Using AWStats on Gentoo

Requirements

Start by installing awstats:

emerge -av awstats

The USE flags that can be tweaked are the following:

Configuration

1. setup a configuration file for the web site so we can update the statistics:

   cp /etc/awstats/awstats.model.conf /etc/awstats/awstats.FQDN.conf
   

   Where FQDN is the fully qualified domain name of your website you'll be monitoring.

   After you've copied the default configuration, customize it for your particular needs.

2. enable awstats in your apache virtualhost configuration:

   CustomLog /var/www/localhost/log/apache/production.log combined
   
   Alias /awstats/classes "/usr/share/webapps/awstats/6.9-r1/htdocs/classes/"
   Alias /awstats/css "/usr/share/webapps/awstats/6.9-r1/htdocs/css/"
   Alias /awstats/icon "/usr/share/webapps/awstats/6.9-r1/htdocs/icon/"
   
   ScriptAlias /awstats/ "/usr/share/webapps/awstats/6.9-r1/hostroot/cgi-bin/"
   ScriptAlias /awstats "/usr/share/webapps/awstats/6.9-r1/hostroot/cgi-bin/awstats.pl"
   ScriptAlias /awstats.pl "/usr/share/webapps/awstats/6.9-r1/hostroot/cgi-bin/awstats.pl"
   
   Options ExecCGI
   AllowOverride None
   
   Order allow,deny
   Allow from all
   

3. verify the logging output in /etc/apache2/modules.d/00_mod_log_config.conf:

   # The following directives define some format nicknames for use with
   # a CustomLog directive (see below).
   LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined
   LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" common
   
   LogFormat "%{Referer}i -> %U" referer
   LogFormat "%{User-Agent}i" agent
   LogFormat "%v %h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b %T" script
   LogFormat "%v %h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\" VLOG=%{VLOG}e" vhost
   # You need to enable mod_logio.c to use %I and %O
   LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\" %I %O" combinedio
   LogFormat "%v %h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\" %I %O" vhostio
   
   # The location and format of the access logfile (Common Logfile Format).
   # If you do not define any access logfiles within a
   # container, they will be logged here.  Contrariwise, if you *do*
   # define per- access logfiles, transactions will be
   # logged therein and *not* in this file.
   CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access_log common
   
   # If you would like to have agent and referer logfiles,
   # uncomment the following directives.
   #CustomLog /var/log/apache2/referer_log referer
   #CustomLog /var/log/apache2/agent_logs agent
   
   # If you prefer a logfile with access, agent, and referer information
   # (Combined Logfile Format) you can use the following directive.
   #CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access_log combined
   

4. add a cron entry to update the statistics on a regular basis:

   System Message: ERROR/3 (<string>, line 93)

   Cannot find pygments lexer for language "cron"

   .. code-block:: cron
   
       # AWStats
       */15 * * * * perl /usr/share/webapps/awstats/6.9-r1/hostroot/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=FQDN -update > /dev/null
   
   

Conclusion

Barring the standard "your mileage may vary" warning your awstats setup should be complete and functional. It will take a bit of time (~15 minutes) for the statistics to start collecting.