PHP configuration Turn on error reporting - override ini settings

To dynamically turn on error reporting inside a php script, even if it is disabled in the php.ini file you can use the following functions.

ini_set('display_errors', 1);
ini_set('log_errors', 1);
ini_set('error_log', dirname(__FILE__) . '/error_log.txt');
error_reporting(E_ALL);
 

Using this at the top of your script will not catch any parse errors. A missing ")" or ";" will still lead to a blank page.

This is because the entire script is parsed before any of it is executed. If you are unable to change php.ini and set

display_errors On

then there is a possible solution suggested under error_reporting:

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