Using error_log to debug a php file

Question

I have a PHP file that runs ever hour on my server. I want to do some debugging by sending the value of certain variables to my e-mail address or a log file. I tried adding the following test code, but I'm not receving e-mails or finding the log file

error_log("Test 123", 1, "me@mydomain.com");
error_log("Test 123", 3, "/tmp/my_errors.log");

I'm not sure what I need to initialize in my php.ini file or elsewhere to make this work.

Answer 1

You should change the second parameter accordingly. Try using 0, that would write to the default error log file.

error_log("Test 123", 0);

For message_type == 1 you need to make sure that sending e-mails work on your server, and that the 'extra_headers' parameter is set.

For message_type == 3 make sure that php can write to this file.

http://php.net/manual/en/function.error-log.php