Platforms

All Classic and Classic HPO.  Not available in LISTSERV Lite.


Abstract

Enable/disable a system-wide changelog that logs information about DISTRIBUTE/mail-merge jobs and postings to lists.


Example

z/VM:

SYSTEM_CHANGELOG = 'SINGLE'

Unix:

SYSTEM_CHANGELOG="YEARLY"

export SYSTEM_CHANGELOG

Windows:

SYSTEM_CHANGELOG=WEEKLY

Details

System changelogs are not available in LISTSERV Lite.

LISTSERV Classic or Classic HPO includes this feature. If enabled, a file called system.changelog (SYSTEM CHANGELG on z/VM) is created and written to in LISTSERV's A directory (or on the A disk for z/VM) containing data for each DISTRIBUTE, mail-merge, and list posting sent through the server. The syntax of the data line is documented in chapter 10 of the site manager's manual.

Originally, the SYSTEM_CHANGELOG value was a Boolean "on/off" setting (set to 0 to disable or 1 to enable) and the behavior of SYSTEM_CHANGELOG=1 was the same as the modern setting "SINGLE". The Boolean settings still work, but are deprecated.

Under non-z/VM ports of LISTSERV, the system changelog can also be rotated on a WEEKLY, MONTHLY, YEARLY, or SINGLE basis, or explicitly turned off (the default) by setting the value to 0 as before. For backward compatibility the value 1 is the same as the value SINGLE.

Changelog rotation is not supported under z/VM due to the filesystem restriction of 8-character file extensions; while the command processor will not complain if you set SYSTEM_CHANGELOG = 'MONTHLY', the behavior will always be as if you had specified 1 or 'SINGLE'.

Rotated system change-logs are renamed with the format SYSTEM.CHANGELOG-yyyy[mm[dd|w]] (depending on the rotation period selected)


Editorial Note:  For many years, the documentation for this keyword said there was a "Daily" option for system change log rotation.  That option does not and never did exist.  We have removed that option from the documentation, and apologize for any confusion.


Default Value

0 (that is, disabled)