Provided by: inn2_2.7.2~20240212-1build3_amd64 bug

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 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 <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 (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
           "<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 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.)

           The minus sign as the first character for the path to news.notice instructs syslogd
           not to synchronize the log file to disk every time there is a new log entry (it
           otherwise degrades performance).  Depending on the syslog daemon you are using, log
           synchronization may already be disabled by default (that is for instance the case for
           rsyslogd or syslog-ng).

       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.

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.

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-ihave(8), send-uucp(8), syslog.conf(5), tally.control(8).