newslog - Description of INN log files
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 <[email protected]>
1658 a.peer other.server.org inpaths!
Aug 25 13:37:41.839 c news.server.fr <[email protected]>
Cancelling <[email protected]>
Aug 25 13:37:54.638 - a.peer <[email protected]> 437 Poison newsgroup
The first one indicates that an article from "news.server.fr" has
been accepted ("+"). Its Message-ID is
"<[email protected]>" 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
"<[email protected]>" and that it has been processed
(indeed, controlchan processes all control articles except for
cancels which are handled by innd). The third line indicates that
the article whose Message-ID is "<[email protected]>" 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-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.
Written by Landon Curt Noll <
[email protected]> and Rich $alz
<
[email protected]> for InterNetNews. Rewritten and converted to POD by
Julien Elie.
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-ihave(8),
send-uucp(8),
syslog.conf(5),
tally.control(8).