error logging problem....

[carlwhat]

hi,
i actually have 2 problems.

i'm in the process of moving a site to a new host. and i can not seem to get the ZC debug logging working. i can generate an error which i see in the php error log. i have tested ini_set on the server and that seems to work fine. however the zencart logs are not getting generated; which ideally i would like.... i think i have the permissions set correctly as the access log gets generated in the same directory, no problem.... i'm pretty sure this is an issue with the server configuration. when i look at the server_info,php on the admin side, the error log looks fine:

error_log /var/www/HIDDEN/log/myDEBUG-adm-1482775946-563053.log /var/log/php/error.log

so i'm at a loss...

its a debian machine if that helps.

another problem that i am having is something related to data, which generates an error but i have not been able to see it in any of the logs. i get a page that fails in the middle, but no error gets generated., in the past, i have seen this with image files too large.... but i now have to try and track it down, and i'm open to suggestions about errors that do not get logged.

thanks in advance.

[DrByte]

For TEMPORARY testing purposes set display_errors to 1 instead of 0 in enable_error_logging.php, so PHP errors display on-screen.

[carlwhat]

For TEMPORARY testing purposes set display_errors to 1 instead of 0 in enable_error_logging.php, so PHP errors display on-screen.

thanks. unfortunately, IH uses the '@' to suppress error messages to my dismay....

it does look like the zen-cart debug logs are somehow now working. and i did nothing.... at least that i can think of... its entirely possible that some errors are working with ZC and others are not, i still have to explore where i put all of these logs. long day on the silliest of errors.

being a sysAdmin is not all that its cracked up to be!

thanks again.

[Website Rob]

/var/www/HIDDEN/log/myDEBUG-adm-1482775946-563053.log

Are you sure that is correct and not a typo? Zen Cart uses a dir. named logs whereas your path shows a dir. named log.

Also, are you tailing the Server Apache error log? As that records all errors and you can see them in real time, it should help track down your problem(s).

tail -f /usr/local/apache/logs/error_log

Not familiar with Debian but the above is a typical Linux path and should be the correct dir. or a somewhat similar path. Might be in an 'httpd' dir. if not 'apache'.

[carlwhat]

Are you sure that is correct and not a typo? Zen Cart uses a dir. named logs whereas your path shows a dir. named log.

Also, are you tailing the Server Apache error log? As that records all errors and you can see them in real time, it should help track down your problem(s).

tail -f /usr/local/apache/logs/error_log

Not familiar with Debian but the above is a typical Linux path and should be the correct dir. or a somewhat similar path. Might be in an 'httpd' dir. if not 'apache'.

Rob,
thanks for the response. with regards to the path, that is correct. i override the path in my configure.php so that it is not accessible via a web browser. call me paranoid...

the ZC logging has started working. and i'm pretty sure i did nothing... although that really would not make much sense....

the one thing that i am a bit confused on is that there is a php error log as well as an apache errror log. and right now the system logs those into separate locations. and my question would be which log file or is it both that the ZC is monitoring, and then rewriting? i have a feeling it is the php error log, as evidenced by my initial post, and the overwrite designation from the server info page.

for most debian default installations the apache log location is:

/var/log/apache2/

i'm currently doing an overwrite to my above mentioned location based on the virtual host.

[DrByte]

In your server's php.ini it has a directive for where to store its PHP errors ... specifically which file to log them in.

The code in Zen Cart asks PHP to override that and store all errors in another location: by default it's the /logs/ folder of your ZC site, and with a customized filename.

It has nothing to do with Apache logs. Granted, many server configs tend to alter the php.ini (or use custom conf.d override directives) to point PHP errors into the Apache error log, as a matter of convenience to whomever might review the logs. Sometimes this "shared" logfile happens as a by-product of using the mod_php or php_sapi modules for Apache, since Apache is actually running PHP in those cases. Contrast with the more modern PHP-FPM approach where PHP runs independent of Apache/Nginx, and thus would be logged separately, unless overridden by config settings.

That's a lotta words to say: Zen Cart doesn't do any "monitoring" of logs. It simply asks PHP to point them to a folder that's accessible by end-users, instead of buried where only a sysadmin can view them, since shared hosting often makes it difficult to access those logs for the average joe who doesn't grok server foo.

[Website Rob]

@carlwhat - glad to hear things got sorted out. I love it when problems fix themselves. Just keep-on-trucking is what I say.

@DrByte - grok server foo if I ever open a Chinese Restaurant I'm getting you to name all the dishes.

[carlwhat]

@website rob:

don't give the doc so much credit:

https://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/grok

some of the names in linux always amuse me as well....

[DrByte]

Haha.
This is the context in which I was using the word grok:
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/grok
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/grok

[Website Rob]

I'm well familiar with the term 'grok' although most people will not be, unless they've been around computers for awhile or seen the right movies.

It was just the way DrByte arranged the 3 words that I found funny.