Trivial mailq output parser in PHP.

mailq-parser.php

<?php
/**
 * Simple example PHP code to parse "mailq" output. Useful if you want to show
 * the mail queue status through some web service.
 *
 * Notice that you'll need a mail server (sendmail or, better, postfix) to be
 * running on the same machine as your webserver (often that's less that
 * optimal.)
 *
 * If this doesn't work, be sure to check that you have sufficient permissions
 * to run mailq succesfully as your webserver user.
 * 
 * - Giulio Iotti <[email protected]>
 */

$results = array();
$current_object = null;

// Get old locale to be later restored. XXX: Changing locale is not thread safe.
$old_locale = getlocale(LC_ALL);
// Set to use no locale.
setlocale(LC_ALL, 'C');

$pipe = popen($mailq_path, 'r');

while($pipe) {
    $line = fgets($pipe);

    if ($line === false)
        break;

    // First and last summary lines are the only ones beginning with a dash.
    if (strncmp($line, '-', 1) === 0)
        continue;

    $line = trim();

    // Append the current object to the objects list. No last-object problem,
    // as we certainly have one empty line before the end.
    if (!$line) {
        if ($current_object) {
            $results[] = $current_object;
            $current_object = null;
        }
    }

    // This could be much better so easily (eg: insert months, remove duplications, etc.)
    $res = preg_match('/^([A-Z0-9]{1,20})\s+([1-9][0-9]*)\s+((Mon|Tue|Wed|Thu|Fri|Sat|Sun)\s+[A-Za-z]{3}\s+[0-9]{2}\s+[0-9]{2}\:[0-9]{2}\:[0-9]{2})\s+([^ ]+)\s*$/', $line, $matches);

    if ($res) {
        // Insert message ID and other data into the object.
        // It will be competed afterwards.
        $current_object = array(
                'id' => $matches[1],
                'size' => intval($matches[2]),
                'date' => strftime($matches[3]),
                'sender' => $matches[5],
                'failed' => false,
                'recipients' => ''
        );
    } else {
        // Parse error lines and recipients in lines following the message ID.
        if ($current_object) {
            if (strncmp($line, '(host ', 6) === 0) {
                $current_object['failed'] = substr($line, 6, strlen($line)-7);
            } else {
                $current_object['recipients'] .= trim($line);
            }
        }
    }
}

pclose($pipe);

setlocale(LC_ALL, $old_locale);

var_dump($results);

exit(1);

On a typical Linux server, can you automatically "get" the mailq path automatically? I guess you use /var/log/mail.log, right? (it is missing in your script)

Nevermind, it is not functional at all. I didn't get that from the title. Thanks for the concept though.

Quoting mailq's manpage:

 The queue ID string is followed by an optional status character:
              *      The message is in the active queue, i.e. the message is selected for delivery.
              !      The message is in the hold queue, i.e. no further delivery attempt will  be  made until the mail is taken off hold.

You don't match those status flags :)

$mailq = explode("\n",trim(shell_exec("mailq")));

array_shift($mailq);
array_pop($mailq);

foreach ($mailq as $line){
	
	
	if(trim($line) == '') continue;
	
	$line = trim($line);

    // This could be much better so easily (eg: insert months, remove duplications, etc.)
    $res = preg_match('/^([A-Z0-9]{1,20})\s+([1-9][0-9]*)\s+((Mon|Tue|Wed|Thu|Fri|Sat|Sun)\s+[A-Za-z]{3}\s+[0-9]{2}\s+[0-9]{2}\:[0-9]{2}\:[0-9]{2})\s+([^ ]+)\s*$/', $line, $matches);
    if ($res) {
        
        $id = $matches[1];
        $current_object = array(
                'id' => $matches[1],
                'size' => intval($matches[2]),
                'date' => strftime($matches[3]),
                'sender' => $matches[5],
                'failed' => false,
                'recipients' => ''
        );
    } else {
    	
        // Parse error lines and recipients in lines following the message ID.
        if ($current_object) {
                    	
        	if (strpos(">$line", '(')==1) {
        	//if (strncmp($line, '(host ', 6) === 0) {
                $current_object['failed'] = true;
                $current_object['error'] = $line;
            } else {
                $current_object['recipients'][] = $line;
            }
        }
    }
    
    $results[$id] = $current_object;

}
    
    var_dump($results);

Thank's for this script, it's ok for me :

> $mailq_path='/usr/bin/mailq';
$results = array();
$current_object = null;
...
<    $line = trim();
>    $line = trim($line);

Thank's
My adaptation :

• function mailqParse() : https://framagit.org/omailgw/omailgw-cli/-/blob/main/inc-function.php