Discussion:
duplicate mail logs
(too old to reply)
Sven Joachim
2008-12-10 09:10:10 UTC
Permalink
I've just noticed that my MTA logs into both mail.info and mail.log:

,----
| % LANG=C diff -s /var/log/mail.{info,log}
| Files /var/log/mail.info and /var/log/mail.log are identical
`----

This is on sid with postfix as MTA and rsyslog as syslogd. Since I
didn't change the default configuration for these logs AFAIK, this seems
to be a bug. Anyone else seeing this with a different MTA and/or
different syslogd?

I'd like to file a bug report, but don't know which package to blame.

Sven
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Bob Cox
2008-12-10 10:40:11 UTC
Permalink
Post by Sven Joachim
,----
| % LANG=C diff -s /var/log/mail.{info,log}
| Files /var/log/mail.info and /var/log/mail.log are identical
`----
This is on sid with postfix as MTA and rsyslog as syslogd. Since I
didn't change the default configuration for these logs AFAIK, this seems
to be a bug. Anyone else seeing this with a different MTA and/or
different syslogd?
I'd like to file a bug report, but don't know which package to blame.
I am seeing the same running postfix on Lenny. I have never touched any
logging options AFAIK. I don't think this is 'new' behaviour:

gaia:/home/bob# ls -la /var/log/mail* | egrep '\.log|\.info'
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 508733 2008-12-10 10:15 /var/log/mail.info
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 1030017 2008-12-07 05:23 /var/log/mail.info.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 148223 2008-11-30 06:24 /var/log/mail.info.2.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 129061 2008-11-23 06:11 /var/log/mail.info.3.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 119684 2008-11-16 05:50 /var/log/mail.info.4.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 508733 2008-12-10 10:15 /var/log/mail.log
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 1030017 2008-12-07 05:23 /var/log/mail.log.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 148223 2008-11-30 06:24 /var/log/mail.log.2.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 129061 2008-11-23 06:11 /var/log/mail.log.3.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 119684 2008-11-16 05:50 /var/log/mail.log.4.gz
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Johann Spies
2008-12-10 12:10:06 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bob Cox
I am seeing the same running postfix on Lenny. I have never touched any
I agree. I don't use postfix but dovecot and spamassassin both use
these logs and for years I have seen these parallel logs. I don't
know why it is necessary.

Regards
Johann
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Sven Joachim
2008-12-10 12:10:07 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bob Cox
Post by Sven Joachim
,----
| % LANG=C diff -s /var/log/mail.{info,log}
| Files /var/log/mail.info and /var/log/mail.log are identical
`----
This is on sid with postfix as MTA and rsyslog as syslogd. Since I
didn't change the default configuration for these logs AFAIK, this seems
to be a bug. Anyone else seeing this with a different MTA and/or
different syslogd?
I'd like to file a bug report, but don't know which package to blame.
I am seeing the same running postfix on Lenny. I have never touched any
gaia:/home/bob# ls -la /var/log/mail* | egrep '\.log|\.info'
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 508733 2008-12-10 10:15 /var/log/mail.info
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 1030017 2008-12-07 05:23 /var/log/mail.info.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 148223 2008-11-30 06:24 /var/log/mail.info.2.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 129061 2008-11-23 06:11 /var/log/mail.info.3.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 119684 2008-11-16 05:50 /var/log/mail.info.4.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 508733 2008-12-10 10:15 /var/log/mail.log
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 1030017 2008-12-07 05:23 /var/log/mail.log.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 148223 2008-11-30 06:24 /var/log/mail.log.2.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 129061 2008-11-23 06:11 /var/log/mail.log.3.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 119684 2008-11-16 05:50 /var/log/mail.log.4.gz
Do you have any /var/log/mail.{warn,err}* files? In /etc/rsyslog.conf I
find the following entries:

,----
| # First some standard log files. Log by facility.
| #
| auth,authpriv.* /var/log/auth.log
| *.*;auth,authpriv.none -/var/log/syslog
| #cron.* /var/log/cron.log
| daemon.* -/var/log/daemon.log
| kern.* -/var/log/kern.log
| lpr.* -/var/log/lpr.log
| mail.* -/var/log/mail.log
| user.* -/var/log/user.log
|
| #
| # Logging for the mail system. Split it up so that
| # it is easy to write scripts to parse these files.
| #
| mail.info -/var/log/mail.info
| mail.warn -/var/log/mail.warn
| mail.err /var/log/mail.err
`----
Post by Bob Cox
From this I would assume that mail.log is a catch-all file, errors go
to mail.err, warnings to mail.warn and information to mail.info.
However, when I look into the files, the warnings and errors also show
up in mail.info which makes this file quite pointless.

Anyone here using exim4 rather than postfix who sees (or does not see)
that?

Sven
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Bob Cox
2008-12-10 12:20:12 UTC
Permalink
Post by Sven Joachim
Post by Bob Cox
Post by Sven Joachim
,----
| % LANG=C diff -s /var/log/mail.{info,log}
| Files /var/log/mail.info and /var/log/mail.log are identical
`----
This is on sid with postfix as MTA and rsyslog as syslogd. Since I
didn't change the default configuration for these logs AFAIK, this seems
to be a bug. Anyone else seeing this with a different MTA and/or
different syslogd?
I'd like to file a bug report, but don't know which package to blame.
I am seeing the same running postfix on Lenny. I have never touched any
gaia:/home/bob# ls -la /var/log/mail* | egrep '\.log|\.info'
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 508733 2008-12-10 10:15 /var/log/mail.info
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 1030017 2008-12-07 05:23 /var/log/mail.info.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 148223 2008-11-30 06:24 /var/log/mail.info.2.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 129061 2008-11-23 06:11 /var/log/mail.info.3.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 119684 2008-11-16 05:50 /var/log/mail.info.4.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 508733 2008-12-10 10:15 /var/log/mail.log
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 1030017 2008-12-07 05:23 /var/log/mail.log.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 148223 2008-11-30 06:24 /var/log/mail.log.2.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 129061 2008-11-23 06:11 /var/log/mail.log.3.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 119684 2008-11-16 05:50 /var/log/mail.log.4.gz
Do you have any /var/log/mail.{warn,err}* files?
Yes, I have those as well:

gaia:/home/bob# ls -la /var/log/mail*
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 0 2008-11-24 06:25 /var/log/mail.err
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 98 2008-11-23 14:51 /var/log/mail.err.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 520960 2008-12-10 12:00 /var/log/mail.info
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 1030017 2008-12-07 05:23 /var/log/mail.info.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 148223 2008-11-30 06:24 /var/log/mail.info.2.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 129061 2008-11-23 06:11 /var/log/mail.info.3.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 119684 2008-11-16 05:50 /var/log/mail.info.4.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 520960 2008-12-10 12:00 /var/log/mail.log
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 1030017 2008-12-07 05:23 /var/log/mail.log.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 148223 2008-11-30 06:24 /var/log/mail.log.2.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 129061 2008-11-23 06:11 /var/log/mail.log.3.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 119684 2008-11-16 05:50 /var/log/mail.log.4.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 4236 2008-12-10 06:27 /var/log/mail.warn
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 6583 2008-12-07 05:20 /var/log/mail.warn.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 1347 2008-11-30 05:50 /var/log/mail.warn.2.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 493 2008-11-22 01:30 /var/log/mail.warn.3.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 739 2008-11-15 06:29 /var/log/mail.warn.4.gz
[...]

Yes, my /etc/rsyslog.conf is the same.
Post by Sven Joachim
From this I would assume that mail.log is a catch-all file, errors go
to mail.err, warnings to mail.warn and information to mail.info.
However, when I look into the files, the warnings and errors also show
up in mail.info which makes this file quite pointless.
That certainly seems to be the case.
Post by Sven Joachim
Anyone here using exim4 rather than postfix who sees (or does not see)
that?
Sven
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Bob Cox. Stoke Gifford, near Bristol, UK.
Please reply to the list only. Do NOT send copies directly to me.
Debian on the NSLU2: http://bobcox.com/slug/
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Celejar
2008-12-10 15:50:11 UTC
Permalink
On Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:59:54 +0100
Sven Joachim <***@gmx.de> wrote:

...
Post by Sven Joachim
Anyone here using exim4 rather than postfix who sees (or does not see)
that?
I'm using exim4 on Sid:

$ LANG=C diff -s /var/log/mail.{info,log}
Files /var/log/mail.info and /var/log/mail.log are identical
Post by Sven Joachim
Sven
Celejar
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Sven Joachim
2008-12-10 16:20:07 UTC
Permalink
Post by Celejar
On Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:59:54 +0100
...
Post by Sven Joachim
Anyone here using exim4 rather than postfix who sees (or does not see)
that?
$ LANG=C diff -s /var/log/mail.{info,log}
Files /var/log/mail.info and /var/log/mail.log are identical
Thanks, I opened a bug against rsyslog: http://bugs.debian.org/508376.

Sven
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