---
name: "scanlogs"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "inn"
version: "2.7.4-4"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/scanlogs"
---

# scanlogs(8)

Summarize and rotate INN log files

## NAME

scanlogs - Summarize and rotate INN log files

## SYNOPSIS

**scanlogs** \[**norotate**\]

## DESCRIPTION

**scanlogs** summarizes the information recorded in the INN log files which reside in the *pathlog* directory set in *inn.conf* (see [newslog(5)](/newslog/5.md) for further details about these log files).  It is normally invoked by the [news.daily(8)](/news.daily/8.md) script which performs daily server maintenance tasks.

It invokes `"ctlinnd flushlogs"` to close the news and error log files, rename them to add `".old"` to the file names and open fresh news and error logs; the *active* file is also flushed to disk, along with the history database.

By default, **scanlogs** rotates and cleans out the logs.  It keeps up to *logcycles* old compressed log files in *pathlog*/OLD (the *logcycles* parameter can be set in *inn.conf*).  **scanlogs** also keeps archives of the *active* file in this directory.

It invokes **tally.control** if *newgroup.log* or *rmgroup.log* exists in *pathlog* (see the *control.log* entry of [newslog(5)](/newslog/5.md) for more information about that).

**scanlogs** displays the first 50 lines of *errlog*, *news.err* and *news.crit*, if non-empty, and runs **innreport** to summarize the contents of *news*, *news.notice* and *perl-nocem.log*, and to update the *unwanted.log* file amongst other things (see more information about that in [innreport(8)](/innreport/8.md)).

## OPTIONS

Only one option is currently accepted:

- **norotate**

  Using this option disables the rotating and cleaning aspect of the log processing: the logs files are only scanned for information and no contents are altered.  If **scanlogs** is invoked more than once a day, the **norotate** option should be used to prevent premature log cleaning.

## FILES

See [newslog(5)](/newslog/5.md) for the list of log files processed by **scanlogs**.

## HISTORY

Written by Landon Curt Noll \<chongo@toad.com\> and Rich $alz \<rsalz@uunet.uu.net\> for InterNetNews.  Converted to POD by Julien Elie.

## SEE ALSO

[inn.conf(5)](/inn.conf/5.md), [innreport(8)](/innreport/8.md), [news.daily(8)](/news.daily/8.md), [newslog(5)](/newslog/5.md), [shlock(8)](/shlock/8.md), [tally.control(8)](/tally.control/8.md).