Install goaccess with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• goaccess

Project history

GoAccess 0.1 was released on July 6, 2010. Early releases focused on parsing web server access logs in a terminal interface, adding real-time statistics, color schemes, UTF-8 support, stdin pipelines, IPv6, and custom format strings.

By the 0.7 and 0.8 series, GoAccess had gained JSON and CSV output, HTML reports, GeoIP-related reporting, persistence, large-file support, and more flexible configuration. GoAccess 1.0, released in June 2016, marked a broader dashboard era with real-time HTML output, D3 visualizations, multiple output formats, and more explicit command-line shortcuts.

Later releases expanded operational coverage: support for cloud and proxy log formats, Docker builds, MaxMind GeoIP2, native JSON parsing, Caddy and Traefik log handling, WebSocket improvements, persistence and restore workflows, multi-threaded parsing, accessibility work, and WebSocket authentication.

Adoption history

GoAccess was adopted by administrators and developers who wanted fast local analytics without deploying a hosted analytics stack. Its README frames the tool for system administrators, DevOps engineers, and security professionals who need quick traffic, anomaly, bot, and performance visibility from logs.

Distribution packaging followed the tool's Unix shape: the project documents source builds, distro packages, and an official Debian/Ubuntu repository, while package managers such as Homebrew expose it as a single CLI command.

How it is used

Common use is direct log inspection, for example parsing Apache, Nginx, CloudFront, S3, Elastic Load Balancing, Caddy, Traefik, or W3C-style logs and emitting a terminal dashboard, static report, live HTML report, JSON, or CSV. GoAccess can also follow logs in real time and process multiple files or pipes.

Why package nerds care

GoAccess is package-nerd friendly because it preserves the simple CLI shape of classic Unix log tools while offering enough output formats to plug into modern dashboards and automation. It is written in C, has a small dependency story centered on ncurses, and keeps most behavior configurable through command-line flags or a simple config file.

Its release history is a useful map of web operations trends: from Apache-style logs and terminal dashboards, through HTML reports and GeoIP, to cloud/CDN log formats, Docker packaging, JSON logs, bot detection, multi-threaded parsing, and authentication around live dashboards.

Timeline

• 2010: GoAccess 0.1 was released.
• 2012: GoAccess 0.5 added IPv6 and custom format string parsing.
• 2013: GoAccess 0.7 added JSON and CSV output plus an HTML5 report.
• 2014: GoAccess 0.8 added persistence and large-file support.
• 2016: GoAccess 1.0 added real-time HTML dashboard functionality and multiple output formats.
• 2021: GoAccess 1.4.4 added native JSON log parsing and Caddy format support.
• 2024: GoAccess 1.9 added multi-threaded log processing.
• 2025: GoAccess 1.9.4 added WebSocket authentication and HTML report accessibility improvements.

Related projects

• GoAccess sits near classic log-processing tools such as awk, grep, sed, tail, and web server access-log utilities, but adds an interactive TUI and browser dashboard. Its supported formats connect it to Apache, Nginx, Caddy, Traefik, Amazon S3, CloudFront, Elastic Load Balancing, Squid, and W3C/IIS logs.

Sources

• https://github.com/allinurl/goaccess
• https://goaccess.io/
• https://goaccess.io/man
• https://goaccess.io/release-notes
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/allinurl/goaccess/master/ChangeLog
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/allinurl/goaccess/master/README.md