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Knowledge base

PMTA knowledge base›Block Global›Directive§ 3.3.1.58.23

http-default-max-items

Globalrestart required

How many lines to show in the web monitor's “Top” lists
in the configuration this is a linehttp-default-max-items 10inside the block Global
List length on the monitor pages

The line sets how many lines are shown by default on the four “Top” pages — queues, domains, VirtualMTAs and jobs — and in the “Top Domains” table on the home page. The default is 10.

This is a display setting, not an engine setting. It changes neither delivery nor what the engine counts: only the length of the list a person will see.

The word “default” is literal here: on the page itself the length can usually be set with a request. The line sets what is shown without further specification.

The main trap is taking the top ten for the whole fleet. A “Top Domains” list of ten lines on a node that sends to two hundred domains shows the top and keeps quiet about the tail. Decisions about limits must not be made from this list — accounting exists for that.
What the Hub does. It does not write it — 10 stays. The “PMTA monitoring” screen takes the lists of queues, domains, sending addresses and jobs from these pages — /queues, /domains, /vmtas, /jobs in JSON — and passes the length itself, maxItems=1000, so the default does not concern it. Node telemetry takes /queues with maxItems=1: it needs only the total.

The screen takes the numbers of queues and domains with messages from the totals (totalQueuesWithRcp and its neighbors) — they are complete at any length. If exactly a thousand lines arrived, the screen says the list is cut. Until Sep 15, 2026 no length was passed, and the counts based on lines saw only the top ten.

Recommended values

More than ten makes sense where a node has many queues:

Value When
10 (default) an ordinary node
25–50 many receivers, people look by eye

The only price is page rendering time, it does not affect the engine.

The default 10 and the list of affected pages are from the manual (§ 3.3.1.58.23). The warning about the tail of the list is ours.
Example configuration
# on a node with hundreds of receivers a top ten shows too little
http-mgmt-port 1000
http-default-max-items 25
The setting only affects the monitor pages. It has no effect on what the engine counts and writes to accounting.
yellow — — directive names, blue — blocks. They are highlighted the same way in the text of the card.
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Common mistakes and problems

what people get wrong and how it ends1 mistake▶

Judging the fleet by the “Top” list

our experience

What it costsThe list shows the top of the given length. A receiver in eleventh place is not visible, although it may be the source of the problem.
How to spot itThe list always has exactly as many lines as configured.
How to do it rightLook at accounting, not the “Top” page; the page is for a quick glance.
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.
Reference data
Syntax
http-default-max-items <integer>
Values
positive integer
Default
10 § 3.3.1.58.23
Applying
a service restart is required
Queue
will not touch what is already queued
Where to write it
Global
How many times
once in the block
Everything here comes from the manual, with the section.
Inheritance
No inheritance: the line is written at the root of the file, the Global section, and applies to all “Top” pages at once. Different pages cannot be given different lengths.
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Related directives

1 relation

Applies to

http-mgmt-portGlobalOne of the settings of the very interface that listens on this port. § 3.3.1.58.23

How to check on the node
We count the lines in the output — it returns the same data as the page:
curl -s 'http://NODE:1000/domains?format=json' | grep -o '"domain"' | wc -l
The number of lines should match the directive’s value. If there are fewer lines, that is how many queues there are.
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What else to read

3 articles

◇Who is allowed to submit mail and for whom to accept itOut of the box, the node accepts submission only from the machine itself; two different questions — “who can send through us” and “for whose addresses we accept mail” — are answered by different directives.◇The group that grants management rightsMembership in the pmta group gives an unprivileged user the right to call the node’s commands and use submission.◇How the node selects a source and combines its settingsA connection falls under all source blocks whose addresses cover it, and they act merged — the narrow one overrides the wide one; named blocks are attached only by direct reference.

In the Hub
Cost of a mistake
safe: a wrong value breaks nothing
Scenarios
Node security
Neighboring settings of the block Global:http-mgmt-porttrack-outbound-perf-statstrack-inbound-perf-statsdummy-smtp-update-statshttp-default-sort-orderAll 108 directives of the block →