# How can I see the contents of the mail whose ID I get from mailq command?

You can see the contents of the mail whose ID you get from the `mailq` command by using the `postcat` command. Here’s how you can do it:

```bash
postcat -q YOUR_MAIL_ID

```

Replace `YOUR_MAIL_ID` with the ID of the mail you got from the `mailq` command.

The system directory `/var/spool/postfix` is the master directory. Subdirectories of that which matter include `active`, `deferred`, `bounce`, etc. Queued files may be stored using the full file name (like A705238B4C) or with some level of hashing depth (like A/7/05238B4C)

Since Postfix version 2.7, you can also get readable output, by adding the `-h` and/or `-b` options:

- `b`: Show body content.
- `h`: Show message header content.
- `q`: Search the Postfix queue for the named files instead of taking the names literally.

So this will show you the entire original message with headers and body:

```bash
id=YOUR_MAIL_ID
postcat -bh -q $id

```

Or to show the headers of all queued messages, you could do something like this:

```bash
mailq | awk '/^ [A-F0-9]+\\s+/ {print $1}' \\ | while read id; do echo $id; postcat -h -q $id; echo; done

```

Again, replace `[YOUR_MAIL_ID](https://serverfault.com/questions/391995/how-can-i-see-the-contents-of-the-mail-whose-id-i-get-from-mailq-command)` with the ID of the mail you got from the `[mailq](https://serverfault.com/questions/391995/how-can-i-see-the-contents-of-the-mail-whose-id-i-get-from-mailq-command)` command.