Demo
Demo

Knowledge base

PMTA knowledge base›Command§ 6.3.26

pause job

Pause a job
Stop a whole campaign

Pauses delivery of one job’s messages until it is resumed with resume job. The messages stay in the queue.

A cut by campaign instead of a cut by receiver — handy when the problem is the campaign itself rather than one mailbox provider.

The job must be assigned: messages without a job identifier cannot be stopped with this command.

The main trap is that a stopped job keeps aging. While the job stands, the bounce-after lifetime runs, and a long pause turns into bounces on expiry.
What the Hub does. It does not call it: mail submitted through node logins is not grouped into jobs — the Hub writes process-x-job false there. The Hub stops queues — pause queue.
Recommended values

When to call it:

Question This command or not
stop one campaign entirely yes
stop sending to one receiver no — pause queue
lift the stop no — resume job
The action and the counterpart command come from the manual (§ 6.3.26, § 6.3.28). The analysis of the lifetime and job assignment is ours.
Example configuration
# stop and resume a campaign
pmta pause job campaign1234pmta resume job campaign1234
The identifier is the one the submitting side passed in X-Job or the *jobid variable.
yellow — — directive names, blue — blocks. They are highlighted the same way in the text of the card.
Compatibility
PowerMTA 6.0
described in the manual of this version · platform: any
The vendor does not state the first version for every directive — there is no note here. The name also appears in the 5.0 edition of the manual.
⇄

Related entries

3 relations

Depends on

Two tags the sender puts on a messageThe mechanism the command works with. § 7.4.8

Same name in other blocks

Pause a queueA neighboring command: the same subject from another side. § 6.3.26

Can be replaced by

Resume a jobA neighboring command: the same subject from another side. § 6.3.28

Referenced from

Job headerThe command through which the mechanism is observed. § 13.8

How to check on the node
See the jobs in the queue:
pmta show jobs
The job stays in the list during the pause too: the command does not delete messages, it just does not let them out.
◇

What else to read

3 articles

◇How to name a queue in a commandHow to name a queue in a command argument: the same “receiving server and sending address” pair with asterisks added.◇Two tags the sender puts on a messageA job groups messages, an envelope identifier identifies one; the submitting side sets both, and only by them can you later select your mail in the node’s queue.◇A license for a fleet, not for a serverThe license is not bound to a server: it is installed on as many machines as the instance limit allows, and the nodes send volume statistics to the vendor every hour.

In the Hub
Cost of a mistake
reversible: harms only while it is set
Scenarios
Emergency stop · Sender isolation