Ubuntu Manpage: newslog - description of Usenet log files

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.

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DESCRIPTION

HISTORY

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