Internally Created Messages

• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• What Are Internally Created Messages?
• What can create these Messages?
• How to Identify Internally Created Messages
• Configuration and Behavior
  • Queue
  • Virtual MTA Assignment
  • Mail Class Assignment
• Display in the Web UI
  • Current Behavior (v4.333.0 and Later)
  • Legacy Behavior (Before v4.333.0)

Introduction

GreenArrow Engine automatically creates email messages as part of its normal operations. These “internally created messages” can be sent to internal mailboxes, such as local bounce mailboxes, or to external email addresses. Understanding how these messages work, how they’re identified, and how they appear in reporting is important for accurately monitoring your email operations.

What Are Internally Created Messages?

Internally created messages are system generated emails that GreenArrow Engine creates during the email delivery process. For example, GreenArrow creates these messages when processing email forwarders or when sending bounce notifications for failed deliveries.

These system-generated messages are assigned the SendID -ic to distinguish them from other messages in logs and reports.

What can create these Messages?

GreenArrow Engine creates messages in the following scenarios:

• Bounce messages: When an email permanently fails to deliver, GreenArrow generates a bounce message (also known as a Delivery Status Notification or DSN) to notify the sender.

• Forwarded messages: When GreenArrow receives an email for a local email address that is configured as an email forwarder or as a standard mailbox with forwarding enabled, it internally creates a new message for each forwarding recipient with the contents of the original inbound message.

How to Identify Internally Created Messages

Internally created messages can be identified by the following characteristics:

• SendID: All internally created messages are assigned the SendID -ic
• In reports: The -ic SendID appears in GreenArrow reports (such as hvmail_report) and delivery attempt events
• In the Web UI: These messages are listed in the Send Statistics page, grouped by date. They can be identified by looking at the following attributes:
  • The “Mailing List(s)” column is empty
  • The “Mail Class/Category” column is: “Uncategorized”
  • The “Description” column contains the date in YYYY-MM-DD format

Configuration and Behavior

Queue

All internally created messages are added to the bounce queue. This queue is dedicated to these messages for performance reasons.

Virtual MTA Assignment

The Virtual MTA (VMTA) used for internally created messages depends on the type:

• Bounce messages: Use the same Virtual MTA as the failed delivery attempt that triggered the bounce
• Forwarded messages: Use the System Default Virtual MTA, which can be configured via the web UI or with the default_virtual_mta configuration directive

Mail Class Assignment

Internally created messages are not assigned a mail class. These messages do not use SimpleMH, which means that GreenArrow does not track if they bounce, or if they receive spam complaints, or other user interactions such as clicks and opens.

Display in the Web UI

Current Behavior (v4.333.0 and Later)

As of GreenArrow Engine version v4.333.0, all internally created messages are displayed in the web UI in the “Send Statistics” page. They are grouped by date with the mail class name “Uncategorized” and cannot be hidden from the display.

Legacy Behavior (Before v4.333.0)

Prior to version v4.333.0, internally created messages were hidden from the web UI by default. This behavior could be overridden by setting a flag file. Hiding only affected the web UI display — these messages were always logged as delivery attempts.