1NEWSLOG(5) InterNetNews Documentation NEWSLOG(5)
2
6 newslog - Description of INN log files
7
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 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 Besides, the innstat script monitors the size of all log files.
27 Here are the log files used by INN:
29 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:
37 3 Control: newgroup foo.bar moderated
39 3 Control: rmgroup misc.removed
40 1 Control: newgroup misc.created
41 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 newgroup.log
46 rmgroup.log
47 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 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 checkgroups.log
59 default.log
60 ihave.log
61 miscctl.log
62 sendme.log
63 sendsys.log
64 senduuname.log
65 version.log
66 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 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
77 and log message.
78 checkgroups doit=checkgroups Process and log message.
79 controlbatch.log
81 The controlbatch program appends all status messages to this file.
82 It is rotated by scanlogs.
83 errlog
85 This file contains the standard output and standard error of any
86 program spawned by innd, such as channel feeds configured in
87 newsfeeds. This file should normally be empty. scanlogs will
88 print the 50 first lines of this log file if it is non-empty so
89 that they appear in daily Usenet reports generated by news.daily.
90 Then, scanlogs rotates this log file.
91 expire.log
93 By default, when news.daily is going to expire old news articles,
94 it writes the name of the program it invokes, followed by "start"
95 and the time it has started. Any output from that program is then
96 written, indented by four spaces. Then, the name of the program is
97 written, followed by "end" and the time it has ended.
98 Programs called, if needed, are in order: expireover, ctlinnd (with
100 the "lowmark" option), expirerm and expire. Removed articles are
101 listed in expire.list and low marks for each newsgroup (that is to
102 say the number of the oldest article available in the newsgroup) in
103 expire.lastlowmark.
104 After the expiry process, scanlogs rotates expire.log.
106 innfeed.log
108 When debug-level is set in innfeed.conf, innfeed appends debugging
109 messages to this file. Note that the name of this file can be
110 changed with the log-file parameter in innfeed.conf. Be that as it
111 may, the right log file is rotated by scanlogs.
112 innfeed also logs its status in innfeed.status (or the name set in
114 status-file) if gen-html is set to false but this log file is not
115 processed by scanlogs.
116 news
118 This file logs articles received by innd. Typical lines are:
119 Aug 25 13:37:41.839 + news.server.fr <cancel.4066@foo.com>
121 1658 a.peer other.server.org inpaths!
122 Aug 25 13:37:41.839 c news.server.fr <cancel.4066@foo.com>
123 Cancelling <m070725@foo.com>
124 Aug 25 13:37:54.638 - a.peer <23k82@bar.net> 437 Poison newsgroup
125 The first one indicates that an article from "news.server.fr" has
127 been accepted ("+"). Its Message-ID is "<cancel.4066@foo.com>" and
128 we will send the article to two peers ("a.peer" and
129 "other.server.org", as specified in newsfeeds) and "inpaths!" (see
130 ninpaths for more details about it). The second line mentions that
131 this previous article is a cancel message ("c") for
132 "<m070725@foo.com>" and that it has been processed (indeed,
133 controlchan processes all control articles except for cancels which
134 are handled by innd). The third line indicates that the article
135 whose Message-ID is "<23k82@bar.net>" has been rejected ("-")
136 because it is posted to a poison newsgroup (a Perl or a Python
137 filter located in pathfilter must have brought that reject along).
138 See the "LOGGING" section of the innd(8) man page for more
140 information about the format of this log file.
141 innreport summarizes the rejected articles reported in this file
143 and scanlogs rotates it.
144 news.crit
146 All critical error messages issued by innd are appended to this
147 file via syslog. This log file should normally be empty. scanlogs
148 will print the first 50 lines of this log file if it is non-empty
149 so that they appear in daily Usenet reports generated by
150 news.daily. Then, scanlogs rotates this log file.
151 You should have the following line in your system syslog.conf file,
153 using a tab character for the delimiter:
154 news.crit <pathlog>/news.crit
156 (A typical entry is shown; it should agree with pathlog in inn.conf
158 and be tab-delimited.)
159 news.err
161 All major error messages issued by innd are appended to this file
162 via syslog. This log file should normally be empty. scanlogs will
163 print the first 50 lines of this log file if it is non-empty so
164 that they appear in daily Usenet reports generated by news.daily.
165 Then, scanlogs rotates this log file.
166 You should have the following line in your system syslog.conf file,
168 using a tab character for the delimiter:
169 news.err <pathlog>/news.err
171 (A typical entry is shown; it should agree with pathlog in inn.conf
173 and be tab-delimited.)
174 news.notice
176 All standard error messages and status messages issued by innd,
177 innfeed, nnrpd and some other programs are appended to this file
178 via syslog. scanlogs uses the Perl script innreport to summarize
179 this file. innreport will also print the first max_unknown unknown
180 lines of this log file if such unrecognized lines are found in
181 news.notice so that they appear in daily Usenet reports generated
182 by news.daily. This parameter can be set in innreport.conf. Then,
183 scanlogs rotates this log file.
184 You should have the following line in your system syslog.conf file,
186 using a tab character for the delimiter:
187 news.notice <pathlog>/news.notice
189 (A typical entry is shown; it should agree with pathlog in inn.conf
191 and be tab-delimited.)
192 nntpsend.log
194 The nntpsend program appends all status messages to this file. It
195 is rotated by scanlogs.
196 perl-nocem.log
198 The perl-nocem program appends all status messages to this file if
199 "Sys::Syslog" is not used (otherwise, such messages are appended to
200 news.notice). It is rotated by scanlogs.
201 send-ihave.log
203 The send-ihave program appends all status messages to this file.
204 It is rotated by scanlogs.
205 send-uucp.log
207 The send-uucp program appends all status messages to this file. It
208 is rotated by scanlogs.
209 unwanted.log
211 This log maintains a count of the number of articles that were
212 rejected because they were posted to newsgroups that do not exist
213 at the local site. This file is updated by innreport while
214 processing the news.notice log file and it is maintained in reverse
215 numeric order (the most popular rejected group first). This file
216 is not rotated so as to keep the count of the articles posted to
217 newsgroups which are absent from the active file of the news
218 server.
219 Note that logtrash has to be set to true in inn.conf for this file
221 to be generated.
222 Finally, these files are also rotated by scanlogs, if they exist, but
224 their contents are not summarized. Here are their names:
225 badcontrol.log
227 badpgp.log
228 failedpgp.log
229 They can be used by programs which PGP verify articles.
231
233 Written by Landon Curt Noll <chongo@toad.com> and Rich $alz
234 <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews. Rewritten and converted to POD
235 by Julien Elie.
236
238 control.ctl(5), ctlinnd(8), expire(8), expireover(8), expirerm(8),
239 inn.conf(5), innd(8), innfeed.conf(5), innreport(8), innreport.conf(5),
240 news.daily(8), nnrpd(8), nntpsend(8), scanlogs(8), send-ihave(8),
241 send-uucp(8), syslog.conf(5), tally.control(8).
242INN 2.7.1 2023-03-07 NEWSLOG(5)