$KEEP_LOGDIR and removal of www_server logs older than x days

• Article Type: General
• Product: Aleph
• Product Version: 20

Description:
We need to find out how many times a 856 field was clicked in the Web OPAC leading to an external resource. We had hoped to get this information from the www_server logs, but find only the logs for the past couple weeks; all the others are gone. *We* did not delete them.

Resolution:
As noted in KB's 16384-13810 and 16384-25697, "the $KEEP_LOGDIR value in aleph_startup is set to remove www_server and pc_server logs older than 7 days".

This is the value in the distributed $alephe_root/aleph_startup. This is done because the www_server and pc_server log files can grow quite quickly and take up all the disk space.

It may be that the information you are looking for is in the z69 table (whose entries are kept indefinitely). As described in KB 5872, the z69 table records www_server search information and is used to get statistics/information on opac queries.

(Note: In this particular case, we find that clicking on an external link is not one of the events which is recorded in the z69.)

If you have room on your server, you may want to increase the $KEEP_LOGDIR variable in the "Cleanup TMPDIR/LOGDIR" section of $alephe_root/aleph_startup and/or tar/gzip these www_server/pc_server logs rather than deleting them, so that they can be available for your examination in the future.

We are requesting that information about the $KEEP_LOGDIR parameter be added to the "System Librarian Guide - General".

This issue is still open and was escalated to Development for further investigation <2011-05-08 01:00:03>.

• Article last edited: 10/8/2013