What is the PHP built-in server error log location?
Solution 1
The built-in webserver doesn't log anywhere by default, so you need to provide a php.ini for it to customise this. For example, if you created a file called php.ini with this content:
error_log = /Users/me/test.log
log_errors = on
date.timezone = UTC
Then you can start PHP's built-in webserver like this:
php -S 127.0.0.1:8080 -c php.ini
And error_log() calls will be logged to the file you've specified.
Solution 2
Yes, PHP has built-in error log functionality. PHP logs errors to this file automatically.
If you want to log errors, use the function error_log().
The file's location changes depending upon the environment.
E.g., in Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin), it’s
var/log/php_errors.log
In XAMPP Windows,
\xampp\php\logs\php_errors.log
In Mac OS X,
/var/log/apache2/php_errors.log
Solution 3
When using PHP's built-in server on macOS, you need to specify error_log
in your php.ini
configuration file (php -i | grep php.ini
).
If you decide with syslog
(instead of a log file) such as:
error_log = syslog
Then to dump the logs, you can use log
command on macOS, e.g.
log stream --predicate 'processImagePath contains "php"'
Otherwise, use some specific file path for the error log (e.g. /usr/local/var/log/php-error.log
).
Solution 4
I primarily know Linux, but AFAIK this works the same on whatever system you can run PHP.
I recently spent an unreasonable amount of time getting Linux to run on a "obsolete" Mac Mini from 2009. I don't know how anyone tolerates that manufactured obsolescence. Android is just is bad, hiding behind that "based on Linux" nonsense. I wonder how many lawyers it took to figure that one out? Of course, GPL doesn't say anything about the hardware!
Thanks to them, when mobile devices inevitably replace laptops and desktops over the next decade, the threat of the ideas behind free software will have been mostly eliminated. They should put that kind of engineering to work in consumer smoke alarm technology.
Anyway, enough about that. I'll attempt to return to the topic and teach you how to do this in a way that will give you the tools to complete similar different tasks in the future. It's like that old saying goes, "Teach a man to fish and won't be able to sell him anymore fish"
I always like to begin with a man [command]
or [command] --help
. If --help
or -h
doesn't work, try to pass it invalid input. That will usually get it talking. Be careful at this step; it's easy to get stuck reading man pages for several hours. Try not to forget any time obligations you might be under.
php --help
Find the option to set ini variables:
-d foo[=bar] Define INI entry foo with value 'bar'
Reading an example php.ini
, we find the settings of interest.
; error_reporting
; Default Value: E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_STRICT & ~E_DEPRECATED
; Development Value: E_ALL
; Production Value: E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_STRICT
///
; Log errors to specified file. PHP's default behavior is to leave this value
; empty.
; http://php.net/error-log
; Example:
;error_log = php_errors.log
; Log errors to syslog (Event Log on Windows).
;error_log = syslog
All the other defaults look ok so... let's try:
php -d error_reporting=E_ALL -d error_log=/desired/path/to/error.log -S 0.0.0.0:9999
You might notice the log printing to standard error from here. Alternatively, you could redirect that by adding 2> /path/to/error.log
to the end of the above command. Simpler, but then you wouldn't have learned about the -d
options to set values from file php.ini and -c
to use a custom file, but you'd have learned about output redirection which I'd say is a far more important concept with countless applications.
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Comments
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Bryan Estrito almost 2 years
I don't know if there's any. But does the PHP built in a web server also save its error logs in a file? For tailing purposes, like when creating virtual host in Apache.
I'm using Mac OS X.
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Bryan Estrito over 9 yearsi forgot to mention i'm using mac os
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Pupil over 8 yearsDownvoters, your downvoting is most welcome. I am happy that my answer needs improvements/corrections. But, please post comments about my mistakes. You are my true teachers.
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thenickdude about 8 yearsYour answer missed that the OP wanted this for PHP's built-in web server, you posted the log locations for various Apache webservers.
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Pupil about 8 years@thenickdude, yes you are right. This is the way SO works. Thanks for the comment.
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santiago arizti over 7 yearsthe question is where is the error log for when the webserver is started with something like
php -S localhost:8000
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Progrock over 6 yearsThis was helpful, but I needed to additionally add
log_errors = On
to the ini file. -
Progrock over 6 yearsAdditionally I tried a relative path in the php.ini for the error log. When the built in server uses the -t directory flag, the path is relative to there, not the php.ini.
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jrswgtr almost 6 yearsThis is not about php's built in web server. but about apache2.
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Balaji.J.B almost 6 yearsI hope the question is asked for php-buiit in server and I hope this should work.
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John Hunt over 5 yearsThe PHP built in server doesn't write to an apache error log.