Sawmill Documentation Technical Manual FAQ User Guide WWW Sawmill DOCUMENTATION Table of Contents Getting Started: ● Installation ● Troubleshooting ● The Temporary Folder ● Web Server Information ● Using Sawmill with WebSTAR V on MacOS X ● Installing Sawmill as a CGI Program Under IIS ● The Administrative Menu ● Using Sawmill ● Reports ● Power User Techniques Configuration: ● The Config Page ● Configuration Options ● The Command Line ● Configuration Files ● Setting up Multiple Users (ISP Setup) ● Creating and Editing Profiles by Hand Other Topics: ● Log Files ● Databases ● The Configuration Language ● Database Detail ● Using Log Filters ● Pathnames ● Hierarchies and Fields ● Cross-Referencing and Simultaneous Filters ● Regular Expressions ● Security ● File/Folder Permissions ● Users ● Memory, Disk, and Time Usage ● Custom Log Formats ● Using the Sawmill Scheduler ● Language Modules--Localization and Text Customization ● Supported Log Formats ● Getting Screen Dimensions and Depth Information ● Credits ● Copyright Sawmill Documentation Technical Manual FAQ User Guide WWW Sawmill DOCUMENTATION FAQ Sections of the FAQ ● Licensing, Upgrading, and the Trial Version ● Major Features ● Installation and Setup ● Log Filters ● Reports ● Troubleshooting ● Miscellaneous Licensing, Upgrading, and the Trial Version Q: What's the difference between the full version of Sawmill and the Trial version? A: The Trial version is identical to the full version, except that it expires after 30 days. For full details, see Difference Between Trial and Full. Q: What's the difference between Sawmill Enterprise and Sawmill Professional? A: Enterprise supports MySQL, WebNibbler, multithreaded database builds, and full interface customization. For full details, see Difference Between Enterprise and Professional. Q: When I purchase, do I have to download a new version of Sawmill, or can I "unlock" my existing trial installation? A: You can unlock your trial installation by entering your license key in the Licensing page. For full details, see Unlocking a Trial Installation. Q: My 30-day trial has expired, and I haven't finished evaluating Sawmill yet. How can I get a new trial? A: Go to the Licensing page, delete your expired license, and click "Try Sawmill For 30 Days." For full details, see Resetting the Trial Period. Q: How can I upgrade to a new version of Sawmill without losing my profiles, databases, and other data? A: When upgrading from an older 7.x version to a newer 7.x version (except on Windows), start with the new LogAnalysisInfo and copy files as described in the long answer. On Windows simply install Sawmill over the existing installation. When upgrading from 6.x to 7, copy Configs and run from the command line with -a cc. For full details, see Upgrading Without Losing Data. Major Features Q: What platforms does Sawmill run on? A: Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003, MacOS, most versions and variants of UNIX. For full details, see Available Platforms. Q: How much memory, CPU power, and disk space do I need to run Sawmill? A: At least 128 Meg RAM, 512 Meg preferred; 500 Meg disk space for an average database; and as much CPU power as you can get. For full details, see System Requirements. Q: Why can Sawmill only use commerically licensed MySQL databases? Is there any way around this restriction. A: MySQL licensing restrictions prevent us from including libraries for non-commerical servers. To use non-commerical databases, build Sawmill from the source code. For full details, see Why Are Only Commercial MySQL Databases Supported?. Q: What sorts of log files can Sawmill process? A: Sawmill can handle all major log formats and many minor formats, and you can create your own custom formats. For full details, see Supported Log Formats. Q: How is Sawmill different from other log analysis tools? A: Among other things, Sawmill does not generate static reports -- it generates dynamic, interlined reports. For full details, see Sawmill vs. The Competition. Q: How does a typical company use Sawmill; what does a typical Sawmill setup look like? A: Installations vary from customer to customer--Sawmill provides enough flexibility to let you choose the model that works best for you. For full details, see Typical Usage Patterns. Q: How large of a log file can Sawmill process? A: There are no limits, except those imposed by the limitations of your server. For full details, see Processing Large Log Files. Q: How can I use a grid (cluster) of computers to process logs faster? A: Use an internal database, build a separate database on each computer, and merge them For full details, see Using a grid of computers to process more data. Q: Does the log data I feed to Sawmill need to be in chronological order? A: No; your log entries can be in any order. For full details, see Log Entry Ordering. Installation and Setup Q: What is a log file? A: Log files are text files created by your server, recording each hit on your site. Sawmill generates its statistics by analyzing log files. For full details, see What is a Log File?. Q: Can Sawmill be configured to automatically analyze the access log for my site on a shared server once a day at a given time? A: Yes, if you run it stand-alone, or if your server has a scheduling program. For full details, see Scheduling. Q: I'm running Sawmill on Windows, and it automatically starts itself up on IP 127.0.0.1 and port 8987. How can I tell it to use another IP address and port? A: Set the Server Hostname option and the Web Server Port option in the Network section of the Preferences. For full details, see Running on a Different IP. Q: How do I see referrer (referring URL, search engines, and search terms), agent (browser and OS), or error statistics? A: Use "extended" or "combined" log format to see referrer and agent information, or analyze the log files with a separate profile. For error logs, analyze them with a separate profile. For full details, see Referrer, Agent, and Error Logs. Q: Is Sawmill available in languages other than English? How can I change the output of Sawmill to be in a different language, or to use different wording? A: Sawmill is currently available in English, German, and Japanese, and can be translated into any language fairly easily. Customization of output text is also easy. For full details, see Language Modules--Localization and Customization. Q: Can I set up Sawmill to start automatically when the computer starts up? A: Yes; run it as a Service on Windows; use StartupItems under MacOS X; use the /etc/rc.d mechanism on UNIX systems that support it. For full details, see Running Sawmill at System Startup. Q: When I run Sawmill in a UNIX terminal window, and then close the window, Sawmill stops working. What can I do about that? A: Add an ampersand (&) to the end of the command line to run it in the background. For full details, see Running Sawmill in the Background. Q: How can I run Sawmill in CGI mode, and still use the Sawmill Scheduler? A: Use an external Scheduler to run jobs or to call the Sawmill Scheduler, or run Sawmill in both CGI and web server modes. For full details, see Using the Scheduler with CGI Mode. Q: Can Sawmill be configured to automatically FTP log files from multiple servers, and add them daily to a database? A: Yes. For full details, see Downloading Log Data by FTP. Q: Can Sawmill use scp, or sftp, or ssh, or https, to download log data? Can it uncompress tar, or arc, or sea, or hqx, etc.? A: Not directly, but you can do it by using a command-line log source to run a command line, script, or program that does whatever is necessary to fetch the data, and prints it to Sawmill. For full details, see Using a Command-line Log Source. Q: Can I run Sawmill as a Service on Windows? Can I run Sawmill while I'm logged out? A: As of version 7, Sawmill is installed as a service when you run the normal installer. For full details, see Running Sawmill as a Service. Q: My web site is hosted in another state. Does Sawmill provide browser based admin tools I can use to configure it and retrieve reports? A: Yes, Sawmill's interface is entirely browser based. For full details, see Remote Administration. Q: Can Sawmill generate separate analyses for all the web sites hosted on my server? A: Yes, Sawmill includes a number of features for just this purpose. For full details, see Statistics for Multiple Sites. Q: Can Sawmill process ZIPped, gzipped, or bzipped log data? A: Yes, all three. For full details, see Processing zipped, gzipped, or bzipped Log Data. Q: Can Sawmill combine the logs from multiple clustered or load balanced web servers, so that the user has one view of the data? Can it report separately on the different servers? A: Yes. For full details, see Clustered Servers. Q: Can Sawmill be configured to limit access to statistics, so that a customer can only see the statistics associated with their section of my web site? A: Yes, you can password protect statistics in several ways. For full details, see Protecting Clients' Statistics. Q: I want to deploy Sawmill to my customers, but I want it to look like part of my site. I don't want the name Sawmill to appear-- I want my own name to appear. Can I relabel or white-label Sawmill? A: Yes, but the degree to which you can relabel depends on your license. For full details, see Relabeling/White- labeling Sawmill. Q: What features can I use in Sawmill's regular expressions? A: You can use whatever's documented (Regular Expressions), and possibly more.