2 sets of Access/Error Logs

This week I've noticed I have 2 sets of access and error logs in separate directories under logs for a particular domain (other domains are normal). The directories are named http.(with#s).

The first http directory has the subfolders analog, hits, html (they are empty) and an error.log with errors from the Sept 19th to the 21st and access.log with hits dating from Sept. 19th to today's date. No other files (such as previous days, etc.).

The second http directory has the normal subfolders - access.log.0, analog, error.log.0, hits, html (seem to have the normal files). This http directory also has the error.log and access.log with the normal errors/hits for the current date. There are also files for the previous days' access and error logs.

I thought it might have something to do with the blackout but I don't think the dates correlate. Has anyone ever had this happen or have any idea why? Could this affect my stats?

Thanks,
Hope

The entry named 'http.XXXXX' is the actual directory in which the Analog stats files are stored.

The entry labelled 'http' is simply a symbolic link which points to the first directory ('http.XXXXX').

I imagine that this is the case so that you can simply refer to the log directories with the 'http' directory name in the path, instead of knowing the full name of actual log directory which, given that we have a static symlink, probably implies that the actual directory name ('http.XXXXX') has the potential to change, should your site migrate from one server to another at some future point.

The data only exists in one place, you simply have two paths to get to the same files.

I was writing a cheesy-little PHP script today to go through the Analog bandwidth logs so that I could display the monthly and billing-cycle traffic totals for one of my subdomains, so I know it's a whole lot easier to reference the symlink than the actual directory name.

-Joe

Hi Dahak,
I understand what you're saying. But unfortunately, I have 2 directories named http.#####. So, to make myself more clear - this is what my logs/domainname/ directory looks like - 3 subfolders named as such:
http
http.1234567
http.123456

If I click on http.1234567, here is the list of folders/files:
Folder: analog (empty)
Folder: hits (empty)
Folder: html (empty)
file: access.log (hits from Sept 19 to today's date)
file: error.log (errors from Sept 19 - 21)

If I click on http.123456, here is the list of folders/files with things as they should be:
Folder: access.log.0
Folder: analog (not empty)
Folder: error.log.0
Folder: hits (not empty)
Folder: html (not empty)
file: access.log (hits for today only)
file: error.log (errors for today only)
3 previous days worth of access and error logs
analog_success.txt

Can someone tell me if they've ever had this happen before?

Thanks,

Hope

In certain situations your domain will be configured as more than on VirtualHost at a time and in that case you will have more than one of those http.66544 directories. They will both be used for a few days. It mostly happens when you do something like add a unique IP address to your domain or when the domain is moved from one apache server to another (on the same physical hardware server). I don't have any specific information about why your domain has more than one in this case, but that's an overview of why it happens.

- Dallas
- DreamHost Head Honcho/Founder

Thanks Dallas. I did move the site a while back. The extra log files are no longer being added to so that is good.

Hope