1. The Webalizer doesn't show me Referrers or User Agents?
For apache 1.2, add the line:
* - Note: The default configuration file location
can be changed at compile time to something other than /etc. To determine
the compiled in location, you can use the '-vV' command line option to
display the default directory (webalizer -vV).
A:
You need to merge all of the logfiles together so that webalizer sees
the records in chronological order. One good way to do that on the fly is
with mergelog
(
http://mergelog.sourceforge.net/)
, a quick common logfile sorter. An example:
mergelog server1.log server2.log server3.log | webalizer
Another method is to simply combine your logs and then sort them into
chronological order. Here is a simple shell script that uses the GNU
sort utility to sort an already combined log file:
In order for the Webalizer to produce statistics for user agents (browsers)
and referrers, that information needs to be in the log files produced by the
web server. Most servers by default only produce CLF logs, which do not
include the extra information. The way you have your server include this
information depends on what server you are running. For apache, you
need to edit the httpd.conf file (in the servers /conf directory) and...
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-agent}i\""
For apache 1.3, use the line:
CustomLog /var/lib/httpd/logs/access_log combined
Other servers are similar. Refer to your servers documentation for
additional information on how to enable referrers and user agents.
2. What systems will The Webalizer run on?
The Webalizer was designed on and for an Intel system running Linux,
however was written to be as close to ANSI/POSIX specs as possible in
order to be easily ported to other platforms. I currently only have
access to Linux systems running on Intel and PowerPC hardware, so can
verify that it runs on those. In addition, I have received
lots of mail from users indicating that The Webalizer will run on just
about any *NIX machine out there from AIX to XENIX. (Other platforms
also supported, such as OS/2 and MacOSX.. check the download page).
3. I get 'libgd not found' errors when
compiling?
The Webalizer uses the gd graphics library written by Tom Boutell for
producing it's inline graphics. If you don't have this library or have
it installed correctly, you will get this error. The Webalizer expects this
library to be in the standard library path (ie: /usr/lib), so if you have it
someplace else, you need to add an '-L[path]' flag to CFLAGS in the Makefile.
If you don't have the library, get it at
www.boutell.com/gd/.
4. I get 'No File or Directory' errors when
compiling?
The Makefile supplied with The Webalizer expects to find the header files
for the gd graphics library in /usr/local/include/gd. If they are located
somewhere else, you can either create a symbolic link to them, or edit
the Makefile and specify the correct location.
5. What is the difference between 'HITS' and 'FILES'?
There is an on-line quick help that
explains most of the major terms and headings used in the reports. Basically,
HITS is the total number of HTTP requests that the server received
during the reporting period. Any request made to the server is considered
a hit. FILES is the number of hits that actually resulted in
something being sent back to the user, such as an HTML page or image.
'Total Files' and '200 - OK' totals should be the same. If you add up
the totals in the 'Hits by Response Code' section, it should be the same
as the 'Total Hits' figure. For a complete description of what all the
numbers mean in the output, see the
README file,
which is supplied in all distributions and available from our
ftp site. There is
also an Webalizer Quick Help document
on-line that explains the most common terms used in the reports.
6. My logs are HUGE! Can I run The Webalizer on partial logs?
Yes!. The Webalizer fully supports incremental processing.
This allows you to rotate your logs as often as needed without the loss of
statistical detail between runs. Use the "Incremental" keyword in your
configuration file, or the "-p" command line switch to enable incremental
processing. See the
README file for
additional information and precautions on using incremental processing.
7a. Why does the country section show only 100% unresolved?
Most likely because your web server is not doing name lookups and simply
logging IP addresses. In order to determine the top level domain of the
remote site, the program needs a resolved hostname, not an IP address. The
simple fix is to just turn on name lookups on your web server so it starts
logging names. Otherwise, you can pre-process your logs with something like
the logresolve program supplied with apache or similar utilities, or you
can use the Webalizers built in DNS lookup code (see 7b below). Another
alternative is to enable the geolocation services, which will lookup the
geographic location of IP addresses. You can use either the Webalizers
native geolocation support (GeoDB) which supports both IPv4 and IPv6
addresses, or optionally, GeoIP support from MaxMind Inc.
While geolocation support will give you accurate country information,
other aspects of the analysis may suffer, such as search string analysis
(which depends on resolved hostnames to identify the various search engines).
7b. My Server doesn't do name lookups. Will The Webalizer?
Yes. The Webalizer fully supports both IPv4 and IPv6 reverse DNS lookup
support. See the
DNS.README
file for additional information. If you don't enable hostname lookups on
your web server, or use the geolocation services provided by The Webalizer,
you will get '100% Unresolved/Unknown' country totals. This is
because your log files only have IP addresses and not names. While it is
recommended that you let your web server handle the DNS lookups, DNS
support can be used for those sites where DNS resolution is not an option.
8. I used the [Hide*] option, but it still shows up in the totals?
Using the Hide* options only prevent that object from
being displayed in the 'Top' table generated by The Webalizer. It is still
counted in the totals. Version 0.99 of The Webalizer now has
Ignore* options, which allow you to completely ignore
certain objects for statistical purposes. See the file
README for additional
information.
9. I used the [Group*] option, but it still shows up?
Grouped items, by default, are not hidden. This allows you to display
a group total as well as all the items that make up the grouping. If
you don't want to see the individual items that match the group, then
follow the Group* keyword with an identical Hide* one.
10. Changing the configuration file has no effect?
Which configuration file are you changing? The Webalizer looks in the
current directory for a file named webalizer.conf, which it will
process before any other configuration files. If one is not
present in the current directory, it will look for the file
/etc/webalizer.conf*, and process it
before any other configuration files. Some configuration options allow
you to toggle settings on or off, while some cannot be reversed.
If you, for example specify the configuration option "HideURL *.gif"
in the system wide default file /etc/webalizer.conf
*, you cannot
'un-hide' that object using a local configuration file. In general,
single sites should have a single configuration file, such as
/etc/webalizer.conf*. Larger
sites that have multiple host/virtual hosts probably should use different
configuation files for each host and not have a default
webalizer.conf file.
11. My configuration file is being read twice!
Do Not use '-c webalizer.conf' on the command line! This
file is always read if found, regardless of any other configuration
files that may be specified. If you do specify it on the command line, it
will be read twice...
12. I get Error adding xxx node, skipping ... errors! Why?
You ran out of memory. The error occurs when a malloc call is made to
allocate free memory, and fails. You can increase your swap space, but the
only real solution is to add more physical memory.
13. I get Warning: Truncating oversized xxx or
String exceeds storage size warnings! Why?
Internally, The Webalizer has a fixed maximum size for various
parts of the log record. If a particular field is longer than will fit, you
will see these warnings. The most common is that for the request field
on sites that have a lot of CGI interaction. They can be safely ignored. If
you don't want to see warnings or errors, you can use the ReallyQuiet option
(-Q command line switch) to supress them.
14. Why don't the daily visit totals add up to the monthly total?
You cannot add up the daily visit totals and compare them to the monthly
total, they are different reporting periods. For example, if someone visits
your site at 11:45pm and stays until 12:15am, the monthly total would show one
visit, while the daily totals will show two (one for each day).
15. Why do my reports show more Sites than
Visits?
Visits are only triggered when a valid request is found for a
page, as defined by your PageType setting (or a URL that
ends with a slash, which is also considered a page type). Sites however,
are counted regardless of the request type. It is very common to have
more sites than visits, particularly if you host non-pagetype URLs on
your site that are linked to from the outside. If you are not hosting
URLs that are linked to from outside sites, then make sure your PageType
setting is correct. The default is .htm, .html and .cgi extensions, unless
you specify otherwise.
16. How can I process multiple logs from a server farm?
Q:
I have multiple load-balanced servers (or I'm using DNS round-robin to
accoplish the same thing) and I want to generate one webalizer report for
the whole farm, but each server generates its own log file. When I
run webalizer on each of the logfiles in turn, it ignores a lot of the
records because it thinks they're out of order!
#!/bin/sh
if [ ! -f $1 ]; then
echo "Usage: $0
17. How can I easily process multiple virtual hosts?
There are many ways to process multiple virtual hosts on the same
machine. The easiest way I have found, provided that each host
generates it's own log file, is as follows:
18. My stats are not updating, why!?!
After you have it set up, to add a new host, all you need to do
is create a new configuration file and put it in the directory.
It will be automatically picked up the next time you run the
command.
for i in /etc/webalizer/*.conf; do webalizer -c $i; done
In order to produce or update statistic reports, the Webalizer
must be run. In most cases, if your stat report is not being updated,
then the program isn't being run. If it is, then it may be encountering
a problem during processing that needs to be taken care of. The easiest
way to determine this is to manually run the program from the command line
and observe the informational messages it produces. Make sure your config
file does not prevent messages from being displayed (Quiet and ReallyQuiet
options). Without these messages, there is no way to determine what, if
any, problems the program may be having, and any attempt to correct the
problem would simply be a random guess.
19. My stats haven't been updated since...! Can you please fix
this?!
The simple answer is No. We do not provide statistics for third
parties, nor do we provide any services to do so. Most likely, whoever
provides hosting for your site is using our program to produce stats for
you, so you should contact them about any problems you may be having.
There is nothing we can do in this situation, since we have no association
with your provider, no access to your server, and no way to determine
what the problem may be or how to go about fixing it without such access
and information.
20. Where can I get additional help?
First, read the documentation! 99.9% of all questions I receive are
answered in the available documentation. Start by carefully reading
the README
file and Manual Page. If you still can't
find an answer, try doing a quick search on the web using your favorite
search engine, or in the newsgroups. Installation problems can usually
be solved by reading the
INSTALL
document, or the many third party documents found on the web, such as
Danilo C. Dy's
documentation packages (look under the SysAdmin Guides section).
He has an
Alternate Site here.
There is also a discussion forum at
Yahoo Groups.
If all else fails, you can send me an e-mail, however due to the amount
of mail I receive each day, you may or may not get a timely response.
Last modified April 28, 2012 by B. Barrett