An access log is a text file which contains a complete report on all the files accessed by your website visitors. All of the files which were requested in one way or another will be included, so if you have a PHP script app and a website visitor opens only the home page, for instance, you may find numerous files inside the log. The reason is that there are things on the home page which are embedded - parts of other pages, pictures, and so forth. All of these files shall be listed in the access log, allowing you to get a detailed picture of the way your Internet site functions. The info is in plain text format, so the logs are occasionally described as "raw data" as well. An access log shows 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 information, like the referrer website, is sometimes included as well. A log file can be processed by various desktop applications for statistical purposes as an addition to the web statistics supplied by your hosting server.