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 %{cookie}n
in the log file format. For
example:
For backward compatibility the configurable log module
implements the old
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:
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.