PHP Error Logging Issues

OK, having some very frustrating error loggin issues on one of my linodes… it's my production server.

So, I don't want any errors displayed, but want them logged.

My php.ini file error settings:

error_reporting = E_STRICT
display_errors = Off
display_startup_errors = Off
log_errors = On
ignore_repeated_errors = Off
ignore_repeated_source = Off
report_memleaks = On
track_errors = On
error_log = /log/php/error.log

So, rebooting apache2 with this reveals in phpinfo that these settings are indeed being picked up by php.

allow_call_time_pass_reference    On  On
allow_url_fopen    Off Off
allow_url_include    Off Off
always_populate_raw_post_data    Off Off
arg_separator.input    &   &
arg_separator.output    &   &
asp_tags    Off Off
auto_append_file    no value    no value
auto_globals_jit    On  On
auto_prepend_file    no value    no value
browscap    no value    no value
default_charset    UTF-8   UTF-8
default_mimetype    text/html   text/html
define_syslog_variables    Off Off
disable_classes    no value    no value
disable_functions    no value    no value
display_errors    Off Off
display_startup_errors    Off Off
doc_root    no value    no value
docref_ext    no value    no value
docref_root    no value    no value
enable_dl    On  On
error_append_string    no value    no value
error_log    /log/php/error.log  /log/php/error.log
error_prepend_string    no value    no value
error_reporting    2048    2048
expose_php    Off Off
extension_dir    /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs  /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs
file_uploads    Off Off
highlight.bg    #FFFFFF #FFFFFF
highlight.comment    #FF8000 #FF8000
highlight.default    #0000BB #0000BB
highlight.html    #000000 #000000
highlight.keyword    #007700 #007700
highlight.string    #DD0000 #DD0000
html_errors    On  On
ignore_repeated_errors    Off Off
ignore_repeated_source    Off Off
ignore_user_abort    On  On
implicit_flush    Off Off
include_path    .:/usr/share/php:/usr/share/pear    .:/usr/share/php:/usr/share/pear
log_errors    On  On
log_errors_max_len    1024    1024
magic_quotes_gpc    On  On
magic_quotes_runtime    Off Off
magic_quotes_sybase    Off Off
mail.force_extra_parameters    no value    no value
max_execution_time    30  30
max_input_time    60  60
memory_limit    16M 16M
open_basedir    no value    no value
output_buffering    no value    no value
output_handler    no value    no value
post_max_size    8M  8M
precision    12  12
realpath_cache_size    16K 16K
realpath_cache_ttl    120 120
register_argc_argv    On  On
register_globals    Off Off
register_long_arrays    Off Off
report_memleaks    On  On
report_zend_debug    On  On
safe_mode    Off Off
safe_mode_exec_dir    no value    no value
safe_mode_gid    Off Off
safe_mode_include_dir    no value    no value
sendmail_from    no value    no value
sendmail_path    /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i    /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i 
serialize_precision    100 100
short_open_tag    Off Off
SMTP    localhost   localhost
smtp_port    25  25
sql.safe_mode    Off Off
track_errors    On  On
unserialize_callback_func    no value    no value
upload_max_filesize    2M  2M
upload_tmp_dir    no value    no value
user_dir    no value    no value
variables_order    EGPCS   EGPCS
xmlrpc_error_number    0   0
xmlrpc_errors    Off Off
y2k_compliance    On  On
zend.ze1_compatibility_mode    Off Off

No, I wanted to make sure that php can write to the custom error.log, so I touch error.log as root, and then go and chown error.log to www-data, which is the apache2 user on my debian5 box.

chown www-data:www-data error.log

chmod 640 error.log

reboot apache2 again and now, on my production server trying to generate an error in test.php.

$test = true;

while($test) {

echo 'test';

?>

So, the unclosed while loop should generate an error. Nothing is displayed, great! Now, check the error.log… nothing. file is 0 bytes.

I'm stuck, and extremely frustrated… any ideas!?

Thanks,

Paul