This chapter ties together references to all the logging-related config settings documented elsewhere.
This is the most general type of logging, and provides general info, progress and error messages of varying (and configurable) verbosity from within the mailserver.
Logger messages are tagged with their severity level (Error, Warning, Info, Trace, etc) and if you were looking for indications of a problem, this is where you would start.
Mailismus logging is performed by the GreyLog framework, which is described
here.
The following trace logs are generated by Mailismus:
- Dispatcher logfiles:
Each Dispatcher produces its own logfile - see the
conf/logging.xml
config file for their settings.
The initial Mailismus settings will put these logfiles in the directory
%DIRLOG%/trace
(see naf.xml section of NAF Guide).
- NAF bootup logfile:
While the NAF framework is booting up and creating all the configured Dispatchers, it uses this logfile to report its progress.
This is based on the
GreyLog
default
logger, which the initial Mailismus settings (see
conf/logging.xml)
render as
./mta-boot.log
(ie. the root directory of the mail server, which is where it runs from)
This logfile generally lies dormant once bootup has completed, and all logging output transfers to the relevant Dispatcher logfiles.
- Stdio capture:
This simply refers to standard-output rather than a logging framework logfile, and the initial Mailismus settings merge its output into the NAF bootup logfile.
You should examine the Dispatcher logfiles on startup whenever you modify the config, as they display the final settings and can confirm that the config was parsed as expected.
Whereas the logfiles provide an internal application-oriented view of what's going on, the transcripts record the protocol dialogue, and so they provide an external functional view.
They can therefore be evaluated by somebody who understands the relevant protocol (SMTP, IMAP or POP3), but doesn't necessarily have any knowledge of how Mailismus works.
The following transcripts can be logged by Mailismus:
- SMTP-Server transcript:
This is specified in the SMTP server config block (see the
transcript
setting in §4.4.4) and its format is described in §4.4.7
- SMTP-Client transcript:
This is specified in the SMTP client config block (see the
transcript
setting in §4.5.3) and as another SMTP transcript, it obviously has the same format as the Server one.
- IMAP-Server transcript:
This is specified in the IMAP server config block (see the
transcript
setting in §4.7.3).
- POP-Server transcript:
This is specified in the POP3 server config block (see the
transcript
setting in §4.8.3).
- POP-Client transcript:
This is specified in the POP3-Retriever config block (see the
transcript
setting in §4.9.1).
The initial Mailismus settings will put these transcripts in the directory
%DIRLOG%/transcripts.
Transcripts can generate huge volumes of data, and you would normally only enable them when you're troubleshooting suspected protocol issues, or want to get a snapshot of the some typical SMTP traffic after making a config change.
These provide a formal record of all SMTP messages handled by the Mailismus MTA, and contain one line per message summarising its final outcome.
Unlike the ephemeral troubleshooting-oriented nature of the trace logs and transcripts, the audit logs are intended to be suitable for permanent archival, and if necessary to satisfy legal record-keeping requirements.
The following instances of this logfile are generated by Mailismus:
- Delivered Messages:
This records the final status of all successfully delivered messages,
and the Mailismus Delivery task creates it as configured by the
audit
setting in its config block - see §4.5.2.
The audit timestamps of delivered messages are written after the completion of their delivery batch.
- Bounced Messages:
This records the final status of all messages we failed to deliver,
and the Mailismus Reporting task creates it as configured by the
audit
setting in its config block - see §4.6.2.
The audit timestamps of bounced messages are written after the completion of their NDR-generation batch.
The initial Mailismus settings will put these logs under
%DIRLOG%/audit.
