How can PHP developers effectively troubleshoot issues related to executing shell commands within PHP scripts?

When troubleshooting issues related to executing shell commands within PHP scripts, developers can use functions like `exec()`, `shell_exec()`, or `proc_open()` to run shell commands and capture their output or error messages. By examining the return values of these functions and checking for any error messages, developers can identify and resolve issues with executing shell commands in PHP scripts.

$command = 'ls -l';
$output = shell_exec($command);

if ($output === null) {
    echo "Error executing command.";
} else {
    echo $output;
}