control.ctl(5) [debian man page]
CONTROL.CTL(5) File Formats Manual CONTROL.CTL(5) NAME
control.ctl - specify handling of Usenet control messages DESCRIPTION
The file /etc/news/control.ctl is used to determine what action is taken when a control message is received. It is read by the parsecon- trol script, which is called by all the control scripts. (For an explanation of how the control scripts are invoked, see innd(8).) The file consists of a series of lines; blank lines and lines beginning with a number sign (``#'') are ignored. All other lines consist of four fields separated by a colon: message:from:newsgroups:action The first field is the name of the message for which this line is valid. It should be either the name of the control message, or the word ``all'' to mean that it is valid for all messages. The second field is a shell-style pattern that matches the email address of the person posting the message. (The poster's address is first converted to lowercase.) The matching is done using the shell's case statement; see sh (1) for details. If the control message is ``newgroup'' or ``rmgroup'' then the third field specifies the shell-style pattern that must match the group being created or removed. If the control message is of a different type, then this field is ignored. The fourth field specifies what action to take if this line is selected for the message. The following actions are understood: doit The action requested by the control message should be performed. In most cases the control script will also send mail to usenet. doifarg If the control message has an argument, this is treated as a ``doit'' action. If no argument was given, it is treated as a ``mail'' entry. This is used in ``sendsys'' entries script so that a site can request its own newsfeeds(5) entry by posting a ``sendsys mysite'' article. On the other hand, sendsys ``bombs'' ask that the entire newsfeeds file be sent to a forged reply-to address; by using ``doifarg'' such messages will not be processed automatically. doit=file The action is performed, but a log entry is written to the specified log file, file. If file is the word ``mail'' then the record is mailed. A null string is equivalent to /dev/null. A pathname that starts with a slash is taken as the absolute filename to use as the log. All other pathnames are written to /var/log/news/file.log. The log is written by writelog (see newslog(8)). drop No action is taken; the message is ignored. log A one-line log notice is sent to standard error. Innd normally directs this to the file /var/log/news/errlog. log=file A log entry is written to the specified log file, file, which is interpreted as described above. mail A mail message is sent to the news administrator. Lines are matched in order; the last match found in the file is the one that is used. For example, with the following three lines: newgroup:*:*:drop newgroup:tale@*.uu.net:comp.*|misc.*|news.*|rec.*|sci.*|soc.*|talk.*:doit newgroup:kre@munnari.oz.au:aus.*:mail A newgroup coming from ``tale'' at a UUNET machine will be honored if it is in the mainstream Usenet hierarchy. If ``kre'' posts a new- group message creating ``aus.foo'', then mail will be sent. All other newgroup messages are ignored. HISTORY
Written by Rich $alz <rsalz@uunet.uu.net> for InterNetNews. This is revision 1.8, dated 1996/09/06. SEE ALSO
innd(8), newsfeeds(5), scanlogs(8). CONTROL.CTL(5)
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NEWSLOG(5) File Formats Manual NEWSLOG(5) NAME
newslog - description of Usenet log files DESCRIPTION
Most log files created by Usenet programs reside in the <pathlog in inn.conf> 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 con- trol-message handlers found in <pathcontrol in inn.conf>. 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 spa- ces, 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 mis- cctl.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. (A typical entry is shown; it should agree with <pathlog in inn.conf>) news.crit <pathlog in inn.conf>/news.crit news.err All major 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: (A typical entry is shown; it should agree with <pathlog in inn.conf>) news.err <pathlog in inn.conf>/news.err news.notice All standard error messages and status messages issued by innd are appended to this file via syslog(3). Scanlogs uses the perl(1) script innreport(8) to summarize this file. You should have the following line in your syslog.conf(5) file: (A typical entry is shown; it should agree with <pathlog in inn.conf>) news.notice <pathlog in inn.conf>/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 misc- ctl.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 1.6.6.1, dated 2000/08/17. SEE ALSO
control.ctl(5), ctlinnd(8), expire(8), inn.conf(5), innd(8), news.daily(8), nntpsend(8), newslog(8). NEWSLOG(5)