Platforms

Non-z/VM


Abstract

Sets the default change-log rotation period.


Example

z/VM:

(not supported)

Unix:

DEFAULT_CHANGELOG_PERIOD="MONTHLY"

export DEFAULT_CHANGELOG_PERIOD

Windows:

DEFAULT_CHANGELOG_PERIOD=MONTHLY


Details

It is possible to automatically rotate list and system change-log files on a periodic basis. This site configuration variable allows site administrators to set a server-default rotation period, which can be one of the following: SINGLE, YEARLY, MONTHLY, DAILY, or WEEKLY.

This default value is used for any list or system changelog which is enabled with "Yes" and no rotation period is otherwise specified.

Important:  If changelog rotation is enabled, be aware that the data in the rotated changelogs WILL NOT be available to the web-based activity reports.  Only the current changelog file is used for those reports.  Thus, if you have (for instance) "DEFAULT_CHANGELOG_PERIOD=MONTHLY", only the data for the current month will be available to the web interface.  This means, of course, that as of the end of the rotation period, your data for the previous period will seem mysteriously to have vanished.

The data is not gone, however.  It is simply in a renamed file (or files, depending on how many rotation periods have passed) that is inaccessible to the reporting interface.  The rotated files may be retrieved from LISTSERV and parsed manually, if necessary, or can even be concatenated back together into the current changelog file if desired.  (In the latter case, just be sure to concatenate the files in the correct date order, and for unix, be sure the resulting file is named in lower case.)

The original design concept of changelog rotation was intended to prevent changelogs from filling up tiny disks or disk partitions that were the norm twenty and more years ago when LISTSERV's changelogs were introduced.  Given the ever-declining cost of disk space, L-Soft recommends not rotating changelogs unless there is no question that they are consuming more disk space than they are worth, particularly if it is important that the data remain available for future reporting.

Default Value

For backward compatibility with older versions of LISTSERV, the default is SINGLE.