[LON-CAPA-dev] httpd logfiles
Matthew Brian Hall
lon-capa-dev@mail.lon-capa.org
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 hallmat3@msu.edu
123 North Kedzie Hall Michigan State University
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