php error_log not working

Question

This has been asked 1000 times and I have browsed through the different posts before posting this but have not found an answer. As long as I have been prgramming with PHP, this have always been a nightmare to get working. Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong here?

I have error_log set in the ini file along with error_reporting = E_ALL | E_STRICT

What else am I missing? This usually gave it to me. I want this set in the ini file and not in my scripts.

Another interesting thing that is happening is that when I purposfully try and throw an error in one of my scripts, Apache restarts over and over again.

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This is my event log after one error. Loot at the timestamp

Wed Nov 04 19:34:23 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.14 (Win32) PHP/5.3.0 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:23 2009] [notice] Server built: Sep 28 2009 22:41:08
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:23 2009] [notice] Parent: Created child process 1700
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:23 2009] [notice] Child 1700: Child process is running
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:23 2009] [notice] Child 3008: Released the start mutex
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:23 2009] [notice] Child 1700: Acquired the start mutex.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:23 2009] [notice] Child 1700: Starting 64 worker threads.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:23 2009] [notice] Child 1700: Starting thread to listen on port 80.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:24 2009] [notice] Child 3008: All worker threads have exited.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:24 2009] [notice] Child 3008: Child process is exiting
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Parent: child process exited with status 128 -- Restarting.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.14 (Win32) PHP/5.3.0 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Server built: Sep 28 2009 22:41:08
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Parent: Created child process 3656
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Child 3656: Child process is running
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Child 3656: Acquired the start mutex.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Child 3656: Starting 64 worker threads.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Child 3656: Starting thread to listen on port 80.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Parent: child process exited with status 128 -- Restarting.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.14 (Win32) PHP/5.3.0 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Server built: Sep 28 2009 22:41:08
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Parent: Created child process 3980
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Child 3980: Child process is running
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Child 3980: Acquired the start mutex.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Child 3980: Starting 64 worker threads.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Child 3980: Starting thread to listen on port 80.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Parent: child process exited with status 128 -- Restarting.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.14 (Win32) PHP/5.3.0 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Server built: Sep 28 2009 22:41:08
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Parent: Created child process 1600
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Child 1600: Child process is running
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Child 1600: Acquired the start mutex.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Child 1600: Starting 64 worker threads.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Child 1600: Starting thread to listen on port 80.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Parent: child process exited with status 128 -- Restarting.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.14 (Win32) PHP/5.3.0 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Server built: Sep 28 2009 22:41:08
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Parent: Created child process 1068
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Child 1068: Child process is running
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Child 1068: Acquired the start mutex.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Child 1068: Starting 64 worker threads.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Child 1068: Starting thread to listen on port 80.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Parent: child process exited with status 128 -- Restarting.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.14 (Win32) PHP/5.3.0 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Server built: Sep 28 2009 22:41:08
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Parent: Created child process 3220
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:56 2009] [notice] Child 3220: Child process is running
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:56 2009] [notice] Child 3220: Acquired the start mutex.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:56 2009] [notice] Child 3220: Starting 64 worker threads.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:56 2009] [notice] Child 3220: Starting thread to listen on port 80.

Answer 1

You also need to set log_errors = On.

Answer 2

Make sure and also set

display_errors = On

And try

 error_reporting(E_ALL);

In your code. Often times I include a runtime error config script that turns errors on when I'm developing, and turns them back off when I'm not. It looks something roughly like this:

if ($debugmode == 'on') {
    error_reporting(E_ALL); 
    ini_set("display_errors", 1);
}else { 
    error_reporting(0); 
    ini_set("display_errors", 0);
}

Hope this helps.

** I didn't read that correctly, you want to log errors instead of display, in that case Chaos' answer is what you're looking for.

Answer 3

I don't understand why, but the error log is now working. Here is what I did. I gave up and commented back out the error_log directive and closed the ini file. I ran the script with the parse error to see of Apache would still crash and I got the PHP error in the log file. This is freaky because the ini file no longer has error_log enabled and my script is not using ini_set().

Does anyone have an explanation for this madness? Also, Apache no longer crashes.

Answer 4

If the error_log directive is set, the file will be used for recording php errors, when it is not set errors will be logged to the Apache log. Take a look at http://us3.php.net/manual/en/errorfunc.configuration.php#ini.error-log.

The error_log file and the directory it's in must be writable by the user that Apache is running under. If the file isn't being created, it's probably due to a permissions issue.

I don't know for sure why Apache would be crashing on you, but I'm guessing it's a permissions issue of some sort.