php error_log not working

Question

This has been asked 1000 times and I have browsed through the different posts before posting this but have not found an answer. As long as I have been prgramming with PHP, this have always been a nightmare to get working. Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong here?

I have error_log set in the ini file along with error_reporting = E_ALL | E_STRICT

What else am I missing? This usually gave it to me. I want this set in the ini file and not in my scripts.

Another interesting thing that is happening is that when I purposfully try and throw an error in one of my scripts, Apache restarts over and over again.

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This is my event log after one error. Loot at the timestamp

Wed Nov 04 19:34:23 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.14 (Win32) PHP/5.3.0 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:23 2009] [notice] Server built: Sep 28 2009 22:41:08
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:23 2009] [notice] Parent: Created child process 1700
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:23 2009] [notice] Child 1700: Child process is running
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:23 2009] [notice] Child 3008: Released the start mutex
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:23 2009] [notice] Child 1700: Acquired the start mutex.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:23 2009] [notice] Child 1700: Starting 64 worker threads.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:23 2009] [notice] Child 1700: Starting thread to listen on port 80.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:24 2009] [notice] Child 3008: All worker threads have exited.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:24 2009] [notice] Child 3008: Child process is exiting
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Parent: child process exited with status 128 -- Restarting.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.14 (Win32) PHP/5.3.0 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Server built: Sep 28 2009 22:41:08
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Parent: Created child process 3656
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Child 3656: Child process is running
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Child 3656: Acquired the start mutex.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Child 3656: Starting 64 worker threads.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Child 3656: Starting thread to listen on port 80.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:53 2009] [notice] Parent: child process exited with status 128 -- Restarting.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.14 (Win32) PHP/5.3.0 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Server built: Sep 28 2009 22:41:08
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Parent: Created child process 3980
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Child 3980: Child process is running
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Child 3980: Acquired the start mutex.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Child 3980: Starting 64 worker threads.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Child 3980: Starting thread to listen on port 80.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Parent: child process exited with status 128 -- Restarting.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.14 (Win32) PHP/5.3.0 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Server built: Sep 28 2009 22:41:08
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Parent: Created child process 1600
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Child 1600: Child process is running
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Child 1600: Acquired the start mutex.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Child 1600: Starting 64 worker threads.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:54 2009] [notice] Child 1600: Starting thread to listen on port 80.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Parent: child process exited with status 128 -- Restarting.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.14 (Win32) PHP/5.3.0 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Server built: Sep 28 2009 22:41:08
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Parent: Created child process 1068
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Child 1068: Child process is running
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Child 1068: Acquired the start mutex.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Child 1068: Starting 64 worker threads.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Child 1068: Starting thread to listen on port 80.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Parent: child process exited with status 128 -- Restarting.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Apache/2.2.14 (Win32) PHP/5.3.0 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Server built: Sep 28 2009 22:41:08
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:55 2009] [notice] Parent: Created child process 3220
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:56 2009] [notice] Child 3220: Child process is running
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:56 2009] [notice] Child 3220: Acquired the start mutex.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:56 2009] [notice] Child 3220: Starting 64 worker threads.
[Wed Nov 04 19:34:56 2009] [notice] Child 3220: Starting thread to listen on port 80.

Answer 1

Check PHP-FPM is not explicitly setting error_log:

Make sure the file /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf does not contain php_admin_value settings for error_log. Search for the following and comment them out using a semi-colon:

; NOTE: If these are set, ini_set('error_log', 'path') will have no effect 
; inside your php code, and this will be forced to be the value always.
; php_admin_value[error_log] = /var/log/php-fpm/www-error.log
; php_admin_flag[log_errors] = on

Then restart php-fpm:

systemctl restart php-fpm

Check Apache .htaccess files are not setting the error_log value using

php_admin_value settings in apache configuration files cannot be overridden, so make sure you dont have any php_admin_value for the error_log setting in the Apache configuration files. Also check for php_value settings just in case.

PHP Website - How to change configuration settings