Sawmill - Universal log file analysis and reporting

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:

Easy To Use
Extensive Documentation
Live Reports & Graphs
Package of Powerful Analysis Tools
Attractive Statistics
Database Driven
Very Fast
Easy To Install
Highly Configurable
Works With a Variety of Platforms
Processes Almost Any Log File

Easy To Use

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.

Extensive Documentation

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.

Live Reports & Graphs

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.

Powerful Package of Analysis Tools

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.

Attractive Statistics

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.

Database Driven

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.

Very Fast

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.

Easy To Install

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.

Highly Configurable

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.

Works With A Variety Of Platforms

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 sawmill@flowerfire.com.

Processes Almost Any Log File

Sawmill supports 828 log formats:

* BETA format. Formats marked with an asterisk are "beta" formats, which are experimental, have not been fully tested, and are not available in Sawmill Lite (they are available only in Sawmill Professional and Sawmill Enterprise).

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 sawmill@flowerfire.com, 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.