apache web server logging - custom log files vs. general log file

Question

When I don't specify a logfile in the virtual host sections of my conf-file the logs are written in the file specified in httpd.conf (=access_log). A log-entry would look like this:

SOMEIP - - [22/Jan/2013:18:34:08 +0100] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 1752 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/SOMEIP Safari/537.17"

SOMEIP - - [22/Jan/2013:18:34:08 +0100] "GET /img/homepage_bg.png HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://DOMAIN/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) C$

But when I define a log file in the virtual host section the new log file contains different information:

SOMEIP - - [22/Jan/2013:18:33:34 +0100] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 1752

SOMEIP - - [22/Jan/2013:18:33:34 +0100] "GET /img/homepage_bg.png HTTP/1.1" 304 -

i define the log file like this:

CustomLog logs/DOMAIN-access_log common

Why does a custom log contain less information than the general log where all virtual hosts log in by default?

Check your master log format vs. the common log format you've specified there. Here's the Apache guide on how to configure log formats: httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_log_config.html — David Ravetti
– David Ravetti, Commented Jan 22, 2013 at 17:52

Baxter_The_Proud · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-22 18:01:33Z

0

You need to define the alias "common" with a log format that includes the user-agent.

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

answered Jan 22, 2013 at 18:01

Baxter_The_Proud

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Perleone · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-22 20:23:28Z

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You didn't say what flavour of Linux you're using. Any decently configured Apache (for example the Debian-based ones like Ubuntu, Mint, etc.) will already have a fitting LogFormat containing the user-agent in their configuration. Look for all the lines matching LogFormat. You should find something like this:

LogFormat "%v:%p %h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" vhost_combined
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" common
LogFormat "%{Referer}i -> %U" referer
LogFormat "%{User-agent}i" agent

Just use the combined or even the vhost_combined parameter for your logfile:

CustomLog logs/DOMAIN-access_log combined

You should also look at the documentation for the Custom Log Formats.

answered Jan 22, 2013 at 20:23

Perleone

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1 Comment

matthias Over a year ago

in which file should i find thie LogFormats? I have a domain.conf file where i define the vhosts. Do i have to define the LogFormat in this file or in another file? i'm using cent-os.

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