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How can I get log messages from the LAMP server on Ubuntu 10.04? Should I install some good program on Ubuntu for that purpose?

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up vote 4 down vote accepted

Using cat is not a good idea, especially if logs grow large. Instead, try tailing.

sudo tail /var/log/apache2/error.log

tail will only show the last N lines of a file. If you want to keep monitoring the last lines, use the -F command-line option . Use Ctrl + C to close the monitoring.

sudo tail -F /var/log/apache2/error.log

To enable the logging, you must do that in the php.ini (look for error-logging). AFAIK that is no longer on by default in Ubuntu 10.04.

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If you have to watch multiple files I'd suggest multitail. It lets you divide the screen and watch multiple files:

multitail in GNOME terminal

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By default, the display of error messages is disabled in Lamp with Ubuntu 10.04 (I think it was enabled before...). You can read it with the following command :

sudo cat /var/log/apache2/error_log


sudo cat /var/log/apache2/access_log

I don't know how to re-enable the display of error messages, but it was really useful.

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they are empty, what I should do to enable them? My main problem that I get 500 error on my server when I going to some page. –  Yosef Jun 2 '10 at 12:38
error.log and access.log –  Yosef Jun 2 '10 at 19:30
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