Subject: [LON-CAPA-dev] httpd logfiles

From: "Matthew Brian Hall" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 11:18:29 -0400 (EDT)

Hello all -

In looking at data.lite.msu.edu, I noticed the httpd logfiles are getting a
bit monsterous (400M in total).

This is due to the clock on the remote.  If someone (Guy) leaves themselves
logged in to LON-CAPA and their cookie expires, it generates a couple errors.
The errors occur on attempts to retrieve the digits for the clock.  There are
roughly 1-6 requests per second.  Apache dutifully logs all of these errors
in /var/log/httpd/error_log.  Similary, every attempt to access the digits
results in a log entry in /var/log/httpd/access_log, which is a problem if
clients have caching turned off on their browsers.

Needless to say, the logs get pretty tedious after 12 hours of this.
This isn't really a problem on development machines, but production
machines need to avoid it.

There are a few ways to deal with this -

1. Switch to an analog clock or sundial.
2. Reduce the logging.
3. Not require a cookie to get the digits on the clock (or any of the other
    *.gif's on the remote).

As much as I'd prefer #1, solutions #2 and #3 will probably have to be used.

#2: To reduce the logging on a server, /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf needs
editing.  The line

CustomLog logs/access_log common

    Needs to be replaced with

SetEnvIf Request_URI /res/adm/pages nolog-request
CustomLog logs/access_log common env=!nolog-request

LON-CAPA doesn't seem to provide a httpd.conf.  This same method cannot be
applied to the error logging.  There are options on the error logging, but
excluding all errors is probably unwise.

#3: Not require a cookie to get the digits on the clock.

This will mean either excluding /res/adm/pages from the access handler or
finding a new home for the files.  The former approach has been taken in
the latest patch to loncapa_apache.conf.

I thought I'd give you the heads up on this in case you want to change the
httpd.conf on your favorite server(s) or if you have any other ideas.

Matthew

--
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Matthew Hall           LON-CAPA developer         [email-masked]
123 North Kedzie Hall                    Michigan State University
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From: Gerd Kortemeyer <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2002 14:45:08 -0400

I am doing solution #3 right now.

LCD font characters and numbers will go into

/adm/lonLCDfont

which does not require authentication. This means that anybody in the world can
download our wonderful LCD characters.

- Gerd.

Matthew Brian Hall wrote:

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