Introduction
	Every request to your web site is recorded in Apache's access log, and every problem in its error log. Reading these is the most direct way to understand your traffic and to diagnose a misbehaving site. This page covers where the logs are, how to read them, how they are rotated so they don't fill the disk, and how to turn them into readable statistics. It builds on Apache.
	Where the Logs Are
	Each virtual host names its own log files in its configuration (the CustomLog and ErrorLog directives). By convention they live under /var/log/httpd/ on Rocky Linux and /var/log/ on FreeBSD, with per-site names such as example.com-access.log and example.com-error.log. The "combined" access-log format records, for each request, the visitor's IP, the time, the URL requested, the response code, the bytes sent, the referring page, and the browser — everything a statistics program needs.
	Reading the Logs
	Standard command-line tools cover most of what you need: $ tail -f /var/log/httpd/example.com-access.log # watch requests arrive live $ tail -n 50 /var/log/httpd/example.com-error.log # the most recent errors $ grep ' 404 ' example.com-access.log # find missing-page requests $ grep ' 500 ' example.com-error.log # server errors to investigate When a page is broken, the error log is the first place to look — it usually names the file and line at fault. A Perl one-liner can summarize an access log (for example, the busiest client IPs) in a single command.
	Rotating the Logs
	Left alone, logs grow without bound. Both systems rotate them automatically — compressing old logs and discarding the oldest — but you control the policy per site: FreeBSD uses newsyslog: add a line to /etc/newsyslog.conf (or a file in newsyslog.conf.d/) naming the log, the owner, mode, how many to keep, and the size or time at which to rotate. Rocky Linux uses logrotate: drop a file in /etc/logrotate.d/ for the site (the httpd package already ships a sensible default for the standard log directory).
	Turning Logs into Statistics
	Raw logs are hard to read in bulk; a log analyzer turns them into tables and charts of pages, visitors, referrers, and search terms. Several options, from lightest to most interactive: Analog (FreeBSD) or Webalizer (Rocky Linux) — extremely lightweight, single config file, static HTML report. AWStats — richer monthly summaries, run from cron. GoAccess — a modern, interactive dashboard, live in the terminal or as HTML. NOTE: Statistics reports contain visitor IP addresses and search terms — put the report directory behind a password (Apache HTTP Basic authentication) rather than publishing it openly.
	Documentation
	See newsyslog.conf(5) on FreeBSD and logrotate(8) on Rocky Linux, and Apache's logging documentation: Apache Log Files