Logs

OpenLiteSpeed writes two types of logs: error logs and access logs. Both can be configured at the server level and overridden per virtual host.

Log File Locations

Log	Default Path
Server error log	/usr/local/lsws/logs/error.log
Server access log	/usr/local/lsws/logs/access.log
Stderr log	/usr/local/lsws/logs/stderr.log
Admin error log	/usr/local/lsws/admin/logs/error.log

Error Log Configuration

Server-Level

In /usr/local/lsws/conf/httpd_config.conf:

errorlog /usr/local/lsws/logs/error.log {
    logLevel                WARN
    debugLevel              0
    rollingSize             10M
    enableStderrLog         1
}

Per-Virtual-Host

In the virtual host config (vhconf.conf):

errorlog /usr/local/lsws/logs/example.com-error.log {
    useServer               0
    logLevel                WARN
    rollingSize             10M
}

Set useServer to 0 to use a vhost-specific log file, or 1 to write to the server-level error log.

Log Levels

Level	Description
ERROR	Errors only. Minimal output.
WARN	Warnings and errors. Recommended for production.
NOTICE	Normal but significant events.
INFO	Informational messages.
DEBUG	Debug output. Generates large volumes of log data.

Set the level in the config:

logLevel                WARN

For temporary debugging, set debugLevel to a non-zero value (0-10). Higher values produce more output:

debugLevel              5

Reset debugLevel to 0 after troubleshooting.

Access Log Configuration

Server-Level

accesslog /usr/local/lsws/logs/access.log {
    rollingSize             10M
    keepDays                30
    compressArchive         1
    logReferer              1
    logUserAgent            1
}

Per-Virtual-Host

accesslog /usr/local/lsws/logs/example.com-access.log {
    useServer               0
    logFormat               "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\""
    rollingSize             10M
    keepDays                30
    compressArchive         1
}

Log Format Variables

OLS uses Apache-compatible log format strings:

Variable	Description
%h	Remote host (IP address)
%l	Remote logname (usually -)
%u	Authenticated user
%t	Timestamp
%r	Request line
%>s	Final HTTP status code
%b	Response size in bytes
%{Referer}i	Referer header
%{User-Agent}i	User-Agent header
%D	Request processing time in microseconds
%T	Request processing time in seconds

Log Rotation

OLS has built-in log rotation controlled by these parameters:

Parameter	Description	Default
rollingSize	Rotate when the log file reaches this size	10M
keepDays	Delete rotated logs older than this many days	30
compressArchive	Compress rotated log files (1 = on)	0

Rotated files are named with a timestamp suffix, for example error.log.2025_01_15.

If you prefer external rotation with logrotate, disable built-in rotation by setting rollingSize to 0:

/usr/local/lsws/logs/*.log {
    daily
    rotate 14
    compress
    missingok
    notifempty
    postrotate
        kill -USR1 $(cat /tmp/lshttpd/lshttpd.pid)
    endscript
}

Viewing Logs

# Tail the error log
tail -f /usr/local/lsws/logs/error.log

# Search for errors
grep -i error /usr/local/lsws/logs/error.log | tail -20

# Check access patterns
awk '{print $1}' /usr/local/lsws/logs/access.log | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -10

Next Steps

• Basic Configuration — other server settings.
• Custom Error Pages — configure error responses.
• Virtual Hosts — per-vhost log configuration.