Logfiles 

If you have a huge logfile and want to save disk space, compress your logfiles, w3perl will be able to uncompress them while processing.
W3Perl can parse crunched and/or split logfiles but is not able to read logfiles located at different location. They should be in the same directory.
Remote logfiles can be retrieve before running the stats. Log filename should contains date informations if split.
New : If you don't have access to logfiles, W3Perl can be used with javascript tag. Adding a small piece of javascript in the web pages you want to monitor and the script will create the logfiles for you.

- Split logfiles

If logfiles are split each day or each month, here is a list of filename the package can parse :

One file One file compressed Apache rotation Daily Daily compressed Monthly Monthly compressed
%prefixlog %prefixlog %prefixlog.%rotate %prefixlog.%year%month%day %prefixlog.%lettermonth-%day-%year %prefixlog.%year%month %prefixlog.%smallyear-%lettermonth
access_log access_log.gz access_log.4.gz
access_log.3.gz
access_log.2.gz
access_log.1
access_log 		access_log.19990303
access_log.19990304
access_log.19990305
access_log.19990306
access_log 		access.Apr-22-1999.zip
access.Apr-23-1999.zip
access.Apr-24-1999.zip
access.Apr-25-1999.zip
access 		access_log.199903
access_log.199904
access_log.199905
access_log.199906
access_log 		access_log.99-Oct.gz
access_log.99-Nov.gz
access_log.99-Dec.gz
access_log.00-Jan.gz
access_log

Log filename string can be whatever you want :

  • prefixlog is the constant string in your logfile (ex : access_log)
  • day is a digits number (from 01 to 31)
  • month is a 2 digits number (from 01 to 12)
  • smallmonth is a number (from 1 to 12)
  • lettermonth is a 3 letters string with first upper (from Jan to Dec)
  • smallyear is 2 digits number (ex : 98)
  • rotate is the apache index (ex : 1)
  • year is 4 digits number (ex : 1998)
 Examples of supported string filename :

  • access_log.1998Mar.gz
  • 1998.03.10.raw.zip
  • log.03-12-1998.gz
  • in.9904
  • access.20060428.log
- Crunched files

Crunched logfiles is also supported, both zip, gzip or bzip2. Others can be add easily.

- No logfiles

Insert a small piece of javascript in your pages and logfiles will be created that you could then analyze with W3Perl. Logfile format is ECLF so referer and agent are available. Files are daily split.