Readme for analog -- errors and warnings

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# Analog 6.0: Errors and warnings

This section lists all the errors and warnings which analog can produce, together with a short explanation.

First, you should understand the difference between a crash, an error, a warning, and a debugging message. First, a crash is when analog exits prematurely, without producing the whole output file. The system might give a message, but analog will not give one of its own messages. Analog should never crash. If it does crash, please tell me about it.

An error is something which stops analog finishing its job. Whenever an error is detected, analog gives a message starting something like `analog: Fatal error:` and will then tell you what type of thing went wrong before quitting.

A warning is a problem which is not fatal to analog: it will keep on with its processing. These vary from the possibly serious, such as files which could not be found, to purely informational. They produce a message starting `analog: Warning`. You can turn warnings off using the `WARNINGS` command.

Finally, a debugging message gives information on the state of the program. They just begin with a single code letter followed by a colon. You don't get any debugging messages unless you've asked for them.

If you want to send these messages to a file instead of to the screen, you can use the `ERRFILE` command. To tell analog the width of your screen for these messages, you can use the `ERRLINELENGTH` command.

Now I shall describe all the possible errors and warnings in detail.

### Errors

Ran out of memory: cannot continue
  Analog ran out of memory. Try increasing the memory available to the process, if your operating system will allow it, or using the `LOWMEM` commands.
Cannot ignore mandatory configuration file
  See the section in the Readme on the mandatory configuration file.
Can't find language file
Language file too short
Language file too long
Language file contains excessively long lines
  Analog can't run without a well-formed language file. See the documentation on language files.
Attempted to read more than 50 configuration files
  The most likely explanation for this is that you have accidentally created a loop using the `CONFIGFILE` command, for example if a configuration file includes itself.
Incorrect default given in `anlghead.h`
Default given in `anlghead.h` too short
  If you've compiled your own version, and you've specified an incorrect configuration in the file `anlghead.h`, analog gives up to allow you to fix it.
Failed to open output file for writing
  Analog couldn't create, or couldn't write to, the output file you specified.
Cache output file already exists: won't overwrite
  Analog won't overwrite an old cache file. You must move or delete it yourself first.
`OUTFILE` and `CACHEOUTFILE` are the same
`OUTFILE` and `CACHEOUTFILE` both set to stdout
  This can't be what you wanted, because one would overwrite the other.
`OUTPUT NONE` and `CACHEOUTFILE none` selected
  You requested no output.
`OUTPUT LATEX` only available with `US-ASCII`, `ISO-8859-1` and `ISO-8859-2` character sets
  The LaTeX output style only works with certain European languages because the standard LaTeX distribution doesn't contain the characters for other languages.

### Warnings

Remember that warnings are not fatal: in fact some are rarely even serious. You can turn them off using the `WARNINGS` command. The possible warnings come in several different categories, shown by a letter in the warning message. The categories are as follows.

`C`
  invalid configuration specified
`D`
  dubious configuration specified
`E`
  `ERRFILE` command used
`F`
  files missing or corrupt
`G`
  corrupt lines in support files
`L`
  apparent problems in logfiles
`M`
  possible problems in logfiles
`R`
  turning off empty reports

#### Category C

This category indicates an incorrect configuration. Analog will either ignore what you said, or try and do the best it can with it. There are too many warnings in this category to list completely. You will have to consult the documentation for the particular configuration command that gave an error. If you get an error for a command which used to work in a previous version of analog, have a look in the section Updating from older versions.

#### Category D

This is for configurations which might be intended, but which look suspicious. Analog will not override what you've specified in this case.

`LOGFORMAT` with no subsequent logfile
  You have specified a `LOGFORMAT` command, but no subsequent logfile to which it could be applied. Most likely you put the `LOGFORMAT` after the `LOGFILE` command. You must put the `LOGFORMAT` before the `LOGFILE` command or use `DEFAULTLOGFORMAT` instead. See the section on Specifying a log format for more details.
Offset not a multiple of 30
Offset more than 25 hours
  The time offsets are meant to be for correcting between differences in time zones. These differences are usually multiples of 30 minutes between -25 and +25 hours. Maybe you specified the offset in hours instead of minutes by mistake, or something like that.
`FROM` time is later than the present
  Usually this will mean that no entries are counted. Analog doesn't try and correct it in case the clock on your computer or your server is wrong -- but you would be better using `TIMEOFFSET` or `LOGTIMEOFFSET` to correct those clocks.
`SORTBY` doesn't match `FLOOR`
`SORTBY` doesn't match `SUBSORTBY` (or `FLOOR`/`SUBFLOOR`)
`SORTBY` (or `FLOOR` or `GRAPH`) isn't included in `COLS`
  Within one report, it's helpful to your readers to have the sort methods and the floors compatible, and all included in the `COLS`. (See the section on Non-time reports).
Column `N` with `SORTBY ALPHABETICAL/RANDOM`
  Numbering off the items when they're not in order of busyness is probably a mistake.
Time reports have not all got same value of `BACK`
  It's usually helpful to have all the time reports running in the same direction.
Report contains no `COLS`
  You've got an empty `COLS` list for one report, so you'll just get a list of names, not any information about them.
`LOWMEM 3` prevents that item being cached
  You're making a cache file, but one item is not being recorded because of a `LOWMEM` command, and will therefore not be saved in the cache file.

#### Category E

There is only one warning in this category.

Redirecting future diagnostic messages
  You've used an `ERRFILE` command to change the destination of errors, warnings, debugging and `PROGRESSFREQ` diagnostics. This is just warning you so that you don't miss any messages.

#### Category F

This category is for diagnosing files which couldn't be opened or read successfully. These can be serious, but most of the messages should be self-explanatory. There are a few worth mentioning specifically.

Can't auto-detect format of logfile
  The `LOGFORMAT` is set to automatic detection, but the first line of the logfile is not in any of the standard formats. This error can often be generated when you try and specify your own `LOGFORMAT` but put it after the `LOGFILE` command so that it is not in effect for that logfile.
Logfile with ambiguous dates
  Some servers, notably IIS and WebSite, record dates in their logfiles according to local conventions. Then if analog encounters 2/1/99, for example, it doesn't know whether it's the 2nd January or 1st February. This problem, and what to do about it, is described in more detail in the section on Choosing a logfile.
Logfile seems to be in Microsoft format
  The most common cause of this message is that your IIS logfile uses local conventions for listing dates which analog doesn't know about -- e.g. 25.12.98 instead of 25/12/98. Again, see the section on Choosing a logfile for help.
Ignoring corrupt format line in logfile
  The format line within a W3 extended log, Netscape log or WebSTAR log is invalid in some way. Analog will always tell you what's wrong with it. The most common problem is that the date only appears at the top of the logfile, not on every line, which is not allowed. The reason for this, and what to do about it, are in the section on Choosing a logfile.
Failed to open domains file
  In this case, all domains will be counted as "unknown domains".
Failed to open DNS input file
  The first time you use DNS lookups, you don't have a DNS cache file, so you get this warning. Assuming you are using `DNS WRITE`, the message will go away next time you run analog.
DNS lock file already exists
  To stop two copies of analog trying to write the DNS file at the same time, an empty "lock file" is created, which tells the second copy of analog to use `DNS LOOKUP` instead of `DNS WRITE`. If analog crashes, it may not delete its lock file. So if you get the "already exists" message even though no other copy of analog is running, you may need to delete the lock file yourself.

#### Category G

This category is used when there is a bad line in the DNS file, domains file or report descriptions file. Analog will still use the rest of the file. All the messages should be self-explanatory.

#### Category L

When analog finishes reading a logfile, it checks whether there might have been something wrong with it.

Large number of corrupt lines
  This could indicate a problem with the logfile, or with the `LOGFORMAT` specification. The possible causes are described in the section on Choosing a logfile. If you specify `DEBUG ON`, analog will report where each line was corrupt.
Logfiles overlap: possible double counting
  This means that two logfiles which were counting the same type of item overlapped in time. Because it's only based on the time period of the logfiles, not the actual entries, this may or may not indicate a genuine problem. It is a problem if you read the same logfile twice. Or maybe you used the cache file feature incorrectly. Or maybe your web server produces several logfiles, and your `LOGFORMAT` specification should have told analog to ignore some of the items in some of the logfiles. It is not a problem if the logfiles are in fact completely disjoint; for example if you analyse logfiles from two different virtual hosts. In this case, the statistics produced will still be correct.

#### Category M

This category is for warnings about logfile formats which might make analog produce unexpected results.

Logfile contains lines with no [whatevers], which are being filtered
  This is usually harmless. It is perhaps best explained by example. Suppose you are excluding certain files from the analysis, but that you are also analysing a browser log which just contains information about the browsers used, not which files they read. Then we can't exclude the browsers which read the excluded files, because we don't know which they were, so all browsers will be included.
Logfile contains lines with no file names (or bytes): page (or byte) counts may be low
  If a logfile line doesn't contain a file name, analog will assume that the request wasn't for a page. Similarly, if it doesn't give the number of bytes transferred, analog will make the bytes zero. So the number of page requests or bytes credited to the other items on that line will then be too low.
Old-style cache file doesn't contain data on first-request times of items; so these may be overestimated
  Cache files now contain the first-request time of each item. But if you read a cache file from an older version of analog, this data will not have been recorded, and so the last-request time will be used instead.
Cache file doesn't contain last-seven-day statistics
  It is impossible for cache files to record the number of requests in the last 7 days, because the data would be wrong at the time the cache file was read.

#### Category R

This is used when analog turns off an empty report. This could be because none of the relevant items were included in any of the logfiles, or perhaps beacause a `LOWMEM` command stopped them being recorded. It is also used when analog turns off a pie chart which would have contained only one wedge.

#### Broken Pipe

This warning is not generated by analog, but it can occur when analog decides that it doesn't need a logfile which it's uncompressing, and so doesn't finish reading it. It's harmless.

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