The default installation of Urchin3 is configured for your main host and any virtual hosts listed in your httpd.conf file (whether or not they have separate log files). There are, however, several changes you can make to the default configuration to suit your personal needs.

Urchin3 Configuration File

The primary configuration file for Urchin3 is in your ~/usr/local/urchin/ directory and is named config. The format of the config file is similar to your apache httpd.conf file, and contains instructions on what the listed directives mean. You can use the urchin configuration file to set up automatic logfile rotation, DNS resolution , and reporting styles. The file also contains important license information.

The LogDestiny directive is used to determine whether Urchin3 should archive, delete, or leave logfiles alone. If you use Urchin3 to delete your web log files instead of using vnukelog, your E-Mail and ftp log file (~/var/log/messages) will not get deleted. You will need to create a separate cron command to delete your messages file. An example of a cron entry to do that is:

51 23 * * 0 /bin/cat /dev/null > $HOME/var/log/messages

The second section of the urchin3 configuration file contains the individual report settings. There must be a Report configured for each domain you want Urchin3 reporting done. The default install sets up a report for each of the hosts listed in your httpd.conf file, and configures the reports to be stored in the urchin directory off the host's DocumentRoot directory.

The following is an example of what a Report configuration should look like:

<Report>
ReportName: YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME
ReportDirectory: /usr/local/LOGIN/usr/local/etc/httpd/vhosts/YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/htdocs/urchin/
TransferLog: /usr/local/LOGIN/usr/local/etc/httpd/vhosts/YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/logs/access_log
ErrorLog: /usr/local/LOGIN/usr/local/etc/httpd/vhosts/YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/logs/error_log
</Report>

Urchin3 Settings in the httpd.conf file

The default installation of Urchin3 will add Directory configurations for the locations where urchin3 reports will be located. If you make changes to any reports in the urchin3 configuration file, you need to make sure that the appropriate changes are also made in the httpd.conf file also.

Urchin3 requires that CGI execution be enabled in the directories where reports are located, and that symbolic links are followed by the web server so that the program files only have to be in one place on your virtual server. These settings are configured inside specific Directory configuration directives in the httpd.conf file. The Directory settings should look something like this:

<Directory /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs/urchin/YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME>
AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
DirectoryIndex index.html index.cgi
Options FollowSymLinks ExecCGI</Directory>

The only part of the directory settings that you would normally need to change is the path indicated in the opening tag. If you change any of the other settings, it is possible that Urchin will not work properly.