title: PHP Warning: Unknown: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(0) is not within the allowed path(s)
body: <p>I've been looking at all the other stack overflow questions that also have this error message but none of the answers provided in those are helping me. I'll first provide context for this problem and then share error logs and configurations I have set. </p>
  
  <p>So, on my company's website we have a client portal that was created with CodeIgniter by a completely separate development company. They aren't responding to any of my emails so I'm forced to try to fix this myself. My php skills aren't exactly up to snuff but I'm trying my hardest to solve the issue. </p>
  
  <p>The error essentially has to do with file uploading. The client portal allows us to upload files for our clients to view and as well it can zip many files together to send to multiple people. Since this week the uploading has been failing continually. That is only the first problem, the current problem is that I can't view any of the error logs due to "open_basedir restriction in effect" error. </p>
  
  <p>So here are some of my configurations in the /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini file: </p>
  
  <pre><code>open_basedir = /var/www/:/tmp/
  error_reporting = E_ALL &amp; ~E_DEPRECATED &amp; ~E_STRICT
  display_errors = On
  display_startup_errors = On
  log_errors = On
  error_log = "/var/www/dashboard.fnfa.ca/php_errors.log"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Even with the error_log defined, it doesn't get logged to for some reason. So in /var/www/dashboard.fnfa.ca/.htaccess I have added the following config:</p>
  
  <pre><code>php_flag error_log /var/www/dashboard.fnfa.ca/php_errors.log
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This will get the file logged to but that is when I receive this error INSTEAD of the actual PHP errors:</p>
  
  <pre><code>PHP Warning:  Unknown: open_basedir restriction in effect. File(0) is not within the allowed path(s): (/var/www/:/tmp/) in Unknown on line 0
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm assuming that the open_basedir restriction is blocking the proper message from displaying. I have been messing around the the open_basedir configuration continually to try to get anything other than this error message. I changed the open_basedir value to the following to no avail:</p>
  
  <pre><code>open_basedir = /var/www/:/tmp/:/var/www/dashboard.fnfa.ca/
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>That did nothing. When I set it to 'none' the error log is no longer written to at all. I have a feeling this is a very simple issue that I'm having massive troubles on. If anybody can help me with solving this issue I would be greatly appreciative. If there are any other settings you wish to see just ask and I'll provide to the best of my ability. </p>