1NEWSLOG(5)                InterNetNews Documentation                NEWSLOG(5)
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NAME

6       newslog - Description of INN log files
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DESCRIPTION

9       Most log files created by Usenet programs reside in the pathlog
10       directory set in inn.conf and have a ".log" extension.  Several
11       versions are usually kept with an additional extension such as .1, .2,
12       etc. -- the higher the number, the older the log.  These old versions
13       are stored in pathlog/OLD; they may be compressed and thus may have a
14       ".1.gz", ".2.gz", etc. extension, up to ".nn.gz" where "nn" is the
15       number of old logs kept by scanlogs which is set by logcycles in
16       inn.conf.
17
18       The scanlogs script and related utilities are responsible for rotating
19       and compressing these files.  Some log files always have data (like
20       news.notice), others only have data if there is a problem (like
21       news.err), and others are only created if a particular program is used
22       (like send-uucp.log used by send-uucp) or if a configuration parameter
23       is set (like innfeed.log used by innfeed when debug-level is set in
24       innfeed.conf).
25
26       Besides, the innstat script monitors the size of all log files.
27
28       Here are the log files used by INN:
29
30       control.log
31           This file maintains a count of the number of newgroup and rmgroup
32           control messages seen for each newsgroup.  The count is of the
33           number of control messages with the indicated arguments, regardless
34           if they were actually processed.  All control arguments, including
35           invalid ones, are counted.  An example of lines which can be found
36           in that log file is:
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38               3 Control: newgroup foo.bar moderated
39               3 Control: rmgroup misc.removed
40               1 Control: newgroup misc.created
41
42           This file is updated by tally.control, which is invoked by scanlogs
43           if either one of these two log files exists in pathlog:
44
45               newgroup.log
46               rmgroup.log
47
48           These two log files contain a summary line describing the control
49           message and the action taken by controlchan, followed by the
50           article indented by four spaces, and a blank line.  Whereas these
51           files are rotated, control.log is not rotated so as to keep the
52           count of seen control messages.
53
54           Note that other control log files are also rotated by scanlogs, if
55           they exist, but their contents are not summarized.  Here are their
56           names:
57
58               checkgroups.log
59               default.log
60               ihave.log
61               miscctl.log
62               sendme.log
63               sendsys.log
64               senduuname.log
65               version.log
66
67           In order to create these files, the <type> and <action> fields of
68           relevant control.ctl entries should be correctly set.  For
69           instance:
70
71               Type            Action              Meaning
72               ----            ------              -------
73               all             log=miscctl         Log all messages by default.
74               newgroup        doit=newgroup       Create group and log message.
75               newgroup        log=newgroup        Log message.
76               rmgroup         verify-*=rmgroup    PGP verify, remove group and log message.
77               checkgroups     doit=checkgroups    Process and log message.
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79       controlbatch.log
80           The controlbatch program appends all status messages to this file.
81           It is rotated by scanlogs.
82
83       errlog
84           This file contains the standard output and standard error of any
85           program spawned by innd, such as channel feeds configured in
86           newsfeeds.  This file should normally be empty.  scanlogs will
87           print the 50 first lines of this log file if it is non-empty so
88           that they appear in daily Usenet reports generated by news.daily.
89           Then, scanlogs rotates this log file.
90
91       expire.log
92           By default, when news.daily is going to expire old news articles,
93           it writes the name of the program it invokes, followed by "start"
94           and the time it has started.  Any output from that program is then
95           written, indented by four spaces.  Then, the name of the program is
96           written, followed by "end" and the time it has ended.
97
98           Programs called, if needed, are in order:  expireover, ctlinnd
99           (with the "lowmark" option), expirerm and expire.  Removed articles
100           are listed in expire.list and low marks for each newsgroup (that is
101           to say the number of the oldest article available in the newsgroup)
102           in expire.lastlowmark.
103
104           After the expiry process, scanlogs rotates expire.log.
105
106       innfeed.log
107           When debug-level is set in innfeed.conf, innfeed appends debugging
108           messages to this file.  Note that the name of this file can be
109           changed with the log-file parameter in innfeed.conf.  Be that as it
110           may, the right log file is rotated by scanlogs.
111
112           innfeed also logs its status in innfeed.status (or the name set in
113           status-file) if gen-html is set to false but this log file is not
114           processed by scanlogs.
115
116       news
117           This file logs articles received by innd.  Typical lines are:
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119               Aug 25 13:37:41.839 + news.server.fr <cancel.4066@foo.com> 1658 a.peer other.server.org inpaths!
120               Aug 25 13:37:41.839 c news.server.fr <cancel.4066@foo.com> Cancelling <m070725@foo.com>
121               Aug 25 13:37:54.638 - a.peer <23k82@bar.net> 437 Poison newsgroup
122
123           The first one indicates that an article from "news.server.fr" has
124           been accepted ("+").  Its Message-ID is "<cancel.4066@foo.com>" and
125           we will send the article to two peers ("a.peer" and
126           "other.server.org", as specified in newsfeeds) and "inpaths!" (see
127           ninpaths for more details about it).  The second line mentions that
128           this previous article is a cancel message ("c") for
129           "<m070725@foo.com>" and that it has been processed (inndeed,
130           controlchan processes all control articles except for cancels which
131           are handled by innd).  The third line indicates that the article
132           whose Message-ID is "<23k82@bar.net>" has been rejected ("-")
133           because it is posted to a poison newsgroup (a Perl or a Python
134           filter located in pathfilter must have brought that reject along).
135
136           See the "LOGGING" section of the innd(8) man page for more
137           information about the format of this log file.
138
139           innreport summarizes the rejected articles reported in this file
140           and scanlogs rotates it.
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142       news.crit
143           All critical error messages issued by innd are appended to this
144           file via syslog.  This log file should normally be empty.  scanlogs
145           will print the first 50 lines of this log file if it is non-empty
146           so that they appear in daily Usenet reports generated by
147           news.daily.  Then, scanlogs rotates this log file.
148
149           You should have the following line in your system syslog.conf file,
150           using a tab character for the delimiter:
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152               news.crit           <pathlog>/news.crit
153
154           (A typical entry is shown; it should agree with pathlog in inn.conf
155           and be tab-delimited.)
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157       news.err
158           All major error messages issued by innd are appended to this file
159           via syslog.  This log file should normally be empty.  scanlogs will
160           print the first 50 lines of this log file if it is non-empty so
161           that they appear in daily Usenet reports generated by news.daily.
162           Then, scanlogs rotates this log file.
163
164           You should have the following line in your system syslog.conf file,
165           using a tab character for the delimiter:
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167               news.err            <pathlog>/news.err
168
169           (A typical entry is shown; it should agree with pathlog in inn.conf
170           and be tab-delimited.)
171
172       news.notice
173           All standard error messages and status messages issued by innd,
174           innfeed, nnrpd and some other programs are appended to this file
175           via syslog.  scanlogs uses the Perl script innreport to summarize
176           this file.  innreport will also print the first max_unknown unknown
177           lines of this log file if such unrecognized lines are found in
178           news.notice so that they appear in daily Usenet reports generated
179           by news.daily.  This parameter can be set in innreport.conf.  Then,
180           scanlogs rotates this log file.
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182           You should have the following line in your system syslog.conf file,
183           using a tab character for the delimiter:
184
185               news.notice         <pathlog>/news.notice
186
187           (A typical entry is shown; it should agree with pathlog in inn.conf
188           and be tab-delimited.)
189
190       nntpsend.log
191           The nntpsend program appends all status messages to this file.  It
192           is rotated by scanlogs.
193
194       perl-nocem.log
195           The perl-nocem program appends all status messages to this file if
196           "Sys::Syslog" is not used (otherwise, such messages are appended to
197           news.notice).  It is rotated by scanlogs.
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199       send-ihave.log
200           The send-ihave program appends all status messages to this file.
201           It is rotated by scanlogs.
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203       send-nntp.log
204           The send-nntp program appends all status messages to this file.  It
205           is rotated by scanlogs.
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207       send-uucp.log
208           The send-uucp program appends all status messages to this file.  It
209           is rotated by scanlogs.
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211       unwanted.log
212           This log maintains a count of the number of articles that were
213           rejected because they were posted to newsgroups that do not exist
214           at the local site.  This file is updated by innreport while
215           processing the news.notice log file and it is maintained in reverse
216           numeric order (the most popular rejected group first).  This file
217           is not rotated so as to keep the count of the articles posted to
218           newsgroups which are absent from the active file of the news
219           server.
220
221           Note that logtrash has to be set to true in inn.conf for this file
222           to be generated.
223
224       Finally, these files are also rotated by scanlogs, if they exist, but
225       their contents are not summarized.  Here are their names:
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227           badcontrol.log
228           badpgp.log
229           failedpgp.log
230
231       They can be used by programs which PGP verify articles.
232

HISTORY

234       Written by Landon Curt Noll <chongo@toad.com> and Rich $alz
235       <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.  Rewritten and converted to POD
236       by Julien Elie.
237
238       $Id: newslog.pod 9903 2015-06-20 17:20:46Z iulius $
239

SEE ALSO

241       control.ctl(5), ctlinnd(8), expire(8), expireover(8), expirerm(8),
242       inn.conf(5), innd(8), innfeed.conf(5), innreport(8), innreport.conf(5),
243       news.daily(8), nnrpd(8), nntpsend(8), scanlogs(8), send-nntp(8),
244       send-uucp(8), syslog.conf(5), tally.control(8).
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248INN 2.6.3                         2015-09-12                        NEWSLOG(5)
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