If you are trying to capture PHP errors to a text file on IIS ensure that two things are set.
1) Only one error log option is set. IE:
; Log errors to specified file.
error_log = "c:\php\errorlog.txt"
; Log errors to syslog (Event Log on NT, not valid in Windows 95).
;error_log = syslog
2) The IUSR account has write and modify permissions to e rrorlog.txt .
error_log
(PHP 4, PHP 5)
error_log — Send an error message somewhere
Description
bool error_log
( string $message
[, int $message_type= 0
[, string $destination
[, string $extra_headers
]]] )
Sends an error message to the web server's error log, a TCP port or to a file.
Parameters
- message
-
The error message that should be logged.
- message_type
-
Says where the error should go. The possible message types are as follows:
error_log() log types 0 message is sent to PHP's system logger, using the Operating System's system logging mechanism or a file, depending on what the error_log configuration directive is set to. This is the default option. 1 message is sent by email to the address in the destination parameter. This is the only message type where the fourth parameter, extra_headers is used. 2 No longer an option. 3 message is appended to the file destination . A newline is not automatically added to the end of the message string. 4 message is sent directly to the SAPI logging handler. - destination
-
The destination. Its meaning depends on the message_type parameter as described above.
- extra_headers
-
The extra headers. It's used when the message_type parameter is set to 1. This message type uses the same internal function as mail() does.
Return Values
Returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.
Changelog
| Version | Description |
|---|---|
| 5.2.7 | The possible value of 4 was added to message_type . |
Examples
Example #1 error_log() examples
<?php
// Send notification through the server log if we can not
// connect to the database.
if (!Ora_Logon($username, $password)) {
error_log("Oracle database not available!", 0);
}
// Notify administrator by email if we run out of FOO
if (!($foo = allocate_new_foo())) {
error_log("Big trouble, we're all out of FOOs!", 1,
"operator@example.com");
}
// another way to call error_log():
error_log("You messed up!", 3, "/var/tmp/my-errors.log");
?>
error_log
m308
16-Nov-2008 04:20
16-Nov-2008 04:20
eguvenc at gmail dot com
28-Oct-2008 04:03
28-Oct-2008 04:03
<?php
//Multiline error log class
// ersin güvenç 2008 eguvenc@gmail.com
//For break use "\n" instead '\n'
Class log {
//
const USER_ERROR_DIR = '/home/site/error_log/Site_User_errors.log';
const GENERAL_ERROR_DIR = '/home/site/error_log/Site_General_errors.log';
/*
User Errors...
*/
public function user($msg,$username)
{
$date = date('d.m.Y h:i:s');
$log = $msg." | Date: ".$date." | User: ".$username."\n";
error_log($log, 3, self::USER_ERROR_DIR);
}
/*
General Errors...
*/
public function general($msg)
{
$date = date('d.m.Y h:i:s');
$log = $msg." | Date: ".$date."\n";
error_log($msg." | Tarih: ".$date, 3, self::GENERAL_ERROR_DIR);
}
}
$log = new log();
$log->user($msg,$username); //use for user errors
//$log->general($msg); //use for general errors
?>
paul dot chubb at abs dot gov dot au
17-Jun-2008 05:37
17-Jun-2008 05:37
When logging to apache on windows, both error_log and also trigger_error result in an apache status of error on the front of the message. This is bad if all you want to do is log information. However you can simply log to stderr however you will have to do all message assembly:
LogToApache($Message) {
$stderr = fopen('php://stderr', 'w');
fwrite($stderr,$Message);
fclose($stderr);
}
i dot buttinoni at intandtel dot com
16-Feb-2008 11:32
16-Feb-2008 11:32
Be carefull. Unexpected PHP dies when 2GByte of file log reached (on systems having upper file size limit).
A work aorund is rotate logs :)
SJL
01-Jan-2008 02:16
01-Jan-2008 02:16
"It appears that the system log = stderr if you are running PHP from the command line"
Actually, it seems that PHP logs to stderr if it can't write to the log file. Command line PHP falls back to stderr because the log file is (usually) only writable by the webserver.
larry.kooper at gmail dot com
11-Oct-2007 10:00
11-Oct-2007 10:00
On a Mac running OS X, for the error logging to work I needed to put this in my php.ini:
error_log = /tmp/php_errors.log
Attempting to put the log in other locations did not work, probably due to permission issues.
stepheneliotdewey at GmailDotCom
27-Jun-2007 01:05
27-Jun-2007 01:05
Note that since typical email is unencrypted, sending data about your errors over email using this function could be considered a security risk. How much of a risk it is depends on how much and what type of information you are sending, but the mere act of sending an email when something happens (even if it cannot be read) could itself imply to a sophisticated hacker observing your site over time that they have managed to cause an error.
Of course, security through obscurity is the weakest kind of security, as most open source supporters will agree. This is just something that you should keep in mind.
And of course, whatever you do, make sure that such emails don't contain sensitive user data.
frank at booksku dot com
02-Nov-2006 11:28
02-Nov-2006 11:28
Beware! If multiple scripts share the same log file, but run as different users, whichever script logs an error first owns the file, and calls to error_log() run as a different user will fail *silently*!
Nothing more frustrating than trying to figure out why all your error_log calls aren't actually writing, than to find it was due to a *silent* permission denied error!
p dot lhonorey at nospam-laposte dot net
28-Aug-2006 10:33
28-Aug-2006 10:33
Hi !
Another trick to post "HTML" mail body. Just add "Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" into extra_header string. Of course you can set charset according to your country or Env or content.
EG: Error_log("<html><h2>stuff</h2></html>",1,"eat@joe.com","subject :lunch\nContent-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1");
Enjoy !
marques at displague dot com
26-Aug-2005 08:52
26-Aug-2005 08:52
Beware the size of your custom error_log!
Once it exceeds 2GB the function errors, ending your script at the error_log() line. I'm sure this differs from OS to OS, but I have seen it die writing to ext2 under modern Linux systems.
php at kennel17 dot NOSPAM dot co dot uk
25-Jul-2005 09:04
25-Jul-2005 09:04
It appears that the system log = stderr if you are running PHP from the command line, and that often stderr = stdout. This means that if you are using a custom error to both display the error and log it to syslog, then a command-line user will see the same error reported twice.
kazezb at nospam dot carleton dot edu
21-Jul-2005 05:39
21-Jul-2005 05:39
It appears that error_log() only logs the first line of multi-line log messages. To log a multi-line message, either log each line individually or write the message to another file.
franz at fholzinger dot com
20-Apr-2005 04:21
20-Apr-2005 04:21
In the case of missing your entries in the error_log file:
When you use error_log in a script that does not produce any output, which means that you cannot see anything during the execution of the script, and when you wonder why there are no error_log entries produced in your error_log file, the reasons can be:
- you did not configure error_log output in php.ini
- the script has a syntax error and did therefore not execute
28-Mar-2003 10:14
when using error_log to send email, not all elements of an extra_headers string are handled the same way. "From: " and "Reply-To: " header values will replace the default header values. "Subject: " header values won't: they are *added* to the mail header but don't replace the default, leading to mail messages with two Subject fields.
<?php
error_log("sometext", 1, "zigzag@my.domain",
"Subject: Foo\nFrom: Rizzlas@my.domain\n");
?>
---------------%<-----------------------
To: zigzag@my.domain
Envelope-to: zigzag@my.domain
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 13:29:02 -0500
From: Rizzlas@my.domain
Subject: PHP error_log message
Subject: Foo
Delivery-date: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 13:29:03 -0500
sometext
---------------%<---------------------
quoth the docs: "This message type uses the same internal function as mail() does."
mail() will also fail to set a Subject field based on extra_header data - instead it takes a seperate argument to specify a "Subject: " string.
php v.4.2.3, SunOS 5.8
