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(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:
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.The controlbatch program appends all status messages to this file. It is rotated by scanlogs.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.)
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 nntpsend program appends all status messages to this file. It is rotated by scanlogs.
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.
The send-ihave program appends all status messages to this file. It is rotated by scanlogs.
The send-uucp program appends all status messages to this file. It is rotated by scanlogs.
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 <chongo@toad.com> and Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> 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).
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