From 017dc2fc6053d7ad1f0c994008dfebbd9607324e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: eldy <> Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2002 21:23:06 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Updated documentation --- docs/awstats_faq.html | 165 ++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------ 1 file changed, 93 insertions(+), 72 deletions(-) diff --git a/docs/awstats_faq.html b/docs/awstats_faq.html index 03653cad..3c92a08c 100644 --- a/docs/awstats_faq.html +++ b/docs/awstats_faq.html @@ -163,10 +163,10 @@ But this can change. You should ask to have a such Add-On to PHPNuke authors, an
FAQ-SET050 : ERROR "MISSING $ ON LOOP VARIABLE ..."
-PROBLEM: +PROBLEM:
When I run awstats.pl from command line, I get:
"Missing $ on loop variable at awstats.pl line xxx"
-SOLUTION: +SOLUTION:
Problem is in your Perl interpreter. Try to install or reinstall a more recent/stable Perl interpreter.
You can get new Perl version at ActivePerl (Win32) or Perl.com (Unix/Linux/Other).
@@ -174,10 +174,10 @@ or Perl.com (<
FAQ-SET100 : I SEE PERL SCRIPT'S SOURCE INSTEAD OF ITS EXECUTION
-PROBLEM: +PROBLEM:
When I try to execute the Perl script through the web server, I see the Perl script's source instead of the HTML result page of its execution !
-SOLUTION: +SOLUTION:
This is not a problem of AWStats but a problem in your web server setup. awstats.pl file must be in a directory defined in your web server to be a "cgi" directory, this means, a directory configured in your web server to contain "executable" files and @@ -190,18 +190,23 @@ properties, with Apache you have to use the "ExecCGI" option in the directory "D
FAQ-SET150 : INTERNAL ERROR 500 IN MY BROWSER
FAQ-SET200 : ERROR "... COULDN'T CREATE/SPAWN CHILD PROCESS..."
-PROBLEM: +PROBLEM:
AWStats seems to run fine at the command prompt but when ran as a CGI from a browser, I get an "Internal Error 500".
-I also get the following message in my Apache error log file (or in browser with Apache 2.0+):
+I also also might have the following message in my Apache error log file (or in browser with Apache 2.0+):
...couldn't create/spawn child process: c:/mywebroot/cgi-bin/awstats.pl
-SOLUTION: -This problem occurs with Apache web server with no internal Perl interpreter (mod_perl not -active). To solve this, you must tell Apache where is your Perl interpreter.
+SOLUTION:
+First, try to run awstats.pl from command line to see if file is correct. If you get some +syntax errors and use a Unix like OS, check if your file is a Unix like text file (This +means each line end with a LF char and not a CR+LF char).
+If awstats.pl file runs correctly from command line, this is probably because your +web server is not able to known how to run perl scripts. This problem can occur with Apache web +servers with no internal Perl interpreter (mod_perl not active). To solve this, you must +tell Apache where is your external Perl interpreter.
For this, you have 2 solutions:
1) Add the following directive in your Apache httpd.conf config (or remove the # to uncomment it if line is already available)
ScriptInterpreterSource registry
Then restart Apache. This will tell Apache to look into the registry to find the program associated to .pl extension.
-2) Other solution (not necessary if first works): Change the first line of awstats.pl file with the full path of your Perl interpreter.
+2) Other solution (not necessary if first solution works): Change the first line of awstats.pl file with the full path of your Perl interpreter.
Example with Windows OS and ActivePerl Perl interpreter (installed in C:\Program Files\ActiveState\ActivePerl), you must change the first line of awstats.pl file with:
#!c:/program files/activestate/activeperl/bin/perl
@@ -209,8 +214,9 @@ you must change the first line of awstats.pl file with:

FAQ-SET220 : IE6 CRASH WHILE RUNNING AWSTATS.PL
-PROBLEM: Sometimes IE6 crash while running awstats.pl with some AWStats configuration. Other versions or browsers works fine.
-SOLUTION: +PROBLEM:
+Sometimes IE6 crash while running awstats.pl with some AWStats configuration. Other versions or browsers works fine.
+SOLUTION:
A lot of users had experienced problems with IE6. It seems that this browser is not able to load a 60k text served by perl script which would read the 60k text file and then display the html page. The only solution is to wait of fix from MS or use another version (5.0, 5.5...) or browser (Netscape, Opera...).
@@ -218,9 +224,9 @@ The only solution is to wait of fix from MS or use another version (5.0, 5.5...)
FAQ-SET250 : LOG FORMAT SETUP OR ERRORS
-PROBLEM: Which value do I have to put in the LogFormat -parameter to make AWStats working with my log file format ?
-SOLUTION: +PROBLEM:
+Which value do I have to put in the LogFormat parameter to make AWStats working with my log file format ?
+SOLUTION:
The AWStats config file give you all possible values for LogFormat parameter. To help you, this is some common cases of log file format, and the corresponding value for LogFormat you must use in your AWStats config file:
@@ -286,8 +292,9 @@ support other various log formats.

FAQ-SET260 : SETUP FOR FTP SERVER LOG FILES
-PROBLEM: What do I have to do to use AWStats to analyze some FTP server log files.
-SOLUTION: +PROBLEM:
+What do I have to do to use AWStats to analyze some FTP server log files.
+SOLUTION:
AWStats was built to analyze web,wap or proxy server's log files. However it can be used with some FTP server log files.
This is example for ProFTP:
Modify the proftpd.conf file. At the very top add two new defines.
@@ -309,9 +316,10 @@ log file to replace 'space' char into '_'...

FAQ-SET280 : ERROR "NOT SAME NUMBER OF RECORDS OF..."
-PROBLEM: When I run AWStats from command line (or as a cgi from a browser), I get +PROBLEM:
+When I run AWStats from command line (or as a cgi from a browser), I get a message "Not same number of records of ...".
-SOLUTION: +SOLUTION:
This means your AWStats reference database files (operating systems, browsers, robots...) are not correct. First try to update to 4.0. Then check in your disk that you have only ONE of those files. They should be in 'lib' directory ('db' with 4.0) where awstats.pl is installed:
@@ -324,10 +332,11 @@ in 'lib' directory ('db' with 4.0) where awstats.pl is installed:

FAQ-SET300 : ERROR "COULDN'T OPEN FILE ..."
-PROBLEM: I have the following error:
+PROBLEM:
+I have the following error:
"Couldn't open file /workingpath/awstatsmmyyyy.tmp.9999: Permission denied."
-SOLUTION: This error means that the web server -didn't succeed in writing the working temporary file (file ended by .tmp.9999 +SOLUTION:
+This error means that the web server didn't succeed in writing the working temporary file (file ended by .tmp.9999 where 9999 is a number) because of permissions problems.
First check that the directory /workingpath has "Write" permission for
user nobody (default user used by Apache on Linux systems)
@@ -345,10 +354,10 @@ user, used by web server process, can write into).

FAQ-SET350 : EMPTY OR NULL STATISTICS REPORTED
-PROBLEM: AWStats seems to work but I'm not -getting any results. i get a statistics page that looks like i have no hits.
-SOLUTION: That's the most common problem you -can have and reason is simple: Your log file format setup is wrong.
+PROBLEM:
+AWStats seems to work but I'm not getting any results. i get a statistics page that looks like i have no hits.
+SOLUTION:
+That's the one of the most common problem you can have and reason is simple: Your log file format setup is wrong.
If you use Apache web server
The best way of working is to use the "combined" log format (See the Setup and Use page to know the way to change your Apache server log from "common" log format into "combined"). @@ -367,20 +376,22 @@ You can also read the next FAQ to have examples of
FAQ-SET400 : PIPE REDIRECTION TO A FILE GIVE ME AN EMPTY FILE
-PROBLEM: I want to redirect awstats.pl output to a file with the following command :
+PROBLEM:
+I want to redirect awstats.pl output to a file with the following command :
> awstats.pl -config=... [other_options] > myfile.html
But myfile.html is empty (size is 0). If i remove the redirection, everythings works correctly.
-SOLUTION: This is not an AWStats bug but a problem between perl and Windows.
+SOLUTION:
+This is not an AWStats bug but a problem between perl and Windows.
You can easily solve this running the following command instead:
> perl awstats.pl -config=... [other_options] > myfile.html


FAQ-SET450 : NO PICTURES/GRAPHICS SHOWN
-PROBLEM: AWStats seems to work (all data and counters seem to be good) -but I have no image shown.
-SOLUTION: With Apache web server, you might have -troubles (no picture shown on stats page) if you use a directory called "icons" (because of Apache +PROBLEM:
+AWStats seems to work (all data and counters seem to be good) but I have no image shown.
+SOLUTION:
+With Apache web server, you might have troubles (no picture shown on stats page) if you use a directory called "icons" (because of Apache pre-defined "icons" alias directory), so use instead, for example, a directory called "icon" with no s at the end (Rename your directory physically and change the DirIcons parameter in config file to reflect this change).
@@ -388,9 +399,9 @@ to reflect this change).

FAQ-SET500 : HOW TO ROTATE MY LOGS WITHOUT LOOSING DATA
-PROBLEM: I want to archive/rotate my logs using my web server -system options or a third software (rotatelog, cronolog) but don't want to loose any visits information -during the rotate process.
+PROBLEM:
+I want to archive/rotate my logs using my web server system options or a third software (rotatelog, +cronolog) but don't want to loose any visits information during the rotate process.
SOLUTION:
If you use a rotate system (internal web server feature or third software), this means you probably not use AWStats PurgeLogFile nor ArchiveLogRecords parameter.
@@ -411,8 +422,8 @@ To use cronolog or rotatelog you must setup your web server log file name using
FAQ-SET550 : HOW TO RUN AWSTATS FREQUENTLY
-PROBLEM: AWStats must be ran frequently to update statistics. -How can I do this ?
+PROBLEM:
+AWStats must be ran frequently to update statistics. How can I do this ?
SOLUTION:

With Windows, you can use the internal task scheduler. @@ -434,8 +445,8 @@ To run update every hour, use :

FAQ-SET600 : HOW CAN I EXCLUDE MY IP ADDRESS (OR WHOLE SUBNET MASK) FROM STATS ?
-PROBLEM: I don't want to see my own IP address in the stats or I want to exclude counting -visits from a whole subnet.
+PROBLEM:
+I don't want to see my own IP address in the stats or I want to exclude counting visits from a whole subnet.
SOLUTION:
You must edit the config file to change the SkipHosts parameter.
For example, to exclude:
@@ -451,13 +462,13 @@ log file).

FAQ-COM100 : AWSTATS SPEED/TIMEOUT PROBLEMS ?
-PROBLEM: When I analyze large log files, -processing times are very important (Update process from a browser +PROBLEM:
+When I analyze large log files, processing times are very important (Update process from a browser returns a timeout/internal error after a long wait). Is there a setup or things to do to avoid this and increase speed ?
-SOLUTION: You really need to understand -how a log analyzer works to have good speed. There is also major setup changes -you can do to decrease your processing time.
+SOLUTION:
+You really need to understand how a log analyzer works to have good speed. +There is also major setup changes you can do to decrease your processing time.
- Launch AWStats more often (from crontab or a scheduler). More often you launch AWStats, more faster is AWStats (because the less is the number of NEW lines in log, since last run, to process). See the Benchmark page to @@ -476,8 +487,10 @@ to purge the log file after processing it. This increase speed for next run).

FAQ-COM150 : BENCHMARK / FREQUENCY TO LAUNCH AWSTATS TO UPDATE STATISTICS
-PROBLEM: What is AWStats speed ?
-PROBLEM: What is the frequency to launch AWStats process to update my statistics ?
+PROBLEM:
+What is AWStats speed ?
+PROBLEM:
+What is the frequency to launch AWStats process to update my statistics ?
SOLUTION: All benchmarks information and advice on frequency for update process are related into the Benchmark page.
@@ -485,11 +498,11 @@ the Benchmark page.

FAQ-COM200 : HOW REVERSE DNS LOOKUP WORKS, UNRESOLVED IP ADDRESSES
-PROBLEM: The reported page AWStats shows me -has no hostnames, only IP addresses, countries reported are all "unknown".
-SOLUTION: When AWStats find an IP address -in your log file, it tries a reverse DNS lookup to find the hostname and domain -if the DNSLookup parameter, in your AWStats config file, is DNSLookup=1 +PROBLEM:
+The reported page AWStats shows me has no hostnames, only IP addresses, countries reported are all "unknown".
+SOLUTION:
+When AWStats find an IP address in your log file, it tries a reverse DNS lookup to find +the hostname and domain if the DNSLookup parameter, in your AWStats config file, is DNSLookup=1 (Default value). So, first, check if you have the good value. The DNSLookup=0 must be used only if your log file contains already resolved IP address. For example, when you set up Apache with the HostNameLookups=on directive. When you @@ -507,9 +520,9 @@ provided with AWStats distribution (This tools is an improved version of logr
FAQ-COM250 : DIFFERENT RESULTS THAN OTHER ANALYZER
-PROBLEM: I also use webalizer (or another -log analyzer) and it doesn't report the same results than AWStats. Why ?
-SOLUTION: +PROBLEM:
+I also use webalizer (or another log analyzer) and it doesn't report the same results than AWStats. Why ?
+SOLUTION:
If you compare AWStats results with an other log file analyzer, you will found some differences, sometimes very important. In fact, all analyzer (even AWStats) make "over reporting" because of the problem of proxy-servers and robots. However AWStats is one the most accurate and its "over reporting" @@ -537,11 +550,12 @@ an algorithm to detect keywords of unknown search engines with unknown url synta
FAQ-COM300 : DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LOCAL HOURS AND AWSTATS REPORTED HOURS
-PROBLEM: I use IIS and there's a difference -between local hour and AWStats reported hour. For example I made a hit on a page +PROBLEM:
+I use IIS and there's a difference between local hour and AWStats reported hour. For example I made a hit on a page at 4:00 and AWStats report I hit it at 2:00.
-SOLUTION: This is not a problem of time -in your local client host. AWStats use only time reported in logs by your server +SOLUTION:
+This is not a problem of time in your local client host. +AWStats use only time reported in logs by your server and all time are related to server hour. The problem is that IIS in some foreign versions puts GMT time in its log file (and not local time). So, you have also GMT time in your statistics.
@@ -559,8 +573,9 @@ So this means this way of working might never be changed.

FAQ-COM350 : HOW CAN I PROCESS OLD LOG FILE ?
-PROBLEM: I want to process an old log file to include its data in my AWStats reports.
-SOLUTION: +PROBLEM:
+I want to process an old log file to include its data in my AWStats reports.
+SOLUTION:
You must change your LogFile parameter to point to the old log file and run the update (or use the -logformat option on command line to overwrite LogFile parameter). The update process can only accept files in chronological order, so if you have already processed a recent file, @@ -570,8 +585,9 @@ and in chronological order.

FAQ-COM400 : HOW CAN I UPDATE MY STATISTICS WHEN I USE A LOAD BALANCING SYSTEM THAT SPLITS MY LOGS ?
-PROBLEM: How can I update my statistics when i use a load balancing system that split my logs ?
-SOLUTION: +PROBLEM:
+How can I update my statistics when i use a load balancing system that split my logs ?
+SOLUTION:
The best solution is to merge all split log files resulted from all your load balanced servers into one. For this, you can use the logresolvemerge tool provided with AWStats :
logresolvemerge.pl file1.log file2.log ... filen.log > newfiletoprocess.log
@@ -581,8 +597,9 @@ the -logfile command line option to overwrite
FAQ-COM500 : HOW CAN I RESET ALL MY STATISTICS ?
-PROBLEM: I want to reset all my statistics and restart my stats from now.
-SOLUTION: +PROBLEM:
+I want to reset all my statistics and restart my stats from now.
+SOLUTION:
All analyzed data are stored by AWStats in files called awstatsMMYYYY.[site.]txt (one file each month). You will find those files in directory defined by DirData parameter (same directory than awstats.pl by default).
To reset your stats for a month, you just have to delete the file for the required month/year.
@@ -593,9 +610,10 @@ You will have to process all past log files (in chronological order) to get old
FAQ-COM550 : CAN I SAFELY REMOVE A LINE IN HISTORY FILES (awstatsMMYYYY*.txt) ?
-PROBLEM: After processing a log file I want to change my statistics +PROBLEM:
+After processing a log file I want to change my statistics without running AWStats update process but changing directly data in AWStats historical database files.
-SOLUTION: +SOLUTION:
If you remove a lines starting with "BEGIN_" or "END_", AWStats will find your file "corrupted" so you must not change those kind of lines. All lines that are not in any "section" (between a BEGIN_xxx and END_xxx line) should also not be removed. However you can change any line that is a "section record", but you do this at your own risk. Your reported stats @@ -606,27 +624,30 @@ might have wrong values after that.

FAQ-SEC100 : CAN AWSTATS BE USED TO MAKE CROSS SITE SCRIPTING ATTACKS ?
-PROBLEM: If a bad user use a browser to make a hit on an URL that include a < SCRIPT > ... < /SCRIPT > +PROBLEM:
+If a bad user use a browser to make a hit on an URL that include a < SCRIPT > ... < /SCRIPT > section in its parameter, when AWStats will show the links on the report page, does the script will be executed ?
-SOLUTION: +SOLUTION:
No. AWStats use a filter to remove all scripts codes that was included in an URL to make a Cross Site Scripting Attack using a log analyzer report page.


FAQ-SEC150 : HOW CAN I PREVENT SOME USERS TO SEE STATISTICS OF OTHER USERS ?
-PROBLEM: I don't want a user xxx (having a site www.xxx.com) to see statistics of user yyy (having +PROBLEM:
+I don't want a user xxx (having a site www.xxx.com) to see statistics of user yyy (having a site www.yyy.com). How can i setup AWStats for this ?
-SOLUTION: +SOLUTION:
Take a look at the security page.


FAQ-SEC200 : HOW TO MANAGE LOG FILES (AND STATISTICS) CORRUPTED BY 'CODE RED VIRUS LIKE' ATTACKS ?
-PROBLEM: My site is attacked by some Code Red Viruses. This make my log file corrupted +PROBLEM:
+My site is attacked by some Code Red Viruses. This make my log file corrupted and full of 404 errors. So my statistics are also full of 404 errors. This make AWStats slower and my history files very large. Can I do something to avoid this ?
-SOLUTION: +SOLUTION:
Yes.
'Code Red virus like' attacks are infected browsers or robots that make hits on your site using a very long unknown URL like this one (hoping your server is IIS):
-- 2.47.3