title: GoDaddy Windows Plex PHP error_log not working right
body: <p>I'm having an issue where I get an "Internal Server Error" on my php page. To try and debug it, I attempted to use the error_log function in php. However I could not get it to write anything to the error log. Even in a simple php file:</p>
  
  <p><strong>httpdocs/temp.php</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?php
  error_log("this is an error");
  echo "hello";
  ?&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I would receive a basic internal server error message:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Internal Server Error The server encountered an internal error or
    misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.</p>
    
    <p>Please contact the server administrator to inform of the time the
    error occurred and of anything you might have done that may have
    caused the error.</p>
    
    <p>More information about this error may be available in the server error
    log.</p>
    
    <p>Web Server at xxxxxxxx.com</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>So I looked up how to set up the error_log properly, thinking that it was somehow not set up correctly. I found this <a href="https://ca.godaddy.com/help/setup-php-error-logging-26423" rel="nofollow noreferrer">article</a>.</p>
  
  <p>Since I am on windows I edited the .user.ini file in my httpdocs root folder and added the error_log line:</p>
  
  <p><strong>httpdocs/.user.ini</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>[PHP]
  error_log=G:\PleskVhosts\xxxxxxxxxx.com\httpdocs\php_error.log
  display_errors=off
  log_errors=on
  open_basedir="G:/PleskVhosts//xxxxxxxxx.com\;C:\Windows\Temp\"
  safe_mode=off
  sendmail_from=xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.shr.prod.phx3.secureserver.net
  SMTP=relay-hosting.secureserver.net
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This <a href="https://ca.godaddy.com/help/what-is-my-absolute-path-16024" rel="nofollow noreferrer">article</a> helped me get the absolute path</p>
  
  <p>I restarted the IIS application pool and created an empty php_error.log file in my httpdocs folder, however it still never wrote anything to the log file, and continued to just give the Internal Server Error. I also tried removing all the other lines in the .user.ini file besides the error_log line, restarted, and still nothing. I also tried stopping the application pool and starting it up again, still nothing.</p>
  
  <p>I double checked the phpinfo and the log_errors field was set to on, and the correct directory was set for error_log. So it is seeing the .user.ini file.</p>
  
  <p>I tried calling their support but they couldn't help me.</p>
  
  <p>They linked me to this <a href="https://ca.godaddy.com/help/get-detailed-errors-16085?v=1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">article</a> about IIS error handling. I created a web.config file and put it in the httpdocs folder as it says in that article. Now I get something different. Now the output of my page is the error that I was passing to error_log. So in other words, when I visit test.php the output on the screen says:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>this is an error</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Notice how the php script dies after the error? Not only should the error not be put on screen (it should be put in the php_error.log file, which is still not being written to at this point), but the php script shouldn't die afterwards unless it runs into a fatal error. I should see the "hello" from the echo and I don't.</p>
  
  <p>What do I have to do to get this working properly?</p>
  
  <p>My hosting plan has IIS 8 and PHP 5.4 installed.</p>
  
  <p>PS. Their support basically said they cant help me any further because changing configuration files is "coding" and they dont offer coding support.</p>