Straight from the php.ini file:
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Error handling and logging ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; This directive informs PHP of which errors, warnings and notices you would like
; it to take action for. The recommended way of setting values for this
; directive is through the use of the error level constants and bitwise
; operators. The error level constants are below here for convenience as well as
; some common settings and their meanings.
; By default, PHP is set to take action on all errors, notices and warnings EXCEPT
; those related to E_NOTICE and E_STRICT, which together cover best practices and
; recommended coding standards in PHP. For performance reasons, this is the
; recommend error reporting setting. Your production server shouldn't be wasting
; resources complaining about best practices and coding standards. That's what
; development servers and development settings are for.
; Note: The php.ini-development file has this setting as E_ALL. This
; means it pretty much reports everything which is exactly what you want during
; development and early testing.
;
; Error Level Constants:
; E_ALL - All errors and warnings (includes E_STRICT as of PHP 5.4.0)
; E_ERROR - fatal run-time errors
; E_RECOVERABLE_ERROR - almost fatal run-time errors
; E_WARNING - run-time warnings (non-fatal errors)
; E_PARSE - compile-time parse errors
; E_NOTICE - run-time notices (these are warnings which often result
; from a bug in your code, but it's possible that it was
; intentional (e.g., using an uninitialized variable and
; relying on the fact it is automatically initialized to an
; empty string)
; E_STRICT - run-time notices, enable to have PHP suggest changes
; to your code which will ensure the best interoperability
; and forward compatibility of your code
; E_CORE_ERROR - fatal errors that occur during PHP's initial startup
; E_CORE_WARNING - warnings (non-fatal errors) that occur during PHP's
; initial startup
; E_COMPILE_ERROR - fatal compile-time errors
; E_COMPILE_WARNING - compile-time warnings (non-fatal errors)
; E_USER_ERROR - user-generated error message
; E_USER_WARNING - user-generated warning message
; E_USER_NOTICE - user-generated notice message
; E_DEPRECATED - warn about code that will not work in future versions
; of PHP
; E_USER_DEPRECATED - user-generated deprecation warnings
;
; Common Values:
; E_ALL (Show all errors, warnings and notices including coding standards.)
; E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE (Show all errors, except for notices)
; E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_STRICT (Show all errors, except for notices and coding standards warnings.)
; E_COMPILE_ERROR|E_RECOVERABLE_ERROR|E_ERROR|E_CORE_ERROR (Show only errors)
; Default Value: E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_STRICT & ~E_DEPRECATED
; Development Value: E_ALL
; Production Value: E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_STRICT
; http://php.net/error-reporting
error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_STRICT
For pure development I go for:
error_reporting = E_ALL ^ E_NOTICE ^ E_WARNING
Also don't forget to put display_errors to on
display_errors = On
After that, restart your server for Apache on Ubuntu:
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart