EXIM_MSGDATE(8)

📦
version 4.99.4 · 9 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

🦋 EXIM_MSGDATE(8) — the EXIM4 girlies' guide to reading message-ids 🦋

okay bestie, sit down, grab a boba, because this one is actually useful. Welcome to exim_msgdate, from the EXIM4 manual page collection, section 8. It's a little cutie whose whole job is turning one of those cryptic Exim message-ids into a date and time that a human brain can read. 💖

✨ NAME ✨

exim_msgdate — a utility that converts an exim message-id into a human readable date+time. that's it, that's the whole personality.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

exim_msgdate [ -u|--unix | --GMT | --z|-Zulu | --UTC | -l|--local ]
      [ --base 36 | --base 62 | --base36 | --base62 | --b36 | --b62 ]
      [ --pid ] [ --debug ] [ --localhost_number ]
      [ -c c<full path to exim cnfig file> ]
      exim-message-id [ | exim-message-id ...]

exim_msgdate --help|--man

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

exim_msgdate is the tool that takes an exim message-id and converts it into human readable form — usually it's just the date+time, but if you pass the --pid option you get the process id in there too. no cap, that's the vibe. ✨

🎀 Message IDs

Three exim message ID formats get recognized. In every single case, those Xs are taken from the base (peep the base options below) and that base depends on your platform. 👑

  • XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XX — the one you'll find hanging out in the exim logfile.
  • EXXXXXX-XXXXXX-XX — the one you'll find in the Message-Id header.
  • XXXXXX — just the first six characters of the message id. short queen energy. 🫶

🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

🕰️ Time Zones and Unix Time

  • -u | --unix — displays the time as seconds since 1 Jan 1970, aka the Unix Epoch. timeless. literally. 💀
  • --GMT -u|--UTC -z|--zulu — displays the time in GMT/UTC (we're assuming these two are the same thing, bestie). Zulu time is just another name for GMT. iconic rebrand tbh. 🦋
  • -l | --local — displays the time in the local time-zone.
⚠️ do not confuse this with the --localhost_number option. they are different girlies, they are not the same girlie, okay? 🙈

The default is the local timezone. 💖

🆘 User Assistance Options

  • --help — a brief list of the options. the tl;dr version.
  • --man — a more detailed manual for exim_msgdate. hi, you're reading her right now. hey bestie. 👑
  • --debug — information about what went wrong, mostly for developers. forensic era. 🔥

🌟 Specialized Options

  • --base n | --base36 | --base62 — the message-id is usually encoded in base-62 (0-9A-Za-z), but on systems with case-insensitive file systems — think MacOS and Cygwin — base-36 (0-9A-Z) is used instead. The installation script should have set the default appropriately, but these options let you override the default base. The default matches exim; in this installation it is base-62. ✨
  • --pid — reports the process id as well as the date and time in the message-id. two for one, ate. 💅
  • --localhost_number n — if the Exim configuration option localhost_number has been set, the third and final section of the message-id will include it, and the timer resolution will change (see the Exim Spec. for details). Exim_msgdate reads the Exim config file (see --C) to find this value, but it can be overridden with this option. The value is an integer between 0 and 16, or the value none, which means there is no localhost_number. 🔢 Do not confuse this with the --local option, which displays times in the local timezone. (yes i'm telling you twice. no regrets. 🫶)
  • --C full path to exim configuration file — this overrides the usual exim search path. We set localhost_number from the exim configfile. 🎀
  • -dexim_path — the test harness passes the full path of the exim binary, or here the exim_msgdate being tested. Not currently used. it's just sitting there, existing, being cute. 🍓

👀 SEE ALSO: 👀

the whole thing is documented as perl v5.42.3, dated 2026-09-08, and it lives at EXIM_MSGDATE(8) — so yeah, that's the lore. 💜 periodt. slay. go convert some message-ids, bestie, you've got this fr fr 🧚✨🌸
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