NAME

       newslog - description of Usenet log files

DESCRIPTION

       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.

HISTORY

       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.

SEE ALSO

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

                                                                                       NEWSLOG(5)