webalizer

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

RUNNING THE WEBALIZER

INCREMENTAL PROCESSING

REVERSE DNS LOOKUPS

COMMAND LINE OPTIONS

CONFIGURATION FILES

FILES

BUGS

COPYRIGHT

AUTHOR

The Webalizer - A web server log file analysis tool

  -- README

Copyright 1997-2000 by Bradford L. Barrett (brad@mrunix.net)

Distributed under the GNU GPL.  See the files "COPYING" and
"Copyright" supplied with the distribution for additional info.

What is The Webalizer?
----------------------

The Webalizer is a web server log file analysis program which produces
usage statistics in HTML format for viewing with a browser.  The results
are presented in both columnar and graphical format, which facilitates
interpretation.  Yearly, monthly, daily and hourly usage statistics are
presented, along with the ability to display usage by site, URL, referrer,
user agent (browser), search string, entry/exit page, username and country
(some information is only available if supported and present in the log
files being processed).  Processed data may also be exported into most
database and spreadsheet programs that support tab delimited data formats.

The Webalizer supports CLF (common log format) log files, as well as
Combined log formats as defined by NCSA and others, and variations
of these which it attempts to handle intelligently.  In addition, wu-ftpd
xferlog formatted logs and squid proxy logs are supported.

Gzip compressed logs may now be used as input directly.  Any log filename
that ends with a '.gz' extension will be assumed to be in gzip format and
uncompressed on the fly as it is being read.  In addition, the Webalizer
also supports DNS lookup capabilities if enabled at compile time.  See
the file DNS.README for additional information.

This documentation applies to The Webalizer Version 2.01

Running the Webalizer
---------------------

The Webalizer was designed to be run from a Unix command line prompt or
as a cron job.  There are several command line options which will modify
the results it produces, and configuration files can be used as well.
The format of the command line is:

webalizer [options ...] [log-file]

Where 'options' can be one or more of the supported command line
switches described below.  'log-file' is the name of the log file
to process (see below for more detailed information).  If a dash
("-") is specified for the log-file name, STDIN will be used.

Once executed, the general flow of the program follows:

o A default configuration file is scanned for.  A file named
  'webalizer.conf' is searched for in the current directory, and if
  found, it's configuration data is parsed.  If the file is not
  present in the current directory,  the file '/etc/webalizer.conf'
  is searched for and, if found, is used instead.

o Any command line arguments given to the program are parsed.  This
  may include the specification of a configuration file, which is
  processed at the time it is encountered.

o If a log file was specified, it is opened and made ready for
  processing.  If no log file was given, or the filename '-' is
  specified on the command line, STDIN is used for input.

o If an output directory was specified, the program does a 'chdir' to
  that directory in preparation for generating output.  If no output
  directory was given, the current directory is used.

o If a non-zero number of DNS Children processes were specified, they
  will be started, and the specified log file will be processed,
  either creating or updateing the specified DNS cache file.

o If no hostname was given, the program attempts to get the hostname
  using a uname system call.  If that fails, 'localhost' is used.

o A history file is searched for.  This file keeps previous month
  totals used on the main index.html page.  The default file is
  named 'webalizer.hist', kept in the specified output directory,
  however may be changed using the "HistoryName" configuration file
  keyword.

o If incremental processing was specified, a data file is searched for
  and loaded if found, containing the 'internal state' data of the
  program at the end of a previous run.  The default file is named
  'webalizer.current', kept in the specified output directory, however
  may be changed using the "IncrementalName" configuration file keyword.

o Main processing begins on the log file.  If the log spans multiple
  months, a separate HTML document is created for each month.

o After main processing, the main 'index.html' page is created, which
  has totals by month and links to each months HTML document.

o A new history file is saved to disk, which includes totals generated
  by The Webalizer during the current run.

o If incremental processing was specified, a data file is written that
  contains the 'internal state' data at the end of this run.

Incremental Processing
----------------------

Version 1.2x of The Webalizer adds incremental run capability.  Simply
put, this allows processing large log files by breaking them up into
smaller pieces, and processing these pieces instead.  What this means
in real terms is that you can now rotate your log files as often as you
want, and still be able to produce monthly usage statistics without the
loss of any detail.  This is accomplished by saving and restoring all
relevant internal data to a disk file between runs.  Doing so allows the
program to 'start where it left off' so to speak, and allows the
preservation of detail from one run to the next.

Some special precautions need to be taken when using the incremental
run capability of The Webalizer.  Configuration options should not be
changed between runs, as that could cause corruption of the internal
stored data.  For example, changing the MangleAgents level will cause
different representations of user agents to be stored, producing invalid
results in the user agents section of the report.  If you need to change
configuration options, do it at the end of the month after normal
processing of the previous month and before processing the current month.
You may also want to delete the 'webalizer.current' file as well (or
whatever name was specified using the "IncrementalName" configuration
option).

The Webalizer also attempts to prevent data duplication by keeping
track of the timestamp of the last record processed.  This timestamp
is then compared to current records being processed, and any records
that were logged previous to that timestamp are ignored.  This, in
theory, should allow you to re-process logs that have already been
processed, or process logs that contain a mix of processed/not yet
processed records, and not produce duplication of statistics.  The
only time this may break is if you have duplicate timestamps in two
separate log files... any records in the second log file that do have
the same timestamp as the last record in the previous log file processed,
will be discarded as if they had already been processed.  There are
lots of ways to prevent this however, for example, stopping the web
server before rotating logs will prevent this situation.  This setup
also necessitates that you always process logs in chronological order,
otherwise data loss will occur as a result of the timestamp compare.

Output Produced
---------------

The Webalizer produces several reports (html) and graphics for each
month processed.  In addition, a summary page is generated for the
current and previous months (up to 12), a history file is created
and if incremental mode is used, the current month's processed data.
The exact location and names of these files can be changed using
configuration files and command line options.  The files produced,
(default names) are:

index.html              - Main summary page (extension may be changed)
usage.png               - Yearly graph displayed on the main index page
usage_YYYYMM.html       - Monthly summary page (extension may be changed)
usage_YYYYMM.png        - Monthly usage graph for specified month/year
daily_usage_YYYYMM.png  - Daily usage graph for specified month/year
hourly_usage_YYYYMM.png - Hourly usage graph for specified month/year
site_YYYYMM.html        - All sites listing (if enabled)
url_YYYYMM.html         - All urls listing (if enabled)
ref_YYYYMM.html         - All referrers listing (if enabled)
agent_YYYYMM.html       - All user agents listing (if enabled)
search_YYYYMM.html      - All search strings listing (if enabled)
webalizer.hist          - Previous month history (may be changed)
webalizer.current       - Incremental Data (may be changed)
site_YYYYMM.tab         - tab delimited sites file
url_YYYYMM.tab          - tab delimited urls file
ref_YYYYMM.tab          - tab delimited referrers file
agent_YYYYMM.tab        - tab delimited user agents file
user_YYYYMM.tab         - tab delimited usernames file
search_YYYYMM.tab       - tab delimited search string file

The yearly (index) report shows statistics for a 12 month period, and
links to each month.  The monthly report has detailed statistics for
that month with additional links to any URL's and referrers found.
The various totals shown are explained below.

Hits

  Any request made to the server which is logged, is considered a 'hit'.
The requests can be for anything... html pages, graphic images, audio
files, CGI scripts, etc...  Each valid line in the server log is
counted as a hit.  This number represents the total number of requests
that were made to the server during the specified report period.

Files

  Some requests made to the server, require that the server then send
something back to the requesting client, such as a html page or graphic
image.  When this happens, it is considered a 'file' and the files
total is incremented.  The relationship between 'hits' and 'files' can
be thought of as 'incoming requests' and 'outgoing responses'.

Pages

  Pages are, well, pages!  Generally, any HTML document, or anything
that generates an HTML document, would be considered a page.  This
does not include the other stuff that goes into a document, such as
graphic images, audio clips, etc...  This number represents the number
of 'pages' requested only, and does not include the other 'stuff' that
is in the page.  What actually constitutes a 'page' can vary from
server to server.  The default action is to treat anything with the
extension '.htm', '.html' or '.cgi' as a page.  A lot of sites will
probably define other extensions, such as '.phtml', '.php3' and '.pl'
as pages as well.  Some people consider this number as the number of
'pure' hits... I'm not sure if I totally agree with that viewpoint.
Some other programs (and people :) refer to this as 'Pageviews'.

Sites

  Each request made to the server comes from a unique 'site', which can
be referenced by a name or ultimately, an IP address.  The 'sites'
number shows how many unique IP addresses made requests to the server
during the reporting time period.  This DOES NOT mean the number of
unique individual users (real people) that visited, which is impossible
to determine using just logs and the HTTP protocol (however, this
number might be about as close as you will get).

Visits

  Whenever a request is made to the server from a given IP address
(site), the amount of time since a previous request by the address
is calculated (if any).  If the time difference is greater than a
pre-configured 'visit timeout' value (or has never made a request before),
it is considered a 'new visit', and this total is incremented (both
for the site, and the IP address).  The default timeout value is 30
minutes (can be changed), so if a user visits your site at 1:00 in
the afternoon, and then returns at 3:00, two visits would be registered.
Note: in the 'Top Sites' table, the visits total should be discounted
on 'Grouped' records, and thought of as the "Minimum number of visits"
that came from that grouping instead.  Note: Visits only occur on
PageType requests, that is, for any request whose URL is one of the
'page' types defined with the PageType option.  Due to the limitation
of the HTTP protocol, log rotations and other factors, this number
should not be taken as absolutely accurate,  rather, it should be
considered a pretty close "guess".

KBytes

  The KBytes (kilobytes) value shows the amount of data, in KB, that
was sent out by the server during the specified reporting period.  This
value is generated directly from the log file, so it is up to the
web server to produce accurate numbers in the logs  (some web servers
do stupid things when it comes to reporting the number of bytes).  In
general, this should be a fairly accurate representation of the amount
of outgoing traffic the server had, regardless of the web servers
reporting quirks.

Note: A kilobyte is 1024 bytes, not 1000 :)

Top Entry and Exit Pages

  The Top Entry and Exit tables give a rough estimate of what URL's
are used to enter your site, and what the last pages viewed are.
Because of limitations in the HTTP protocol, log rotations, etc...
this number should be considered a good "rough guess" of the actual
numbers, however will give a good indication of the overall trend in
where users come into, and exit, your site.

Command Line Options
--------------------

The Webalizer supports many different configuration options that will
alter the way the program behaves and generates output.  Most of these
can be specified on the command line, while some can only be specified
in a configuration file. The command line options are listed below,
with references to the corresponding configuration file keywords.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

General Options
---------------

-h        Display all available command line options and exit program.

-v        Display program version and exit program.

-d        Display additional 'debugging' information for errors and
          warnings produced during processing.  This normally would
          not be used except to determine why you are getting all those
          errors and wanted to see the actual data.  Normally The
          Webalizer will just tell you it found an error, not the
          actual data.  This option will display the data as well.
          Config file keyword: Debug

-F        Specify that the log being used is a ftp log.  Normally, the
          Webalizer expects to find a valid CLF or Combined format
          we server log file.  This option allows you to process wu-ftpd
          xferlogs as well.
          Config file keyword: LogType

-f        Fold out of sequence log records back into analysis, by
          treating them as if they were the same date/time as the
          last good record.  Normally, out of sequence log records
          are ignored.  If you run apache, don't worry about this.
          Config file keyword: FoldSeqErr

-i        Ignore history file.  USE WITH CAUTION.  This causes The
          Webalizer to ignore any existing history file produced from
          previous runs and generate it's output from scratch.  The
          effect will be as if The Webalizer is being run for the
          first time and any previous statistics will be lost (although
          the HTML documents, if any, will not be deleted) on the main
          index.html (yearly) web page.
          Config file keyword: IgnoreHist

-p        Preserve state (incremental processing).  This allows the
          processing of partial logs in increments.  At the end of
          the program, all relevant internal data is saved, so that
          it may be restored the next time the program is run.  This
          allows sites that must rotate their logs more than once a
          month to still be able to use The Webalizer, and not worry
          about having to gather and feed an entire months logs to
          the program at the end of the month.  See the section on
          "Incremental Processing" below for additional information.
          The default is to not perform incremental processing.  Use
          this command line option to enable the feature.
          Config file keyword: Incremental

-q        Quiet mode.  Normally, The Webalizer will produce various
          messages while it runs letting you know what it's doing.
          This option will suppress those messages.  It should be
          noted that this WILL NOT suppress errors and warnings, which
          are output to STDERR.
          Config file keyword: Quiet

-Q        ReallyQuiet mode.  This allows suppression of _all_ messages
          generated by The Webalizer, including warnings and errors.
          Useful when The Webalizer is run as a cron job.
          Config file keyword: ReallyQuiet

-T        Display timing information.  The Webalizer keeps track of the
          time it begins and ends processing, and normally displays the
          total processing time at the end of each run.  If quiet mode
          (-q or 'Quiet yes' in configuration file) is specified, this
          information is not displayed.  This option forces the display
          of timing totals if quiet mode has been specified, otherwise
          it is redundant and will have no effect.
          Config file keyword: TimeMe

-c file   This option specifies a configuration file to use.  Configuration
          files allow greater control over how The Webalizer behaves, and
          there are several ways to use them.  As of version 0.98, The
          Webalizer searches for a default configuration file in the
          current directory named "webalizer.conf", and if not found,
          will search in the /etc/ directory for a file of the same name.
          In addition, you may specify a configuration file to use with
          this command line option.

-n name   This option specifies the hostname for the reports generated.
          The hostname is used in the title of all reports, and is also
          prepended to URL's in the reports.  This allows The Webalizer
          to be run on log files for 'virtual' web servers or web servers
          that are different than the machine the reports are located on,
          and still allows clicking on the URL's to go to the proper
          location.  If a hostname is not specified, either on the
          command line or in a configuration file, The Webalizer attempts
          to determine the hostname using a 'uname' system call.  If this
          fails, "localhost" will be used as the hostname.
          Config file keyword: HostName

-o dir    This options specifies the output directory for the reports.
          If not specified here or in a configuration file, the current
          default directory will be used for output.
          Config file keyword: OutputDir

-x name   This option allows the generated pages to have an extension
          other than '.html', which is the default.  Do not include the
          leading period ('.') when you specify the extension.
          Config file keyword: HTMLExtension

-P name   Specify the file extensions for 'pages'.  Pages (sometimes
          called 'PageViews') are normally html documents and CGI
          scripts that display the whole page, not just parts of it.
          Some system will need to define a few more, such as 'phtml',
          'php3' or 'pl' in order to have them counted as well.  The
          default is 'htm*' and 'cgi' for web logs and 'txt' for ftp.
          Config file keyword: PageType

-t name   This option specifies the title string for all reports.  This
          string is used, in conjunction with the hostname (if not blank)
          to produce the actual title.  If not specified, the default of
          "Usage Statistics for" will be used.
          Config file keyword: ReportTitle

-Y        Supress Country graph.  Normally, The Webalizer produces
          country statistics in both Graph and Columnar forms.  This
          option will suppress the Country Graph from being generated.
          Config file keyword: CountryGraph

-G        Supress hourly graph.  Normally, The Webalizer produces
          hourly statistics in both Graph and Columnar forms.  This
          option will suppress the Hourly Graph only from being generated.
          Config file keyword: HourlyGraph

-H        Supress Hourly statistics.  Normally, The Webalizer produces
          hourly statistics in both Graph and Columnar forms.  This
          option will suppress the Hourly Statistics table only from
          being generated.
          Config file keyword: HourlyStats

-L        Disable Graph Legends.  The color coded legends displayed on
          the in-line graphs can be disabled with this option.  The
          default is to display the legends.
          Config file keyword: GraphLegend

-l num    Graph Lines.  Specify the number of background reference
          lines displayed on the in-line graphics produced.  The default
          is 2 lines, however can range anywhere from zero ('0') for
          no lines, up to 20 lines (looks funny!).
          Config file keyword: GraphLines

-P name   Page type.  This is the extension of files you consider to
          be pages for Pages calculations (sometimes called 'pageviews').
          The default is 'htm*' and 'cgi' (plus whatever HTMLExtension
          you specified if it is different).  Don't use a period!

-m num    Specify a 'visit timeout'.  Visits are calculated by looking at
          the time difference between the current and last request made
          by a specific host.  If the difference is greater that the
          visit timeout value, the request is considered a new visit.
          This value is specified in number of seconds.  The default
          is 30 minutes (1800).
          Config file keyword: VisitTimeout

-M num    Mangle user agent names.  Normally, The Webalizer will keep
          track of the user agent field verbatim.  Unfortunately, there are
          a ton of different names that user agents go by, and the field
          also reports other items such as machine type and OS used. For
          Example, Netscape 4.03 running on Windows 95 will report a
          different string than Netscape 4.03 running on Windows NT, so even
          though they are the same browser type, they will be considered
          as two totally different browsers by The Webalizer.  For that
          matter, Netscape 4.0 running on Windows NT will report different
          names if one is run on an Alpha and the other on an Intel
          processor!  Internet Exploder is even worse, as it reports itself
          as if it were Netscape and you have to search the given string a
          little deeper to discover that it is really MSIE!  In order to
          consolidate generic browser types, this option will cause The
          Webalizer to 'mangle' the user agent field, attempting to
          consolidate generic browser types. There are 6 levels that can be
          specified, each producing different levels of detail.  Level 5
          displays only the browser name (MSIE or Mozilla) and the major
          version number.  Level 4 will also display the minor version
          number (single decimal place).  Level 3 will display the minor
          version number to two decimal places.  Level 2 will add any
          sub-level designation (such as Mozilla/3.01Gold or MSIE 3.0b).
          Level 1 will also attempt to add the system type.  The default
          Level 0 will disable name mangling and leave the user agent
          field unmodified, producing the greatest amount of detail.
          Configuration file keyword: MangleAgents

-g num    This option allows you to specify the level of domains name
          grouping to be performed.  The numeric value represents the
          level of grouping, and can be thought of as the 'number of
          dots' to be displayed.  The default value of 0 disables any
          domain name grouping.
          Configuration file keyword: GroupDomains

-D name   This allows the specification of a DNS Cache file name.  This
          filename MUST be specified if you have dns lookups enabled
          (using the -N command line switch or DNSChildren configuration
          keyword).  The filename is relative to the default output
          directory if an absolute path is not specified (ie: starts
          with a leading '/').  This option is only available if DNS
          support was enabled at compile time, otherwise an 'Invalid
          Keyword' error will be generated.  See the DNS.README file
          for additional information regarding DNS lookups.

-N num    Number of DNS child processes to use for reverse DNS lookups.
          If specified, a DNSCache name MUST be specified also.  If you
          do not wish a DNS cache file to be generated, specify a value
          of zero ('0') to disable it.  This does not prevent using an
          existing cache file, only the generation of one at run time.
          See the DNS.README file for additional information regarding
          DNS lookups.

Hide Options
------------

The following options take a string argument to use as a comparison
for matching.  Except for the IndexAlias option, the string argument
can be plain text, or plain text that either starts or ends with the
wildcard character '*'.

For Example:

Given the string "yourmama/was/here", the arguments "was", "*here" and
"your*" will all produce a match.

-a name   This option allows hiding of user agents (browsers) from the
          "Top User Agents" table in the report.  This option really
          isn't too useful as there are a zillion different names that
          current browsers go by, depending where they were obtained,
          however you might have some particular user agents that hit
          your site a lot that you would like to exclude from the list.
          You must have a web server that includes user agents in it's
          log files for this option to be of any use.  In addition, it
          is also useless if you disable the user agent table in the
          report (see the -A command line option or "TopAgents"
          configuration file keyword). You can specify as many of these
          as you want on the command line.  The wildcard character '*'
          can be used either in front of or at the end of the string.
          (ie: Mozilla/4.0* would match anything that starts with the
          string "Mozilla/4.0").
          Config file keyword: HideAgent

-r name   This option allows hiding of referrers from the "Top Referrer"
          table in the report.  Referrers are URL's, either on your own
          local site or a remote site, that referred the user to a URL
          on your web server.  This option is normally used to hide
          your own server from the table, as your own pages are usually
          the top referrers to your own pages (well, you get the idea).
          You must have a web server that includes referrer information
          in the log files for this option to be of any use.  In addition,
          it is also useless if you disable the referrers table in the
          report (see the -R command line option or "TopReferrers"
          configuration file keyword).  You can specify as many of these
          as you like on the command line.
          Config file keyword: HideReferrer

-s name   This option allows hiding of sites from the "Top Sites" table
          in the report.  Normally, you will only want to hide your own
          domain name from the report, as it usually is one of the top
          sites to visit your web server.  This option is of no use if
          you disable the top sites table in the report (see the -S
          command line option or "TopSites" configuration file option).
          Config file keyword: HideSite

-X        This causes all individual sites to be hidden, which results
          in only grouped sites to be displayed on the report.
          Config file keyword: HideAllSites

-u name   This option allows hiding of URL's from the "Top URL's" table
          in the report.  Normally, this option is used to hide images,
          audio files and other objects your web server dishes out that
          would otherwise clutter up the table.  This option is of no
          use if you disable the top URL's table in the report (see the
          -U command line option or "TopURLs" configuration file keyword).
          Config file keyword: HideURL

-I name   This option allows you to specify additional index.html aliases.
          The Webalizer usually strips the string 'index.' from URL's
          before processing, which has the effect of turning a URL such
          as /somedir/index.html into just /somedir/ which is really the
          same URL and should be treated as such.  This option allows you
          to specify _additional_ strings that are to be treated the same
          way.  Use with care, improper use could cause unexpected results.
          For example, if you specify the alias string of 'home', a URL
          such as /somedir/homepages/brad/home.html would be converted
          into just /somedir/ which probably isn't what was intended.
          This option is useful if your web server uses a different default
          index page other than the standard 'index.html' or 'index.htm',
          such as 'home.html' or 'homepage.html'.  The string specified
          is searched for _anywhere_ in the URL, so "home.htm" would
          turn both "/somedir/home.htm" and "/somedir/home.html" into
          just "/somedir/".  Go easy on this one, each string specified
          will be scanned for in EVERY log record, so if you specify a
          bunch of these, you will notice degraded performance.  Wildcards
          are not allowed on this one.
          Config file keyword: IndexAlias

Table Size Options
------------------

-e num    This option specifies the number of entries to display in the
          "Top Entry Pages" table.  To disable the table, use a value of
          zero (0).
          Config file keyword: TopEntry

-E num    This option specifies the number of entries to display in the
          "Top Exit Pages" table.  To disable the table, use a value of
          zero (0).
          Config file keyword: TopExit

-A num    This option specifies the number of entries to display in the
          "Top User Agents" table.  To disable the table, use a value of
          zero (0).
          Config file keyword: TopAgents

-C num    This option specifies the number of entries to display in the
          "Top Countries" table.  To disable the table, use a value of
          zero (0).
          Config file keyword: TopCountries

-R num    This option specifies the number of entries to display in the
          "Top Referrers" table.  To disable the table, use a value of
          zero (0).
          Config file keyword: TopReferrers

-S num    This option specifies the number of entries to display in the
          "Top Sites" table.  To disable the table, use a value of
          zero (0).
          Config file keyword: TopSites

-U num    This option specifies the number of entries to display in the
          "Top URL's" table.  To disable the table, use a value of
          zero (0).
          Config file keyword: TopURLs

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

CONFIGURATION FILES
-------------------

The Webalizer allows configuration files to be used in order to simplify
life for all.  There are several ways that configuration files are accessed
by the Webalizer.  When The Webalizer first executes, it looks for a
default configuration file named "webalizer.conf" in the current directory,
and if not found there, will look for "/etc/webalizer.conf".  In addition,
configuration files may be specified on the command line with the '-c'
option.  There are lots of different ways you can combine the use of
configuration files and command line options to produce various results.
The Webalizer always looks for and reads configuration options from a
default configuration file before doing anything else.  Because of this,
you can override options found in the default file by use of additional
configuration files specified on the command line or command line options
themselves.  If you specify a configuration file on the command line, you
can override options in it by additional command line options which follow.
For example, most users will most likely want to create the default file
/etc/webalizer.conf and place options in it to specify the hostname, log
file, table options, etc...  At the end of the month when a different log
file is to be used (the end of month log), you can run The Webalizer as
usual, but put the different filename on the end of the command line, which
will override the log file specified in the configuration file.  It should
be noted that you cannot override some configuration file options by the
use of command line arguments.  For example, if you specify "Quiet yes" in
a configuration file, you cannot override this with a command line argument,
as the command line option only _enables_ the feature (-q option).

The configuration files are standard ASCII text files that may be created
or edited using any standard editor.  Blank lines and lines that begin
with a pound sign ('#') are ignored.  Any other lines are considered to
be configuration lines, and have the form "Keyword Value", where the
'Keyword' is one of the currently available configuration keywords defined
below, and 'Value' is the value to assign to that particular option.  Any
text found after the keyword up to the end of the line is considered the
keyword's value, so you should not include anything after the actual value
on the line that is not actually part of the value being assigned.  The
file "sample.conf" provided with the distribution contains lots of useful
documentation and examples as well.  It should be noted that you do not
have to use any configuration files at all, in which case, default values
will be used (which should be sufficient for most sites).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

General Configuration Keywords
------------------------------

LogFile       This defines the log file to use. It should be a fully qualified
              name (ie: contain the path), but relative names will work as
              well.  If not specified, the logfile defaults to STDIN. 

LogType       This specified the log file type being used.  Normally, The
              Webalizer processes web logs in either CLF or Combined format.
              You may also process wu-ftpd xferlog formatted logs, or squid
              proxy logs by setting the appropriate type using this keyword.
              Values may be either 'clf', 'ftp' or 'squid'.  Ensure that you
              specify the proper file type, otherwise you will be presented
              with a long stream of 'invalid record' messages ;)
              Command line argument: -F

OutputDir     This defines the output directory to use for the reports.  If
              it is not specified, the current directory is used.
              Command line argument: -o

HistoryName   Allows specification of a history path/filename if desired.
              The default is to use the file named 'webalizer.hist', kept
              in the normal output directory (OutputDir above).  Any name
              specified is relative to the normal output directory unless
              an absolute path name is given (ie: starts with a '/').

ReportTitle   This specifies the title to use for the generated reports.
              It is used in conjunction with the hostname (unless blank)
              to produce the final report titles.  If not defined, the
              default of "Usage Statistics for" is used.
              Command line argument: -t

HostName      This defines the hostname.  The hostname is used in the
              report title as well as being prepended to URL's in the
              "Top URL's" table.  This allows The Webalizer to be run
              on "virtual" web servers, or servers that do not reside
              on the local machine, and allows clicking on the URL to
              go to the right place.  If not specified, The Webalizer
              attempts to get the hostname via a 'uname' system call,
              and if that fails, will default to "localhost".
              Command line argument: -n

UseHTTPS      Causes the links in the 'Top URL's' table to use 'https://'
              instead of the default 'http://' prefix.  Not much use if
              you run a mix of secure/insecure servers on your machine.
              Only useful if you run the analysis on a secure servers
              logs, and want the links in the table to work properly.

Quiet         This allows you to enable or disable informational messages
              while it is running.  The values for this keyword can be
              either 'yes' or 'no'.  Using "Quiet yes" will suppress these
              messages, while "Quiet no" will enable them.  The default
              is 'no' if not specified, which will allow The Webalizer
              to display informational messages.  It should be noted that
              this option has no effect on Warning or Error messages that
              may be generated, as they go to STDERR.
              Command line argument: -q

TimeMe        This allows you to display timing information regardless of
              any "quiet mode" specified.  Useful only if you did in fact
              tell the webalizer to be quiet either by using the -q command
              line option or the "Quiet" keyword, otherwise timing stats
              are normally displayed anyway.  Values may be either 'yes'
              or 'no', with the default being 'no'.
              Command line argument: -T

GMTTime       This keyword allows timestamps to be displayed in GMT (UTC)
              time instead of local time.  Normally The Webalizer will
              display timestamps in the time-zone of the local machine
              (ie: PST or EDT).  This keyword allows you to specify the
              display of timestamps in GMT (UTC) time instead.  Values
              may be either 'yes' or 'no'.  Default is 'no'.

Debug         This tells The Webalizer to display additional information
              when it encounters Warnings or Errors.  Normally, The
              Webalizer will just tell you it found a bad record or
              field.  This option will enable the display of the actual
              data that produced the Warning or Error as well.  Useful
              only if you start getting lots of Warnings or Errors and
              want to determine the cause.  Values may be either 'yes'
              or 'no', with the default being 'no'.
              Command line argument: -d

IgnoreHist    This suppresses the reading of a history file.  USE WITH
              EXTREME CAUTION as the history file is how The Webalizer
              keeps track of previous months.  The effect of this option
              is as if The Webalizer was being run for the very first
              time, and any previous data is discarded.  Values may be
              either 'yes' or 'no', with the default being 'no'.
              Command line argument: -i

FoldSeqErr    Allows log records that are out of sequence to be folded
              back into the analysis, by treating them as if they had
              the same date/time as the last good record.  Normally,
              out of sequence log records are simply ignored.  If you
              run apache, don't worry about this.

VisitTimeout  Set the 'visit timeout' value.  Visits are determined by
              looking at the time difference between the current and last
              request made by a specific site.  If the difference in time
              is greater than the visit timeout value, the request is
              considered a new visit.  The value is in number of seconds,
              and defaults to 30 minutes (1800).
              Command line argument: -m

PageType      Allows you to define the 'page' type extension.  Normally,
              people consider HTML and CGI scripts as 'pages'.  This
              option allows you to specify what extensions you consider
              a page.  Default is 'htm*' and 'cgi' for web logs, and
              'txt' for ftp logs.
              Command line argument: -P

GraphLegend   Enable/disable the display of color coded legends on the
              produced graphs.  Default is 'yes', to display them.
              Command line argument: -L

GraphLines    Specify the number of background reference lines to display
              on produced graphs.  The default is 2.  To disable the use
              of background lines, use zero ('0').
              Command line argument: -l

CountryGraph  This keyword is used to either enable or disable the creation
              and display of the Country Usage graph.  Values may be either
              'yes' or 'no', with the default being 'yes'.
              Command line argument: -Y

DailyGraph    This keyword is used to either enable or disable the creation
              and display of the Daily Usage graph.  Values may be either
              'yes' or 'no', with the default being 'yes'.

DailyStats    This keyword is used to either enable or disable the creation
              and display of the Daily Usage statistics table.  Values may
              be either 'yes' or 'no', with the default being 'yes'.

HourlyGraph   This keyword is used to either enable or disable the creation
              and display of the Hourly Usage graph.  Values may be either
              'yes' or 'no', with the default being 'yes'.
              Command line argument: -G

HourlyStats   This keyword is used to either enable or disable the creation
              and display of the Hourly Usage statistics table.  Values may
              be either 'yes' or 'no', with the default being 'yes'.
              Command line argument: -H

IndexAlias    This allows additional 'index.html' aliases to be defined.
              Normally, The Webalizer scans for and strips the string
              "index." from URL's before processing them.  This turns a
              URL such as /somedir/index.html into just /somedir/ which
              is really the same URL.  This keyword allows _additional_
              names to be treated in the same fashion for sites that use
              different default names, such as "home.html".  The string
              is scanned for anywhere in the URL, so care should be used
              if and when you define additional aliases.  For example,
              if you were to use an alias such as 'home', the URL
              /somedir/homepages/brad/home.html would be turned into just
              /somedir/ which probably isn't the intended result.  Instead,
              you should have specified 'home.htm' which would correctly
              turn the URL into /somedir/homepages/brad/ like intended.
              It should also be noted that specified aliases are scanned
              for in EVERY log record... A bunch of aliases will noticeably
              degrade performance as each record has to be scanned for
              every alias defined.  You don't have to specify 'index.' as
              it is always the default.
              Command line argument: -I 

MangleAgents  The MangleAgents keyword specifies the level of user agent
              name mangling, if any.  There are 6 levels that may be specified,
              each producing a different level of detail displayed.  Level 5
              displays only the browser name (MSIE or Mozilla) and the major
              version number.  Level 4 adds the minor version (single
              decimal place).  Level 3 adds the minor version to two decimal
              places.  Level 2 will also add any sub-level designation
              (such as Mozilla/3.01Gold or MSIE 3.0b).  Level 1 will also
              attempt to add the system type.  The default level 0 will
              leave the user agent field unmodified and produces the
              greatest amount of detail.
              Command line argument: -M

SearchEngine  This keyword allows specification of search engines and
              their query strings.  Search strings are obtained from
              the referrer field in the record, and in order to work
              properly, the Webalizer needs to know what query strings
              different search engines use.  The SearchEngine allows
              you to specify the search engine and it's query string
              to parse the search string from.  The line is formatted
              as:  "SearchEngine engine-string query-string"  where
              'engine-string' is a substring for matching the search
              engine with, such as "yahoo.com" or "altavista".  The
              'query-string' is the unique query string that is added
              to the URL for the search engine, such as "search=" or
              "MT=" with the actual search strings appended to the
              end.  There is no command line option for this keyword.

Incremental   This allows incremental processing to be enabled or disabled.
              Incremental processing allows processing partial logs without
              the loss of detail data from previous runs in the same month.
              This feature saves the 'internal state' of the program so that
              it may be restored in following runs.  See the section above
              titled "Incremental Processing" for additional information.
              The value may be 'yes' or 'no', with the default being 'no'.
              Command line argument: -p

IncrementalName
              Allows specification of the incremental data filename if
              desired.  Normally, the file named "webalizer.current' is
              used, kept in the standard output directory.  If specified,
              filenames are relative to the standard output directory,
              unless an absolute name is given (ie: starts with '/').

DNSCache      Specifies the DNS cache filename.  This name is relative
              to the default output directory unless an absolute name
              is given (ie: starts with '/').  See the DNS.README file
              for additional information.

DNSChildren   The number of DNS children processes to run in order to
              create/update the DNS cache file.  If specified, the DNS
              cache filename must also be specified (see above).  Use
              a value of zero ('0') to disable.  See the DNS.README
              file for additional information.

Top Table Keywords
------------------

TopAgents     This allows you to specify how many "Top" user agents are
              displayed in the "Top User Agents" table.  The default
              is 15.  If you do not want to display user agent statistics,
              specify a value of zero (0).  The display of user agents
              will only work if your web server includes this information
              in its log file (ie: a combined log format file).
              Command line argument: -A 

AllAgents     Will cause a separate HTML page to be generated for all
              normally visable User Agents.  A link will be added to
              the bottom of the "Top User Agents" table if enabled.
              Value can be either 'yes' or 'no', with 'no' being the
              default.

TopCountries  This allows you to specify how many "Top" countries are
              displayed in the "Top Countries" table.  The default is
              30.  If you want to disable the countries table, specify
              a value of zero (0).
              Command line argument: -C 

TopReferrers  This allows you to specify how many "Top" referrers are
              displayed in the "Top Referrers" table.  The default is
              30.  If you want to disable the referrers table, specify
              a value of zero (0).  The display of referrer information
              will only work if your web server includes this information
              in its log file (ie: a combined log format file).
              Command line argument: -R 

AllReferrers  Will cause a separate HTML page to be generated for all
              normally visable Referrers.  A link will be added to the
              "Top Referrers" table if enabled.  Value can be either
              'yes' or 'no', with 'no' being the default.

TopSites      This allows you to specify how many "Top" sites are
              displayed in the "Top Sites" table.  The default is 30.
              If you want to disable the sites table, specify a value
              of zero (0).
              Command line argument: -S 

TopKSites     Identical to TopSites, except for the 'by KByte' table.
              Default is 10.  No command line switch for this one.

AllSites      Will cause a separate HTML page to be generated for all
              normally visable Sites.  A link will be added to the
              bottom of the "Top Sites" table if enabled.  Value can
              be either 'yes' or 'no', with 'no' being the default.

TopURLs       This allows you to specify how many "Top" URL's are
              displayed in the "Top URL's" table.  The default is 30.
              If you want to disable the URL's table, specify a value
              of zero (0).
              Command line argument: -U 

TopKURLs      Identical to TopURLs, except for the 'by KByte' table.
              Default is 10.  No command line switch for this one.

AllURLs       Will cause a separate HTML page to be generated for all
              normally visable URLs.  A link will be added to the
              bottom of the "Top URLs" table if enabled.  Value can
              be either 'yes' or 'no', with 'no' being the default.

TopEntry      Allows you to specify how many "Top Entry Pages" are
              displayed in the table.  The default is 10.  If you
              want to disable the table, specify a value of zero (0).
              Command line argument: -e

TopExit       Allows you to specify how many "Top Exit Pages" are
              displayed in the table.  The default is 10.  If you
              want to disable the table, specify a value of zero (0).
              Command line argument: -E

TopSearch     Allows you to specify how many "Top Search Strings" are
              displayed in the table.  The default is 20.  If you
              want to disable the table, specify a value of zero (0).
              Only works if using combined log format (ie: contains
              referrer information).

TopUsers      This allows you to specify how many "Top" usernames are
              displayed in the "Top Usernames" table.  Usernames are
              only available if you use http authentication on your
              web server, or when processing wu-ftpd xferlogs.  The
              default value is 20.  If you want to disable the Username
              table, specify a value of zero (0).

AllUsers      Will cause a separate HTML page to be generated for all
              normally visable usernames.  A link will be added to the
              bottom of the "Top Usernames" table if enabled.  Value
              can be either 'yes' or 'no', with 'no' being the default.

AllSearchStr  Will create a separate HTML page to be generated for all
              normally visable Search Strings.  A link will be added
              to the bottom of the "Top Search Strings" table if
              enabled.  Value can be either 'yes' or 'no', with 'no'
              being the default.

Hide Object Keywords
--------------------

These keywords allow you to hide user agents, referrers, sites, URL's
and usernames from the various "Top" tables.  The value for these keywords
are the same as those used in their command line counterparts.  You
can specify as many of these as you want without limit.  Refer to the
section above on "Command Line Options" for a description of the string
formatting used as the value.  Values cannot exceed 80 characters in
length.

HideAgent     This allows specified user agents to be hidden from the
              "Top User Agents" table.  Not very useful, since there
              a zillion different names by which browsers go by today,
              but could be useful if there is a particular user agent
              (ie: robots, spiders, real-audio, etc..) that hits your
              site frequently enough to make it into the top user agent
              listing.  This keyword is useless if 1) your log file does
              not provide user agent information or 2) you disable the
              user agent table.
              Command line argument: -a 

HideReferrer  This allows you to hide specified referrers from the
              "Top Referrers" table.  Normally, you would only specify
              your own web server to be hidden, as it is usually the
              top generator of references to your own pages.  Of course,
              this keyword is useless if 1) your log file does not include
              referrer information or 2) you disable the top referrers
              table.
              Command line argument: -r 

HideSite      This allows you to hide specified sites from the "Top
              Sites" table.  Normally, you would only specify your own
              web server or other local machines to be hidden, as they
              are usually the highest hitters of your web site, especially
              if you have their browsers home page pointing to it.
              Command line argument: -s 

HideAllSites  This allows hiding all indvidual sites from the display,
              which can be useful when a lot of groupings are being
              used (since grouped records cannot be hidden).  It is
              particularly useful in conjunction with the GroupDomain
              feature, however can be useful in other situations as well.
              Value can be either 'yes' or 'no', with 'no' the default.
              Command line argument: -X

HideURL       This allows you to hide URL's from the "Top URL's" table.
              Normally, this is used to hide items such as graphic files,
              audio files or other 'non-html' files that are transferred
              to the visiting user.
              Command line argument: -u 

HideUser      This allows you to hide Usernames from the "Top Usernames"
              table.  Usernames are only available if you use http based
              authentication on your web server.

Group Object Keywords
---------------------

The Group* keywords allow object grouping based on Site, URL, Referrer,
User Agent and Usernames.  Combined with the Hide* keywords, you can
customize exactly what will be displayed in the 'Top' tables.  For example,
to only display totals for a particular directory, use a GroupURL and
HideURL with the same value (ie: '/help/*').  Group processing is only
done after the individual record has been fully processed, so name mangling
and site total updates have already been performed.  Because of this, groups
are not counted in the main site total (as that would cause duplication).
Groups can be displayed in bold and shaded as well.  Grouped records are
not, by default, hidden from the report.  This allows you to display a
grouped total, while still being able to see the individual records, even
if they are part of the group.  If you want to hide the detail records,
follow the Group* directive with a Hide* one using the same value.  There
are no command line switches for these keywords.  The Group* keywords also
accept an optional label to be displayed instead of the actual value used.
This label should be separated from the value by at least one whitespace
character, such as a space or tab character.  See the sample.conf file
for examples.

GroupReferrer Allows grouping Referrers.  Can be handy for some of the
              major search engines that have multiple host names a
              referral could come from.

GroupURL      This keyword allows grouping URL's. Useful for grouping
              complete directory trees.

GroupSite     This keywords allows grouping Sites.  Most used for
              grouping top level domains and unresolved IP address
              for local dial-ups, etc...

GroupAgent    Groups User Agents.  A handy example of how you could use
              this one is to use "Mozilla" and "MSIE" as the values for
              GroupAgent and HideAgent keywords.  Make sure you put the
              "MSIE" one first.

GroupDomains  Allows automatic grouping of domains.  The numeric value
              represents the level of grouping, and can be thought of
              as 'the number of dots' to display.  A 1 will display
              second level domains only (xxx.xxx), a 2 will display
              third level domains (xxx.xxx.xxx) etc...  The default
              value of 0 disables any domain grouping.
              Command line argument: -g

GroupUser     Allows grouping of usernames.  Combined with a group
              name, this can be handy for displaying statistics on
              a particular group of users without displaying their
              real usernames.

GroupShading  Allows shading of table rows for groups.  Value can be
              'yes' or 'no', with the default being 'yes'.

GroupHighlight Allows bolding of table rows for groups.  Value can be
               'yes' or 'no', with the default being 'yes'.

Ignore/Include Object Keywords
----------------------

These keywords allow you to completely ignore log records when generating
statistics, or to force their inclusion regardless of ignore criteria.
Records can be ignored or included based on site, URL, user agent, referrer
and username.  Be aware that by choosing to ignore records, the accuracy of
the generated statistics become skewed, making it impossible to produce
an accurate representation of load on the web server.  These keywords
behave identical to the Hide* keywords above, where the value can have
a leading or trailing wildcard '*'.  These keywords, like the Hide* ones,
have an absolute limit of 80 characters for their values.  These keywords
do not have any command line switch counterparts, so they may only be
specified in a configuration file.  It should also be pointed out that
using the Ignore/Include combination to selectively exclude an entire
site while including a particular 'chunk' is _extremely_ inefficient,
and should be avoided.  Try grep'ing the records into a separate file
and process it instead.

IgnoreSite    This allows specified sites to be completely ignored from
              the generated statistics.

IgnoreURL     This allows specified URL's to be completely ignored from
              the generated statistics.  One use for this keyword would
              be to ignore all hits to a 'temporary' directory where
              development work is being done, but is not accessible to
              the outside world.

IgnoreReferrer This allows records to be ignored based on the referrer
               field.

IgnoreAgent   This allows specified User Agent records to be completely
              ignored from the statistics.  Maybe useful if you really
              don't want to see all those hits from MSIE :)

IgnoreUser    This allows specified username records to be completely
              ignored from the statistics.  Usernames can only be used
              if you use http authentication on your server.

IncludeSite   Force the record to be processed based on hostname.  This
              takes precedence over the Ignore* keywords.

IncludeURL    Force the record to be processed based on URL.  This takes
              precedence over the Ignore* keywords.

IncludeReferrer Force the record to be processed based on referrer.
                This takes precedence over the Ignore* keywords.

IncludeAgent  Force the record to be processed based on user agent.
              This takes precedence over the Ignore* keywords.

IncludeUser   Force the record to be processed based on username.
              Usernames are only available if you use http based
              authentication on your server.  This takes precedence over
              the Ignore* keywords.

Dump Object Keywords
--------------------

The Dump* Keywords allow text files to be generated that can then be used
for import into most database, spreadsheet and other external programs.
The file is a standard tab delimited text file, meaning that each column
is separated by a tab (0x09) character.  A header record may be included
if required, using the 'DumpHeader' keyword.  Since these files contain
all records that have been processed, including normally hidden records,
an alternate location for the files can be specified using the 'DumpPath'
keyword, otherwise they will be located in the default output directory.

DumpPath      Specifies an alternate location for the dump files.  The
              default output location will be used otherwise.  The value
              is the path portion to use, and normally should be an
              absolute path (ie: has a leading '/' character), however
              relative path names can be used as well, and will be
              relative to the output directory location.

DumpExtension Allows the dump filename extensions to be specified. The
              default extension is "tab", however may be changed with
              this option.

DumpHeader    Allows a header record to be written as the first record
              of the file.  Value can be either 'yes' or 'no',  with
              the default being 'no'.

DumpSites     Dump tab delimited sites file.  Value can be either 'yes'
              or 'no', with the default being 'no'.   The filename used
              is site_YYYYMM.tab (YYYY=year, MM=month).

DumpURLs      Dump tab delimited url file.  Value can be either 'yes' or
              'no', with the default being 'no'.  The filename used is
              url_YYYYMM.tab (YYYY=year, MM=month).

DumpReferrers Dump tab delimited referrer file.  Value can be either
              'yes' or 'no', with the default being 'no'.  Filename
              used is ref_YYYYMM.tab (YYYY=year, MM=month).  Referrer
              information is only available if present in the log
              file (ie: combined web server log).

DumpAgents    Dump tab delmited user agent file.  Value can be either
              'yes' or 'no', with the default being 'no'.  Filename
              used is agent_YYYYMM.tab (YYYY=year, MM=month).  User
              agent information is only available if present in the
              log file (ie: combined web server log).

DumpUsers     Dump tab delimited username file.  Value can be either
              'yes' or 'no', with the default being 'no'.  FIlename
              used is user_YYYYMM.tab (YYYY=year, MM=month).  The
              username data is only avilable if processing a wu-ftpd
              xferlog or http authentication is used on the web server
              and that information is present in the log.

DumpSearchStr Dump tab delimited search string file.  Value can be
              either 'yes' or 'no', with the default being 'no'.
              Filename used is search_YYYYMM.tab (YYYY=year, MM=month).
              the search string data is only available if referrer
              information is present in the log being processed and
              recognized search engines were found and processed.

HTML Generation Keywords
------------------------

These keywords allow you to customize the HTML code that The Webalizer
produces, such as adding a corporate logo or links to other web pages.
You can specify as many of these keywords as you like, and they will be
used in the order that they are found in the file.  Values cannot exceed
80 characters in length, so you may have to break long lines up into two
or more lines.  There are no command line counterparts to these keywords.

HTMLExtension  Allows generated pages to use something other than the
               default 'html' extension for the filenames.  Do not
               include the leading period ('.') when you specify the
               extension.
               Command line argument: -x

HTMLPre        Allows code to be inserted at the very beginning of the
               HTML files.  Defaults to the standard HTML 3.2 DOCTYPE
               record.  Be careful not to include any HTML here, as it
               is inserted _before_ the <HTML> tag in the file.  Use it
               for server-side scripting capabilities, such as php3, to
               insert scripting files and other directives.

HTMLHead       Allows you to insert HTML code between the <HEAD></HEAD>
               block.  There is no default.  Useful for adding scripts
               to the HTML page, such as Javascript or php3, or even
               just for adding a few META tags to the document.

HTMLBody       This keyword defines HTML code to be placed immediately
               after the <HEAD> section of the report, just before the
               title and "summary period/generated on" lines.  If used,
               the first HTMLHead line MUST include a <BODY> tag.  Put
               whatever else you want in subsequent lines, but keep in
               mind the placement of this code in relation to the title
               and other aspects of the web page.  Some typical uses
               are to change the page colors and possibly add a corporate
               logo (graphic) in the top right.  If not specified, a
               default <BODY> tag is used that defines page color, text
               color and link colors (see "sample.conf" file for example).

HTMLPost       This keyword defines HTML code that is placed after the
               title and "summary period/generated on" lines, just before
               the initial horizontal rule <HR> tag.  Normally this keyword
               isn't needed, but is provided in case you included a large
               graphic or some other weird formatting tag in the HTMLHead
               section that needs to be cleaned up or terminated before the
               main report section.

HTMLTail       This keyword defines HTML code that is placed at the bottom
               right side of the report.  It is inserted in a <TABLE> section
               between table data <TD>..</TD> tags, and is top and right
               aligned within the table.  Normally this keyword is used to
               provide a link back to your home page or insert a small
               graphic at the bottom right of the page.

HTMLEnd        This allows insertion of closing code, at the very end of
               the page.  The default is to put the closing </BODY> and
               </HTML> tags.  If specified, you _must_ specify these tags
               yourself.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes on Web Log Files
----------------------

The Webalizer supports CLF log formats, which should work for just
about everyone.  If you want User Agent or Referrer information, you
need to make sure your web server supplies this information in it's
log file, and in a format that the Webalizer can understand.  While
The Webalizer will try to handle many of the subtle variations in
log formats, some will not work at all.   Most web servers output
CLF format logs by default.  For Apache, in order to produce the
proper log format, add the following to the httpd.conf file:

LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-agent}i\""

This instructs the Apache web server to produce a 'combined' log
that includes the referrer and user agent information on the end of
each record, enclosed in quotes (This is the standard recommended
by both Apache and NCSA).   Netscape and other web servers have
similar capabilities to alter their log formats.  (note: the above
works for apache servers up to V1.2.  V1.3 and higher now have additional
ways to specify log formats... refer to included documentation).

Notes on FTP Log Files
----------------------

The Webalizer now supports ftp logs produced by wu-ftpd and others, as
a standard 'xferlog'.  To process an ftp log, you must either use the
-Ff command line option or have "LogType ftp" in your configuration file.
Support for additional formats may be forthcoming, however a future
version of the Webalizer is in the works that will allow user defined
log formats, so this will become a non-issue.  It is recommended that
you create a separate configuration file for ftp analysis, since the
values used for your web server will most likely not be suited for ftp
log analysis (ie: page types, hostname, etc.. should be different).

Because of the difference in web and ftp logs, there are a few limitations:

o Because there is no concept of a 'response code' in ftp world, response
  codes are restricted to either 200 (OK) or 206 (Partial Content), based
  on the completion status found in xferlog (for wu-ftpd, 'i'=incomplete
  and will generate a 206, 'c'=complete and will generate a 200).  If your
  ftp server doesn't supply the completion status, all requests will be
  assigned a response code of 200.  This allows the usage graph to display
  all transfer requests (hits), and how many of those completed in success
  (files - ie: 200 response codes).

o Page totals won't accurately reflect reality, since there isn't really
  the concept of a 'page' in regards to ftp services.  I have found that
  setting the PageType value to "README", "FIRST", etc... seems to work
  fairly well however,  and will give a pretty good indication of how
  many 'non-binary' files were requested.  Of course, the content of your
  ftp site will be different, so your results may vary.

o Visit totals also won't accurately reflect reality, since visits are
  triggered on PageType requests (see above).  What you usually wind up
  with is visits=sites in most cases.

o Entry/Exit pages will not be calculated for ftp logs.

o For obvious reasons, referrers and user agents are not supported.

o You _cannot_ analyze both web and ftp logs at the same time.. they must
  be done separately in different runs.

Notes on Referrers
------------------

Referrers are weird critters... They take many shapes and forms, which makes
it much harder to analyze than a typical URL, which at least has some
standardization.  What is contained in the referrer field of your log
files varies depending on many factors, such as what site did the referral,
what type of system it comes from and how the actual referral was generated.
Why is this?  Well, because a user can get to your site in many ways... They
may have your site bookmarked in their browser, they may simply type your
sites URL field in their browser, they could have clicked on a link on some
remote web page or they may have found your site from one of the many search
engines and site indexes found on the web.  The Webalizer attempts to deal
with all this variation in an intelligent way by doing certain things to
the referrer string which makes it easier to analyze.  Of course, if your
web server doesn't provide referrer information, you probably don't really
care and are asking yourself why you are reading this section...

Most referrer's will take the form of "http://somesite.com/somepage.html",
which is what you will get if the user clicks on a link somewhere on the
web in order to get to your site.  Some will be a variation of this, and
look something like "file:/some/such/sillyname", which is a reference from
a HTML document on the users local machine.  Several variations of this can
be used, depending on what type of system the user has, if he/she is on
a local network, the type of network, etc...  To complicate things even
more, dynamic HTML documents and HTML documents that are generated by
CGI scripts or external programs produce lots of extra information which
is tacked on to the end of the referrer string in an almost infinite number
of ways.  If the user just typed your URL into their browser or clicked on
a bookmark, there won't be any information in the referrer field and will
take the form "-".

In order to handle all these variations, The Webalizer parses the referrer
field in a certain way.  First, if the referrer string begins with "http",
it assumes it is a normal referral and converts the "http://" and following
hostname to lowercase in order to simplify hiding if desired.  For example,
the referrer "HTTP://WWW.MyHost.Com/This/Is/A/HTML/Document.html" will become
"http://www.myhost.com/This/Is/A/HTML/Document.html".  Notice that only the
"http://" and hostname are converted to lower case... The rest of the
referrer field is left alone.  This follows standard convention, as the
actual method (HTTP) and hostname are always case insensitive, while the
document name portion is case sensitive.

Referrers that came from search engines, dynamic HTML documents, CGI
scripts and other external programs usually tack on additional information
that it used to create the page.  A common example of this can be found
in referrals that come from search engines and site indexes common on the
web.  Sometimes, these referrers URL's can be several hundred characters
long and include all the information that the user typed in to search for
your site.  The Webalizer deals with this type of referrer by stripping
off all the query information, which starts with a question mark '?'.
The Referrer "http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=usa%26global%26link" will
be converted to just "http://search.yahoo.com/search".

When a user comes to your site by using one of their bookmarks or by
typing in your URL directly into their browser, the referrer field is
blank, and looks like "-".  Most sites will get more of these referrals
than any other type.  The Webalizer converts this type of referral into
the string "- (Direct Request)".  This is done in order to make it easier
to hide via a command line option or configuration file option.  This is
because the character "-" is a valid character elsewhere in a referrer
field, and if not turned into something unique, could not be hidden without
possibly hiding other referrers that shouldn't be.

Notes on Character Escaping
---------------------------

The HTTP protocol defines certain ways that URL's can look and behave.  To
some extent, referrer fields follow most of the same conventions.  Character
escaping is a technique by which non-printable or other non-ASCII (and even
some ASCII) characters can be used in a URL.  This is done by placing the
Hexadecimal value of the character in the URL, preceeded by a percent sign '%'.
Since Hex values are made up of ASCII characters, any character can be
escaped to ensure only printable ASCII characters are present in the URL.
Some systems take this concept to the extreme and escape all sorts of stuff,
even characters that don't need to be escaped.  To deal with this, The
Webalizer will un-escape URL's and referrers before being processed. For
Example, the URL "/www.mrunix.net/%7Ebrad/resume.html" is the same URL as
"/www.mrunix.net/~brad/resume.html", a very common form of a URL to access
users web pages.  If the URL's were not un-escaped, they would be treated as
two separate documents, even though they are really one and the same.

Search String Analysis
----------------------

  The Webalizer will do a minimal analysis on referrer strings that
it finds, looking for well known search string patterns.  Most of
the major search engines are supported, such as Yahoo!, Altavista,
Lycos, etc...  Unfortunately, search engines are always changing
their internal/CGI query formats, new search engines are coming on
line every day, and the ability to detect _all_ search strings is
nearly impossible.  However, it should be accurate enough to give
a good indication of what users were searching for when they stumbled
across your site.  Note: as of version 1.31, search engines can now
be specified within a configuration file.  See the sample.conf file
for examples of how to specify additional search engines.

Notes on Visits/Entry/Exit Figures
----------------------------------

The majority of data analyzed and reported on by The Webalizer is
as accurate and correct as possible based on the input log file.
However, due to the limitation of the HTTP protocol, the use of
firewalls, proxy servers, multi-user systems, the rotation of your
log files, and a myriad of other conditions, some of these numbers
cannot, without absolute accuracy, be calculated.  In particular,
Visits, Entry Pages and Exit Pages are suspect to random errors
due to the above and other conditions.  The reason for this is
twofold, 1) Log files are finite in size and time interval, and
2) There is no way to distinguish multiple individual users apart
given only an IP address.  Because log files are finite, they have
a beginning and ending, which can be represented as a fixed time
period.  There is no way of knowing what happened previous to this
time period, nor is it possible to predict future events based on
it.  Also, because it is impossible to distinguish individual users
apart, multiple users that have the same IP address all appear to
be a single user, and are treated as such.  This is most common where
corporate users sit behind a proxy/firewall to the outside world,
and all requests appear to come from the same location (the address
of the proxy/firewall itself).  Dynamic IP assignment (used with
dial-up internet accounts) also present a problem, since the same
user will appear as to come from multiple places.

For example, suppose two users visit your server from XYZ company,
which has their network connected to the Internet by a proxy server
'fw.xyz.com'.  All requests from the network look as though they
originated from 'fw.xyz.com', even though they were really initiated
from two separate users on different PC's.  The Webalizer would
see these requests as from the same location, and would record only
1 visit, when in reality, there were two.  Because entry and exit
pages are calculated in conjunction with visits, this situation
would also only record 1 entry and 1 exit page, when in reality,
there should be 2.

As another example, say a single user at XYZ company is surfing
around your website..  They arrive at 11:52pm the last day of
the month, and continue surfing until 12:30am, which is now a
new day (in a new month).  Since a common practice is to rotate
(save then clear) the server logs at the end of the month, you
now have the users visit logged in two different files (current
and previous months).  Because of this (and the fact that the
Webalizer clears history between months), the first page the
user requests after midnight will be counted as an entry page.
This is unavoidable, since it is the first request seen by that
particular IP address in the new month.

For the most part, the numbers shown for visits, entry and exit
pages are pretty good 'guesses', even though they may not be 100%
accurate.  They do provide a good indication of overall trends,
and shouldn't be that far off from the real numbers to count much.
You should probably consider them as the 'minimum' amount possible,
since the actual (real) values should always be equal or greater
in all cases.

Exporting Webalizer Data
------------------------

The Webalizer now has the ability to dump all object tables to tab
delimited ascii text files, which can then be imported into most
popular database and spreadsheet programs. The files are not normally
produced, as on some sites they could become quite large, and are only
enabled by the use of the Dump* configuration keywords.  The filename
extensions default to '.tab' however may be changed using the
'DumpExtension' keyword.  Since this data contains all items, even
those normally hidden, it may not be desirable to have them located
in the output directory where they may be visable to normal web users..
For this reason, the 'DumpPath' configuration keyword is available,
and allows the placement of these files somewhere outside the normal
web server document tree.  An optional 'header' record may be written
to these files as well, and is useful when the data is to be imported
into a spreadsheet.. databases will not normally need the header.  If
enabled, the header is simply the column names as the first record of
the file, tab separated.

Log files and The Webalizer
---------------------------

Most sites will choose to have The Webalizer run from cron at specified
intervals.  Care should be taken to ensure that data is not lost as a
result of log file rotations.  A suggested practice is to rotate your
web server logs at the end of each month as close to midnight as possible,
then have The Webalizer process the 'end of month' log file before running
statistics on the new, current log.  On our systems, a shell script called
'rotate_logs' is run at midnight, the end of each month.  This script file
looks like:

------------------------- file: rotate_logs ------------------------------
#!/bin/sh

# halt the server
kill `cat /var/lib/httpd/logs/httpd.pid`

# define backup names
OLD_ACCESS_LOG=/var/lib/httpd/logs/old/access_log.`date +%y%m%d-%H%M%S`
OLD_ERROR_LOG=/var/lib/httpd/logs/old/error_log.`date +%y%m%d-%H%M%S`

# make end of month copy for analyzer
cp /var/lib/httpd/logs/access_log /var/lib/httpd/logs/access_log.backup

# move files to archive directory
mv /var/lib/httpd/logs/access_log `echo $OLD_ACCESS_LOG`
mv /var/lib/httpd/logs/error_log  `echo $OLD_ERROR_LOG`

# restart web server
/usr/sbin/httpd

# compress the archived files
/bin/gzip $OLD_ACCESS_LOG
/bin/gzip $OLD_ERROR_LOG
------------------------- end of file ------------------------------------
 

This script first stops the web server using a 'kill' command.  Apache
keeps the PID of the server in the file httpd.pid, so we use it as the
argument for the kill.  Next, it defines some names for the backup files,
which are basically the name of the files with the date and time appended
to the end of them.  It then makes a copy of the log file, appended with
'.backup' in the log directory, moves the current log files to an archive
directory (/var/lib/httpd/logs/old) and restarts the server.  This setup 
allows the web server to be down for the minimum amount of time needed,
which is important for busy sites.  If you don't want to stop the server,
you can remove the initial 'kill' command, and replace the '/usr/sbin/httpd'
line with "kill -1 `cat /var/lib/httpd/logs/httpd.pid`" command instead,
On most web servers, this will cause a restart of the server and create
the new log files in the process...

At this point, we have made copies of the previous months logs,  the web
server is going about it's business as usual, and we have all the time in
the world to do any other additional processing we want.  The last two
lines of the script compress the archived logs using the GNU zip program
(gzip).  Remember, we still have a copy of the log which we can now run
The Webalizer on without having to do any further processing.

Next, we define two crontab entries.  The first runs the above 'rotate_logs'
script at midnight at the end of the month.  The second runs The Webalizer
on the '.backup' log file created above at 5 minutes after midnight.  This
gives other end of month processing jobs a chance to run so we don't bog
the system down too much.  If you have lots of end of month stuff going on,
you can change the timing to suit your needs.  The crontab entries look
something like:

------------------------- crontab entries --------------------------------
# Rotate web server logs and run monthly analysis
0 0 1 * *       /usr/local/adm/rotate_logs
5 0 1 * *       /usr/bin/webalizer -Q /var/lib/httpd/logs/access_log.backup
------------------------- end of crontab ---------------------------------

As you can see, the log rotations occur at midnight, and the analysis
is done at 5 minutes after.  Once you verify that The Webalizer ran
successfully, the access_log.backup file can be deleted as it isn't
needed any more.  If you need to re-run the analysis, you still have
the compressed archive copy that the shell script created.  In order
for the above analysis to work properly, you should have already
created an /etc/webalizer.conf configuration file suitable for your
site, or otherwise specify configuration options or a configuration
file on the crontab command line above.

If you want The Webalizer to be run more often than once a month, you
can specify additional crontab entries to do this as well.  Care should
be taken however to ensure that The Webalizer is not running when the
end of month processing above occurs, or unpredictable results may
happen (such as an inability to rotate the logs due to a file lock). 
The easiest way is to run it on the half hour with a crontab entry like:

30 * * * *      /usr/bin/webalizer

Language Support
----------------

Version 1.0x of The Webalizer added language support.  This
support is only provided at compile time in the form of an
include file containing all the strings used by The Webalizer.
The source distribution contains all language files that were
available at the time, with English being the default as
that is the only human language I speak fluently, and me
Espanol es muy malo.  Several people have already indicated
the desire to do translations into various languages, and as
I receive the language files, will make them available via
ftp at ftp://ftp.mrunix.net/pub/webalizer/lang.  Unless there
happens to be a binary distribution in the language you need,
you will need to grab the source distribution and compile the
program yourself. See the file INSTALL that comes in the source
distribution for information on how to use a language other than
English.

It should also be noted that the GD graphics library, used to
produce the in-line graphics in the output HTML,  doesn't
support extended character sets, so if you are translating
the language file, you will no doubt encounter this problem.

New: You can now specify the language to use when you are building
     program from source, using the configure script.  Just add
     --with-language=language_name   , where 'language_name' is the
     name of a valid language file in the /lang/ directory.  For
     example, --with-language=french  will build using French as
     the default language.  You should consult the INSTALL file
     for additional information on building the program from source.

Known Issues
------------

 o Memory Usage.  The Webalizer makes liberal use of memory for internal
    data structures during analysis.  Lack of real physical memory will
    noticeably degrade performance by doing lots of swapping between memory
    and disk.  One user who had a rather large log file noticed that The
    Webalizer took over 7 hours to run with only 16 Meg of memory.  Once
    memory was increased, the time was reduced to a few minutes.

 o Performance.  The Hide*, Group*, Ignore*, Include*  and IndexAlias
    configuration options can cause a performance decrease if lots of
    them are used.  The reason for this is that every log record must
    be scanned for each item in each list.  For example, if you are
    Hiding 20 objects, Grouping 20 more, and Ignoring 5,  each record
    is scanned, at most, 46 times (20+20+5 + an IndexAlias scan).
    On really large log files, this can have a profound impact.  It
    is recommended that you use the least amount of these configuration
    options that you can, as it will greatly improve performance.

Final Notes
-----------

A lot of time and effort went into making The Webalizer, and to ensure that
the results are as accurate as possible.  If you find any abnormalities or
inconsistent results, bugs, errors, ommisions or anything else that doesn't
look right, please let me know so I can investigate the problem or correct
the error.  This goes for the minimal documentation as well.  Suggestions
for future versions are also welcome and appreciated.

The Webalizer - A log file analysis program

  -- DNS information

The webalizer now has the ability to perform reverse DNS lookups.  This
document attempts to explain how it works and some things that you should
be aware of when using the DNS lookup features.

Note: The Reverse DNS feature may be enabled or disabled at compile
      time.  It is enabled by using the -DUSE_DNS compiler switch, or
      by specifing '--enable-dns' when "configure' is run.  DNS lookups
      are disabled by default.
      

Another Note: DNS lookups will not work under Windows yet, see the
      README.WIN file for more information.

How it works
------------

DNS lookups are made against a DNS cache file containing IP addresses
and resolved names.  If the IP address is not found in the cache file,
it will be left as an IP address.  In order for this to happen, a
cache file MUST be specified when the Webalizer is run, either using
the '-D' command line switch, or a "DNSCache" configuration file
keyword.  If no cache file is specified, no attempts to perform DNS
lookups will be done. The cache file can be made in two different ways.

1) You can have the Webalizer pre-process the specified log file at
   run-time, creating the cache file before processing the log file
   normally.  This is done by setting the number of DNS Children
   processes to run, either by using the '-N' command line switch or
   the "DNSChildren" configuration keyword.  This will cause the
   Webalizer to spawn the specified number of processes which will
   be used to do reverse DNS lookups.. generally, a larger number
   of processes will result in faster resolution of the log, however
   if set too high may cause overall system degredation.  A setting
   of between 5 and 20 should be acceptable, and there is a maximum
   limit of 100.   If used, a cache filename MUST be specified also,
   using either the '-D' command line switch, or the "DNSCache"
   configuration keyword.  Using this method, normal processing will
   continue only after all IP addresses have been processed, and the
   cache file is created/updated.

2) You can pre-process the log file as a standalone process, creating
   the cache file that will be used later by the Webalizer.  This is
   done by running the Webalizer with a name of 'webazolver' (ie: the
   name 'webazolver' is a symbolic link to 'webalizer') and specifing
   the cache filename (either with '-D' or DNSCache).   If the number
   of child processes is not given, the default of 5 will be used. In
   this mode, the log will be read and processed, creating a DNS cache
   file or updating an existing one, and the program will then exit
   without any further processing.

Run-time DNS cache file creation/update
---------------------------------------

The creation/update of a DNS cache file at run-time occurs as follows:

1) The log file is read, creating a list of all IP addresses that are
   not already cached and need to be resolved.

2) The specified number of children processes are forked, and are used
   to perform DNS lookups.

3) Each IP address is given, one at a time, to the next available child
   process until all IP addresses have been processed.  Each child will
   update the cache file when a name is found.

4) Once all IP addresses have been processed and the cache file updated,
   the Webalizer will process the log normally.  Each record it finds
   that has an unresolved IP address will be looked up in the cache file
   to see if a hostname is available (ie: was previously found).

Because there may be a significant amount of time between the inital
unresolved IP list and normal processing, the Webalizer should not be
run against live log files (ie: a log file that is activly being written
to by a server), otherwise there may be additional records present that
were not resolved.

Stand-Alone DNS cache file creation/update
------------------------------------------

The creation/update of the DNS cache file, when run in stand-alone mode,
occurs as follows:

1) The log file is read, creating a list of all IP addresses that are
   not already cached and need to be resolved.

2) The specified number of children processes are forked, and are used
   to perform DNS lookups.  If the number of processes was not specified,
   the default of 5 will be used.

3) Each IP address is given, one at a time, to the next available child
   process until all IP addresses have been processed.  Each child will
   update the cache file when a name is found.

4) Once all IP addresses have been processed and the cache file updated,
   the program will terminate without any further processing.

Larger sites may prefer to use a stand-alone process to create the DNS
cache file, and then run the Webalizer against the cache file.  This
allows a single cache file to be used for many virtual hosts, and reduces
the processing needed if many sites are being processed.  The Webalizer
can be used in stand alone mode by running it as 'webazolver'.  When
run in this fashion, it will only create the cache file and then exit
without any further processing.  A cache filename MUST be specified,
however unlike when running the Webalizer normally, the number of child
processes does not have to be given (will default to 5).  All normal
configuration and command line options are recognized, however, many
of them will simply be ignored.. this allows the use of a standard
configuration file for both normal use and stand alone use.

Examples:
---------

webalizer -c test.conf -N 10 -D dns_cache.db /var/log/my_www_log

   This will use the configuration file 'test.conf' to obtain normal
   configuration options such as hostname and output directory.. it
   will then either create or update the file 'dns_cache.db' in the
   default output directory (using 10 child processes) based on the
   IP addresses it finds in the log /var/lib/my_www_log, and then
   process that log file normally.

webalizer -o out -D dns_cache.db /var/log/my_www_log

  This will process the log file /var/log/my_www_log, resolving IP
  addresses from the cache file 'dns_cache.db' found in the default
  output directory "out".  The cache file must be present as it will
  not be created with this command.

for i in /var/log/*/access_log; do
  webazolver -N 20 -D /var/lib/dns_cache.db $i
done

  The above is an example of how to run through multiple log files
  creating a single DNS cache file.. this might be typically used on
  a larger site that has many virtual hosts, all keeping their log
  files in a seperate directory.  It will process each access_log it
  finds in /var/log/* and create a cache file (var/lib/dns_cache.db).
  This cache file can then be used to process the logs normally with
  with the Webalizer.

for i in /etc/webalizer/*.conf; do webalizer -c $i -D /etc/cache.db; done

  This will process each configuration file found in /etc/webalizer,
  using the DNS cache file /etc/cache.db.  This will also typically be
  used on a larger site with multiple hosts..  Each configration file
  will specify a site specific log file, hostname, output directory, etc.
  The cache file used will typically be created using a command similar
  to the one previous to this example.

Considerations
--------------

Processing of live log files is discouraged, as the chances of log records
being written between the time of DNS resolution and normal processing will
cause problems.

Cached DNS addresses have a TTL (time to live) of 3 days.  This may be
changed at compile time by editing the dns_resolv.h header file and
changing the value for DNS_CACHE_TTL.

There is an absolute maximum of 100 child processes that may be created,
however the actual number of children should be significantly less than
the maximum.. typical usage should be between 5 and 20.

If you are using STDIN for the input stream (log file) and have run-time
DNS cache file creation/update enabled.. the program will exit after the
cache file has been created/updated and no output will be produced.  If
you must use STDIN for the input log, you will need to process the stream
twice, once to create/update the cache file, and again to produce the
reports.

Special thanks to Henning P. Schmiedehausen <hps@tanstaafl.de> for the
original dns-resolver code he submitted,  which was the basis for this
implementation.