How to Install AWStats on Arch Linux

AWStats is an open-source tool that analyzes web server logs to generate detailed graphical statistics. In this tutorial, we will install AWStats on Arch Linux.

Prerequisites

Before we start installing AWStats, make sure that you have:

  • Arch Linux installed on your system
  • root access or a user account with sudo privileges
  • Apache or Nginx web server installed and configured

Step 1: Installation

First, log in to your Arch Linux system as a user with sudo privileges. Then, run the following command to update the system:

sudo pacman -Syu

Once your system is updated, you can install AWStats by running:

sudo pacman -S awstats

Step 2: Configuration

By default, AWStats configuration file is located at /etc/awstats/awstats.conf. However, you should create a new configuration file for each web server you want to monitor.

To generate a new configuration file, run:

sudo cp /etc/awstats/awstats.conf /etc/awstats/awstats.example.com.conf

In this example, replace example.com with your own domain name.

Next, open the configuration file in your preferred text editor, and set the following configurations:

LogFile="/var/log/httpd/access.log"
SiteDomain="example.com"
HostAliases="localhost 127.0.0.1 www.example.com"

  • LogFile: This parameter specifies the path to the web server log file that AWStats will analyze. Change it to the path of your web server's log file.

  • SiteDomain: This parameter specifies the domain name of your website.

  • HostAliases: This parameter defines a list of virtual hosts or other domains that your site uses. Separate each alias with a space.

Save the configuration file and close the editor.

Step 3: Generate Reports

Now that you have created a configuration file, it's time to generate an AWStats report. Run the following command to generate a report for your web server:

sudo awstats -config=example.com -update

This command generates a report for the domain name specified in the configuration file. If you have multiple configuration files, replace example.com with the name of your configuration file.

The generated report is stored in /var/lib/awstats/awstats.example.com.html.

Step 4: Automate Report Generation

To automate the report generation process, you can add a cron job to your system.

Run:

sudo crontab -e

Then, add the following line to the file to generate a new report every hour:

0 * * * * /usr/bin/awstats -config=example.com -update >/dev/null 2>&1

Save the file and exit the editor.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured AWStats on your Arch Linux system. You can now monitor your web server's usage and generate graphical reports.