Combined Log Format - Revision history

Dan Tobias at 00:15, 12 February 2020

2020-02-12T00:15:43Z

Dan Tobias at 13:26, 17 December 2012

2012-12-17T13:26:35Z

Dan Tobias: Created page with "{{FormatInfo |formattype=electronic |subcat=Web |subcat2=Web server files }} The '''Combined Log Format''' is a standardized log format used by a number of web servers to kee..."

2012-12-17T13:20:24Z

Created page with "{{FormatInfo |formattype=electronic |subcat=Web |subcat2=Web server files }} The '''Combined Log Format''' is a standardized log format used by a number of web servers to kee..."

New page

{{FormatInfo
|formattype=electronic
|subcat=Web
|subcat2=Web server files
}}

The '''Combined Log Format''' is a standardized log format used by a number of web servers to keep track of accesses to websites. It is one of the formats available in Apache., and is similar to the [[Common Log Format]] except for the addition of two more fields, the referer and user agent.

The format is defined by this expression in the [[httpd.conf (Apache)]] file:

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

This consists of the following space-separated fields:

* Hostname or IP address of accesser of site. If a proxy server is between the end-user and the server, that might get logged here instead of the actual accesser's address.

* RFC 1413 identity of client; this is noted by Apache as unreliable, and is usually blank (represented by a hyphen (-) in the file).

* Username of user accessing document; will be a hyphen (-) for public web sites that have no user access controls.

* Timestamp string surrounded by square brackets, e.g. [12/Dec/2012:12:12:12 -0500]

* HTTP request surrounded by double quotes, e.g., "GET /stuff.html HTTP/1.1"

* HTTP status code: 200 for successful access, 404 for not-found, and other [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes codes].

* Number of bytes transferred in requested object

* Referer: URL where user came from to get to your site, if sent by client to server (surrounded by double quotes)

* User agent string sent by client (surrounded by double quotes). Can be used to identify what browser was used, but [http://webtips.dan.info/brand-x/useragent.html can be misleading].

== References ==
* [http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/logs.html#combined Combined Log Format: Apache]
* [http://www.webhostgear.com/69.html Apache Log Files Explained]

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 * HTTP request surrounded by double quotes, e.g., "GET /stuff.html HTTP/1.1"
-* HTTP status code: 200 for successful access, 404 for not-found, and other [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes codes].
+* HTTP status code: 200 for successful access, 404 for not-found, and other [[Wikipedia:List of HTTP status codes|codes]].
 * Number of bytes transferred in requested object
@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 * Referer: URL where user came from to get to your site, if sent by client to server (surrounded by double quotes)
-* User agent string sent by client (surrounded by double quotes). Can be used to identify what browser was used, but [http://webtips.dan.info/brand-x/useragent.html can be misleading].
+* User agent string sent by client (surrounded by double quotes). Can be used to identify what browser was used, but [https://webtips.dan.info/brand-x/useragent.html can be misleading].
 == References ==
 * [http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/logs.html#combined Combined Log Format: Apache]
 * [http://www.webhostgear.com/69.html Apache Log Files Explained]

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 }}
-The '''Combined Log Format''' is a standardized log format used by a number of web servers to keep track of accesses to websites. It is one of the formats available in Apache., and is similar to the [[Common Log Format]] except for the addition of two more fields, the referer and user agent.
+The '''Combined Log Format''' is a standardized log format used by a number of web servers to keep track of accesses to websites. It is one of the formats available in Apache., and is similar to the [[Common Log Format]] except for the addition of two more fields, the referer and user agent. The default filename is '''access_log''', which has no extension. Sometimes a server will be set to "auto-rotate" old log files, where an extension will get added to indicate past logs by number relative to the present, like "001" for the previous one, "002" for the one before, and so on, or else a specific date or some other scheme. You can also configure the server to use the filename of your choice (e.g., if you host multiple virtual domains, you may want to use a different log file for each), and some people choose names with an extension (e.g., .log) to make the files easier to deal with in operating systems or software that identify file types by extension.
 The format is defined by this expression in the [[httpd.conf (Apache)]] file: