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 entire contents of this log file if it is non-empty so
that it appears 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 entire contents of this log file if it is non-empty
so that it appears 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. innreport
will print the first max_unknown lines of this log file if it is
non-empty 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.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. 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 8959 2010-02-08 20:53:30Z 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).