Multiple hosts are easily handled with a few documented flags that need to be turned on inside the configuration file. AWStats allows you to insert your own logo and adjust the color scheme to get the interface looking like an extension of your own brand. As a Web developer, I host sites for customers but under our own brand name, so it’s always important to try and maintain that brand identity. The extensibility of the configuration file allows the user to get close to the data. HTTP errors (Page Not Found with last referrer)ĪWStats boasts a number of advanced features that make it extremely useful.Search engines, keyphrases, and keywords used to find your site.OS used (pages, hits, KB for each OS, 31 OS detected).Browsers used (pages, hits, KB for each browser and each version).Web compression statistics (for mod_gzip or mod_deflate).Hosts list, last visits, and unresolved IP addresses list.Domains/countries of hosts visitors (pages, hits, KB, 266 domains/countries detected).Days of week and rush hours (pages, hits, KB for each hour and day of the week).Authenticated users and last authenticated visits.Number of visits and number of unique visitors.In a full log analysis, AWStats will show you several statistics, including: This poses less regular drain on system resources and helps guarantee that you’ll capture the most recent performance numbers. Updating the statistics can be automated on the server as a regular process, but I found that from a resource point of view, it was easy enough just to refresh the stats through the browser interface. The real power of this application lies in its customizability. But as with most open source software I’ve used, you really need to go line by line through the configuration file to tweak the program to your needs. The supplied documentation is pretty good, as far as open source documentation goes. Essentially, the guts of what you need to configure is done in the nf file. It’s a Perl program that runs in your site’s cgi-bin. The browser display can be set up to be framed or frameless. AWStats works both at the command line, which to be honest is a very painful way of looking at your data, and as a browser-based interface. For instance, the Apache Common Log format (which was the default setting with the Red Hat RPM I installed for my Web server) doesn’t capture nearly the same amount of information as the Combined Log format.ĪWStats works with multiple log file formats, including W3C and Apache log files, and most proxy servers, streaming servers, ftp servers, and mail logs. Every log file analyzer relies on the data that your log file captures, so to get the most out of your log file analysis tool, you must make sure that you’re logging the information you want analyzed. This lends a certain degree of product confidence and honesty, which many developers (and their clients) are looking for.Īs you’d expect with a log file analysis tool, AWStats analyzes all the data that’s provided in your log file.But until I started to use AWStats, I didn’t really understand the difference between log file formats. Ī number of open source log file analysis tools are available, and the AWStats developers have done a great job of comparing the most popular ones on their development site. Version 1.0 was released in May 2000, and the latest stable version as of this writing is AWStats 5.5, released in late May 2003. And that’s where I found AWStats.ĪWStats is an acronym for Advanced Web Statistics, and it’s released as freeware under the GNU GPL license. In the open source world, that’s usually defined as a high percentile of activity on the SourceForge development page. The tool I was looking for had to be open source (GNU GPL), and it had to be something that was well supported and regularly maintained. It’s distributed as freeware, but it still packs the performance punch necessary to satisfy most developers’ security paranoia and metrics obsessions.Ĭhoosing an open source log file analysis tool requires a strict adherence to specific product standards. Enter AWStats, an open source log file analysis tool. Most Web developers understand the inherent value of log file analysis, but getting your client to pay for a “maintenance tool” is often an uphill battle. This article introduces AWStats and examines its pros and cons. That's why the freeware AWStats log analysis tool is so valuable. Web developers often aren't given the budget necessary to install requisite site monitoring tools.
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