








                 Log File Formats in C News


                       Geoff Collyer

                  Department of Statistics
                   University of Toronto





_I_n_t_r_o_d_u_c_t_i_o_n

     The two main log files in C news  are  _N_E_W_S_C_T_L/log  and
_N_E_W_S_C_T_L/errlog,  which  are the standard output and standard
error streams of _r_e_l_a_y_n_e_w_s.  _e_r_r_l_o_g should be empty; if not,
something  is seriously wrong, probably with your configura-
tion or with unencapsulated news arriving  mangled  courtesy
of some network.

_F_o_r_m_a_t_s

     _e_r_r_l_o_g is a copy of any error messages written on stan-
dard  error  by _r_e_l_a_y_n_e_w_s or its auxiliaries (including con-
trol messages programs).  There are no  timestamps  and  the
contents  obey  no  special format.  A non-empty _e_r_r_l_o_g is a
sign of trouble, which should be fixed promptly.

     _l_o_g is written in a stylised  format,  with  whitespace
separating the fields: date and time, to millisecond resolu-
tion  though  possibly  not  to  millisecond  accuracy;  the
machine  that sent us this article; a single-character clas-
sification code; the article's message-id; and code-specific
information.  For example,

Jun 30 03:32:18.960 utgpu + <1312@sunset.MATH.UCLA.EDU> mailrus dptcdc me
Jun 30 03:32:19.600 utgpu j <1312@sunset.MATH.UCLA.EDU> junked due to groups `alt.drugs'
Jul  3 18:55:35.492 utstat s <470@lexicon.com> utzoo-real
Jul  3 18:55:35.912 utstat i <8907031824.AA09129@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> utzoo-send-ids
Jul  4 06:40:22.395 jarvis.csri.toronto.edu + <0541.AA0541@worsel> utgpu
Jul  4 06:40:22.595 jarvis.csri.toronto.edu + <0549.AA0549@worsel> utgpu
Jul  4 07:00:26.565 jarvis.csri.toronto.edu + <295@lancelot> utgpu
Jul  4 07:17:51.537 utgpu - <8258@saturn.ucsc.edu> duplicate
Jul  4 07:17:51.697 utgpu - <1675@neoucom.UUCP> duplicate
Jul  4 07:17:51.757 utgpu - <89Jul4.043358edt.10369@neat.ai.toronto.edu> duplicate
Jul  4 17:23:28.234 utgpu - <2537@quanta.eng.ohio-state.edu> no subscribed groups in `rec.arts.sf-lovers,rec.arts.startrek,rec.arts.drwho'
Jul  4 19:17:15.785 utgpu - <89Jul4.190330edt.5559@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> all groups `list.humanist' excluded in active


     The classification codes are:



                       March 26, 1991





                           - 2 -


c  |  c  |  c  cfB  |  lw(2.75i)  |  l  .    code    article
disposition     code-specific          information         _
-       rejected        reason         for         rejection
+       accepted        list  of sites to which this article
was relayed  j       T{  accepted  but  filed  in  the  _j_u_n_k
pseudo-newsgroup;  preceding  line  will be + T}      reason
for junking i       generated in response to an  _i_h_a_v_e  con-
trol  message       list  of sites to which this article was
relayed s       generated in response to  a  _s_e_n_d_m_e  control
message       list  of  sites  to  which  this  article  was
relayed


     Beware   that    control-message    handlers    inherit
_r_e_l_a_y_n_e_w_s's  standard  output,  so if any of them natters on
standard output (we believe none of ours does), the  natter-
ing will appear in _l_o_g.








































                       March 26, 1991


