How do I get PHP errors to display?

Question

I have checked my PHP ini file (php.ini) and display_errors is set and also error reporting is E_ALL. I have restarted my Apache webserver.

I have even put these lines at the top of my script, and it doesn't even catch simple parse errors. For example, I declare variables with a "$" and I don't close statements";". But all my scripts show a blank page on these errors, but I want to actually see the errors in my browser output.

error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);

What is left to do?

I've yet to nail down exactly why this works sometimes and not others, but for anyone wanting to quickly toggle errors in a php script (or enable them via a `$_REQUEST` parameter) these two lines will work most of the time. — brandonscript, Oct 28 '13 at 20:15
well you can see details of the error by enabling xdebug from php ini file. — jewelhuq, Jan 13 '16 at 10:14
Most specific editors / IDEs like e.g. Notepad++,Eclipse have builtin syntax check and highlighting, They will show you issues like you described. Please don't turn on the display of errors on a live system. Hackers will love this, because in most cases paths are shown. You can define error / exeception handler. In this handler you could log the issue and send a mail to the developer, so that he can fix it immediately when an issue occurs. see https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.set-error-handler.php and https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.set-exception-handler.php — Alexander Behling, Dec 10 '20 at 08:08

score 3359 · Accepted Answer · edited May 14 '20 at 00:32

3359

This always works for me:

ini_set('display_errors', '1');
ini_set('display_startup_errors', '1');
error_reporting(E_ALL);

However, this doesn't make PHP to show parse errors - the only way to show those errors is to modify your php.ini with this line:

display_errors = on

(if you don't have access to php.ini, then putting this line in .htaccess might work too):

php_flag display_errors 1

edited May 14 '20 at 00:32

anthonyryan1

3,870
2
32
24

answered Jan 29 '14 at 11:25

Fancy John

35,407
2
22
24

11

Also note that you can use these 3 lines, and then include('fileImWorkingOn.php');. Then you can catch the syntax errors too! – Snap May 08 '15 at 18:11
17

While I'm no SysOps, I think more people have an .htaccess file than php.ini, and these would both come before parsing, right? `php_flag display_errors 1` for .htaccess – Ryan Taylor Jul 09 '15 at 21:58
1

So now that the errors get logged, where do they go? I went to /var/log/apache2 and it shows all the logs, but there is no information regarding the program I recently ran. I only get information about system restarts once every morning. – Michael May 17 '16 at 15:14
1

@Michael The errors go right to the screen or to where the output is redirected to – Fancy John May 18 '16 at 05:35
3

`E_ALL` isn't sufficient to display *all* errors in PHP 5.3. "`E_STRICT` became part of `E_ALL` in 5.4.0" - [PHP Manual](https://secure.php.net/function.error-reporting) You need `E_ALL | E_STRICT` or `-1` in that version. – Gerard Roche Sep 14 '16 at 04:12
1

For PHP7 this might not be good enough since error handling has changed. See my answer below about catching Errors. – Frank Forte Oct 15 '16 at 00:29
1

Everyone has a `PHP.ini`, Few have a `.htaccess` file ... The ability to edit their PHP.ini file is another thing.. And most public servers allow for a custom php.ini file to be used.. – Angry 84 Nov 10 '16 at 05:47
Parse errors will be displayed if error not in same file in which you turned on error reporting/displaying. You need to turn on them in first file of your project (f.e. `index.php`), and all syntax (parse) errors will be displayed (except errors in `index.php`). Otherwise you must turn on errors displaying in `.htaccess` (if server support it). – Taron Saribekyan Nov 20 '16 at 06:04
As suggested by @Snap that you can show parse errors on included/required files.. Basically have the above 3 lines enabled, then include your file... As long as the base PHP does not have errors, it will show parse errors for the included files. Very handy way to debug is by wrapping your code with a simple index file that only turns on errors and includes a sub file to do all the work. – Angry 84 Feb 05 '17 at 23:05
@RyanTaylor Adding `php_flag display_errors 1` to .htaccess doesn't do anything for me on PHP 5.6 – BadHorsie Feb 27 '17 at 18:18
@BadHorsie there's more than one reason why php might not display error messages, my comment is meant to replace the line `ini_set('display_errors', 1);` (or extrapolated into anything that uses ini_set). – Ryan Taylor Feb 27 '17 at 19:22
I really don't understand this. According to php_info(), I have error_reporting on E_ALL, and I have display_error on On, and display_startup_errors on On. Still I never see errors on the web page. I feel like I'm in some alternative universe, where this works for everyone all the time, but never, ever, ever, ever for me, no matter which system I'm using and no matter where I put these settings. In the PHP file, the php.ini, the Apache config files, it doesn't matter. Is really nobody else in the known Universe always having this problem except me? – Teekin Apr 08 '17 at 13:23
You shloud use string in `ini_set` function as `value` parameter, because your version is incompatible with `strtict_types` mode. Use this instead: `ini_set('display_errors', '1');` – JakubBoucek Mar 18 '19 at 08:18
Man, I'm going to tattoo these three lines – Juan C. Roldán May 25 '21 at 22:42

score 157 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

You can't catch parse errors when enabling error output at runtime, because it parses the file before actually executing anything (and since it encounters an error during this, it won't execute anything). You'll need to change the actual server configuration so that display_errors is on and the approriate error_reporting level is used. If you don't have access to php.ini, you may be able to use .htaccess or similar, depending on the server.

This question may provide additional info.

score 147 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 08 '13 at 09:48

147

Inside your php.ini:

display_errors = on

Then restart your web server.

edited Jan 08 '13 at 09:48

j0k

21,914
28
75
84

answered Jan 08 '13 at 09:27

user1803477

1,513
1
9
4

8

+①. On my ubuntu /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini – m93a Feb 23 '15 at 17:44
7

for *restart* (Debian, Ubuntu, etc.) `sudo service apache2 restart` – Peter Krauss Sep 01 '15 at 13:04
4

For restart on OS X `sudo apachectl -k restart`. – Pea Jan 10 '16 at 19:53
3

fun fact: you can locate your php.ini file loaded if you simply put in phpinfo(); into a blank php file. it's the 7th row down and called `Loaded Configuration File` – Frankenmint Jul 24 '16 at 04:56

score 101 · Answer 4 · edited Oct 08 '18 at 14:44

To display all errors you need to:

1. Have these lines in the PHP script you're calling from the browser (typically index.php):

error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', '1');

2.(a) Make sure that this script has no syntax errors

—or—

2.(b) Set display_errors = On in your php.ini

Otherwise, it can't even run those 2 lines!

You can check for syntax errors in your script by running (at the command line):

php -l index.php

If you include the script from another PHP script then it will display syntax errors in the included script. For example:

index.php

error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', '1');

// Any syntax errors here will result in a blank screen in the browser

include 'my_script.php';

my_script.php

adjfkj // This syntax error will be displayed in the browser

score 53 · Answer 5 · edited Feb 17 '19 at 09:34

53

Some web hosting providers allow you to change PHP parameters in the .htaccess file.

You can add the following line:

php_value display_errors 1

I had the same issue as yours and this solution fixed it.

edited Feb 17 '19 at 09:34

Peter Mortensen

28,342
21
95
123

answered May 18 '13 at 15:01

Kalhua

541
4
2

And if you are in nginx environment then add the php value to your site (sites-available) configuration under the location ~\.php directive. fastcgi_param PHP_VALUE " error_reporting=E_ALL;\n display_errors=1;"; – Lazaros Kosmidis Oct 09 '18 at 07:25

Frank Forte · Answer 6 · 2017-06-06T18:32:06.480

41

You might find all of the settings for "error reporting" or "display errors" do not appear to work in PHP 7. That is because error handling has changed. Try this instead:

try{
     // Your code
} 
catch(Error $e) {
    $trace = $e->getTrace();
    echo $e->getMessage().' in '.$e->getFile().' on line '.$e->getLine().' called from '.$trace[0]['file'].' on line '.$trace[0]['line'];
}

Or, to catch exceptions and errors in one go (this is not backward compatible with PHP 5):

try{
     // Your code
} 
catch(Throwable $e) {
    $trace = $e->getTrace();
    echo $e->getMessage().' in '.$e->getFile().' on line '.$e->getLine().' called from '.$trace[0]['file'].' on line '.$trace[0]['line'];
}

edited Jun 06 '17 at 18:32

answered Mar 28 '16 at 19:26

Frank Forte

1,530
13
17

1

Do you mean PHP7 or PHP7.1 ? I am confused, I tried as the validated answer proposed and it works, I think you are proposing something a bit different IMHO, indeed "no backward compatibility" and if you have to modify a full PHP < 7 code and need to add `try{} catch() {}` code everywhere in your already defined php code, I don't even want to think the mess that's going to be.. – vdegenne Jan 22 '17 at 11:22
@FancyJohn, this could help: `$bt = debug_backtrace(); print_r($bt);`. – Frank Forte Mar 23 '17 at 03:25
@ballangddang, I ran into the issue with PHP 7.0, where the only way I could get the error to display was using the try/catch blocks and specifically catching `Error`. If you rewrite all requests (except maybe JavaScript, CSS, Images, etc) to the index.php file, then have the try catch block there, it makes it easier. Yes, any system that does not have a single entry point would be a major headache to update. – Frank Forte Mar 23 '17 at 03:28
Does PHP not show unhandled exceptions? Pretty sure it does? – Martin Tournoij Jun 05 '17 at 02:20
It should show unhandled exceptions. If you turn on an output buffer at the start (so that you can send headers at any point before finally flushing the response body) maybe the exception message can get lost somewhere. – Frank Forte Aug 19 '17 at 03:04
This looks like a bad idea. Time to use (or write) a global exception handler. – Paul Spiegel Feb 05 '19 at 14:54
@PaulSpiegel, which part is s bad idea? Try/catch blocks? Output buffering mentioned in my previous comment? Each serves a purpose. For example, the try/catch allows you to take a different course if something goes wrong, without adding a big application inside the exception handler. The output buffering allows for server side caching. – Frank Forte Feb 07 '19 at 13:11
I mean try/catch block to show exceptions. Why don't you just use [`set_exception_handler`](http://php.net/manual/en/function.set-exception-handler.php)? This way you could separate it from your code. – Paul Spiegel Feb 07 '19 at 13:21
So you can handle different exceptions in different ways, depending how critical the exception or error is in your program. – Frank Forte Feb 08 '19 at 19:05

score 35 · Answer 7 · edited Dec 27 '16 at 15:20

35

This will work:

<?php
     error_reporting(E_ALL);
     ini_set('display_errors', 1);    
?>

edited Dec 27 '16 at 15:20

Peter Mortensen

28,342
21
95
123

answered May 05 '14 at 13:23

Mahendra Jella

4,631
1
29
36

October 2020: This worked for me. So easy. No messing around with .htaccess or php.ini. When you're done, just comment it out or remove it. PHP 7.4 – Rob Moll Oct 23 '20 at 14:18

score 33 · Answer 8 · edited Dec 27 '16 at 15:27

33

Use:

ini_set('display_errors', 1);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);

This is the best way to write it, but a syntax error gives blank output, so use the console to check for syntax errors. The best way to debug PHP code is to use the console; run the following:

php -l phpfilename.php

edited Dec 27 '16 at 15:27

Peter Mortensen

28,342
21
95
123

answered May 04 '16 at 19:14

Abhijit Jagtap

2,358
2
27
39

score 22 · Answer 9 · edited Feb 17 '19 at 09:14

22

Set this in your index.php file:

ini_set('display_errors', 1);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);

edited Feb 17 '19 at 09:14

Peter Mortensen

28,342
21
95
123

answered Sep 26 '17 at 12:32

Sumit Gupta

539
4
11

score 20 · Answer 10 · edited Dec 27 '16 at 15:21

20

Create a file called php.ini in the folder where your PHP file resides.

Inside php.ini add the following code (I am giving an simple error showing code):

display_errors = on

display_startup_errors = on

edited Dec 27 '16 at 15:21

Peter Mortensen

28,342
21
95
123

answered Mar 31 '15 at 18:38

NavyaKumar

449
4
3

score 16 · Answer 11 · edited Feb 17 '19 at 09:18

As we are now running PHP 7, answers given here are not correct any more. The only one still OK is the one from Frank Forte, as he talks about PHP 7.

On the other side, rather than trying to catch errors with a try/catch you can use a trick: use include.

Here three pieces of code:

File: tst1.php

<?php
    error_reporting(E_ALL);
    ini_set('display_errors', 'On');
    // Missing " and ;
    echo "Testing
?>

Running this in PHP 7 will show nothing.

Now, try this:

File: tst2.php

<?php
    error_reporting(E_ALL);
    ini_set('display_errors', 'On');
    include ("tst3.php");
?>

File: tst3.php

<?php
    // Missing " and ;
    echo "Testing
?>

Now run tst2 which sets the error reporting, and then include tst3. You will see:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected end of file, expecting variable (T_VARIABLE) or ${ (T_DOLLAR_OPEN_CURLY_BRACES) or {$ (T_CURLY_OPEN) in tst3.php on line 4

I've spent some time figuring this out. Why did they change php 5 behaviour? — Hebe, Dec 17 '20 at 20:41

jxmallett · Answer 12 · 2018-07-18T02:48:38.257

15

If, despite following all of the above answers (or you can't edit your php.ini file), you still can't get an error message, try making a new PHP file that enables error reporting and then include the problem file. eg:

error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
require_once('problem_file.php');

Despite having everything set properly in my php.ini file, this was the only way I could catch a namespace error. My exact scenario was:

//file1.php
namespace a\b;
class x {
    ...
}

//file2.php
namespace c\d;
use c\d\x; //Dies because it's not sure which 'x' class to use
class x {
    ...
}

edited Jul 18 '18 at 02:48

answered Apr 24 '15 at 02:55

jxmallett

3,727
1
25
31

1

No, the error reporting is not a loglevel, it is a bitfield. Using 999999 is a **very bad** idea, use some power-of-two minus 1, for example 2047! – peterh Jul 17 '18 at 13:32
You're absolutely right, @peterh! I've changed it to E_ALL as this will enable reporting of all errors (except strict errors in php 5.4 and below). – jxmallett Jul 18 '18 at 02:52

Channaveer Hakari · Answer 13 · 2019-09-13T09:09:17.940

I would usually go with the following code in my plain PHP projects.

if(!defined('ENVIRONMENT')){
    define('ENVIRONMENT', 'DEVELOPMENT');
}

$base_url = null;

if (defined('ENVIRONMENT'))
{
    switch (ENVIRONMENT)
    {
        case 'DEVELOPMENT':
            $base_url = 'http://localhost/product/';
            ini_set('display_errors', 1);
            ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
            error_reporting(E_ALL|E_STRICT);
            break;

        case 'PRODUCTION':
            $base_url = 'Production URL'; /* https://google.com */
            error_reporting(0);
            /* Mechanism to log errors */
            break;

        default:
            exit('The application environment is not set correctly.');
    }
}

score 14 · Answer 14 · answered Jan 11 '16 at 12:11

If you somehow find yourself in a situation where you can't modifiy the setting via php.ini or .htaccess you're out of luck for displaying errors when your PHP scripts contain parse errors. You'd then have to resolve to linting the files on the command line like this:

find . -name '*.php' -type f -print0 | xargs -0 -n1 -P8 php -l | grep -v "No syntax errors"

If your host is so locked down that it does not allow changing the value via php.ini or .htaccess, it may also disallow changing the value via ini_set. You can check that with the following PHP script:

<?php
if( !ini_set( 'display_errors', 1 ) ) {
  echo "display_errors cannot be set.";
} else {
  echo "changing display_errors via script is possible.";
}

`find . -name '*.php' -type f -exec php -l {} \; | grep -v 'No syntax errors detected'` is simpler — scones, Nov 24 '17 at 13:27

score 13 · Answer 15 · edited Feb 17 '19 at 09:26

13

You can do something like below:

Set the below parameters in your main index file:

    ini_set('display_errors', 1);
    ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);

Then based on your requirement you can choose which you want to show:

For all errors, warnings and notices:

    error_reporting(E_ALL); OR error_reporting(-1);

For all errors:

    error_reporting(E_ERROR);

For all warnings:

    error_reporting(E_WARNING);

For all notices:

    error_reporting(E_NOTICE);

For more information, check here.

edited Feb 17 '19 at 09:26

Peter Mortensen

28,342
21
95
123

answered Feb 01 '17 at 07:33

Binit Ghetiya

1,637
2
19
30

What is the *"main index file"*? File `index.html`? – Peter Mortensen Feb 17 '19 at 09:26

score 12 · Answer 16 · edited Feb 17 '19 at 09:17

You can add your own custom error handler, which can provide extra debug information. Furthermore, you can set it up to send you the information via email.

function ERR_HANDLER($errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline){
    $msg = "<b>Something bad happened.</b> [$errno] $errstr <br><br>
    <b>File:</b> $errfile <br>
    <b>Line:</b> $errline <br>
    <pre>".json_encode(debug_backtrace(), JSON_PRETTY_PRINT)."</pre> <br>";

    echo $msg;

    return false;
}

function EXC_HANDLER($exception){
    ERR_HANDLER(0, $exception->getMessage(), $exception->getFile(), $exception->getLine());
}

function shutDownFunction() {
    $error = error_get_last();
    if ($error["type"] == 1) {
        ERR_HANDLER($error["type"], $error["message"], $error["file"], $error["line"]);
    }
}

set_error_handler ("ERR_HANDLER", E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_STRICT & ~E_DEPRECATED);
register_shutdown_function("shutdownFunction");
set_exception_handler("EXC_HANDLER");

score 7 · Answer 17 · edited Feb 17 '19 at 09:21

7

This code on top should work:

error_reporting(E_ALL);

However, try to edit the code on the phone in the file:

error_reporting =on

edited Feb 17 '19 at 09:21

Peter Mortensen

28,342
21
95
123

answered May 09 '17 at 03:28

Joel Wembo

705
5
8

score 6 · Answer 18 · edited Feb 17 '19 at 09:23

6

The best/easy/fast solution that you can use if it's a quick debugging, is to surround your code with catching exceptions. That's what I'm doing when I want to check something fast in production.

try {
    // Page code
}
catch (Exception $e) {
    echo 'Caught exception: ',  $e->getMessage(), "\n";
}

edited Feb 17 '19 at 09:23

Peter Mortensen

28,342
21
95
123

answered Mar 27 '17 at 02:31

Xakiru

1,631
1
10
9

For php7, `catch (Throwable $e)` is better... Or another catch block underneath `catch(Error $e)` – Frank Forte Aug 19 '17 at 02:58

score 5 · Answer 19 · edited May 29 '19 at 11:36

    <?php
    // Turn off error reporting
    error_reporting(0);

    // Report runtime errors
    error_reporting(E_ERROR | E_WARNING | E_PARSE);

    // Report all errors
    error_reporting(E_ALL);

    // Same as error_reporting(E_ALL);
    ini_set("error_reporting", E_ALL);

    // Report all errors except E_NOTICE
    error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);
    ?>

While your site is live, the php.ini file should have display_errors disabled for security reasons. However, for the development environment, display_errors can be enabled for troubleshooting.

score 4 · Answer 20 · answered Jan 13 '17 at 18:56

4

Just write:

error_reporting(-1);

answered Jan 13 '17 at 18:56

jewelhuq

1,103
13
19

Muhammad Adeel Malik · Answer 21 · 2019-06-28T08:26:00.700

4

You can do this by changing the php.ini file and add the following

display_errors = on
display_startup_errors = on

OR you can also use the following code as this always works for me

ini_set('display_errors', 1);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);

edited Jun 28 '19 at 08:26

answered Apr 11 '19 at 08:43

Muhammad Adeel Malik

808
7
8

score 3 · Answer 22 · edited Feb 17 '19 at 09:13

If you have Xdebug installed you can override every setting by setting:

xdebug.force_display_errors = 1;
xdebug.force_error_reporting = -1;

force_display_errors

Type: int, Default value: 0, Introduced in Xdebug >= 2.3 If this setting is set to 1 then errors will always be displayed, no matter what the setting of PHP's display_errors is.

force_error_reporting

Type: int, Default value: 0, Introduced in Xdebug >= 2.3 This setting is a bitmask, like error_reporting. This bitmask will be logically ORed with the bitmask represented by error_reporting to dermine which errors should be displayed. This setting can only be made in php.ini and allows you to force certain errors from being shown no matter what an application does with ini_set().

score 3 · Answer 23 · edited Mar 28 '19 at 14:02

3

You might want to use this code:

ini_set('display_errors', 1);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);

edited Mar 28 '19 at 14:02

baduker

12,203
9
22
39

answered Mar 28 '19 at 12:42

score 2 · Answer 24 · edited Apr 22 '20 at 14:44

2

If it is on the command line, you can run php with -ddisplay_errors=1 to override the setting in php.ini:

php -ddisplay_errors=1 script.php

edited Apr 22 '20 at 14:44

Peter Mortensen

28,342
21
95
123

answered Oct 24 '19 at 23:11

gvlasov

14,781
17
61
99

score 2 · Answer 25 · answered Dec 31 '19 at 10:07

2

Report all errors except E_NOTICE

error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);

Display all PHP errors

error_reporting(E_ALL);  or ini_set('error_reporting', E_ALL);

Turn off all error reporting

error_reporting(0);

answered Dec 31 '19 at 10:07

Shaikh Nadeem

66
6

NVRM · Answer 26 · 2020-12-04T23:56:23.767

1

In Unix CLI, it's very practical to redirect only errors to a file:

./script 2> errors.log

From your script, either use var_dump() or equivalent as usual (both STDOUT and STDERR will receive the output), but to write only in the log file:

fwrite(STDERR, "Debug infos\n"); // Write in errors.log^

Then from another shell, for live changes:

tail -f errors.log

or simply

watch cat errors.log

edited Dec 04 '20 at 23:56

answered Nov 26 '19 at 02:28

NVRM

6,477
1
51
60

How does that answer this question about PHP? – Peter Mortensen Apr 22 '20 at 14:45
`./script` is a php CLI script (hashbang `#!/usr/bin/php`). You can redirect the php errors in a file this way. This is unix piping. This is not php as CGI. – NVRM Apr 22 '20 at 20:57

score 1 · Answer 27 · answered Nov 06 '20 at 06:41

You can show Php error in your display via simple ways. Firstly, just put this below code in your php.ini file.

display_errors = on;

(if you don't have access to php.ini, then putting this line in .htaccess might work too):

php_flag display_errors 1

OR you can also use the following code in your index.php file

ini_set('display_errors', 1);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);

score 0 · Answer 28 · answered Feb 28 '21 at 00:51

0

     error_reporting(1);
     ini_set('display_errors', '1');
     ini_set('display_startup_errors', '1');
     error_reporting(E_ALL);

Put this at the top of your page.

answered Feb 28 '21 at 00:51

Kwed

91
1
2

How do I get PHP errors to display?

28 Answers28

Linked

Related