[mariosipad]

Hi TC,

This turned out to be a nice little project!

I'd be interested in how you're writing to access.log.

I don't, apache does out of the box (Linux Mint & Debian)
What to write to access.log is defined in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf and when to write is defined
in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf.

The file without comments. See line -> Customlog:

<VirtualHost *:80>
	ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
	DocumentRoot /var/www/html

	ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
	CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

The beauty of my solution is that I don't need to modify any of the application scripts other than to enable the log file. Plus you can run it manually whenever you want.

I agree! However in my "Solution" I just add 1 line (plus comments) to one of the scripts. I don't even modify .htaccess!

Now for my "solution" ;-)
It's most certainly not "the best", but it just works (for me).

1 - I installed COPS files in: /var/www/html/cops
Calibre Databases can be installed where you/I want.

2 - I created the file /etc/apache2/auth.cops

### /etc/apache2/auth.cops ###

	### Add password for /var/www/html/cops/* ###

        <Directory /var/www/html/cops>
        	AuthType Basic
        	AuthName "Restricted Content"
        	AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/.htpasswd
        	Require valid-user
	</Directory>

        # Select only the "/cops/" dir to log
	SetEnvIf Request_URI "/cops/$" logit
	
	### Define new LogFormat & CustomLog
	 	
	LogFormat "%u %t %h %>s" simple

        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/user.log simple env=logit

### end ###

a - you can put the lines needed for authentication either in .htaccess, ../cops/config_local.php or here. If you put them in .htaccess just delete them from this file.
b - edit where you put the .htpasswd file
c - with SetEnVif I set which log-line to put in the new log (not getJSON but /cops/ )
d - define what to put in the new log (LogFormat)
e - write the line to the log user.log [user time IP etc.]

3 - I edited /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf and added the line

		Include /etc/apache2/auth.*

which executes the auth.cops script when needed

/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf now looks like:

<VirtualHost *:80>

		ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
		DocumentRoot /var/www/html

		ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
		CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined


		### Include (COPS) authorization code(s) ### 

		Include /etc/apache2/auth.*

		### End Include ###

	</VirtualHost>

4 - restart apache

5 - login and you see a new log file in /var/log/apache2/user.log
Strangely enough the content of this file in MInt is not 100% the same as in Debian. Debian adds a line with '-' as user. But it's no real problem.

With a cron job you could mail this log-file to yourself every day/week/month/etc

6 - todo: rotate the user log every month or so, depending on number of lines in the log.

Update: The OS (Linux Mint / Debian) uses some logrotate scripts and cronjobs that rotate the *.log files in /var/log/apache2/ . My new log file 'user.log' is in this map/directory so it will be included in the scheduled log rotation. Nothing to do here!



Greetz
Mario