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<title>Send an error message to the defined error handling routines</title>
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<div class="refnamediv">
<h1 class="refname">error_log</h1>
<p class="verinfo">(PHP 4, PHP 5)</p><p class="refpurpose"><span class="refname">error_log</span> — <span class="dc-title">Send an error message to the defined error handling routines</span></p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 description" id="refsect1-function.error-log-description">
<h3 class="title">Description</h3>
<div class="methodsynopsis dc-description">
<span class="type">bool</span> <span class="methodname"><strong>error_log</strong></span>
( <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$message</code></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">int</span> <code class="parameter">$message_type</code><span class="initializer"> = 0</span></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$destination</code></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$extra_headers</code></span>
]]] )</div>
<p class="para rdfs-comment">
Sends an error message to the web server's error log or to a file.
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 parameters" id="refsect1-function.error-log-parameters">
<h3 class="title">Parameters</h3>
<p class="para">
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">message</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
The error message that should be logged.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">message_type</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
Says where the error should go. The possible message types are as
follows:
</p>
<p class="para">
<table class="doctable table">
<caption><strong> <span class="function"><strong>error_log()</strong></span> log types</strong></caption>
<tbody class="tbody">
<tr>
<td>0</td>
<td>
<em><code class="parameter">message</code></em> is sent to PHP's system logger, using
the Operating System's system logging mechanism or a file, depending
on what the <a href="errorfunc.configuration.html#ini.error-log" class="link">error_log</a>
configuration directive is set to. This is the default option.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>
<em><code class="parameter">message</code></em> is sent by email to the address in
the <em><code class="parameter">destination</code></em> parameter. This is the only
message type where the fourth parameter,
<em><code class="parameter">extra_headers</code></em> is used.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>
No longer an option.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>
<em><code class="parameter">message</code></em> is appended to the file
<em><code class="parameter">destination</code></em>. A newline is not automatically
added to the end of the <em><code class="parameter">message</code></em> string.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>
<em><code class="parameter">message</code></em> is sent directly to the SAPI logging
handler.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">destination</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
The destination. Its meaning depends on the
<em><code class="parameter">message_type</code></em> parameter as described above.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">extra_headers</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
The extra headers. It's used when the <em><code class="parameter">message_type</code></em>
parameter is set to <em>1</em>.
This message type uses the same internal function as
<span class="function"><a href="function.mail.html" class="function">mail()</a></span> does.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
</dl>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 returnvalues" id="refsect1-function.error-log-returnvalues">
<h3 class="title">Return Values</h3>
<p class="para">
Returns <strong><code>TRUE</code></strong> on success or <strong><code>FALSE</code></strong> on failure.
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 notes" id="refsect1-function.error-log-notes">
<h3 class="title">Notes</h3>
<div class="warning"><strong class="warning">Warning</strong>
<p class="simpara">
<span class="function"><strong>error_log()</strong></span> is not binary safe. <em><code class="parameter">message</code></em> will be truncated by null character.
</p>
</div>
<div class="tip"><strong class="tip">Tip</strong>
<p class="simpara">
<em><code class="parameter">message</code></em> should not contain null character. Note that <em><code class="parameter">message</code></em> may be sent to file, mail, syslog, etc. Use appropriate conversion/escape function, <span class="function"><a href="function.base64-encode.html" class="function">base64_encode()</a></span>, <span class="function"><a href="function.rawurlencode.html" class="function">rawurlencode()</a></span> or <span class="function"><a href="function.addslashes.html" class="function">addslashes()</a></span> before calling <span class="function"><strong>error_log()</strong></span>.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 examples" id="refsect1-function.error-log-examples">
<h3 class="title">Examples</h3>
<p class="para">
<div class="example" id="example-452">
<p><strong>Example #1 <span class="function"><strong>error_log()</strong></span> examples</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// Send notification through the server log if we can not<br />// connect to the database.<br /></span><span style="color: #007700">if (!</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Ora_Logon</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$username</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$password</span><span style="color: #007700">)) {<br /> </span><span style="color: #0000BB">error_log</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Oracle database not available!"</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">0</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br />}<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// Notify administrator by email if we run out of FOO<br /></span><span style="color: #007700">if (!(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$foo </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #0000BB">allocate_new_foo</span><span style="color: #007700">())) {<br /> </span><span style="color: #0000BB">error_log</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Big trouble, we're all out of FOOs!"</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">1</span><span style="color: #007700">,<br /> </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"operator@example.com"</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br />}<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// another way to call error_log():<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">error_log</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"You messed up!"</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">3</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"/var/tmp/my-errors.log"</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 changelog" id="refsect1-function.error-log-changelog">
<h3 class="title">Changelog</h3>
<p class="para">
<table class="doctable informaltable">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Version</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="tbody">
<tr>
<td>5.2.7</td>
<td>
The possible value of 4 was added to <em><code class="parameter">message_type</code></em>.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</p>
</div>
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