Apache Error Log Viewer web application

Background

This application allows owners of "~user" web-pages on the CS webserver to view error logs for their pages. Access is limited to only those logs corresponding to ~user web-pages for that user.

Usage

Accessing the Application

The web application can be accessed from the following URL: http://cs.uwaterloo.ca/cscf/web/error-logs/

You must log in (using your WatIAM credentials) to see your error logs.

Selecting time period to read log file data from

Before viewing any files, you must specify a date range for the application, defaulting to today only. The app will then search for error logs in the date range specified. You can change the dates you entered here at any time by following the 'Change Date' link in the green status bar at the top of the page (after setting the date).

Simply choose "submit" to view all relevant logs.

Other Application Options / Features

In the left menu, you will have three options for reading the log files: tail (for the most recent logs), head (for the oldest logs), and cat (for all logs).
These correspond to the respective Unix commands. These commands will be executed on each log file found, not the sum of all the log files. Tail reads the last 10 lines of each log file, head reads the first 10 lines, and cat reads all the lines.

Above this, you have the option to order the results in ascending (asc) or descending (desc) order. Results are ordered in ascending order by default, meaning the oldest entries will be at the top of the page. To help remind you of this, there is a grey triangle to the right of the sort order options indicating the sort order. At the very bottom of the page (in the footer) there will also be text telling you whether the oldest or newest entries are at the top of the page.

Above the sort order options is a textbox with the placeholder text '# of lines'. This option lets you pass a number (parameter) to the tail or head commands, allowing you to control the number of lines to output. Remember, this command will be executed for each log file found. So entering '1' in this textbox will output only 1 line for each log file found. You may still end up with more than 1 line of output if the application finds multiple error logs. For example, selecting 'head' and entering '15' in the '# of lines' textbox will run the following command on the error logs which are found in the date range specified earlier: head -15 *path to error log*

Please note, the application will only return error logs which are specific to your user account. It will not return the entire content of all error logs found as this may expose sensitive information. Also note that 500 Server Errors are often not logged per-user and may not show up in the output of this application.

In the top right corner of the application is the option to log out. Note that logging out here will log you out of all CAS authenticated services.

Originally designed based on CSCF ST#87148