newslog - description of Usenet log files
Most log files created by Usenet programs reside in the
/var/log/news directory 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. The older
versions are compressed.
The scanlogs script and related utilities (see
newslog(8)) are responsible for rotating and compressing these
files.
Some log files always have data, others only have data if there is
a problem, and others are only created if a particular program is used or
configuration parameter is set. The innstat script (see
newslog(8)) monitors the size of all log files.
The following files will only accumulate data under the direction
of control.ctl(5):
control.log miscctl.log newgroup.log rmgroup.log
unwanted.log
In order to create these files, the ``message'' and ``action'' fields of
control.ctl should be chosen from the following table:
Message Action Meaning
all log=miscctl Log all messages by default
default log=miscctl Log unknown messages
newgroup doit=newgroup Create group and log message
newgroup log=newgroup Log message
rmgroup doit=rmgroup Remove group and log message
rmgroup log=rmgroup Log message
``other'' doit=miscctl log and process the message
``other'' log=miscctl Log message
Here, ``other'' refers to any other control message such as:
checkgroups ihave sendme sendsys senduuname version
The following is a list of log files.
- 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 identical arguments, regardless if they were actually
processed. All control arguments, including invalid ones, are counted.
This file is updated by tally.control, which is invoked by
scanlogs if either the newgroup or rmgroup logs exist. This file is
not rotated.
- errlog
- This file contains the standard output and standard error of any program
spawned by innd(8). The most common programs are the
control-message handlers found in /usr/lib/news/control. This file
should be empty. Scanlogs will print the entire contents of this
log file if it is non-empty.
- expire.log
- By default, when news.daily is going to expire old news articles,
it writes the date to this file, followed by any output from
expire(8) and the ending date. All lines but the first are indented
four spaces.
- miscctl.log
- When control.ctl is configured as described above, all control
messages except newgroup and rmgroup are appended to this file by
writelog. There will be a summary line describing the message and
the action taken, followed by the article indented by four spaces, and a
blank line.
- newgroup.log
- When control.ctl is configured as described above, all newgroup
messages are appended to this file using the same format as for
miscctl.log.
- news
- This file logs articles received by innd. Scanlogs
summarizes the rejected articles reported in this file.
- news.crit
- All critical error messages issued by innd are appended to this
file via syslog(3). This log file should be empty. Scanlogs
will print the entire contents of this log file if it is non-empty. You
should have the following line in your syslog.conf(5) file:
news.crit /var/log/news/news.crit
- news.err
- All major error messages issued by innd are appended to this file
via syslog. This log file should be empty. Scanlogs will
print the entire contents of this log file if it is non-empty. You should
have the following line in your syslog.conf file:
news.err /var/log/news/news.err
- news.notice
- All standard error messages and status messages issued by innd are
appended to this file via syslog. Scanlogs uses the
awk(1) script innlog.awk to summarize this file. You should
have the following line in your syslog.conf file:
news.notice /var/log/news/news.notice
- nntpsend.log
- The nntpsend(8) programs appends all status messages to this
file.
- rmgroup.log
- When control.ctl is configured as described above, all rmgroup
messages are appended to this file using the same format as for
miscctl.log.
- 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 tally.unwanted and maintained in
reverse numeric order (the most popular rejected group first). This file
is not rotated.
Written by Landon Curt Noll <chongo@toad.com> and Rich $alz
<rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews. This is revision 1.6, dated
1996/09/10.