man goaccess (1): fast web log analyzer and interactive viewer.

SYNOPSIS

goaccess [-f input-file][-c][-r][-d][-m][-q][-o][-h][...]

DESCRIPTION

goaccess is a free (GPL) real-time web log analyzer and interactive viewer that runs in a terminal in *nix systems. It provides fast and valuable HTTP statistics for system administrators that require a visual server report on the fly. GoAccess parses the specified web log file and outputs the data to the X terminal. Features include:

General Statistics:: This panel gives a summary of several metrics, some of them are: number of valid and invalid requests, time taken to analyze the data set, unique visitors, requested files, static files (CSS, ICO, JPG, etc) HTTP referrers, 404s, size of the parsed log file and bandwidth consumption.
Unique visitors: This panel shows metrics such as hits, unique visitors and cumulative bandwidth per date. HTTP requests containing the same IP, the same date, and the same user agent are considered a unique visitor. By default, it includes web crawlers/spiders.
Requested files: This panel displays the most highly requested files on your web server. It shows hits, unique visitors, and percentage, along with the cumulative bandwidth, protocol, and the request method used.
Requested static files: Lists the most frequently static files such as: JPG, CSS, SWF, JS, GIF, and PNG file types, along with the same metrics as the last module. Additional static files can be added to the configuration file.
404 or Not Found: Listed like previous panels, containing the same metrics. This panel lists the top recurrent HTTP 404s.
Hosts: This panel has detailed information on the hosts themselves. It displays the same metrics as previous panels, such as number of hits, visitors, cumulative bandwidth. This is great to spot aggressive crawlers and identifying who's eating your bandwidth.
Expanding the panel can display more information such as host's reverse DNS lookup result, country of origin and city. If the -a argument is enabled, a list of user agents can be displayed by selecting the desired IP address, and then pressing ENTER.
Operating Systems: This panel will report which operating system the host used when it hit the server. It attempts to provide the most specific version of each operating system.
Browsers: This panel will report which browser the host used when it hit the server. It attempts to provide the most specific version of each browser.
Visit Times: This panel will display an hourly report. This option displays 24 data points, one for each hour of the day.
Referrers URLs: If the host in question accessed the site via another resource, or was linked/diverted to you from another host, the URL they were referred from will be provided in this panel. See command line option to ignore specific referrers. disabled by default.
Referring Sites: This panel will display only the host part but not the whole URL. The URL where the request came from.
Keyphrases: It reports keyphrases used on Google search, Google cache, and Google translate that have lead to your web server. At present, it only supports Google search queries. By default this panel is disabled. See `--ignore-panel` in your configuration file to enable it. disabled by default.
Geo Location: Determines where an IP address is geographically located. Statistics are broken down by continent and country. It needs to be compiled with GeoLocation support.
HTTP Status Codes: The values of the numeric status code to HTTP requests.

NOTE: Optionally and if configured, all panels can display the average time taken to serve the request.

STORAGE

There are three storage options that can be used with GoAccess. Choosing one will depend on your environment and needs.

GLib Hash Tables: On-memory storage provides better performance at the cost of limiting the dataset size to the amount of available physical memory. By default GoAccess uses GLib Hash Tables. If your dataset can fit in memory, then this will perform fine. It has average memory usage and pretty good performance. For better performance with memory trade-off see Tokyo Cabinet on-memory hash database.
Tokyo Cabinet On-Disk B+ Tree: Use this storage method for large datasets where it is not possible to fit everything in memory. The B+ tree database is slower than any of the hash databases since data has to be committed to disk. However, using an SSD greatly increases the performance. You may also use this storage method if you need data persistence to quickly load statistics at a later date.
Tokyo Cabinet On-Memory Hash Database: Although this may vary across different systems, in general the on-memory hash database should perform slightly better than GLib Hash Tables.

CONFIGURATION

Multiple options can be used to configure GoAccess. For a complete up-to-date list of configure options, run ./configure --help

--enable-debug: Compile with debugging symbols and turn off compiler optimizations.
--enable-utf8: Compile with wide character support. Ncursesw is required.
--enable-geoip: Compile with GeoLocation support. MaxMind's GeoIP is required.
--enable-tcb=<memhash|btree>: Compile with Tokyo Cabinet storage support.
--disable-zlib: Disable zlib compression on B+ Tree database.
--disable-bzip: Disable bzip2 compression on B+ Tree database.

OPTIONS

The following options can be supplied to the command or specified in the configuration file. If specified in the configuration file, long options need to be used without prepending --.

--time-format=<timeformat>: The time_format variable followed by a space, specifies the log format time containing any combination of regular characters and special format specifiers. They all begin with a percentage (%) sign. See `man strftime`.
--date-format=<dateformat>: The date_format variable followed by a space, specifies the log format date containing any combination of regular characters and special format specifiers. They all begin with a percentage (%) sign. See `man strftime`.
--log-format=<logformat>: The log_format variable followed by a space or
-a --agent-list: Enable a list of user-agents by host. For faster parsing, do not enable this flag.
-c --config-dialog: Prompt log/date configuration window on program start.
-d --with-output-resolver: Enable IP resolver on HTML|JSON output.
-e --exclude-ip=<IP|IP-range>: Exclude an IPv4 or IPv6 from being counted. Ranges can be included as well using a dash in between the IPs (start-end).
-f --log-file=<logfile>: Specify the path to the input log file. If set in the config file, it will take priority over -f from the command line.
-g --std-geoip: Standard GeoIP database for less memory usage.
-h --help: The help.
-H --http-protocol: Include HTTP request protocol if found. This will create a request key containing the request protocol + the actual request.
-i --hl-header: Color highlight active panel.
-M --http-method: Include HTTP request method if found. This will create a request key containing the request method + the actual request.
-m --with-mouse: Enable mouse support on main dashboard.
-o --output-format=<json|csv>: Write output to stdout given one of the following formats:
-p --config-file=<configfile>: Specify a custom configuration file to use. If set, it will take priority over the global configuration file (if any).
-q --no-query-string: Ignore request's query string. i.e., www.google.com/page.htm?query => www.google.com/page.htm.
-r --no-term-resolver: Disable IP resolver on terminal output.
-s --storage: Display current storage method. i.e., B+ Tree, Hash.
-V --version: Display version information and exit.
--color-scheme<1|2>: Choose among color schemes.
--no-color: Turn off colored output. This is the default output on terminals that do not support colors.
---color=<fg:bg[attrs, PANEL]>: Specify custom colors for the terminal output.
--no-column-names: Don't write column names in the terminal output. By default, it displays column names for each available metric in every panel.
--html-report-title=<title>: Set HTML report page title and header.
--debug-file=<debugfile>: Send all debug messages to the specified file. Needs to be configured with --enable-debug
--invalid-requests=<filename>: Log invalid requests to the specified file.
--no-global-config: Do not load the global configuration file. This directory should normally be /usr/local/etc, unless specified with
--real-os: Display real OS names. e.g, Windows XP, Snow Leopard.
--sort-panel=<PANEL,FIELD,ORDER>: Sort panel on initial load. Sort options are separated by comma. Options are in the form: PANEL,METRIC,ORDER
--static-file=<extension>: Add static file extension. e.g.:
--all-static-files: Include static files that contain a query string.
--double-decode: Decode double-encoded values. This includes, user-agent, request, and referer.
--ignore-crawlers: Ignore crawlers from being counted.
--ignore-panel=PANEL: Ignore parsing and displaying the given panel.
--ignore-referer=<referer>: Ignore referers from being counted. Wildcards allowed. e.g.,
--444-as-404: Treat non-standard status code 444 as 404.
--4xx-to-unique-count: Add 4xx client errors to the unique visitors count.
--no-progress: Disable progress metrics [total requests/requests per second].
--geoip-database=<geofile>: Specify path to GeoIP database file. i.e., GeoLiteCity.dat. File needs to be downloaded from maxmind.com. IPv4 and IPv6 files are supported as well.
--keep-db-files: Persist parsed data into disk. This should be set to the first dataset prior to use `load-from-disk`. Setting it to false will delete all database files when exiting the program.
Only if configured with --enable-tcb=btree
--load-from-disk: Load previously stored data from disk. Database files need to exist. See
--db-path=<dir>: Path where the on-disk database files are stored. The default value is the
--xmmap=<num>: Set the size in bytes of the extra mapped memory. The default value is 0.
Only if configured with --enable-tcb=btree
--cache-lcnum=<num>: Specifies the maximum number of leaf nodes to be cached. If it is not more than 0, the default value is specified. The default value is 1024. Setting a larger value will increase speed performance, however, memory consumption will increase. Lower value will decrease memory consumption.
Only if configured with --enable-tcb=btree
--cache-ncnum=<num>: Specifies the maximum number of non-leaf nodes to be cached. If it is not more than 0, the default value is specified. The default value is 512.
Only if configured with --enable-tcb=btree
--tune-lmemb=<num>: Specifies the number of members in each leaf page. If it is not more than 0, the default value is specified. The default value is 128.
Only if configured with --enable-tcb=btree
--tune-nmemb=<num>: Specifies the number of members in each non-leaf page. If it is not more than 0, the default value is specified. The default value is 256.
Only if configured with --enable-tcb=btree
--tune-bnum=<num>: Specifies the number of elements of the bucket array. If it is not more than 0, the default value is specified. The default value is 32749. Suggested size of the bucket array is about from 1 to 4 times of the number of all pages to be stored.
Only if configured with --enable-tcb=btree
--compression=<zlib|bz2>: Specifies that each page is compressed with ZLIB|BZ2 encoding.
Only if configured with --enable-tcb=btree
Processing Logs Incrementally: GoAccess has the ability to process logs incrementally through the on-disk B+Tree database. It works in the following way:
A data set must be persisted first with --keep-db-files, then the same data set can be loaded with --load-from-disk. If new data is passed (piped or through a log file), it will append it to the original data set. To preserve the data at all times, --keep-db-files must be used. If --load-from-disk is used without --keep-db-files, database files will be deleted upon closing the program.

CUSTOM LOG/DATE FORMAT

GoAccess can parse virtually any web log format.

Predefined options include, Common Log Format (CLF), Combined Log Format (XLF/ELF), including virtual host, Amazon CloudFront (Download Distribution), Google Cloud Storage and W3C format (IIS).

GoAccess allows any custom format string as well.

There are two ways to configure the log format. The easiest is to run GoAccess with -c to prompt a configuration window. Otherwise, it can be configured under ~/.goaccessrc or the %sysconfdir%.

time_format: The time_format variable followed by a space, specifies the log format time containing any combination of regular characters and special format specifiers. They all begin with a percentage (%) sign. See `man strftime`. %T or %H:%M:%S.
: Note: If a timestamp is given in microseconds, %f must be used as time_format
date_format: The date_format variable followed by a space, specifies the log format date containing any combination of regular characters and special format specifiers. They all begin with a percentage (%) sign. See `man strftime`. e.g., %Y-%m-%d.
: Note: If a timestamp is given in microseconds, %f must be used as date_format
log_format: The log_format variable followed by a space or \\t , specifies the log format string.
%x: A date and time field matching the time_format and date_format variables. This is used when a timestamp is given instead of the date and time being in two separated variables.
%t: time field matching the time_format variable.
%d: date field matching the date_format variable.
%h: host (the client IP address, either IPv4 or IPv6)
%r: The request line from the client. This requires specific delimiters around the request (as single quotes, double quotes, or anything else) to be parsable. If not, we have to use a combination of special format specifiers as %m %U %H.
%q: The query string.
%m: The request method.
%U: The URL path requested.
Note: If the query string is in %U, there is no need to use %q. However, if the URL path, does not include any query string, you may use %q and the query string will be appended to the request.
%H: The request protocol.
%s: The status code that the server sends back to the client.
%b: The size of the object returned to the client.
%R: The "Referrer" HTTP request header.
%u: The user-agent HTTP request header.
%D: The time taken to serve the request, in microseconds as a decimal number.
%T: The time taken to serve the request, in seconds with milliseconds resolution.
%L: The time taken to serve the request, in milliseconds as a decimal number.
: Note: If multiple time served specifiers are used at the same time, the first option specified in the format string will take priority over the other specifiers.
%^: Ignore this field.
%~: Move forward through the log string until a non-space (!isspace) char is found.

GoAccess requires the following fields:

: %h a valid IPv4/6
: %d a valid date
: %r the request

INTERACTIVE MENU

F1 or h: Main help.
F5: Redraw main window.
q: Quit the program, current window or collapse active module
o or ENTER: Expand selected module or open window
0-9 and Shift + 0: Set selected module to active
j: Scroll down within expanded module
k: Scroll up within expanded module
c: Set or change scheme color.
TAB: Forward iteration of modules. Starts from current active module.
SHIFT + TAB: Backward iteration of modules. Starts from current active module.
^f: Scroll forward one screen within an active module.
^b: Scroll backward one screen within an active module.
s: Sort options for active module
/: Search across all modules (regex allowed)
n: Find the position of the next occurrence across all modules.
g: Move to the first item or top of screen.
G: Move to the last item or bottom of screen.

EXAMPLES

The simplest and fastest usage would be:

: # goaccess -f access.log

That will generate an interactive text-only output.

To generate full statistics we can run GoAccess as:

: # goaccess -f access.log -a

To generate an HTML report:

: # goaccess -f access.log -a > report.html

To generate a JSON file:

: # goaccess -f access.log -a -d -o json > report.json

To generate a CSV file:

: # goaccess -f access.log -o csv > report.csv

The -a flag indicates that we want to process an agent-list for every host parsed.

The -d flag indicates that we want to enable the IP resolver on the HTML | JSON output. (It will take longer time to output since it has to resolve all queries.)

The -c flag will prompt the date and log format configuration window. Only when curses is initialized.

Filtering can be done through the use of pipes. For instance, using grep to filter specific data and then pipe the output into GoAccess. This adds a great amount of flexibility to what GoAccess can display. For example:

If we would like to process all access.log.*.gz we can do:

: # zcat access.log.*.gz | goaccess

OR

: # zcat -f access.log* | goaccess

(On Mac OS X, use `gunzip -c` instead of `zcat`).

Another useful pipe would be filtering dates out of the web log

The following will get all HTTP requests starting on 05/Dec/2010 until the end of the file.

: # sed -n '/05\/Dec\/2010/,$ p' access.log | goaccess -a

If we want to parse only a certain time-frame from DATE a to DATE b, we can do:

: sed -n '/5\/Nov\/2010/,/5\/Dec\/2010/ p' access.log | goaccess -a

Note that this could take longer time to parse depending on the speed of sed.

To exclude a list of virtual hosts you can do the following:

: grep -v "`cat exclude_vhost_list_file`" vhost_access.log | goaccess

Also, it is worth pointing out that if we want to run GoAccess at lower priority, we can run it as:

: # nice -n 19 goaccess -f access.log -a

and if you don't want to install it on your server, you can still run it from your local machine:

: # ssh root@server 'cat /var/log/apache2/access.log' | goaccess -a

NOTES

For now, each active window has a total of 366 items. Eventually this will be customizable. These 366 items are all available by default in the CSV and JSON exports, and as an expandable panel in the HTML report (upper-right corner).

Piping a log to GoAccess will disable the real-time functionality. This is due to the portability issue on determining the actual size of STDIN. However, a future release *might* include this feature.

BUGS

If you think you have found a bug, please send me an email to [email protected] or use the issue tracker in https://github.com/allinurl/goaccess/issues

AUTHOR

Gerardo Orellana <[email protected]> For more details about it, or new releases, please visit http://goaccess.io