An access log is a text file containing a complete report on all of the files accessed by your website visitors. All the files that were requested in one way or another shall be included, so if you have a PHP script app and a website visitor opens only the home page, for instance, you might find numerous files in the log. The reason is that there are components on the home page that are embedded - parts of other webpages, images, and so forth. These files will be listed within the access log, allowing you to get a detailed picture of the way your site works. The info is in plain text format, so the logs are occasionally called "raw data" too. An access log provides the name of each requested file, the path to it, the date it was accessed, plus the user’s IP address, world-wide web browser and OS. Additional information, like the referrer Internet site, is oftentimes provided too. A log file could be processed by various desktop programs for statistical purposes as an addition to the web statistics provided by your server.