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)