Apache Module mod_usertrack
Summary
Previous releases of Apache have included a module which
generates a 'clickstream' log of user activity on a site using
cookies. This was called the "cookies" module, mod_cookies. In
Apache 1.2 and later this module has been renamed the "user
tracking" module, mod_usertrack. This module has been
simplified and new directives added.
Previously, the cookies module (now the user tracking
module) did its own logging, using the CookieLog
directive. In this release, this module does no logging at all.
Instead, a configurable log format file should be used to log
user click-streams. This is possible because the logging module
now allows multiple log files. The cookie itself is logged by
using the text %{cookie}n in the log file format. For
example:
CustomLog logs/clickstream "%{cookie}n %r %t"
For backward compatibility the configurable log module
implements the old CookieLog directive, but this
should be upgraded to the above CustomLog directive.
(the following is from message
<022701bda43d$9d32bbb0$1201a8c0@christian.office.sane.com>
in the new-httpd archives)
From: "Christian Allen" <christian@sane.com>
Subject: Re: Apache Y2K bug in mod_usertrack.c
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 11:41:56 -0400
Did some work with cookies and dug up some info that might be useful.
True, Netscape claims that the correct format NOW is four digit dates, and
four digit dates do in fact work... for Netscape 4.x (Communicator), that
is. However, 3.x and below do NOT accept them. It seems that Netscape
originally had a 2-digit standard, and then with all of the Y2K hype and
probably a few complaints, changed to a four digit date for Communicator.
Fortunately, 4.x also understands the 2-digit format, and so the best way to
ensure that your expiration date is legible to the client's browser is to
use 2-digit dates.
However, this does not limit expiration dates to the year 2000; if you use
an expiration year of "13", for example, it is interpreted as 2013, NOT
1913! In fact, you can use an expiration year of up to "37", and it will be
understood as "2037" by both MSIE and Netscape versions 3.x and up (not sure
about versions previous to those). Not sure why Netscape used that
particular year as its cut-off point, but my guess is that it was in respect
to UNIX's 2038 problem. Netscape/MSIE 4.x seem to be able to understand
2-digit years beyond that, at least until "50" for sure (I think they
understand up until about "70", but not for sure).
Summary: Mozilla 3.x and up understands two digit dates up until "37"
(2037). Mozilla 4.x understands up until at least "50" (2050) in 2-digit
form, but also understands 4-digit years, which can probably reach up until
9999. Your best bet for sending a long-life cookie is to send it for some
time late in the year "37".
This directive controls the setting of the domain to which
the tracking cookie applies. If not present, no domain is
included in the cookie header field.
The domain string must begin with a dot, and
must include at least one embedded dot. That is,
".foo.com" is legal, but "foo.bar.com" and ".com" are not.
When used, this directive sets an expiry time on the cookie
generated by the usertrack module. The expiry-period
can be given either as a number of seconds, or in the format
such as "2 weeks 3 days 7 hours". Valid denominations are:
years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds. If the expiry
time is in any format other than one number indicating the
number of seconds, it must be enclosed by double quotes.
If this directive is not used, cookies last only for the
current browser session.
This directive allows you to change the name of the cookie
this module uses for its tracking purposes. By default the
cookie is named "Apache".
You must specify a valid cookie name; results are
unpredictable if you use a name containing unusual characters.
Valid characters include A-Z, a-z, 0-9, "_", and "-".
This directive controls the format of the cookie header
field. The three formats allowed are:
- Netscape, which is the original but now deprecated
syntax. This is the default, and the syntax Apache has
historically used.
- Cookie or RFC2109, which is the syntax that
superseded the Netscape syntax.
- Cookie2 or RFC2965, which is the most
current cookie syntax.
Not all clients can understand all of these formats. but you
should use the newest one that is generally acceptable to your
users' browsers.
When the user track module is compiled in, and
"CookieTracking on" is set, Apache will start sending a
user-tracking cookie for all new requests. This directive can
be used to turn this behavior on or off on a per-server or
per-directory basis. By default, compiling mod_usertrack will
not activate cookies.
