An access log is a text file containing a thorough report on all the files accessed by your website visitors. All the files that were requested in one way or another shall be included, so when you have a PHP script program and a website visitor opens just the home page, for instance, you may find many files in the log. It is because there are elements on the home page that are embedded - parts of other web pages, pics, and so on. All of these files shall be listed within the access log, so you're able to get a detailed picture of the way your Internet site performs. The data is in plain text format, so the logs are occasionally termed "raw data" too. An access log provides the name of each and every requested file, the path to it, the date it was accessed, along with the user’s IP address, Internet browser and OS. More info, like the referrer website, is usually supplied as well. A log file could be processed by various desktop apps for statistical purposes as an addition to the web statistics created by your website hosting server.