DNSTran was previously called DNSLookup.
Web servers run more efficently if they have DNS lookups
turned off. DNSTran can then process the log files,
replacing IP addresses with domain names and (optionaly)
compressing the log file. The resulting log file can
be archived or used with any log analysis tool. DNSTran
looks for a log file called "WebSTAR.log"
in the same folder as the DNSTran application, and
translates it to "WebSTAR.log.gz". The log
file must be in the same folder as the DNSTran application
and must have exactly that name. DNSTran expires failed
lookups after six weeks and successful lookups after
18 weeks.
Analog is fast, really fast, until you turn on the NUMLOOKUP option. DNSTran is a tool to speed that up. Using DNSTran I was able to process a 23.6Meg log file in 18 minutes (DNSTran and Analog) as compared to a time of about 15 hours using Analog alone. With NUMLOOKUP off, Analog takes less than a minute.
Analog versions starting with 2.0a can read the compressed log files directly so you can delete the original log file to save disk space and reconfigure Analog to read the .gz files. The compressed log file already has the DNS names subsituted for the IP addresses so you can turn NUMLOOKUP OFF in Analog if you have it read the compressed log files.
DNSTran can also be used to create a "dnscahce"
file compatable with Analog, Analog will then do the
DNS translations internaly. To use DNSTran in this
way you should put it in the same folder with Analog,
set "translate" to "off", "private"
to "off", and set the correct "offset"
and "divisor" values based on your Analog
version number in the dnstran.cfg file. Then run DNSTran
before running Analog. You then configure Analog to
do DNS lookups and to have an expire time of more than
18 weeks. For versions of Analog prior to 2.9, change
analog.cfg to have the following settings:
NUMLOOKUP ON
DNSFRESHHOURS 3030
For versions of Analog 2.9 or higher, change analog.cfg
to have the following setting:
DNS READ
To exit DNSTran while it is running type 'q' or quit from the file menu. All lookups completed so far will be saved automaticaly. DNSTran will automaticaly exit when it is completed, unless there were errors. To force DNSTran to always exit, even if there were errors set 'force-exit' to 'yes' in dnstran.cfg.
DNSTran has a configuration file named "dnstran.cfg" which must be in the same folder as the DNSTran application. There are several configuration commands that control the lookup and translation process. Lines in the configuration file starting with '#' are comments.
'translate' - yes or no. Controls the translation pass. If set to no, DNSTran will not write a translated log file. The default is yes.
'compress' - yes or no. Controls compression of the translated log file. If set to yes the log file will be written with GZip compression and an extension of '.gz'. Otherwise it will be written as a text file with an extension of '.out'. The default is yes.
'level' - a single digit from 0 to 9. Controls the level of compression used on translated log files when compression is on. This number is passed to the ZLib code. Higher numbers result in better compression and longer run times. The default is 6.
'verbose' - yes or no. Controls verbose progress messages. Yes means print progress messages. The default is yes on the Mac and no on other platforms.
'private' - yes or no. Controls the format of the DNS cache file. Yes creates a small cache file that can not be used by Analog. No makes the cache file larger, but is compatable with Analog.
'offset' and 'divisor' control the time format used in the DNS cache file. Different versions of Analog require different formats for the time.
Analog 2.1.1d or earlier use:
offset -126144000
divisor 1
Analog 2.1.1e or newer but before 2.9 use:
offset 0
divisor 1
Analog 2.9 or newer (this is the default) use:
offset -36815040
divisor 60
'cache' - The file name to use for the DNS cache file. 'dnscache' is the default.
'force-exit' - yes or no. Setting this to yes will cause DNSTran to exit even if there are warning messages.
'expire-good' - number of days from 1 to 365. The number of days after the last appearance in a processed log to expire successful lookups.
'expire-failed' - number of days from 1 to 365. The number of days after the original lookup to expire failed lookups.
DNSTran can also be controlled with AppleScript. It
responds to the "do script" message. There
is a single argument that is a quoted string containing
Unix like command arguments. Use a script like the
following:
tell application "DNSTran"
do script "-h"
end tell
The "-h" option will tell you what the command options are. They follow the config file setting but have a more compact format based on Unix command lines. The name of the file to process is required and should be the last thing in the string.
You can start the command line with "-s ",
in which case DNSTran will not return control to your
script until it has finished. To make use of this you
will also need to override the AppleScript timeout
to a time long enough for DNSTran to complete. Here
is an example:
with timeout of 7200 seconds
tell application "DNSTran"
do script "-s WebSTAR.log"
end tell
end timeout
DNSTran is freeware. It is copyright © 1997,8 by Jason T. Linhart. I give you permission to use it. You may also give copies to friends, so long as you include all of the files in the original package without modification. It may not be sold or commercially distributed without a written licence from me. It may be included in archives, and distributed on CD-ROM or on other formats so long as there are no charges for these services other than shipping, handling and the cost of media. Use or distribution of DNSTran indicates your agreement to these terms.
GZip file IO uses the ZLib library from Jean-loup Gailly (gzip@prep.ai.mit.edu) and Mark Adler (madler@alumni.caltech.edu). The zlib home page is http://quest.jpl.nasa.gov/zlib/
For the latest information and updates check
http://summary.net/soft/dnstran.html
Program by:
Jason T. Linhart
http://summary.net/
jason@summary.net
This page was created using TextToHTML. TextToHTML is a free software for Macintosh and is (c) 1995,1996 by Kris Coppieters