Annoying problem with apache22 / php5 - how to investigate?

Per olof Ljungmark peo at intersonic.se
Sun Jul 5 08:27:52 UTC 2009


Bruce Ferrell wrote:
> 
> Per olof Ljungmark wrote:
>> Bruce Ferrell wrote:
>>> Per olof Ljungmark wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> We run 7-STABLE and apache22 with php5 serving pages from a webmail app
>>>> (Horde).
>>>>
>>>> Randomly (as it seems at least), there is a 500 (Internal server error)
>>>> and a blank page is presented to the user like
>>>>
>>>> [04/Jul/2009:15:19:37 +0200] "GET
>>>> /services/portal/sidebar.php?httpclient=1 HTTP/1.1" 500 -
>>>>
>>>> There are no other messages in the logs, not even with LogLevel debug.
>>>> The problem has survived several both OS and port upgrades and I really
>>>> need to track this down now.
>>>>
>>>> Question: What OS tools would be the best to further analyze this?
>>>> Someone with more exparience running this combo perhaps would know?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks a lot!
>>>>
>>>> -- 
>>>> per
>>> I'd look in the Apache error_log
>>>
>> I've looked, as stated above. Even with LogLevel debug there is not a
>> trace. Likewise, I have E_ALL set in php.ini.
>>
>> So, I need to dig deeper inte the workings of Apache with the aid of the
>> right tools.
> 
> 
> You're not looking at an Apache problem, but a PHP problem. 500 is the
> error code for a failed CGI script/program. Try executing the php from
> the command line.  i.e. Go to where ever
> /services/portal/sidebar.php is and execute:
> 
>  ./sidebar.php httpclient=1
> 
> See what, if any, errors are thrown that way.
> 
> PHP is notorious for not sending good errors into the logs or to STDERR.
> 

You're right, I will see whatever logging I can squeeze out from the 
script handling. It's really annoying it's an intermittent problem...

Thanks!


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