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I am currently using a hosted analytic solution. But just to make sure the numbers are correct i wanted log file analyzer for backup. However all of them are no longer developed. AWStats Webalizer Analog W3Perl

The most common is Awstats, I have no idea why, it is not the fastest, and its interface is ugly. ( Well that is not only a Awstats problem ) Even with Jawstats, which is no longer being developed as well.

Why are they no longer being developed? Awstats is open source as well. And if there are any other actively developing Log Analyzer, or some very cheap and decent solution.

Edward
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    Your question is analogous to asking why the corner restaurant doesn't serve meatloaf sandwiches anymore. – joeqwerty Jun 10 '11 at 17:03
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    @Joe - Because the guy who could make them real good quit; he got a job as an EMT over in Quincy so he moved down to the South Shore. They tried to get Jimmy to make them, but he's always screwing up and the customers complained so they just taped over it on the menu. – mfinni Jun 10 '11 at 17:18
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    Yeah, that Jimmy. He never was no good at makin' them sandwiches... – joeqwerty Jun 10 '11 at 17:24
  • Why don't you contact the developers of those products and ask them? – John Gardeniers Jun 10 '11 at 17:57

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I don't want to sound too rude (just a little). Don't take it as a personal attack, the "you" here is ofr everyone that asks this question - I did it too, sometimes I was too lazy to do something, sometimes I took the stuff and maintain it in a way that "works for me" - I didn't have the guts up until know to do that in any official way. All of the below applies to me too.

Why are they no longer being developed?

My guess is that the original developer found greener grass somewhere, and people like you who do use that stuff don't stand up take the code and maintain it.

If "no longer being developed" to you only means that someone else has to put a tarball out there you're doing it wrong!. I have countless unmaintained scripts on my systems that are unmaintained because I don't care anymore. I'm pretty sure there are a bunch of people out there in the same situation.

If the source is available and if it's indeed unmaintained. Confirm with the original author (no reply after some time is also a kind of answer) and just take over maintainership.

Martin M.
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  • Um, perhaps this comment is on the wrong site? Someone on StackOverflow might be more likely to pick up an orphaned open-source project. Many sysadmins wouldn't have the right skillset to develop code and maintain a developer community. And I imagine most sysadmins wouldn't get paid by their employer to do that, either. Unless they work for Google or RedHat, perhaps. – mfinni Jun 10 '11 at 22:28
  • I completely disagree. If I need some tool and it's not there I create it -- without being payed specifically for that (Tool could be a fancy for loop with ssh to do stuff). If I need an OSS-Tool I use it, if it's unmaintained I do my very best to make it useable for me. To me it's part of the job description. And the right skillset is debatable. Personally I consider a lot of developers to not have the right skill set. Too many of them consider resources (cpu/mem/disk/bandwith/...) infinite. That's just plain wrong. Still they are developers. So why not maintain something yourself? – Martin M. Jun 11 '11 at 17:07
  • As I said - it's not always the situation that an employer (or even just a boss) would allow a sysadmin to allocate work time to maintaining an open-source product, even assuming the sysadmin has the skills to code it in the first place. Feel free to disagree; quite obviously, your work experience is different than mine. – mfinni Jun 11 '11 at 19:51
  • One thing I would like clarity on - in your answer, you say that the hypothetical sysadmin should "take over maintainership." That's what I mainly disagree with. Your comment says something different however : "if it's unmaintained I do my very best to make it useable for me." That's a very different scenario. You're becoming a contributor, *not* a maintainer. And I don't think most employers would have a problem with you *contributing* to a product t make it work better/properly for your company. If that's what you meant, I don't disagree with you. – mfinni Jun 11 '11 at 19:54
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Awstats is still maintened as you can see on the last commit from http://www.nltechno.com/stats/awstats/cvschangelogbuilder_awstats.html. I think the author would accept any improvements welcome. About W3Perl, latest stable release is from April 2011, which is only two months ago. Dev packages are available every two weeks. So Awstats and W3Perl are not dead but developements have slow down as they provide the main features a webmaster would required.

Laurent
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The latest version of AWStats was released in december 2010, their releases are always quite far apart it seems, but whether it's dead I can't tell.

Now I would say AWStats is the best solution but that's personal preference, and if you don't like the UI there's JAWStats which provides a nicer interface.

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