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Re: Time

On Thu, 11 Apr 1996, Magnus Mengelbier wrote:

> 1.  The question really comes down to the time resolution you need.  In an
> analysis, I can not see the need for time down to the second.  Since a 
> log is sequential, I think that time down to the minute is enough.  A 
> users rewquest within 59 seconds usually means they know more or less 
> what they want and any more precise time is ancillary. 

Disagree, for numerous reasons. At sites where accesses are measured in 
hundreds or thousands per minute, logging the seconds becomes a lot more 
important. Also, a "session" can easily last less than a minute. Rounding 
session lengths up to even minutes would be worthless for short sessions.

> 2. If not all servers are running exactly the same time it can be
> misleading to log seconds if we start to combine logs from different servers. 
> Also, what time is logged?  The beginning or the termination of the 
> request?  It might be wise to have both times. 

That shouldn't be a problem in this day and age when even desktop PCs can 
synch up to SNTP servers. Sys Admins should be synching their servers as 
a matter of course.

Agreed on logging both begin and end of request.

James Calloway, General Manager                     http://www.nando.net
Nando.net, a McClatchy New Media company
127 W. Hargett St., Suite 406, Raleigh, NC 27601-1351
Voice: (919) 836-2858  FAX: (919) 829-8924
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