Message Timeouts

The OT option in the configuration file sets the message timeout. The default message timeout is three days (OT3d). After a message has been in the queue for the message time-out period, the sender is notified that the message could not be delivered.

You can flush messages that have been hanging for a short period by running the queue with a short message timeout. For example, the command

# /usr/lib/sendmail -oT1d -q

runs the queue and flushes any message that is one day old or older.