Apache 500 server error- logs showing nothing

Question

Just after some help with a new installation of PHP.

I've setup a new Centos 6.2 server with apache PHP and am having trouble getting errors to show. I've copied all the website application files from a different as well as the folder structure and everything in /etc/httpd/.

When I access my site, I get a 500 error, or a blank page. The logs are showing nothing at all, apart form logging the 500 error:

[24/Feb/2012:17:33:25 +1100] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 - "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:6.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/6.0.1" 405 229 7176

My htaccess looks like this: ErrorDocument 404 /error.php

php_flag  display_errors                  on
php_flag  display_startup_errors          on
php_flag  file_uploads                    on
php_value error_reporting                 6143
php_value max_input_time                  60
php_value post_max_size                   8M
php_value upload_max_filesize             2M
~

So errors are turned on...

Start of PHP file has:
error_reporting(-1);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);

and php.ini has error_reporting set to E_ALL.

... yet I am getting errors on the screen for some things (such as not closing a string), but my issues are a bit bigger than i think and i have no idea where to start debugging!

So i guess my question is- how do I start debugging a 500 server error?

Answer 1

When error messages are maddeningly missing from the screen and from the Apache error_log files and anywhere else, I've had good luck getting them to appear by adding a different PHP file, using it only for development:

<?php
 error_reporting(E_ALL);
 ini_set("display_errors", 1);
 include("productioncode.php");
?>

This way, even if productioncode.php has compile-time errors the above code runs, and the messages get displayed, unlike merely putting the first two lines at the top of productioncode.php.

@Jaspreet Chahal and @Saiyam Patel - I just recovered from a lovely evening of error 500's in the access_log, e.g.

77.22.98.222 - - [26/Feb/2012:22:38:41 -0500] "GET /buggycode.php HTTP/1.1" 500 - west-real-estate.com "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.0; rv:11.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/11.0" "PHPSESSID=hcd04vv9e1a316cr9miauf3bl5" - 0

and no PHP error messages in any httpd log file from (foolishly) coding { 'foo' => 'bar' } instead of array( 'foo' => 'bar' ). Using the above technique revealed the detailed error message, including the all-important line number.

Answer 2

Apache 500 server error This is not a PHP error this is Server error (Server Unable to handle your request) OR may be problem with .htaccess file probably redirection

cheers