10. piw-logger

The piw-logger script is intended for use as an Apache “piped log script” but can also be used to feed pre-existing Apache logs to the master by feeding logs to the script’s stdin. This script must be run on the same node as the piw-master script.

10.1. Synopsis

piw-logger [-h] [--version] [-c FILE] [-q] [-v] [-l FILE]
                [--format FORMAT] [--log-queue ADDR] [--drop]
                [files [files ...]]

10.2. Description

files

The log file(s) to load into the master; if omitted or “-” then stdin will be read which is the default for piped log usage

-h, --help

Show this help message and exit

--version

Show program’s version number and exit

-c FILE, --configuration FILE

Specify a configuration file to load

-q, --quiet

Produce less console output

-v, --verbose

Produce more console output

-l FILE, --log-file FILE

Log messages to the specified file

--format FORMAT

The Apache log format that log lines will be expected to be in (default: combined); the short-cuts common, combined and common_vhost can be used in addition to Apache LogFormat strings

--log-queue ADDR

The address of the queue used by piw-logger (default: (ipc:///tmp/piw-logger); this should always be an ipc address

--drop

Drop log records if unable to send them to the master after a short timeout; this should generally be specified when piw-logger is used as a piped log script

10.3. Usage

This utility is typically used to pipe logs from a web-server, such as Apache into the piwheels database where they can be used for analysis, and to keep the stats on the homepage up to date. Apache provides a capability to pipe all logs to a given script which can be used directly with piw-logger.

A typical configuration under a Debian-like operating system might use the Apache CustomLog directive as follows, within the Apache virtual host reponsible for serving files to pip clients:

ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/ssl_error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/ssl_access.log combined
CustomLog "|/usr/local/bin/piw-logger --drop" combined