NEWSLOG(5)



NEWSLOG(5)                InterNetNews Documentation                NEWSLOG(5)

NAME
       newslog - Description of INN log files

DESCRIPTION
       Most log files created by Usenet programs reside in the pathlog
       directory set in inn.conf and have a ".log" extension.  Several
       versions are usually kept with an additional extension such as .1, .2,
       etc. -- the higher the number, the older the log.  These old versions
       are stored in pathlog/OLD; they may be compressed and thus may have a
       ".1.gz", ".2.gz", etc. extension, up to ".nn.gz" where "nn" is the
       number of old logs kept by scanlogs which is set by logcycles in
       inn.conf.

       The scanlogs script and related utilities are responsible for rotating
       and compressing these files.  Some log files always have data (like
       news.notice), others only have data if there is a problem (like
       news.err), and others are only created if a particular program is used
       (like send-uucp.log used by send-uucp) or if a configuration parameter
       is set (like innfeed.log used by innfeed when debug-level is set in
       innfeed.conf).

       Besides, the innstat script monitors the size of all log files.

       Here are the log files used by INN:

       control.log
           This file maintains a count of the number of newgroup and rmgroup
           control messages seen for each newsgroup.  The count is of the
           number of control messages with the indicated arguments, regardless
           if they were actually processed.  All control arguments, including
           invalid ones, are counted.  An example of lines which can be found
           in that log file is:

               3 Control: newgroup foo.bar moderated
               3 Control: rmgroup misc.removed
               1 Control: newgroup misc.created

           This file is updated by tally.control, which is invoked by scanlogs
           if either one of these two log files exists in pathlog:

               newgroup.log
               rmgroup.log

           These two log files contain a summary line describing the control
           message and the action taken by controlchan, followed by the
           article indented by four spaces, and a blank line.  Whereas these
           files are rotated, control.log is not rotated so as to keep the
           count of seen control messages.

           Note that other control log files are also rotated by scanlogs, if
           they exist, but their contents are not summarized.  Here are their
           names:

               checkgroups.log
               default.log
               ihave.log
               miscctl.log
               sendme.log
               sendsys.log
               senduuname.log
               version.log

           In order to create these files, the <type> and <action> fields of
           relevant control.ctl entries should be correctly set.  For
           instance:

               Type            Action              Meaning
               ----            ------              -------
               all             log=miscctl         Log all messages by default.
               newgroup        doit=newgroup       Create group and log message.
               newgroup        log=newgroup        Log message.
               rmgroup         verify-*=rmgroup    PGP verify, remove group and log message.
               checkgroups     doit=checkgroups    Process and log message.

       controlbatch.log
           The controlbatch program appends all status messages to this file.
           It is rotated by scanlogs.

       errlog
           This file contains the standard output and standard error of any
           program spawned by innd, such as channel feeds configured in
           newsfeeds.  This file should normally be empty.  scanlogs will
           print the 50 first lines of this log file if it is non-empty so
           that they appear in daily Usenet reports generated by news.daily.
           Then, scanlogs rotates this log file.

       expire.log
           By default, when news.daily is going to expire old news articles,
           it writes the name of the program it invokes, followed by "start"
           and the time it has started.  Any output from that program is then
           written, indented by four spaces.  Then, the name of the program is
           written, followed by "end" and the time it has ended.

           Programs called, if needed, are in order:  expireover, ctlinnd
           (with the "lowmark" option), expirerm and expire.  Removed articles
           are listed in expire.list and low marks for each newsgroup (that is
           to say the number of the oldest article available in the newsgroup)
           in expire.lastlowmark.

           After the expiry process, scanlogs rotates expire.log.

       innfeed.log
           When debug-level is set in innfeed.conf, innfeed appends debugging
           messages to this file.  Note that the name of this file can be
           changed with the log-file parameter in innfeed.conf.  Be that as it
           may, the right log file is rotated by scanlogs.

           innfeed also logs its status in innfeed.status (or the name set in
           status-file) if gen-html is set to false but this log file is not
           processed by scanlogs.

       news
           This file logs articles received by innd.  Typical lines are:

               Aug 25 13:37:41.839 + news.server.fr <cancel.4066@foo.com> 1658 a.peer other.server.org inpaths!
               Aug 25 13:37:41.839 c news.server.fr <cancel.4066@foo.com> Cancelling <m070725@foo.com>
               Aug 25 13:37:54.638 - a.peer <23k82@bar.net> 437 Poison newsgroup

           The first one indicates that an article from "news.server.fr" has
           been accepted ("+").  Its Message-ID is "<cancel.4066@foo.com>" and
           we will send the article to two peers ("a.peer" and
           "other.server.org", as specified in newsfeeds) and "inpaths!" (see
           ninpaths for more details about it).  The second line mentions that
           this previous article is a cancel message ("c") for
           "<m070725@foo.com>" and that it has been processed (inndeed,
           controlchan processes all control articles except for cancels which
           are handled by innd).  The third line indicates that the article
           whose Message-ID is "<23k82@bar.net>" has been rejected ("-")
           because it is posted to a poison newsgroup (a Perl or a Python
           filter located in pathfilter must have brought that reject along).

           See the "LOGGING" section of the innd(8) man page for more
           information about the format of this log file.

           innreport summarizes the rejected articles reported in this file
           and scanlogs rotates it.

       news.crit
           All critical error messages issued by innd are appended to this
           file via syslog.  This log file should normally be empty.  scanlogs
           will print the first 50 lines of this log file if it is non-empty
           so that they appear in daily Usenet reports generated by
           news.daily.  Then, scanlogs rotates this log file.

           You should have the following line in your system syslog.conf file,
           using a tab character for the delimiter:

               news.crit           <pathlog>/news.crit

           (A typical entry is shown; it should agree with pathlog in inn.conf
           and be tab-delimited.)

       news.err
           All major error messages issued by innd are appended to this file
           via syslog.  This log file should normally be empty.  scanlogs will
           print the first 50 lines of this log file if it is non-empty so
           that they appear in daily Usenet reports generated by news.daily.
           Then, scanlogs rotates this log file.

           You should have the following line in your system syslog.conf file,
           using a tab character for the delimiter:

               news.err            <pathlog>/news.err

           (A typical entry is shown; it should agree with pathlog in inn.conf
           and be tab-delimited.)

       news.notice
           All standard error messages and status messages issued by innd,
           innfeed, nnrpd and some other programs are appended to this file
           via syslog.  scanlogs uses the Perl script innreport to summarize
           this file.  innreport will also print the first max_unknown unknown
           lines of this log file if such unrecognized lines are found in
           news.notice so that they appear in daily Usenet reports generated
           by news.daily.  This parameter can be set in innreport.conf.  Then,
           scanlogs rotates this log file.

           You should have the following line in your system syslog.conf file,
           using a tab character for the delimiter:

               news.notice         <pathlog>/news.notice

           (A typical entry is shown; it should agree with pathlog in inn.conf
           and be tab-delimited.)

       nntpsend.log
           The nntpsend program appends all status messages to this file.  It
           is rotated by scanlogs.

       perl-nocem.log
           The perl-nocem program appends all status messages to this file if
           "Sys::Syslog" is not used (otherwise, such messages are appended to
           news.notice).  It is rotated by scanlogs.

       send-ihave.log
           The send-ihave program appends all status messages to this file.
           It is rotated by scanlogs.

       send-nntp.log
           The send-nntp program appends all status messages to this file.  It
           is rotated by scanlogs.

       send-uucp.log
           The send-uucp program appends all status messages to this file.  It
           is rotated by scanlogs.

       unwanted.log
           This log maintains a count of the number of articles that were
           rejected because they were posted to newsgroups that do not exist
           at the local site.  This file is updated by innreport while
           processing the news.notice log file and it is maintained in reverse
           numeric order (the most popular rejected group first).  This file
           is not rotated so as to keep the count of the articles posted to
           newsgroups which are absent from the active file of the news
           server.

           Note that logtrash has to be set to true in inn.conf for this file
           to be generated.

       Finally, these files are also rotated by scanlogs, if they exist, but
       their contents are not summarized.  Here are their names:

           badcontrol.log
           badpgp.log
           failedpgp.log

       They can be used by programs which PGP verify articles.

HISTORY
       Written by Landon Curt Noll <chongo@toad.com> and Rich $alz
       <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews.  Rewritten and converted to POD
       by Julien Elie.

       $Id: newslog.pod 9903 2015-06-20 17:20:46Z iulius $

SEE ALSO
       control.ctl(5), ctlinnd(8), expire(8), expireover(8), expirerm(8),
       inn.conf(5), innd(8), innfeed.conf(5), innreport(8), innreport.conf(5),
       news.daily(8), nnrpd(8), nntpsend(8), scanlogs(8), send-nntp(8),
       send-uucp(8), syslog.conf(5), tally.control(8).

INN 2.6.4                         2015-09-20                        NEWSLOG(5)

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