site might not work for you because there is no right category for you. Or because you don’t submit to the right category – technology, health, whatever – but to categories like General, Miscellaneous, etc. where all unclassified stuff goes. And since these categories fill very fast, your chance to get noticed decreases.

8. Build a top-profile

Not all users are equal on social bookmarking sites. If you are an old and respected user who has posted tons of interesting stuff, this increases the probability that what you submit will get noticed. Posting links to interesting articles on other sites is vital for building a top-profile. Additionally, it is suspicious, when your profile has links to only one site. Many social bookmarking sites frown when users submit their own content because this feels like self-promotion.

9. Cooperate with other social bookmarkers

The Lonely Wolf is a suicidal strategy on sites like StubleUpon, Digg, Netscape. Many stories make it to the front page not only because they are great but because they are backed up by your network of friends. If in the first hours after your submittal you get at least 15 votes from your friends and supporters, it is more likely that other users will vote for you. 50 votes can get you to the top page of Digg.

10. Submit in English

Linguistic diversity is great but the majority of users are from English-speaking countries and they don’t understand exotic languages. So, for most of the social bookmarking sites submitting anything in a language different from English is not recommendable. The languages that are at an especial disadvantage are Chinese, Arabic, Slavic languages and all the other that use non-latin alphabet. German, Spanish, French are more understandable but still they are not English. If you really must submit your story (i.e. because you need the backlink), include an English translation at least of the title. But the best way to proceed with non-English stories is to post them on where they belong. Check this link for a list of non-English sites.

11. Never submit old news

Submitting old news will not help you in becoming a respected user. Yesterday’s news is history. But if you still need to submit old stuff, consider feature articles, howtos and similar pieces that are up-to-date for a long time.

12. Check your facts

You must be flattered that users read your postings but you will hardly be flattered when users prove that you haven’t got the facts right. In addition to sarcastic comments, you might also receive negative votes for your story, so if you want to avoid this, check you facts – or your readers will do it.

13. Check you spelling

Some sites do not allow to edit your posts later, so if you misspell the title, the URL, or a keyword, it will stay this way forever.

14. Not all topics do well

But sometimes even great content and submitting to the right category do not push you to the top. One possible reason could be that your stories are about unpopular topics. Many sites have topics that their users love and topics that don’t sell that well. For instance, Apple sells well on Digg and The War in Iraq on Netscape. Negative stories – about George Bush, Microsoft, evil multinational companies, corruption and crime also have a chance to make it to the front page. You can’t know these things in advance but some research on how many stories tagged with keywords like yours have made the front page in the last year or so can give you a clue.

15. Have Related Articles / Popular Articles

Traffic gurus joke that traffic from social bookmarking sites is like an invasion – the crowds pour in and in a day or two they are gone. Unfortunately this is true – after your listing rolls from the front page (provided that you reached the front page), the drop in traffic is considerable. Besides, many users come just following the link to your article, have a look at it and then they are gone. One of the ways to keep them longer on your site is to have links to Related Articles / Popular Articles or something similar that can draw their attention to other stuff on the site and make them read more than one article.

16. RSS feeds, newsletter subscriptions, affiliate marketing

RSS feeds, newsletter subscriptions, affiliate marketing are all areas in which the traffic from social bookmarking sites can help you a lot. Many people who come to your site and like it, will subscribe to RSS feeds and/or your newsletter. So, you need to put these in visible places and then you will be astonished at the number of new subscriptions you got on the day when you were on the front page of a major social bookmarking site.

17. Do not use automated submitters

After some time of active social bookmarking, you will discover that you are spending hours on end posting links. Yes, this is a lot of time and using automated submitters might look like the solution but it isn’t. Automated submitters often have malware in them or are used for stealing passwords, so unless you don’t care about the fate of your profile and don’t mind being banned, automated submitters are not the way to go.

18. Respond to comments on your stories

Social bookmarking sites are not a newsgroup but interesting articles can trigger a pretty heated discussion with hundreds of comments. If your article gets comments, you must be proud. Always respond to commends on your stories and even better – post comments on other stories you find interesting. This is a way to make friends and to create a top-profile.

19. Prepare your server for the expected traffic

This is hardly a point of minor importance but we take for granted that you are hosting your site on a reliable server that does not crash twice a day. But have in mind that your presence on the front page of a major social bookmarking site can drive you a lot traffic, which can cause your server to crash – literally!
I remember one of the times I was on the front page on Digg, I kept restarting Apache on my dedicated server because it was unable to cope with the massive traffic. I have many tools on my site and when the visitors tried them, this loaded the server additionally.
Well, for an articles site getting so much traffic is not so devastating but if you are hosting on a so-so server, you’d better migrate your site to a machine that can handle a lot of simultaneous hits. Also, check if your monthly traffic allowance is enough to handle 200-500,000 or even more visitors. It is very amateurish to attract a lot of visitors and not be able to serve them because your server crashed or you have exceeded your bandwidth!

20. The snowball effect

But despite the differences in the likes of the different social bookmarking communities, there are striking similarities. You will soon discover that if a post is popular on one of the major sites, this usually drives it up on the other big and smaller sites. Usually it is Digg posts that become popular on StumbleUpon and Reddit but there are many other examples. To use this fact to your best advantage, you may want to concentrate your efforts on getting to the front page of the major players only and bet on the snowball effect to drive you to the top on other sites.
An additional benefit of the snowball effect is that if your posting is interesting and people start blogging about it, you can get tons of backlinks from their blogs. This happened to me and the result was that my PR jumped to 6 on the next update.

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1. High demand for SEO services

Once SEO was not a separate profession – Web masters performed some basic SEO for the sites they managed and that was all. But as sites began to grow and make money, it became more reasonable to hire a dedicated SEO specialist than to have the Web master do it. The demand for good SEO experts is high and is constantly on the rise.

2. A LOT of people have made a successful SEO career

There are many living proofs that SEO is a viable business. The list is too long to be quoted here but some of the names include Rob from Blackwood Productions, Jill Wahlen from High Rankings, Rand Fishkin from SEO Moz and many others.

3. Search Engine Optimizers make Good Money !

SEO is a profession that can be practiced while working for a company or as a solo practitioner. There are many jobboards like Dice and Craigslist that publish SEO job advertisements. It is worth noting that the compensation for SEO employees is equal to or even higher than that of developers, designers and marketers. Salaries over $80K per annum are not an exception for SEO jobs.
As a solo SEO practitioner you can make even more money. Almost all freelance sites have sections for SEO services and offers for $50 an hour or more are quite common. If you are still not confident that you can work on your own, you can start a SEO job, learn a bit and then start your own company.
If you already feel confident that you know a lot about SEO, you can take this quiz and see how you score. Well, don’t get depressed if you didn’t pass – here is a great checklist that will teach you a lot, even if you are already familiar with SEO.

4. Only Web-Designing MAY NOT be enough

Many companies offer turn-key solutions that include Web design, Web development AND SEO optimization. In fact, many clients expect that when they hire somebody to make their site, the site will be SEO friendly, so if you are good both as a designer and a SEO expert, you will be a truely valuable professional.
On the other hand, many other companies are dealing with SEO only because they feel that this way they can concentrate their efforts on their major strength – SEO, so you can consider this possibility as well.

5. Logical step ahead if you come from marketing or advertising

The Web has changed the way companies do business, so to some extent today’s marketers and advertisers need to have at least some SEO knowledge if they want to be successful. SEO is also a great career for linguists.

6. Lots of Learning

For somebody who comes from design, development or web administration, SEO might look not technical enough and you might feel that you will downgrade if you move to SEO. Don’t worry so much – you can learn a LOT from SEO, so if you are a talented techie, you are not downgrading but you are actually upgrading your skills packages.

7. SEO is already recognized as a career

Finally, if you need some more proof that SEO is a great career, have a look at the available courses and exams for SEO practitioners. Well, they might not be a CISCO certification but still they help to institutionalize the SEO profession.

Some Ugly Aspects of SEO

1. Dependent on search engines

It is true that in any career there are many things that are outside of your control but for SEO this is a rule number one. Search engines frequently change their algorithms and what is worse – these changes are not made public, so even the greatest SEO gurus admit that they make a lot of educated guesses about how things work. It is very discouraging to make everything perfect and then to learn that due to a change in the algorithm, your sites dropped 100 positions down. But the worst part is that you need to communicate this to clients, who are not satisfied with their sinking ratings.

2. No fixed rules

Probably this will change over time but for now the rule is that there are no rules – or at least not written ones. You can work very hard, follow everything that looks like a rule and still success is not coming. Currently you can’t even rely on bringing a search engine to court because of the damages they have done to your business because search engines are not obliged to rank high sites that have made efforts to get optimized.

3. Rapid changes in rankings

But even if you somehow manage to get to the top for a particular keyword, keeping the position requires constant efforts. Well, many other businesses are like that, so this is hardly a reason to complain – except when an angry customer starts shouting at you that this week their ratings are sinking and of course this is all your fault.

4. SEO requires Patience

The SEO professional and customers both need to understand that SEO takes constant effort and time. It could take months to move ahead in the ratings, or to build tens of links. Additionally, if you stop optimizing for some time, most likely you will experience a considerable drop in ratings. You need lots of motivation and patience not to give up when things are not going your way.

5. Black hat SEO

Black hat SEO is probably one of the biggest concerns for the would-be SEO practitioner. Fraud and unfair competition are present in any industry and those who are good and ethical suffer from this but black hat SEO is still pretty widespread. It is true that search engines penalize black hat practices but still black hat SEO is a major concern for the industry.

So, let’s hope that by telling you about the pros and cons of choosing SEO as your career we have helped you make an informed decision about your future.

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This is a mistake many people make and what is worse – even experienced SEO experts make it. People choose keywords that in their mind are descriptive of their website but the average users just may not search them. For instance, if you have a relationship site, you might discover that “relationship guide” does not work for you, even though it has the “relationship” keyword, while “dating advice” works like a charm. Choosing the right keywords can make or break your SEO campaign. Even if you are very resourceful, you can’t think on your own of all the great keywords but a good keyword suggestion tool, for instance, the Website Keyword Suggestion tool will help you find keywords that are good for your site.

2. Ignoring the Title tag

Leaving the <title> tag empty is also very common. This is one of the most important places to have a keyword, because not only does it help you in optimization but the text in your <title> tag shows in the search results as your page title.

3. A Flash website without a html alternative

Flash might be attractive but not to search engines and users. If you really insist that your site is Flash-based and you want search engines to love it, provide an html version. Here are some more tips for optimizing Flash sites. Search engines don’t like Flash sites for a reason – a spider can’t read Flash content and therefore can’t index it.

4. JavaScript Menus

Using JavaScript for navigation is not bad as long as you understand that search engines do not read JavaScript and build your web pages accordingly. So if you have JavaScript menus you can’t do without, you should consider build a sitemap (or putting the links in a noscript tag) so that all your links will be crawlable.

5. Lack of consistency and maintenance

Our friend Rob from Blackwood Productions often encounters clients, who believe that once you optimize a site, it is done foreve. If you want to be successful, you need to permanently optimize your site, keep an eye on the competition and – changes in the ranking algorithms of search engines.

6. Concentrating too much on meta tags

A lot of people seem to think SEO is about getting your meta keywords and description correct! In fact, meta tags are becoming (if not already) a thing of the past. You can create your meta keywords and descriptions but don’t except to rank well only because of this.

7. Using only Images for Headings

Many people think that an image looks better than text for headings and menus. Yes, an image can make your site look more distinctive but in terms of SEO images for headings and menus are a big mistake because h2, h2, etc. tags and menu links are important SEO items. If you are afraid that your h1 h2, etc. tags look horrible, try modifying them in a stylesheet or consider this approach: http://www.stopdesign.com/articles/replace_text.

8. Ignoring URLs

Many people underestimate how important a good URL is. Dynamic page names are still very frequent and no keywords in the URL is more a rule than an exception. Yes, it is possible to rank high even without keywords in the URL but all being equal, if you have keywords in the URL (the domain itself, or file names, which are part of the URL), this gives you additional advantage over your competitors. Keywords in URLs are more important for MSN and Yahoo! but even with Google their relative weight is high, so there is no excuse for having keywordless URLs.

9. Backlink spamming

It is a common delusion that it more backlinks are ALWAYS better and because of this web masters resort to link farms, forum/newgroup spam etc., which ultimately could lead to getting their site banned. In fact, what you need are quality backlinks. Here are some more information on The Importance of Backlinks

10. Lack of keywords in the content

Once you focus on your keywords, modify your content and put the keywords wherever it makes sense. It is even better to make them bold or highlight them.

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Message-IDs and spool files

The message-IDs that Exim uses to refer to messages in its queue are mixed-case alpha-numeric, and take the form of: XXXXXX-YYYYYY-ZZ. Most commands related to managing the queue and logging use these message-ids.

There are three — count ‘em, THREE — files for each message in the spool directory. If you’re dealing with these files by hand, instead of using the appropriate exim commands as detailed below, make sure you get them all, and don’t leave Exim with remnants of messages in the queue. I used to mess directly with these files when I first started running Exim machines, but thanks to the utilities described below, I haven’t needed to do that in many months.

Files in /var/spool/exim/msglog contain logging information for each message and are named the same as the message-id.

Files in /var/spool/exim/input are named after the message-id, plus a suffix denoting whether it is the envelope header (-H) or message data (-D).

These directories may contain further hashed subdirectories to deal with larger mail queues, so don’t expect everything to always appear directly in the top /var/spool/exim/input or /var/spool/exim/msglog directories; any searches or greps will need to be recursive. See if there is a proper way to do what you’re doing before working directly on the spool files.

Basic information

Print a count of the messages in the queue:

root@localhost# exim -bpc

Print a listing of the messages in the queue (time queued, size, message-id, sender, recipient):

root@localhost# exim -bp

Print a summary of messages in the queue (count, volume, oldest, newest, domain, and totals):

root@localhost# exim -bp | exiqsumm

Print what Exim is doing right now:

root@localhost# exiwhat

Test how exim will route a given address:

root@localhost# exim -bt alias@localdomain.com
user@thishost.com
    <-- alias@localdomain.com
  router = localuser, transport = local_delivery
root@localhost# exim -bt user@thishost.com
user@thishost.com
  router = localuser, transport = local_delivery
root@localhost# exim -bt user@remotehost.com
  router = lookuphost, transport = remote_smtp
  host mail.remotehost.com [1.2.3.4] MX=0

Run a pretend SMTP transaction from the command line, as if it were coming from the given IP address. This will display Exim’s checks, ACLs, and filters as they are applied. The message will NOT actually be delivered.

root@localhost# exim -bh 192.168.11.22

Display all of Exim’s configuration settings:

root@localhost# exim -bP

Searching the queue with exiqgrep

Exim includes a utility that is quite nice for grepping through the queue, called exiqgrep. Learn it. Know it. Live it. If you’re not using this, and if you’re not familiar with the various flags it uses, you’re probably doing things the hard way, like piping `exim -bp` into awk, grep, cut, or `wc -l`. Don’t make life harder than it already is.

First, various flags that control what messages are matched. These can be combined to come up with a very particular search.

Use -f to search the queue for messages from a specific sender:

root@localhost# exiqgrep -f [luser]@domain

Use -r to search the queue for messages for a specific recipient/domain:

root@localhost# exiqgrep -r [luser]@domain

Use -o to print messages older than the specified number of seconds. For example, messages older than 1 day:

root@localhost# exiqgrep -o 86400 [...]

Use -y to print messages that are younger than the specified number of seconds. For example, messages less than an hour old:

root@localhost# exiqgrep -y 3600 [...]

Use -s to match the size of a message with a regex. For example, 700-799 bytes:

root@localhost# exiqgrep -s '^7..$' [...]

Use -z to match only frozen messages, or -x to match only unfrozen messages.

There are also a few flags that control the display of the output.

Use -i to print just the message-id as a result of one of the above two searches:

root@localhost# exiqgrep -i [ -r | -f ] ...

Use -c to print a count of messages matching one of the above searches:

root@localhost# exiqgrep -c ...

Print just the message-id of the entire queue:

root@localhost# exiqgrep -i

Managing the queue

The main exim binary (/usr/sbin/exim) is used with various flags to make things happen to messages in the queue. Most of these require one or more message-IDs to be specified in the command line, which is where `exiqgrep -i` as described above really comes in handy.

Start a queue run:

root@localhost# exim -q -v

Start a queue run for just local deliveries:

root@localhost# exim -ql -v

Remove a message from the queue:

root@localhost# exim -Mrm <message-id> [ <message-id> ... ]

Freeze a message:

root@localhost# exim -Mf <message-id> [ <message-id> ... ]

Thaw a message:

root@localhost# exim -Mt <message-id> [ <message-id> ... ]

Deliver a message, whether it’s frozen or not, whether the retry time has been reached or not:

root@localhost# exim -M <message-id> [ <message-id> ... ]

Deliver a message, but only if the retry time has been reached:

root@localhost# exim -Mc <message-id> [ <message-id> ... ]

Force a message to fail and bounce as “cancelled by administrator”:

root@localhost# exim -Mg <message-id> [ <message-id> ... ]

To remove all messages from the queue, enter:

# exim -bp | awk '/^ *[0-9]+[mhd]/{print "exim -Mrm " $3}' | bash

Remove all frozen messages:

root@localhost# exiqgrep -z -i | xargs exim -Mrm

Remove all messages older than five days (86400 * 5 = 432000 seconds):

root@localhost# exiqgrep -o 432000 -i | xargs exim -Mrm

Freeze all queued mail from a given sender:

root@localhost# exiqgrep -i -f luser@example.tld | xargs exim -Mf

View a message’s headers:

root@localhost# exim -Mvh <message-id>

View a message’s body:

root@localhost# exim -Mvb <message-id>

View a message’s logs:

root@localhost# exim -Mvl <message-id>

Add a recipient to a message:

root@localhost# exim -Mar <message-id> <address> [ <address> ... ]

Edit the sender of a message:

root@localhost# exim -Mes <message-id> <address>

Access control

Exim allows you to apply access control lists at various points of the SMTP transaction by specifying an ACL to use and defining its conditions in exim.conf. You could start with the HELO string.

# Specify the ACL to use after HELO
acl_smtp_helo = check_helo

# Conditions for the check_helo ACL:
check_helo:

    deny message = Gave HELO/EHLO as "friend"
    log_message = HELO/EHLO friend
    condition = ${if eq {$sender_helo_name}{friend} {yes}{no}}

    deny message = Gave HELO/EHLO as our IP address
    log_message = HELO/EHLO our IP address
    condition = ${if eq {$sender_helo_name}{$interface_address} {yes}{no}}

    accept

NOTE: Pursue HELO checking at your own peril. The HELO is fairly unimportant in the grand scheme of SMTP these days, so don’t put too much faith in whatever it contains. Some spam might seem to use a telltale HELO string, but you might be surprised at how many legitimate messages start off with a questionable HELO as well. Anyway, it’s just as easy for a spammer to send a proper HELO than it is to send HELO im.a.spammer, so consider yourself lucky if you’re able to stop much spam this way.

Next, you can perform a check on the sender address or remote host. This shows how to do that after the RCPT TO command; if you reject here, as opposed to rejecting after the MAIL FROM, you’ll have better data to log, such as who the message was intended for.

# Specify the ACL to use after RCPT TO
acl_smtp_rcpt = check_recipient

# Conditions for the check_recipient ACL
check_recipient:

    # [...]

    drop hosts = /etc/exim_reject_hosts
    drop senders = /etc/exim_reject_senders

    # [ Probably a whole lot more... ]

This example uses two plain text files as blacklists. Add appropriate entries to these files – hostnames/IP addresses to /etc/exim_reject_hosts, addresses to /etc/exim_reject_senders, one entry per line.

It is also possible to perform content scanning using a regex against the body of a message, though obviously this can cause Exim to use more CPU than it otherwise would need to, especially on large messages.

# Specify the ACL to use after DATA
acl_smtp_data = check_message

# Conditions for the check_messages ACL
check_message:

    deny message = "Sorry, Charlie: $regex_match_string"
    regex = ^Subject:: .*Lower your self-esteem by becoming a sysadmin

    accept

Fix SMTP-Auth for Pine

If pine can’t use SMTP authentication on an Exim host and just returns an “unable to authenticate” message without even asking for a password, add the following line to exim.conf:

  begin authenticators

  fixed_plain:
  driver = plaintext
  public_name = PLAIN
  server_condition = "${perl{checkuserpass}{$1}{$2}{$3}}"
  server_set_id = $2
>  server_prompts = :

This was a problem on CPanel Exim builds awhile ago, but they seem to have added this line to their current stock configuration.

Log the subject line

This is one of the most useful configuration tweaks I’ve ever found for Exim. Add this to exim.conf, and you can log the subject lines of messages that pass through your server. This is great for troubleshooting, and for getting a very rough idea of what messages may be spam.

log_selector = +subject

Reducing or increasing what is logged.

Disable identd lookups

Frankly, I don’t think identd has been useful for a long time, if ever. Identd relies on the connecting host to confirm the identity (system UID) of the remote user who owns the process that is making the network connection. This may be of some use in the world of shell accounts and IRC users, but it really has no place on a high-volume SMTP server, where the UID is often simply “mail” or whatever the remote MTA runs as, which is useless to know. It’s overhead, and results in nothing but delays while the identd query is refused or times out. You can stop your Exim server from making these queries by setting the timeout to zero seconds in exim.conf:

rfc1413_query_timeout = 0s

Disable Attachment Blocking

To disable the executable-attachment blocking that many Cpanel servers do by default but don’t provide any controls for on a per-domain basis, add the following block to the beginning of the /etc/antivirus.exim file:

if $header_to: matches "example\.com|example2\.com"
then
  finish
endif

It is probably possible to use a separate file to list these domains, but I haven’t had to do this enough times to warrant setting such a thing up.

Searching the logs with exigrep

The exigrep utility (not to be confused with exiqgrep) is used to search an exim log for a string or pattern. It will print all log entries with the same internal message-id as those that matched the pattern, which is very handy since any message will take up at least three lines in the log. exigrep will search the entire content of a log entry, not just particular fields.

One can search for messages sent from a particular IP address:

root@localhost# exigrep '<= .* \[12.34.56.78\] ' /path/to/exim_log

Search for messages sent to a particular IP address:

root@localhost# exigrep '=> .* \[12.34.56.78\]' /path/to/exim_log

This example searches for outgoing messages, which have the “=>” symbol, sent to “user@domain.tld”. The pipe to grep for the “<=” symbol will match only the lines with information on the sender – the From address, the sender’s IP address, the message size, the message ID, and the subject line if you have enabled logging the subject. The purpose of doing such a search is that the desired information is not on the same log line as the string being searched for.

root@localhost# exigrep '=> .*user@domain.tld' /path/to/exim_log | fgrep '<='

Generate and display Exim stats from a logfile:

root@localhost# eximstats /path/to/exim_mainlog

Same as above, with less verbose output:

root@localhost# eximstats -ne -nr -nt /path/to/exim_mainlog

Same as above, for one particular day:

root@localhost# fgrep YYYY-MM-DD /path/to/exim_mainlog | eximstats

Bonus!

To delete all queued messages containing a certain string in the body:

root@localhost# grep -lr 'a certain string' /var/spool/exim/input/ | \
                sed -e 's/^.*\/\([a-zA-Z0-9-]*\)-[DH]$/\1/g' | xargs exim -Mrm

Note that the above only delves into /var/spool/exim in order to grep for queue files with the given string, and that’s just because exiqgrep doesn’t have a feature to grep the actual bodies of messages. If you are deleting these files directly, YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG! Use the appropriate exim command to properly deal with the queue.

If you have to feed many, many message-ids (such as the output of an `exiqgrep -i` command that returns a lot of matches) to an exim command, you may exhaust the limit of your shell’s command line arguments. In that case, pipe the listing of message-ids into xargs to run only a limited number of them at once. For example, to remove thousands of messages sent from joe@example.com:

root@localhost# exiqgrep -i -f '<joe@example.com>' | xargs exim -Mrm

Speaking of “DOING IT WRONG” — Attention, CPanel forum readers

I get a number of hits to this page from a link in this post at the CPanel forums. The question is:

Due to spamming, spoofing from fields, etc., etc., etc., I am finding it necessary to spend more time to clear the exim queue from time to time. [...] what command would I use to delete the queue

The answer is: Just turn exim off, because your customers are better off knowing that email simply isn’t running on your server, than having their queued messages deleted without notice.

Or, figure out what is happening. The examples given in that post pay no regard to the legitimacy of any message, they simply delete everything, making the presumption that if a message is in the queue, it’s junk. That is total fallacy. There are a number of reasons legitimate mail can end up in the queue. Maybe your backups or CPanel’s “upcp” process are running, and your load average is high — exim goes into a queue-only mode at a certain threshold, where it stops trying to deliver messages as they come in and just queues them until the load goes back down. Or, maybe it’s an outgoing message, and the DNS lookup failed, or the connection to the domain’s MX failed, or maybe the remote MX is busy or greylisting you with a 4xx deferral. These are all temporary failures, not permanent ones, and the whole point of having temporary failures in SMTP and a mail queue in your MTA is to be able to try again after awhile.

Exim already purges messages from the queue after the period of time specified in exim.conf. If you have this value set appropriately, there is absolutely no point in removing everything from your queue every day with a cron job. You will lose legitimate mail, and the sender and recipient will never know if or why it happened. Do not do this!

If you regularly have a large number of messages in your queue, find out why they are there. If they are outbound messages, see who is sending them, where they’re addressed to, and why they aren’t getting there. If they are inbound messages, find out why they aren’t getting delivered to your user’s account. If you need to delete some, use exiqgrep to pick out just the ones that should be deleted.

Reload the configuration

After making changes to exim.conf, you need to give the main exim pid a SIGHUP to re-exec it and have the configuration re-read. Sure, you could stop and start the service, but that’s overkill and causes a few seconds of unnecessary downtime. Just do this:

root@localhost# kill -HUP `cat /var/spool/exim/exim-daemon.pid`

You should then see something resembling the following in exim_mainlog:

pid 1079: SIGHUP received: re-exec daemon
exim 4.52 daemon started: pid=1079, -q1h, listening for SMTP on port 25 (IPv4)

Read The Fucking Manual

The Exim Home Page

Documentation For Exim

The Exim Specification – Version 4.5x

Exim command line arguments

Any questions?

Well, don’t ask me! I’m one guy, with just enough time and Exim skills to keep my own stuff running okay. There are several (perhaps even dozens) of people on the Internet who know way more than me, and who are willing to help out random strangers. Check into the Exim users mailing list, or one of the many web-based gateways to that list. And good luck.

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