Show full details of 500 Internal Server Error

Question

How do I see the full error in a page which returns 500 internal error?

All I see is the error number and description -internal server error- with no exact details of the details of the error?

Answer 1

There are several ways to achieve this, though I would recommend setting up ELMAH.

It will log the exception with stack trace and provide a web interface to see it.

There are other loggers (log4net) and you can write your own logging (Exception.ToString() will provide most of the needed information for tracking down a bug), but I find ELMAH to be easy to get going.

Answer 2

Check the error logs. Where they are located is dependent on your serer setup though.

Answer 3

If the error is happening on your ASP.NET app, you can catch the error and email it to yourself.

You can catch the error in the Global.asax file...

    Sub Application_Error(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    ' Code that runs when an unhandled error occurs

    Dim sb As New StringBuilder
    sb.AppendFormat("Page Location: {0}", Context.Request.RawUrl)
    With Server.GetLastError.GetBaseException
        sb.AppendFormat("Message: {0}", .Message)
        sb.AppendFormat("Source: {0}", .Source)
        sb.AppendFormat("Method: {0}", .TargetSite)
        sb.AppendFormat("Stack Trace: {0}", .StackTrace)
    End With
    Dim ErrorMsg As String = sb.ToString()
    ' Post thee error to a logger...

End Sub

G.