[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #34074: wp_debug false still showing errors

[WordPress Trac]

#34074: wp_debug false still showing errors
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 Reporter:  siebje        |       Owner:
     Type:  defect (bug)  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal        |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  General       |     Version:  4.3.1
 Severity:  normal        |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                |     Focuses:
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Comment (by jrf):

 Hi @siebje,

 Congratulations on your first ticket and thank you for pointing this out.

 I've had a look at this and from what I can see, this behaviour is by
 design.

 The `WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY` constant does ''not'' have ''any'' effect,
 ''unless'' `WP_DEBUG` is set to `true`.

 See: https://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_wp-
 config.php#Configure_Error_Logging for the documentation stating this:

 > First off, remember that if WP_DEBUG is false, it and the other two
 WordPress DEBUG constants do not do anything. The PHP directives, whatever
 they are, will prevail.

 In other words, if you do not set `WP_DEBUG` or set it to `false`, the
 server PHP configuration for `display_errors` will be used as defined in
 `php.ini`.

 `display_errors` should always be off for production servers and is highly
 recommended to be *on* for development servers.
 If the PHP version upgrade you mention in your report was on a production
 server, I would highly recommend that you switch to a more professional
 web-host.

 ----

 Having said that, I agree with you that a case could be made for changing
 the behaviour, but considering that WP tries not to break backward
 compatibility if it can be avoided at all, I kind of doubt it would get
 in.

 This was also discussed in ticket #11987 and decided against at that time.

 Nevertheless, on the off-chance that someone would be willing to consider
 it, I will upload a potential patch for this.

 The patch presumes that if `WP_DEBUG` was not set by the admin or if it
 was set to `false`, the displaying of errors should be turned off unless
 the admin has explicitly set `WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY` to `null` to force WP to
 follow the server settings.

 The choice not to 'respect' `WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY` if set to `true` while
 `WP_DEBUG` is `false` was made because the default setting for
 `WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY` is `true` and changing the default seems even less
 likely to find a kind ear.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/34074#comment:1>
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