[TriLUG] Awstats for Dummies?

[Lisa C. Boyd]

matt1027 wrote:
> Is there an Awstats for Dummies site?  Or Awstats for smart people who 
> are already trying to do way more than they should be doing and don't 
> have time for cool computer projects unless someone has spelled it out 
> in a-b-c steps?
I'm not sure this is an explanation you are looking for but here's what 
Awstats basically is -- or were you looking for a good guide to 
installing it yourself??

Basically Awstats is a combination of Perl scripts. These scripts (run 
typically on a web server) take input from your raw log files (standard 
log files from Apache for example) and output some information to a 
directory (on your web server where it can be accessed by a browser). 
The scripts interpret the information from your log files and creates 
html pages and graphics. It basically turns your raw log files 
(something most people don't understand) into web pages that shows you 
relevant information in a way you can understand better. These scripts 
need to be run on a regular basis to interpret the new log files, so 
generally a Cron job is setup to run these scripts at a certain time 
every day (or other if you want them updated more).


Some stats programs (or scripts) interpret different information from 
the same log files -- it just depends on how well they are written I 
guess. Some web hosts have access to three major stats programs - 
Awstats, Webalizer, and Analog -- although there are many out there.

Does that help?
Lisa B.