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PHP error_log() Function

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Example

Send error messages to the web server's error log and to a mail account:

<?php
// Send error message to the server log if error connecting to the database
if (!mysqli_connect("localhost","bad_user","bad_password","my_db")) {
    error_log("Failed to connect to database!", 0);
}

// Send email to administrator if we run out of FOO
if (!($foo = allocate_new_foo())) {
    error_log("Oh no! We are out of FOOs!", 1, "[email protected]");
}
?>

Definition and Usage

The error_log() function sends an error message to a log, to a file, or to a mail account.

Syntax

error_log(message,type,destination,headers);

Parameter Description
message Required. Specifies the error message to log
type Optional. Specifies where the error message should go. Possible values:
  • 0 - Default. Message is sent to PHP's system logger, using the OS' system logging mechanism or a file, depending on what the error_log configuration is set to in php.ini
  • 1 - Message is sent by email to the address in the destination parameter
  • 2 - No longer in use (only available in PHP 3)
  • 3 - Message is appended to the file specified in destination
  • 4 - Message is sent directly to the SAPI logging handler
destination Optional. Specifies the destination of the error message. This value depends on the value of the type parameter
headers Optional. Only used if the type parameter is set to 1. Specifies additional headers, like From, Cc, and Bcc. Multiple headers should be separated with a CRLF (\r\n)

Technical Details

Return Value: TRUE on success, or FALSE on failure
PHP Version: 4.0+
PHP Changelog: PHP 5.2.7: The value of 4 was added to the type parameter
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