Catching PHP Parser error when using include

Question

I have a file called functions.php.

This file consists includes to all the other function files, for example:

include_once("user_functions.php");
include_once("foo_functions.php");

I would like to catch errors where when I screw a code in one of those files, It wouldn't give the error to the entire system.

For example, if there is a parser error in foo_functions.php it will just not include it in functions.php.

Is that possible?

score 13 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 05 '18 at 13:21

13

As of PHP 7, most eval/include errors, such as ParseError can be catched:

try {
  include_once(__DIR__ . '/test.php');
} catch (\Throwable $e) {
  var_dump($e);
}

answered Feb 05 '18 at 13:21

Alexander Shostak

673
10
11

1

Thanks for the reminder to specify Throwable instead of Exception that I'm so use to using to be able to catch everything possible. – site Apr 28 '20 at 20:58
Tested, works in PHP 7.3 & PHP 7.4 for sure. Just make sure you've wrapped around the ***right*** file and deployed/uploaded the ***right*** file. – jave.web Feb 04 '21 at 10:15
The little gems stackoverflow is famous for, great solution. Thanks – John Apr 13 '21 at 04:02

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:07

Parser errors are fatal errors, so you can't catch them. See this question and answer for more details.

What you can do if you can run exec() is call php -l thefilename.php and check the result. See the manual for information on how this works. There are a few problems here, however:

This is extremely dangerous, because you are passing information to the command line. You absolutely must filter any user input very carefully, or you would be giving the user very broad access to your system.
exec() is often disabled, as it should be, because of the extremely high security risks of using it incorrectly.
There's really no good reason to include a file that you haven't already validated for syntax errors. If this is for plugins or something, then I understand your reasoning. If it is code you have control over, however, you should validate before putting it into production.

This is actually because I am working on a live system and I don't want that by accidentally forgot ; in one function results in the entire users who work on the system to receive a parser error. I guess the more reasonable solution is to just work on a offline machine and upload the latest version when it's all set, But I am kinda lazy to do that. — Jacob Cohen, Feb 03 '14 at 10:33

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 18 '19 at 04:55

This code can check if file is exist or not, if file exist than include it.

<? 
    if(!is_file('user_functions.php')){
        //There is no file user_functions.php . You may use file_put_contents('user_functions.php','<? //content ?>');
    }else{
        //ther is file user_functions.php, so include it.
        include 'user_functions.php'; 
    }
?>

And this one help you get syntax errors (PHP 7+ only)

<?
    try {
        include('user_functions.php');
    }catch (ParseError $e) {
        echo 'Error: '.$e->getMessage();
        //syntax error, unexpected end of file, expecting ',' or ';'
    }


?>

so if you use PHP 7+ you may use:

<? 
    if(!is_file('user_functions.php')){
        echo 'Error: file is not exist';
    }else{
        //check errors
        try {
            include('user_functions.php');
        }catch (ParseError $e) {
            echo 'Error: '.$e->getMessage();
            //syntax error, unexpected end of file, expecting ',' or ';'
        }
    }
?>

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 29 '14 at 13:04

0

What if you put

error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set("display_errors", 1);

at the beginning of foo_functions.php ?

answered Jan 29 '14 at 13:04

John Lucabech

156
1
7

I do want to see errors when they happen. I just want to be able to catch parsing error, using try catch. Not sure if that's even possible. – Jacob Cohen Jan 29 '14 at 14:30

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 29 '14 at 13:10

0

include() and include_once() return false if they fail. You can use this to check if the included files were successful.

if (!include('user_functions.php'))
   echo 'user functions failed to include';
if (!include('foo_functions.php'))
   echo 'foo_functions failed to include';

By changing the echos to handle your error logic, you should be able to do what you are asking.

answered Jan 29 '14 at 13:10

Andy

49,085
60
166
233

I am referring to a parser error, not if file exist kind of error. – Jacob Cohen Jan 29 '14 at 14:26

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 01 '15 at 18:35

The solution that I am using feels like a band-aid solution, but it will give you control back.

The idea is to use "eval()" to first check for errors. Also, ignore errors with the @ in the beginning. Of course you will need to be careful with eval, so don't ever let users feed anything to it.

    // first "eval" the file to see if it contains errors
    $txt = file_get_contents($template_filename);

    // eval starts out in php-mode.  get out of it.
    $txt = '?' . '>' . $txt;
    ob_start();
    $evalResult = @eval($txt);
    ob_end_clean();

    // if there are no errors
    if($evalResult !== FALSE) {
        require($template_filename);
    } else {
        error_log(print_r(error_get_last(), TRUE));
    }

Please note that I think "file_get_contents + eval" = "require", or very close to it, so you may be able to just skip the require-part.

Catching PHP Parser error when using include

6 Answers6

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