Access & Error Logs in Apache
From the Apache cheat sheet · Logging · verified Jul 2026
Access & Error Logs
Configure log files, formats, and rotation
apacheconf
# Error log
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
LogLevel warn
# Access log with combined format
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined💡 Use combined format for access logs — it includes Referer and User-Agent for analysis
⚡ Set LogLevel rewrite:trace3 to debug mod_rewrite rules — essential when rules don't work
📌 Use SetEnvIf to exclude health checks and bots from access logs — keeps logs clean
🟢 Pipe logs to rotatelogs for automatic rotation without logrotate config
loggingaccess-logerror-log