Ubuntu
awstats package

suboptimal defaults in awstats (LogFile and LogFormat)

Bug #319871 reported by Andreas Olsson
10
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
awstats (Debian)
Fix Released
Unknown
awstats (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Low
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: awstats

In a fresh install of awstats, including jaunty, the default /etc/awstats/awstats.conf will among other settings contain these two:

LogFile="/var/log/apache/access.log"
LogFormat=4

Wouldn't it make more sence to instead use the following?

LogFile="/var/log/apache2/access.log"
LogFormat=1

If you install a new web server today it will most likely be an Apache 2.x.
The default apache2 configuration in Ubuntu uses the combined log format (LogFormat=1)

While parsing a "combined" access log as the common format (LogFormat=4) kinda works, it won't give you as much information.

Revision history for this message
Helmut A. Bender (ubuntu-helmut-bender) wrote :

From duplicate:

/var/log/apache2/access.log is only accessible for root.adm, but the cronjob of awstats runs as www-data, so awstats can't access the logfile and won't work.

Revision history for this message
Andreas Olsson (andol) wrote :

The LogFile issue is resolved as of Karmic awstats 6.9~dfsg-1ubuntu1.

Regarding the LogFormat there is a http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=399029

In regards to file ownership of /var/log/apache2/access.log as well as the use running the cron job a sane default setting might not be entirely obvious. See the discussion in in http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=396452 for more information.

Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in awstats (Debian):
status: Unknown → New
Revision history for this message
Chuck Short (zulcss) wrote :

Like Debian we dont have a good way of doing this yet

Regards
chuck

Changed in awstats (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Chuck Short (zulcss)
Changed in awstats (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Andreas Olsson (andol)
Changed in awstats (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Low
Revision history for this message
gzarkadas (gzarkadas) wrote :

Hi, I addressed the issues of log accessibility using a special non-privileged account (the way the `logcheck' package does) for the cron job and group-ownership of /var/lig/awstats (rwxr-s---).

I also changed the cron job command to allow the upstream-recommended way of configuring awstats (one file per virtual host) to work out of the box.

The details are in my message to the debian bug list for the same issue ( see http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=396452#34 ).

IMHO this is a good way to go for solving the log accessibility problem without opening the logs to everyone. It will only need to standardise which the special non-privileged account will be (I suppose a new one).

Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in awstats (Debian):
status: New → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Dave Walker (davewalker) wrote :

@gzarkadas, According to the Debian bug tracker, it seems that this has been resolved since at least Karmic, perhaps Hardy. Is this still an issue?

Reverting back to incomplete.

Changed in awstats (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Clint Byrum (clint-fewbar) wrote :

According to Debian, this was fixed in Debian, version 6.7.dfsg-5.1

Other than hardy, all other supported releases are fixed.

Marking as Fix Released.

Changed in awstats (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Fix Released
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