PMDF System Manager's Guide

When the logging keyword is enabled, all message log entries are made to the file mail.log_current in the PMDF log directory, (i.e., PMDF_LOG:mail.log_current on OpenVMS or /pmdf/log/mail.log_current on UNIX) or, if PMDF is installed on drive C:, C:\pmdf\log\mail.log_current on NT). If connection logging is enabled via the LOG_CONNECTION option, connection log entries are also by default written to the mail.log_current file, but if SEPARATE_CONNECTION_LOG=1 has been set, then the connection log entries will instead be written to the connection.log_current file. The message return job, which by default runs every night around midnight, appends any existing mail.log_yesterday to the cumulative log file, mail.log, renames the current mail.log_current file to mail.log_yesterday, and then begins a new mail.log_current file. It also performs the analogous operations for any connection.log* files. Note that the setting of the RETURN_UNITS PMDF option, see Section 7.3.4, affects when the log file rollover is performed.

Note that PMDF itself never does anything to the cumulative mail.log file; it is up to each site to manage that log file however they choose, whether by periodically saving it to backup tape, deleting it, truncating it, or the like.

When considering how to manage the log files, note that the PMDF periodic return job will execute a site-supplied PMDF_COM:daily_cleanup.com (OpenVMS) or /pmdf/bin/daily_cleanup (UNIX) or C:\pmdf\bin\daily_cleanup.bat (NT) procedure, if one exists. Thus some sites may choose to supply their own daily_cleanup that, for instance, renames the old mail.log file once a week (or once a month), etc.