[Mailman-Users] Re: What is character set of the log files?

On Tue, 26 May 2020, Mark Sapiro wrote:

...

What is the character set coding for the log files, please? I'm using MM 2.1.29

Basically unknown. For the most part, log files are us-ascii, but some entries contain user entered data such as names or (malformed) email addresses that might contain non-ascii and might be encoded in the character set of the list's preferred language or something else.

Thanks. I thought it might be something like that. It's not critical for me, as the list admin / mdoerator just needs to look at logs sometimes for possible troublshooting. If the log files don't all render perfectly it's not a major issue.

A few weeks ago his MSP started bouncing his list emails. He noticed after he was suspended for excessive bounces. While the problem could not (or would not?) be explained, I suspect he tagged a list "via" message (or many) as spam, causing his MSP to block the list address. But who knows.

I have done this with nothing special in Apache. I just put a symlink to the respective log(s) in a browser accessible place giving it a .txt extension, e.g. vette.txt -> /var/lib/mailman/logs/vette.log.

Thanks for the tip.

Prior to my inquiry, I ended up with this Apache config stanza to permit viewing all the log files using Apache autoindex, allowing Apache and the web browser to do the work.

Adding "AddEncoding x-gzip .gz" allows direct viewing of the compressed (rotated) log files in the log directory. Adding "ForceType text/plain" avoids the need for the .txt extension for MIME setting. I was also going to set the charset, but being as it's random... :-)

# Mailman logs Alias /logs /var/log/mailman/ <Directory /var/log/mailman/> AuthType Basic AuthName "Mailman admins" AuthUserFile "/home/.../passwd" Require valid-user

     # ENable autoindex!
     DirectoryIndex disabled

     AddEncoding x-gzip .gz
     ForceType text/plain

     Options FollowSymlinks Indexes
     AllowOverride None
 </Directory>

I also created a subdirctory "latest" in /logs with symlinks to the current versions of the log files. Hmm, I think I could probably do a virtual location in Apache itself for this.

Thanks for your incredible support for Mailman users over the past 20 years, Mark! I posted this message, then told me partner (another list and Linux user for 20 years) that I expected you might be responding at dinner -- and here you are!

Brett