You really need direct access to the server log files to debug a web dev ops problem, including:
- The PHP error log
- The ability to write custom logging in your PHP scripts (using error_log() .for example)
The exact name of the PHP error log files is configured in the
/etc/php/5.X/php.ini configuration for the server, depending on the version of PHP running.
When you have redirection issues, you also need access to your apache server logs. The exact name of the log files is configured in the apache2 configuration for the server.
- Apache2 error log
- Apache2 access log
You cannot debug a server-side PHP issue without access to the php error log.
For example, our server traffic here at unix.com is getting a lot more traffic lately. We just got hammered and mysqld started throwing errors. I checked the PHP error log and found the problem (too many connections) and immediately increased the limit.
Without access to the log files, we are blind.
You must team up with someone at your place of work who has system admin privs on the server to get you access to the logs.
curl() does not give any clues to what is happening on the server side (internally) except the HTTPD status code (like 302, 404, 301, etc). You should learn to use the web dev tools built into your browser for debugging web apps, not
curl() and you must have access to the server logs directly. There is a networking tab in the web dev console which can help you
If you do not have access, the you should not be working on these kinds of problems at work. Either you have permissions (you are authorized) or you are not authorized. If you do not have system admin privs on the web server, you cannot debug the web app. It's that simple.
You cannot be a doctor if you do not have access to the patient. You cannot be a builder if you do not have access to the building. You cannot build and debug web apps without access to the web server.
Cheers.