PHP error_log method doesn't write errors to my error log file

Question

The PHP error_log method does not write errors to the custom error log file. It will only write to /var/log/apache2/php_error.log

Here are the logging settings in my php.ini:

error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_NOTICE
display_errors = Off
log_errors = On
log_errors_max_len = 0 ; also tried with 9999999
error_log = /var/log/apache2/php_errors.log

PHP writes its errors to the regular Apache error log (/var/log/apache2/error.log) rather than the one I specified above.

Things I already tried:

I stopped and restarted apache after changing the php.ini file
The file /var/log/apache2/php_errors.log is 777 permissions and the file exists.
There are no other overriding php.ini files. (There is /etc/php5/cli/php.ini but I'm not using cli).
There are no other error_log = xxx settings further down the php.ini file which could overrule the first one
phpinfo() says error_log = /var/log/apache2/php_errors.log (i.e. the correct file), both under Local Value and Master Value
The test script I'm using to generate errors doesn't contain any ini_set calls

(FYI: I'm using Apache/2.2.17 and PHP/5.3.5-1ubuntu7.2 on Ubuntu 11.04)

What am I doing wrong?

have you tried to change filename to some else? Or try some other folder? — Olli
– Olli, Commented Sep 21, 2011 at 13:30
Check what php.ini file is loaded (look at the output of phpinfo() function) — classic
– classic, Commented Sep 21, 2011 at 13:35
Thanks Olli, I changed it to /usr/php_errors.log and now it works! — William Clark
– William Clark, Commented Sep 21, 2011 at 13:55
In all likelyhood, the permissions for the log file you specified or the folder it was contained in were not set properly to allow PHP to access the file. — Reid Johnson
– Reid Johnson, Commented May 30, 2013 at 17:08
I haven't seen the PHP code but a couple of possibilities: 1. that device was full. 2. The enclosing directory was missing the execute bit, thus if PHP was checking for the file to exist; that would fail. Simple solution: [make sure your webserver user can rwx the directory, and rw the file]. — Bret Weinraub
– Bret Weinraub, Commented May 23, 2016 at 10:59

newmangt · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-07 14:55:44Z

17

I'd like to answer this as it's a high result on Google even though it's an old question.

I solved this by adding write permissions for all users on the log directory.

In my case, the user 'http' needed to be able to write to /var/log/httpd/ so I ran

# chmod a+w /var/log/httpd

If the file already exists, it may help to delete it first and allow Apache to create it.

My php.ini file included the entire path, also.

error_log = /var/log/httpd/php_errors.log

edited Aug 7, 2014 at 14:55

answered Jun 13, 2014 at 17:07

newmangt

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1 Comment

TMorgan Over a year ago

Thank you. I was running into this exact issue on an IIS server. The problem was that it was a section of the site that required basic authentication, which causes the service to run as a different user with different permissions.

Eric Leschinski · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-13 19:40:23Z

5

You could try specifying the filename like this:

I'm using Apache 2.2.22 on Ubuntu.

Use this PHP command:

error_log("eric", 3, "/home/el/error.log");

The first parameter is the message to be sent to the error log. The 2nd parameter 3 means "expect a filename destination. The third parameter is the destination.

Create the file /home/el/error.log and set its ownership to this:

el@apollo:~$ ll error.log
-rwxrwxr-x 1 www-data www-data 7 Dec 13 14:30 error.log

When the PHP interprets the error_log method, it appends the message to your file.

Source: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.error-log.php

answered Dec 13, 2013 at 19:40

Eric Leschinski

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Pejman Zeynalkheyri · Accepted Answer · 2021-04-28 19:15:34Z

2

I've got that problem and then I gave the right permission to the apache log folder and then restarted my apache with this commands:

sudo chmod a+w /var/log/apache2/
sudo service apache2 restart

answered Apr 28, 2021 at 19:15

Pejman Zeynalkheyri

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Amadu Bah · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-08 14:08:47Z

1

You can set the error log file for a site in the VirtualHost site configuration file, e.g: /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/example.com.conf:

<VirtualHost *:80>

  ....

  ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/www.example.com-error.log
  LogLevel warn
  CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/www.example.com-access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

In unix system ${APACHE_LOG_DIR} is usually /var/log/apache2 The errors and access will saved in ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/www.example.com-error.log and ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/www.example.com-access.log.

answered Apr 8, 2014 at 14:08

Amadu Bah

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Jette · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-02 10:10:01Z

1

Make sure that the Apache user has at least EXECUTION permission on any parent folders in the path to the logfile. Without it, Apache cannot list anything in the folder and thus not see the logfile.

ls
drwxr-x--- root adm folder

chmod o+x folder

ls
drwxr-x--x root adm folder

That one is a real gotcha! ;-)

After that, also check that the Apache user does have read and write permission to the actual logfile.

answered Nov 2, 2020 at 10:10

Jette

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3 Comments

Stephane Over a year ago

Amazing gotcha :-) You saved me !

Stephane Over a year ago

You have an interesting profile ! Finally someone with a profile. And a human one as that. I should fix mine too then. Nice to see someone who started on the web at roughly the same time I did :-) For me it was 1999 at Ericsson in Stockholm doing Javascript and Java and discovering Linux. I'm the old grunt ! Stephane Eybert

Jette Over a year ago

@Stephane, I know the feeling. It's always nice to meet an actual human on the internet ;-)

蒋艾伦 · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-06 02:21:15Z

-1

remove php_errors.log and restart apache2, the server itself will create a new php_errors.log file with proper permission and owner.

rm -f /var/log/apache2/php_errors.log
service apache2 restart

ll /var/log/apache2/php_errors.log

answered Jun 6, 2013 at 2:21

蒋艾伦

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alboforlizo · Accepted Answer · 2024-05-20 07:53:57Z

-1

If you don't want to chown anything, use $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] (i.e. /var/www/html for Apache2 on Linux) where the Apache user has certainly write access:

ini_set('log_errors', 1);
ini_set('error_log', $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/logs/php_errors.log');

To be 100% sure it works fine, manually create the directory logs

mkdir /var/www/html/logs

and the file inside:

touch php_errors.log

finally:

sudo chmod 777 php_errors.log

edited May 20, 2024 at 7:53

answered May 17, 2024 at 17:00

alboforlizo

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1 Comment

alboforlizo Over a year ago

This approach worked fine for me.

BArTMAN · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-06 19:35:24Z

-3

I spent several hours today trying to figure out why this wasn't working and trying to debug code working around the fact that I could log anything to the php error log. Needless to say, I was going at a snails pace until I got the logging working.

I would guess that more than 90% of the time it is a permission issue. In my case daemon was the owner and group for the log file and I had to sudo su to root and then change the permissions of the log file. I changed to:

chmod 777 myphperror.log

Thank God for stackoverflow.com

answered Apr 6, 2016 at 19:35

BArTMAN

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2 Comments

betseyb Over a year ago

The OP said they had checked the permissions. Your answer doesn't add anything.

Andrea Over a year ago

when your answer is chmod 777, there is a huge probability that it's not the correct one.

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