Mastering PHP 7

Native logging

PHP has a built-in error_log() function that sends an error message to the defined error handling routines; thus, providing an out-of-the-box solution for simple logging.

The following code snippet describes the error_log() function definition:

    bool error_log (        string $message       [, int $message_type = 0         [, string $destination           [, string $extra_headers ] ]]     )

The parameters are defined as follows:

• $message: This is a string type value, and a message we want to log
• $message_type: This is an integer type value; it has one of four possible values, which are as follows:
  • 0: This is an operating system logging mechanism
  • 1: This is sent by e-mail to the address in the destination parameter 
  • 2: This is no longer an option
  • 3: This ...