Logging email protocol details

JIRA's interaction with mail servers is a common cause of problems. It is often useful to know exactly what is passing over the wire between JIRA and SMTP, POP or IMAP servers. This page describes how to enable protocol-level logging.

JIRA 3.7.2+

Set -Dmail.debug=true and restart JIRA.

JIRA 3.6.5 -> 3.7.1

Due to a bug, just setting -Dmail.debug=true won't take effect. Instead the variable needs to be set in a properties file.

In JIRA Standalone..

Create atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/classes/atlassian-mail.properties, containing one line:
mail.debug=true
Restart JIRA

In JIRA WAR/Webapp..

Create edit-webapp/WEB-INF/classes/atlassian-mail.properties, containing:
mail.debug=true
Rebuild the .war (run build.sh or build.bat)
Redeploy the .war in your app server.

JIRA pre-3.6.5

Untested - probably the atlassian-mail.properties variant will work.

Output

In the logs, you should then see JavaMail initialize the first time a mail operation is run:

DEBUG: JavaMail version 1.3.2
DEBUG: java.io.FileNotFoundException: /usr/local/jdk1.6.0/jre/lib/javamail.providers (No such file or directory)
DEBUG: !anyLoaded
DEBUG: not loading resource: /META-INF/javamail.providers
DEBUG: successfully loaded resource: /META-INF/javamail.default.providers
DEBUG: Tables of loaded providers
DEBUG: Providers Listed By Class Name: {com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPSSLTransport=javax.mail.Provider[TRANSPORT,smtps,com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPSSLTransport,Sun Microsystems, Inc], com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport=javax.mail.Provider[TRANSPORT,smtp,com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport,Sun Microsystems, Inc], com.sun.mail.imap.IMAPSSLStore=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,imaps,com.sun.mail.imap.IMAPSSLStore,Sun Microsystems, Inc], com.sun.mail.pop3.POP3SSLStore=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,pop3s,com.sun.mail.pop3.POP3SSLStore,Sun Microsystems, Inc], com.sun.mail.imap.IMAPStore=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,imap,com.sun.mail.imap.IMAPStore,Sun Microsystems, Inc], com.sun.mail.pop3.POP3Store=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,pop3,com.sun.mail.pop3.POP3Store,Sun Microsystems, Inc]}
DEBUG: Providers Listed By Protocol: {imaps=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,imaps,com.sun.mail.imap.IMAPSSLStore,Sun Microsystems, Inc], imap=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,imap,com.sun.mail.imap.IMAPStore,Sun Microsystems, Inc], smtps=javax.mail.Provider[TRANSPORT,smtps,com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPSSLTransport,Sun Microsystems, Inc], pop3=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,pop3,com.sun.mail.pop3.POP3Store,Sun Microsystems, Inc], pop3s=javax.mail.Provider[STORE,pop3s,com.sun.mail.pop3.POP3SSLStore,Sun Microsystems, Inc], smtp=javax.mail.Provider[TRANSPORT,smtp,com.sun.mail.smtp.SMTPTransport,Sun Microsystems, Inc]}
DEBUG: successfully loaded resource: /META-INF/javamail.default.address.map
DEBUG: !anyLoaded
DEBUG: not loading resource: /META-INF/javamail.address.map
DEBUG: java.io.FileNotFoundException: /usr/local/jdk1.6.0/jre/lib/javamail.address.map (No such file or directory)
DEBUG: getProvider() returning javax.mail.Provider[STORE,pop3,com.sun.mail.pop3.POP3Store,Sun Microsystems, Inc]
DEBUG POP3: connecting to host "localhost", port 110, isSSL false
S: +OK Dovecot ready.
C: USER pop-test
S: +OK
C: PASS pop-test
[Filter: profiling] Using parameter [jira_profile]
[Filter: profiling] defaulting to off [autostart=false]
[Filter: profiling] Turning filter off [jira_profile=off]
S: +OK Logged in.
C: STAT
S: +OK 2 1339
C: NOOP
S: +OK
C: TOP 1 0
S: +OK
Return-path: <pop-test@atlassian.com>
Envelope-to: pop-test@localhost
Delivery-date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 16:28:26 +1100
Received: from pop-test by teacup.atlassian.com with local (Exim 4.63)
        (envelope-from <pop-test@atlassian.com>)
        id 1HMHMY-0007gB-8O
        for pop-test@localhost; Wed, 28 Feb 2007 16:28:26 +1100
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 16:28:26 +1100
From: Jeff Turner <jeff@atlassian.com>
To: pop-test@localhost
Subject: Testing to me - Wed Feb 28 16:28:23 EST 2007
Message-ID: <20070228052826.GA29514@atlassian.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11)
Lines: 0

Related pages

Changing JIRA's log output (JIRA) — A common task when identifying JIRA problems is to turn up the log level, to get more debug-level logs.

Logging email protocol details (JIRA) — How to enable email protocol (SMTP, IMAP, POP) logging in JIRA

User access logging (JIRA) — How to track user actions with page access logging

Where are the JIRA logs? (JIRA) — A decision tree for finding JIRA logs on your system