Webmaster installation



The installation process have been modify to be easier than previous (well, I hope so ! ;) The steps are the following : extract the package, edit the install script and run it and then build a configuration file to customize your stats.
W3Perl installation directory
Your Cgi-bin directory

Cgi-bin
directory

1.1 - Extract

Download the W3Perl package. Unzip and extract it on your server root (w3perl files should be readable by your browser), it will create a /w3perl/ directory. Feel free to change the name of that directory to whatever you want (you could change for /stats/ for example).

1.2 - Permission

Give execution permission to the scripts (chmod +x *.pl)
Two directories shoud be readable/writeable by the server if you want to use the administration interface : /w3perl/config/ and /w3perl/resources/admin/, so chmod 777 if not.

1.3 - Installation

  • Automatic
    If you are running an Apache server, you can use 'install.pl -a' to install the package without editing anything. The 'a' flag will install w3perl on the main server found in the apache configuration file (httpd.conf should be readable by the script).

  • Manually
    Edit the install.pl script. Modify if needed the perl location in the first line. Then change $pathcgi and $pathw3perl according to your system. $pathcgi is the location where the scripts will be installed, default is /path_to_your_cgi-bin/cgi-bin/w3perl/. $pathw3perl is the directory where the package have been extracted : /path_to_your_server_root/w3perl/
    Run install.pl If your cgi-bin is root owner, you'll have to run the script as root.

    1.4 - Configuration file

    Use your favourite browser and go to http://localhost/w3perl/admin/ . You'll see the w3perl administration interface.
    Select 'Make configuration file' and fill the different forms. Use default config filename. If you get into trouble, you could also fill the configuration file by hand. The configuration file have to be copied (not moved !) into your /path_to_your_cgi-bin/cgi-bin/w3perl/ (because server owner can't write to /cgi-bin/ due to security restriction)

    1.5 - Compute stats

    Now you're ready to compute your stats ! You can use the 'Launch scripts' in the administration interface and click on the different scripts to launch them or use the command line to run the scripts. It's up to you. Better is to use the command line to avoid server timeout.
    Launch cron-hour.pl to check everything is right. If no error is reported, launch the initialisation script cron-pages.pl, it could take ages if your logfile is huge so please be patient (or use a smaller file for primary test).

    1.6 - Crontab

    If everything is right, edit cron-w3perl.pl, choose when you want to launch the different scripts and finally add it in your crontab. If launch at command line with the -a flag, cron-w3perl will compute all stats for you.


  • Hints
    1 - Read carefully the documentation. Many questions are answered in the files provided, use also the -h flag for more informations for each script.

    2 - If you are hosting several web servers on the same host, you don't need to install the package for each server.

    3 - You can build as many configuration files you need. Just use the -c flag to load them

    4 - Don't forget numerous option are available via the -h flag for each scripts.

    5 - Install a password in the /w3perl/admin/ to avoid everyone to change your stats settings.

    6 -If you can't create subdirectory inside your cgi-bin, you'll have edit all links in /w3perl/admin/ files (change the links from /cgi-bin/w3perl/ to /cgi-bin/)

    7 - If you have 'Internal error' problem, it should be related to permission access to the files. Read the last line of your error_log to get more informations.

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