[php] How to have PHP display errors? (I've added ini_set and error_reporting, but just gives 500 on errors)

So, I don't really have any errors in my current web page, but I want to be able to see an error when they pop up, instead of the HTTP 500 error page. I googled around a bit and thought adding these two lines would fix everything.

ini_set('display_errors', 'On');
error_reporting(E_ALL);

NOTE: I don't have access to the php.ini file, as I'm using my school account's server.

So I introduced a bug (no semicolon after $buggy) like so at the top of my page:

<?php 
ini_set('display_errors', 'On');
error_reporting(E_ALL);
$buggy

$x = 4 + 2;
...

However, I just get a Server error:

"The website encountered an error while retrieving http://mywebpage.com/. It may be down for maintenance or configured incorrectly."

Any ideas?

EDIT:

I've reconfigured my code:

<?php 
include_once 'database/errorSettings.php';
?>
<?php 

$buggy // whoops
$x = 4 + 2;
...

errorSettings.php is the following:

<?php
    ini_set('display_errors', 'On');
    error_reporting(E_ALL);
?>

But it still doesn't work... wrong way to reconfigure?

You need to set the error_reporting value in a .htaccess file. Since there is a parse error, it never runs the error_reporting() function in your PHP code.

Try this in a .htaccess file (assuming you can use one):

php_flag display_errors 1
php_value error_reporting 30719

I think 30719 corresponds to E_ALL but I may be wrong.

Edit Update: http://php.net/manual/en/errorfunc.constants.php

int error_reporting ([ int $level ] )
---
32767   E_ALL (integer)     
All errors and warnings, as supported, except of   level E_STRICT prior to PHP 5.4.0.   32767 in PHP 5.4.x, 30719 in PHP 5.3.x, 6143 in PHP   5.2.x, 2047 previously

I have had this problem when using PHP5.4 and Plesk 11.5

Somehow, the error reporting and display error settings in the Plesk domain configuration page were completely overriding any local settings in .htaccess or the PHP scripts. I have not found a way to prevent this happening, so use the Plesk settings to turn error reporting on and off.

You may have settings in your php.ini that prevents the local site from overriding these settings, perhaps enforced by the control panel used on your server.

To people using Codeigniter (i'm on C3):

The index.php file overwrite php.ini configuration, so on index.php file, line 68:

case 'development':
        error_reporting(-1);
        ini_set('display_errors', 1);
    break;

You can change this option to set what you need. Here's the complete list:

1   E_ERROR
2   E_WARNING
4   E_PARSE
8   E_NOTICE
16  E_CORE_ERROR
32  E_CORE_WARNING
64  E_COMPILE_ERROR
128 E_COMPILE_WARNING
256 E_USER_ERROR
512 E_USER_WARNING
1024    E_USER_NOTICE
6143    E_ALL
2048    E_STRICT
4096    E_RECOVERABLE_ERROR

Hope it helps.

Adding to what deceze said above. This is a parse error, so in order to debug a parse error, create a new file in the root named debugSyntax.php. Put this in it:

<?php

///////    SYNTAX ERROR CHECK    ////////////
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors','On');

//replace "pageToTest.php" with the file path that you want to test. 
include('pageToTest.php'); 

?>

Run the debugSyntax.php page and it will display parse errors from the page that you chose to test.

Syntax errors is not checked easily in external servers, just runtime errors.

What I do? Just like you, I use

ini_set('display_errors', 'On');
error_reporting(E_ALL);

However, before run I check syntax errors in a PHP file using an online PHP syntax checker.

The best, IMHO is PHP Code Checker

I copy all the source code, paste inside the main box and click the Analyze button.

It is not the most practical method, but the 2 procedures are complementary and it solves the problem completely

Just write a following code on top of PHP file:

ini_set('display_errors','on');