Nginx not logging PHP errors

Question

When accessing some PHP scripts on my website, I'm getting the dreaded 500 error message. I'd like to know what's wrong to fix it, but Nginx isn't logging any PHP errors in the log file I have specified. This is my server block:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name localhost;
    access_log /home/whitey/sites/localhost/logs/access.log;
    error_log /home/whitey/sites/localhost/logs/error.log error;
    root /home/whitey/sites/localhost/htdocs;
    index index.html index.php /index.php;

    location / { 

    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/tmp/phpfpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME  $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    location ~* \.(?:ico|css|js|gif|jpe?g|png)$ {
        expires max;
    }
}

Note that some PHP scripts work fine, and others don't. So there isn't a global problem with PHP, there's just something in these scripts that's causing Nginx to throw the 500 error.

How can I get to the bottom of this? The only thing in error.log is an error about favicon.ico not being found.

Related: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8677493/php-fpm-doesnt-write-to-error-log — Kzqai, Jul 21 '15 at 16:55

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 20 '12 at 23:21

9

You have to add the following to your php-fpm pool configurations:

catch_workers_output = 1

You have to add this line to each defined pool!

answered Aug 20 '12 at 23:21

Fleshgrinder

3,638
2
16
19

1

trying to get more info on php-fpm issue resulting in error 500 for php-fpm and nginx. In xlaravel.pool.conf I have `catch_workers_output = yes`. So no no `1`. Which one is correct here? – rhand Jan 31 '19 at 00:57

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 13 '17 at 12:20

I had a similar issue.

I tried deploy phpMyAdmin with php-fpm 7.0 and nginx on CentOS7. Nginx showed me 500.html but there was not errors in any log file. I did all of this

catch_workers_output = 1

and

display_errors = On

Either nginx log or php-fpm log did not contained any error string.

And when I commented this line in nginx.conf I was able to see in browser page things that was wrong.

#    error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
#    location = /50x.html {
#    }

That was what helped me understand troubles.

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 13 '12 at 18:37

2

php-fpm throws everything in /var/log/php5-fpm.log or similar.

answered Aug 13 '12 at 18:37

erickzetta

579
2
4

1

That log just shows this: `[13-Aug-2012 20:15:54] NOTICE: fpm is running, pid 10599 [13-Aug-2012 20:15:54] NOTICE: ready to handle connections [13-Aug-2012 20:18:37] NOTICE: Finishing ... [13-Aug-2012 20:18:37] NOTICE: exiting, bye-bye! [13-Aug-2012 20:18:39] NOTICE: configuration file /etc/php5/fpm/php-fpm.conf test is successful` – James Linton Aug 13 '12 at 18:39
Try to set `error_log to something. As php-fpm with nginx doesn't work as it works with apache2. – erickzetta Aug 13 '12 at 18:41
The PHP-FPM log is just about errors of PHP-FPM. You can enable PHP logging seperately in your php.ini – Christopher Perrin Aug 13 '12 at 18:41
1

Or check http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8677493/php-fpm-doesnt-write-to-error-log – erickzetta Aug 13 '12 at 18:43
`/var/log/php-fpm/www-error.log` in my case. – Michael Plautz Nov 07 '18 at 05:13
Solution for UBUNTU 20 LTS with fresh NGINX, `/var/log/php7.4-fpm.log`, thanks – Peter Krauss Jul 05 '20 at 13:06

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 13 '12 at 18:36

0

Look in your nginx.conf for an error_log definition. Maybe nginx writes something in this error log.

You might also enable logging to file on PHP.

answered Aug 13 '12 at 18:36

Christopher Perrin

4,741
17
32

I looked in the file that `error_log` is set to, and it's empty. No errors at all. – James Linton Aug 13 '12 at 18:39

Kzqai · Answer 5 · 2015-07-21T18:11:45.910

0

For me, this seemed to be a problem with upstart, which was routing the logs for php-fpm to it's own custom location, e.g.:

/var/log/upstart/php5-fpm.log

There's also some bugginess with ubuntu Precise, 12.04 that may contribute to the lack of logging ability: https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=61045 If you're still running that version.

edited Jul 21 '15 at 18:11

answered Jul 21 '15 at 16:55

Kzqai

1,278
4
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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 22 '16 at 00:34

When PHP display_errors are disabled, PHP errors can return Nginx 500 error.

You should take a look to your php-fpm logs, i'm sure you'll find the error there. With CentOS 7 :

tail -f /var/log/php-fpm/www-error.log

You can also show PHP errors. In your php.ini, change :

display_errors = Off

to :

display_errors = On

Hope it helps.

score -1 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 12 '15 at 07:22

-1

This is what happened to me:

When I deleted my error log, nginx noticed that it was no longer missing. When I recreated this file nginx would no longer recognise that it existed, therefore not writing to the file.

To fix this, run these commands (I'm on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS):

sudo service nginx reload

If that doesn't work, then try:

sudo service nginx restart

answered Aug 12 '15 at 07:22

dspacejs

111
3

That is so completely *not* how nginx logging, or Unix file handling, works... – womble Aug 12 '15 at 07:53
It fixed it for me, so I'm not complaining – dspacejs Aug 12 '15 at 08:16
1

Future reference: what probably happened was your directory was not owned by nginx so it could not create the log file after you deleted it. chown the parent dir. `sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/log/nginx` should've sorted it. – Edward Jun 27 '17 at 09:59
This fixed my exact issue. I assume its pretty rare for people to delete their error log but I did. Thanks for the help – hendr1x Jan 18 '22 at 02:26

Nginx not logging PHP errors

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