Most web hosts are wise enough to provide an error log to their customers, to assist with script debugging and analyzing other problems that come up on web sites. Sometimes an error log is not provided and a web host is unwilling to turn on an error log for the customer. In these cases, the following modification may work to provide an error log.

The following modification is UNSUPPORTED, meaning that if you do it and it breaks your board, we cannot help you. Be sure to make a backup copy of any files that you edit, so in case something goes wrong, you can restore the original to un-break things. (Requests for support concerning this topic will be silently ignored.)

This modification requires Discus 4.0 or higher, and it requires that the board be properly working. Insert the following green code into the config.cgi script, right under the line that reads:

use vars qw($GLOBAL_OPTIONS $PARAMS $DCONF);

use CGI::Carp qw(carpout);
if (discus_conf() =~ m|^(.*)/|) {
   if (open(LOG, ">>$1/data/cgi-error.log")) {
      carpout(*LOG);
   }
}

Now, any internal server errors occurring when executing your code will be logged to a file called "cgi-error.log" within the "data" directory of your Discus administration directory.