Installing GoAccess on OpenBSD: A Step-by-Step Guide

GoAccess is a powerful web log analyzer tool which can provide real-time monitoring and website analysis. Here, we discuss the steps to install GoAccess on OpenBSD.

Prerequisites

  • Access to an OpenBSD system with root access
  • A terminal or command-line interface for running the commands
  • Active internet connection

Install GoAccess using package management system

The easiest and recommended way to install GoAccess is via OpenBSD's package management system, pkg_add. Follow the below steps to install GoAccess via pkg_add:

  1. Update the package repository and install GoAccess package.
$ sudo pkg_add goaccess
  1. Check that GoAccess is successfully installed.
$ goaccess -h
  1. You will see the help menu, which confirms that GoAccess was installed correctly.

Compile and Install GoAccess from source

If you prefer to compile and install the GoAccess from source, follow the below steps:

  1. First, ensure that your system has the necessary development tools to compile GoAccess.
$ sudo pkg_add gcc make
  1. Download the latest version of GoAccess.
$ wget https://tar.goaccess.io/goaccess-1.5.1.tar.gz
  1. Extract the downloaded tarball.
$ tar -xzvf goaccess-1.5.1.tar.gz
  1. Move into the extracted directory using cd.
$ cd goaccess-1.5.1/
  1. Run the configure script to prepare GoAccess for compilation.
$ ./configure --enable-utf8 --enable-geoip=legacy

Note: The --enable-utf8 flag ensures support for UTF-8 encoding, whereas the --enable-geoip=legacy flag enables support for GeoIP IP Geolocation.

  1. Start the compilation process and wait for it to complete.
$ make
  1. Finally, install the GoAccess binary by running:
$ sudo make install

Conclusion

This tutorial has demonstrated the simple steps for installing GoAccess on OpenBSD successfully. Whether you choose to install through the package manager or from source, GoAccess is a versatile and essential tool that will improve your web log analysis capabilities.