DOKK / manpages / debian 10 / inn / newslog.5.en
NEWSLOG(5) File Formats Manual NEWSLOG(5)

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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
When control.ctl is configured as described above, all newgroup messages are appended to this file using the same format as for miscctl.log.
This file logs articles received by innd. Scanlogs summarizes the rejected articles reported in this file.
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
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
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
The nntpsend(8) programs appends all status messages to this file.
When control.ctl is configured as described above, all rmgroup messages are appended to this file using the same format as for miscctl.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.

control.ctl(5), ctlinnd(8), expire(8), innd(8), news.daily(8), nntpsend(8), newslog(8).