#22839 [Asn->Csd]: Error messages go to STDOUT instead of STDERR

ID: 22839 Updated by: jani@php.net Reported By: gk at proliberty dot com -Status: Assigned +Status: Closed Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Operating System: * PHP Version: 5CVS, 4CVS (2007-07-13) Assigned To: jani New Comment: The patch is applied to HEAD (PHP 6) and PHP_5_2 branches. By setting 'display_errors = "stderr"' in php.ini the error messages are outputted to STDERR. It won't affect other SAPIs than CGI/CLI, for others it's same as "On". Note: This feature won't be added to PHP 4. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2007-07-18 15:29:20] jani@php.net I have created a patch to improve this situation a bit: http://pecl.php.net/~jani/patches/errors_to_stderr.patch Might need some tuning but this should work. I overloaded the display_errors php.ini directive, it allows using 'stderr' as parameter which makes all error messages output in CLI/CGI to go to STDERR. Works fine in *nix, I haven't tested in Windows.. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2007-06-29 20:13:58] gk at proliberty dot com This is not about where errors be LOGGED, but about what output stream to write DISPLAY output to. I am arguing that if display_errors is enabled, then this output should go to /dev/stderr, not to /dev/stdout. sniper@php.net describes a workaround that co-opts use of error_log file from its intended purpose (logging errors to a file, for archival purposes) in order to redirect display output. Most well-behaved programs distinguish between 'normal' display output and 'errors' and use /dev/stdout and /dev/sterr appropriately, in this regard. PHP breaks this convention by displaying errors on /dev/stdout instead of /dev/stderr UNLESS you employ the workaround of setting /dev/stderr as the logfile. If sniper's workaround is employed, however, then this prevents logging errors to a file. The behavior of PHP appears confused. PHP should offer two clearly separated output mechanisms to the programmer: 1. echo() - for sending 'normal' output to /dev/stdout 2. trigger_error() - for sending 'errors' to /dev/stderr In my case, I am running php scripts via cron. I always want to maintain a historical record, via error_log, but I also need cron to email any true errors immediately - I don't want to set error_log = /dev/stderr and lose the historical error_log record in order to accomplish this simple task that would be a no-brainer if my script was written in bash instead of php. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-03-24 06:33:07] sniper@php.net Works fine when you have set it correctly in php.ini: # php -d log_errors=1 -d error_log=/dev/stderr -r "f();" 1>/dev/null ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2003-03-24 02:14:59] gk at proliberty dot com Error messages should go to /dev/stderr instead of /dev/stdout Example: redirect STDOUT to /dev/null; notice error message does not appear below: [root@p3 php4-STABLE-200303210630]# sapi/cli/php -r "f();" 1>/dev/null [root@p3 php4-STABLE-200303210630]# This is what you should see on /dev/stderr: [root@p3 php4-STABLE-200303210630]# sapi/cli/php -r "f();" Fatal error: Call to undefined function: f() in Command line code on line 1 The problem is due to the default error handler; if you install a custom error handler function with set_error_handler() then you can work around the problem for errors except the following which CANNOT be handled with set_error_handler() function: E_ERROR, E_PARSE, E_CORE_ERROR, E_CORE_WARNING, E_COMPILE_ERROR and E_COMPILE_WARNING. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=22839&edit=1