enable mod_rewrite logs in apache running on ubuntu - apache

Question

I tried to enable logging. I enabled mod rewrite and restarted the computer, for some reason the rewrite log doesn't write to the destination directory /var/lib/log
I'm wondering if anyone had done it before successfully, please post it here so I can give it a try.
cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS \n \l
apache2 -v
Server version: Apache/2.4.18 (Ubuntu)
Server built: 2016-07-14T12:32:26
/var/log/apache2$ ls
access.log access.log.3.gz error.log.1 error.log.4.gz
access.log.1 access.log.4.gz error.log.10.gz error.log.5.gz
access.log.10.gz access.log.5.gz error.log.11.gz error.log.6.gz
access.log.11.gz access.log.6.gz error.log.12.gz error.log.7.gz
access.log.12.gz access.log.7.gz error.log.13.gz error.log.8.gz
access.log.13.gz access.log.8.gz error.log.14.gz error.log.9.gz
access.log.14.gz access.log.9.gz error.log.2.gz other_vhosts_access.log
access.log.2.gz error.log error.log.3.gz
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName odyss{shadow}.odysseysafaris.com
ServerAdmin
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/{shadow}
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
<Directory "/var/www/html/{shadow}">
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Answer 1

Apache doesn't have its own log for mod_rewrite in 2.4. It logs to the error log. See Apache Module mod_rewrite - Logging for full details.
The last section is of particular relevance:
RewriteLog
Those familiar with earlier versions of mod_rewrite will no doubt be
looking for the RewriteLog and RewriteLogLevel directives. This
functionality has been completely replaced by the new per-module
logging configuration mentioned above.
To get just the
mod_rewrite-specific log messages, pipe the log file through grep:
tail -f error_log|fgrep '[rewrite:'
Also you don't appear to have added any directives to activate the logging. Add something like:
LogLevel rewrite:trace1
Which would just change the mod_rewrite logging and not affect any other. See the above link for more info and see LogLevel:
Specifying a level with a module name will set the level for that module only.