Make WP_DEBUG log to custom file

WordPress is one of the world’s most popular content management systems and – fortunately – it comes equipped with a built-in debugging functionality. However, the option is not available from the admin panel and you have to do some file editing to make it work. When debugging WordPress the WP_DEBUG option can be really helpful. You can see error 500 message details or deprecated methods from an old PHP version.

WP Debug Configuration

To show debug details directly on the website, add / edit this line in your wp-config.php file:

define('WP_DEBUG', true);

To log messages to file /wp-content/debug.log  (standard location)

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );
@ini_set( 'display_errors', 0 );

To log a message to a custom file:

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', 'wp-content/my_debug_file987.log' );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );
@ini_set( 'display_errors', 0 );

Summary

Using a custom debug file name is recommended due to security measures. After finishing debugging, remember to disable WP_DEBUG and delete .log files from the server.

Next Step

Need a more powerful debug tool? Query Monitor is a plugin that enables debugging of database queries, PHP errors, hooks and actions, More info at: https://wordpress.org/plugins/query-monitor/

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