How To Display PHP Errors Instead Of 500 Internal Server Error?

Modifying the php.ini file

To display PHP errors, you need to change the php.ini file. First, find the php.ini file on your server. The location depends on your operating system and PHP installation. Common locations include /etc/php.ini or /usr/local/php/php.ini.

Once you find the php.ini file, edit it to change the error reporting settings. Look for these directives:

1. error_reporting: Set this to E_ALL to report all errors.
2. display_errors: Change this to On to show errors in the browser.
3. display_startup_errors: Set this to On to display errors that occur during PHP's startup sequence.

After making these changes, save the file and restart your web server for the changes to take effect.

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

Using Runtime Configuration

If you can't access the php.ini file or want to set error reporting for specific scripts, you can use runtime configuration. Add these lines at the start of your PHP script:

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

This method has some benefits:

• It lets you set error reporting for each script.
• You can easily turn error display on or off for debugging.

However, this approach has limits:

• It won't catch errors that happen before these lines run.
• It doesn't affect the display_startup_errors setting.

Remember to remove or comment out these lines in production environments to avoid showing sensitive information to users.

Configuring .htaccess file

Apache's .htaccess file offers a way to control PHP error display. This method is useful when you can't access the server's main configuration files.

To use .htaccess for PHP error display:

1. Find or create the .htaccess file in your website's root directory.
2. Open the file with a text editor.
3. Add these lines to enable PHP error display:

php_flag display_errors on
php_value error_reporting E_ALL

These settings tell Apache to show PHP errors and report all error types.

If you're creating a new .htaccess file, name it exactly ".htaccess" (including the dot) and set the correct permissions (usually 644).

.htaccess settings override global Apache settings, but only for the directory they're in and its subdirectories. This lets you control error display for specific parts of your website.

After changing .htaccess, you don't need to restart Apache. The changes take effect right away.

php_value error_reporting E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_WARNING

Using error logs

PHP error logs help track and fix errors, especially when you can't show them in the browser.

To find PHP error logs:

1. Check your php.ini file for the error_log directive.
2. Look in your web server's error log directory (e.g., /var/log/apache2/ for Apache).
3. If you use a hosting panel, check its log section.

Open the log file with a text editor. Each log entry usually contains:

• Date and time of the error
• Error type (e.g., Parse error, Fatal error)
• Error message
• File path and line number where the error occurred

To read log entries, focus on the error message and location. This info helps you find the cause of the problem in your code.

error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 0);
ini_set('log_errors', 1);
ini_set('error_log', '/path/to/your/error.log');

Implementing try-catch blocks

Try-catch blocks handle exceptions in PHP, allowing you to catch and manage errors.

The basic structure of a try-catch block is:

try {
    // Code that might throw an exception
} catch (Exception $e) {
    // Code to handle the exception
}

To handle specific exceptions:

1. Use multiple catch blocks for different exception types.
2. Order catch blocks from most specific to least specific.

Example:

try {
    // Your code here
} catch (FileNotFoundException $e) {
    // Handle file not found
} catch (IOException $e) {
    // Handle other I/O errors
} catch (Exception $e) {
    // Handle any other exceptions
}

Using try-catch blocks helps you manage errors without stopping script execution, improving your application's stability and user experience.