An IP address in a log line
Server access logs form the foundational layer of internet infrastructure, recording every single file request processed by a web server. Each line in these plain text files invariably…
Deleting is not hiding
Terminating a digital service requires more than simply removing a graphic from a web layout. When a website operator decides to stop measuring traffic, the subsequent deletion process must…
A privacy notice a club can actually write
Operating a club website or a parish portal brings the legal obligation to inform visitors about data processing. A privacy notice exists to create transparency, not to overwhelm the reader…
Moving a site without losing the count
Migrating a website to a new hosting provider, changing domain names, or adopting a modern content management system involves numerous structural adjustments. Preserving the historical…
The counter still runs after ten years
Countless websites have integrated a visitor counter years ago and left the code untouched since. During the past decade, web technology has shifted significantly, yet a simple HTML image…
One request in eighteen asks for a removed page
On 30 August this server answered 345,299 requests. 19,570 of them got a 410: gone, deliberately, not found missing by accident. That is one request in eighteen. What is behind them All of…
An endpoint that answers with nothing
There is a path on this server that does nothing. A rewrite rule catches it and returns 204: no content, no body, no work. On 30 August it was called 1,000 times. What it used to be The…
An 870 MB file in a tmpfs, and the reboot that followed
On 28 August at 19:35 I unpacked a day of access log into /tmp so that two days could be read in one pass. At 19:44 the machine rebooted. The property that was not checked On this machine…
The tidy-up that would have made 180 addresses vanish
Two days in August carry thirteen and seven posts. Every other day of the month carries three. Evening it out looks like a five-minute job, and it would have taken 180 working addresses…
An extra escape in eight diagrams
For a while, eight posts on this blog showed the seven characters — in the middle of a sentence, inside the diagrams. Not a dash. The literal text. It has since been repaired in every…
The backup was restored end to end
This server has backed itself up every night since 11 August. The log has 163 lines in it. The word "restore" appears in none of them, because every line is about writing. Today the reading…
Where the database schema actually lives
Everything this service does is in version control. The code is, anyway. The database it runs on is 32 tables, and 15 of them have no definition anywhere in the repository — no CREATE…