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Sawmill is a powerful, hierarchical log analysis tool that runs on every major
platform. It is particularly well suited to web server logs, but can process
almost any log. The reports that Sawmill generates are hierarchical, attractive,
and heavily cross-linked for easy navigation. Complete documentation is built
directly into the program.
Here are just a few of the major features of Sawmill:
| Sawmill presents an intuitive user interface, which leads
you through every step of browsing your log file's statistics. Using an
interview format, it asks questions when it needs information, so you only
have to deal with the configuration options which are relevant to the task
at hand. Statistics pages are full of links to related information,
organized intuitively so you can get to the information you want with a
minimal number of clicks. A powerful hierarchical optimization feature
automatically reorganizes the hierarchy to increase the amount of useful
information on each page.
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| The manual for Sawmill is built right into the CGI program, so it's always at
your fingertips as you use the program. Throughout the HTML interface, there are
links to relevant sections of the online documentation, and wherever a
configuration option is mentioned, or a value is requested for it, there is a
link to that option's documentation page. You can browse the documentation by
running any copy of Sawmill. |
| Sawmill statistics are "live," for unparalleled flexibility
while viewing the statistics. Sawmill shows you a collection of interlinked
web pages which allow rapid navigation of the entire range of your log
statistics. Convenient links and menus right on the statistics pages let you
zoom in, set up real-time filters, show and hide columns of the tables and
other view elements, sort the data however you want, and much more.
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- Analyze subsets of your data by the use of filters: For example you can retain only hits from external sources for analysis.
- Analyze relationships between fields in your log: For example Sawmill not only identifies key information such as which referrers are search engines or what search terms bring customers to your website. It can analyze relationships such as which search terms were used in search engines that brought hits on your website.
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| Sawmill's statistics are attractive. The tables are colored
for easy reading, and the graphs are designed to be easily readable. You'll be
able to take the reports right out of Sawmill and show them to your boss, or
your investors, or anyone else, without having to reformat them to make them
look good -- they already look good. |
| Sawmill stores your statistics in an optimized database.
This database can be incrementally updated as new log files arrive, and old
data can be periodically expired from the database. Sawmill generates
reports directly from the database; it does this so quickly (just a few
seconds) that you can browse through your statistics in real time, asking
for new views of your data with every click, and receiving the information
you want almost instantly. |
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| Since Sawmill generates a new "report" every time you click the mouse, it has
been heavily optimized for speed. Most pages load in less than five seconds, so
you won't be waiting for your statistics. There is no limit to the amount of
data Sawmill can analyze, and even really huge datasets (gigabytes of log data)
can be browsed in real time. |
| Sawmill is extremely easy to install. For Windows or MacOS, just run the
installer and launch the program. For UNIX, just tar/gunzip it and run the
executable. Sawmill starts its built-in web server, and you're ready to start
using it immediately. Or if you want to run it as a CGI program, you can drop
the executable in the CGI directory of your web server, and start using it
immediately from your favorite web browser. We will also install it for free on
any Internet-connected UNIX-type system. |
| Sawmill is highly configurable using a large set of
configuration options. These options can be set through the graphical user
interface from any web browser. The options let you choose which views are
available (or you can create your own custom views), what types of
information are tracked, which log entries are filtered out, what the
statistics look like, and much, much more. |
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Sawmill runs on all major platforms. There are currently versions for the following platforms:
- An x86/Pentium system running Windows (95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, or 2003)
- An x86/Pentium system running Linux
- An x86/Pentium system running FreeBSD
- An x86/Pentium system running OpenBSD
- An x86/Pentium system running BSD/OS
- An x86/Pentium system running Solaris
- A Macintosh running MacOS X
- A Sun workstation running Solaris
- A Sun workstation running Linux
- An Alpha workstation running Digital UNIX
- An Alpha workstation running Linux
- An IBM workstation running AIX
- An HP workstation running HP/UX
Source code is also available (obfuscated), so Sawmill can be compiled and run on
any system with a C++ compiler.
If you are interested in seeing Sawmill on any other platforms, send mail to
sales@sawmill.co.uk.
If you want to analyze a log in a different format, Sawmill also lets you
specify a custom log format. If your log is generated by publicly-available software,
we'll do this for you-- just email a sample of your log file to
support@sawmill.co.uk,
and we'll write you a log format descriptor that you can
plug right in to your copy of Sawmill.
We're continually adding new log formats, so the list above will keep
growing.
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