Where are Apache file access logs stored?

Ultimately, this depends on your Apache configuration. Look for CustomLog directives in your Apache configuration, see the manual for examples.

A typical location for all log files is /var/log and subdirectories. Try /var/log/apache/access.log or /var/log/apache2/access.log or /var/log/httpd/access.log. If the logs aren't there, try running locate access.log access_log.


If you can't find the log with Gilles's answer, there are a couple more things you can try.

  • Look in /var/log/httpd.
  • Run sudo locate access.log as well as sudo locate access_log. The logs on my system were not visible except to root, and the file was called access_log instead of access.log.

Apache server records all incoming requests and all requests processed to a log file. The format of the access log is highly configurable. The location and content of the access log are controlled by the CustomLog directive. Default apache access log file location:

RHEL / Red Hat / CentOS / Fedora Linux Apache access file location –

/var/log/httpd/access_log

Debian / Ubuntu Linux Apache access log file location –

/var/log/apache2/access.log

FreeBSD Apache access log file location –

 /var/log/httpd-access.log

To find exact apache log file location, you can use grep command:

# grep CustomLog /usr/local/etc/apache22/httpd.conf
# grep CustomLog /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
# grep CustomLog /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Sample output:

# a CustomLog directive (see below).
#CustomLog "/var/log/httpd-access.log" common
CustomLog "/var/log/httpd-access.log" combined 

Tags:

Syslog

Files

Logs