# Wp-config.php, enable debug **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature requests\ **Created:** [December 13, 2016, 5:44pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260 "2016-12-13T17:44:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![soderlind](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/soderlind/32/24675_2.png) [@soderlind](https://community.localwp.com/u/soderlind)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 5:44pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/1 "2016-12-13T17:44:52Z")
Local is used for local development and testing, so please enable debug as a default: ``` define( 'WP_DEBUG', true ); define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true ); ``` also, please add auth keys and salts to wp-config.php ---
**Author:** ![clay](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/clay/32/8248_2.png) [@clay](https://community.localwp.com/u/clay)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 7:05pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/2 "2016-12-13T19:05:16Z")
Salts will be in the next update 🙂 Regarding `WP_DEBUG`, that will most likely be a toggle of some sort in a future version. Some themes/plugins still throw an absurd amount of notices and that can look bad for Local if people aren’t familiar with `WP_DEBUG` ---
**Author:** ![soderlind](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/soderlind/32/24675_2.png) [@soderlind](https://community.localwp.com/u/soderlind)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/3 "2016-12-13T19:19:29Z")
They shouldn’t use themes that throws a lot of warnings 😉 ---
**Author:** ![bjornjohansen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/bjornjohansen/32/4379_2.png) [@bjornjohansen](https://community.localwp.com/u/bjornjohansen)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 7:46pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/4 "2016-12-13T19:46:28Z")
If people only had WP\_DEBUG on by default when they develop, we wouldn’t see that absurd amount of notices. Hopefully, the toggle isn’t too far into the future. ---
**Author:** ![clay](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/clay/32/8248_2.png) [@clay](https://community.localwp.com/u/clay)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2016, 8:07pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/5 "2016-12-13T20:07:14Z")
I totally agree but not everyone using Local is actually developing themes/plugins. ---
**Author:** ![rmpel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/rmpel/32/4529_2.png) [@rmpel](https://community.localwp.com/u/rmpel)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 6:57pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/6 "2016-12-21T18:57:54Z")
+1 since the idea of local is ease of use 🙂 Would suggest the wp-debug-log to be set to a file in the logs directory. There is a constant for that in WP ---
**Author:** ![soderlind](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/soderlind/32/24675_2.png) [@soderlind](https://community.localwp.com/u/soderlind)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 8:46pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/7 "2016-12-21T20:46:36Z")
+1 for the log in the logs directory (btw, the path is set using `ini_set( 'error_log', PATH . '/debug.log' );` ) … also, somebody might [write an addon](https://deliciousbrains.com/creating-custom-addon-local-flywheel/) to display the debug.log in Local ---
**Author:** ![clay](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/clay/32/8248_2.png) [@clay](https://community.localwp.com/u/clay)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 9:59pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/8 "2016-12-21T21:59:43Z")
@soderlind Here’s an addon that Daniel Griffiths wrote for Local when it was still Pressmatic: > **[Section214/pressmatic-addon-logs](https://github.com/Section214/pressmatic-addon-logs)** > > Contribute to Section214/pressmatic-addon-logs development by creating an account on GitHub. ---
**Author:** ![soderlind](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/soderlind/32/24675_2.png) [@soderlind](https://community.localwp.com/u/soderlind)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/9 "2016-12-21T22:49:17Z")
@clay Nice 🙂 Do you have a list of known addons? Plan to write one, but no point in reinventing the wheel. ---
**Author:** ![clay](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/clay/32/8248_2.png) [@clay](https://community.localwp.com/u/clay)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/11 "2016-12-26T18:23:47Z")
@soderlind [https://local.getflywheel.com/community/t/what-add-ons-are-available/338](https://local.getflywheel.com/community/t/what-add-ons-are-available/338) ---
**Author:** ![rmpel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/rmpel/32/4529_2.png) [@rmpel](https://community.localwp.com/u/rmpel)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 1:54pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/12 "2017-01-06T13:54:03Z")
I misread the WP docs, the constant is WP\_DEBUG\_LOG and when true, this will set the debug log to wp-content/debug.log; ``` if ( WP_DEBUG_LOG ) { ini_set( 'log_errors', 1 ); ini_set( 'error_log', WP_CONTENT_DIR . '/debug.log' ); } ``` in other words; you could set the error\_log with ini\_set, but WordPress will overrule this. There does not seem to be a way to change this path ☹ I’ll keep looking 😛 ---
**Author:** ![onokazu](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/onokazu/32/2081_2.png) [@onokazu](https://community.localwp.com/u/onokazu)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 2:48am UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/13 "2017-11-15T02:48:36Z")
This would be really useful since we’re constantly deleting and creating sites for development. Perhaps automatically enable WP\_DEBUG, WP\_DEBUG\_DISPLAY, WP\_DEBUG\_LOG when Dev Mode is On? ---
**Author:** ![tnorthcutt](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/tnorthcutt/32/7483_2.png) [@tnorthcutt](https://community.localwp.com/u/tnorthcutt)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2019, 1:37pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/14 "2019-04-18T13:37:45Z")
Is a toggle for this still in the works? Even nicer would be configurable defaults/a template for `wp-debug.php` ---
**Author:** ![afragen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/afragen/32/31_2.png) [@afragen](https://community.localwp.com/u/afragen)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2019, 5:07pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/15 "2019-04-18T17:07:35Z")
I have a plugin that might be useful. [https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-debugging](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-debugging) ---
**Author:** ![tnorthcutt](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/tnorthcutt/32/7483_2.png) [@tnorthcutt](https://community.localwp.com/u/tnorthcutt)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2019, 6:13pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/16 "2019-04-18T18:13:41Z")
Nice! Is there a way in Local to specify plugins to install and activate by default on new site spinup? (Is this what the Blueprint feature is/does?) ---
**Author:** ![afragen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/afragen/32/31_2.png) [@afragen](https://community.localwp.com/u/afragen)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2019, 6:53pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/17 "2019-04-18T18:53:00Z")
I think that’s essentially what the blueprint is for. I really don’t use it though. I actually have a framework that will optionally or not optionally install and activate plugins. It would be easy enough to make your own plugin that automatically installs whatever you want. BTW, I use it in the WP Debugging plugin to ask about installing Query Monitor or Debug Bar. DM me if you have questions. > **[afragen/wp-dependency-installer](https://github.com/afragen/wp-dependency-installer)** > > A lightweight class to add to WordPress plugins/themes to automatically install plugin dependencies. - afragen/wp-dependency-installer ---
**Author:** ![ben.turner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/ben.turner/32/5366_2.png) [@ben.turner](https://community.localwp.com/u/ben.turner)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 6:39pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/18 "2021-05-28T18:39:40Z")
Cleaning up old feature requests and would love to see if we can get some movement on this! I wanted to understand the nuance of this request so that we can move towards a good solution. First some observations: 1. Local currently [sets the `WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE` variable](https://localwp.com/help-docs/advanced/using-wp_get_environment_type-to-code-for-different-environments/) so that the `wp_get_environment_type()` function returns `local` 2. Local currently doesn’t set any of the [“debug” constants](https://wordpress.org/support/article/debugging-in-wordpress/) 3. Local does have Xdebug enabled, along with [pretty verbose error reporting](https://localwp.com/help-docs/troubleshooting/warnings-and-errors-in-local/) turned on That last item makes Local fairly noisy when warnings and fatal errors are encountered so I was curious what benefit setting the `WP_DEBUG` constant to `true` would give. I know this is obvious to many, but it looks like the real benefit to enabling `WP_DEBUG` is that you make WordPress itself log more issues. This is significant since WordPress does such a good job of emphasizing backwards compatibility that often times it doesn’t break when a site is “doing it wrong.” So for example, with `WP_DEBUG` set to false, using a deprecated function like `get_postdata()` will still work without any warnings, but setting `WP_DEBUG` to true will trigger a warning: ![Image 2021-05-28 at 11.37.57 AM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/lwpforums/original/2X/3/3ddf94093de1f49d76610bd87c383189efbd287a.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![afragen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/afragen/32/31_2.png) [@afragen](https://community.localwp.com/u/afragen)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 11:19pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/19 "2021-05-28T23:19:11Z")
@ben.turner there are plugins such as [WP Debugging](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-debugging) that set these constants. There are other plugins such as [Local Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/local-development), that will give the user the ability to change the environment variable. Unfortunately as Local sets this a PHP error results. My only real recourse is to remove the line in local-bootstrap.php ---
**Author:** ![ben.turner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/community.localwp.com/ben.turner/32/5366_2.png) [@ben.turner](https://community.localwp.com/u/ben.turner)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 5:28pm UTC](https://community.localwp.com/t/wp-config-php-enable-debug/260/20 "2021-06-01T17:28:46Z")
Thanks for sharing (and making) these awesome projects @afragen!