Linux – find 500 errors logged while running Joomla on Ubuntu 14.4

500-errorjoomlalinodelinuxlog-files

Short story:
I get a 500 error when opening a page, but when I look at the error log, there is nothing about this error. I think every 500 error on front-end should be recorded somewhere, am I right? If yes, where could the error log be?

Long version:
I am upgrading my Joomla website from 3.6.2 to 3.6.5. It is a security upgrade, and previously this site has been hacked due to not upgrading in time. From my website's backend, when I click "install upgrade", I get a 500 page. I hosted my website on Linode (Ubuntu 14.04), and use webmin/virtualmin to manage the server. For other sites that are hosted on the same machine with same setting, if I get a 500 error, I can just look at the apache error log from webmin's interface, and I've thought this is where all the apache/php errors are being recorded. But this time, there is nothing in the error log. So I wonder whether there is any 500 error that can't be recorded in log? Or maybe this error was recorded else where? How do I find the log?

Best Answer

By default, the Joomla log folder path is /logs. If you installed Joomla 3 to /home/username/public_html/joomla, then the log folder will be set to /home/username/public_html/joomla/logs.

To find where your Joomla logs are stored, you can try the following:

  1. Log into your Joomla 3.0 admin control panel
  2. In the left menu go to Global Configuration
  3. Click the System tab
  4. Under the System Settings header you should find the 'Path to Log Folder' value.

Here is a helpful article with more information about Joomla error reporting: Joomla Error Reporting: Explained.

For Apache and PHP in Ubuntu, the default log location is at /var/log/apache2/error.log. This can be confirmed or changed in the file /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini.

You can watch your Apache error log update in real time by running sudo tail -f /var/log/apache2/error.log.

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