What are best practices for handling error reporting and debugging in PHP scripts, especially when dealing with functions like file() that may encounter network-related issues?

When dealing with functions like file() that may encounter network-related issues, it is important to handle errors gracefully and provide meaningful feedback to the user. One way to do this is by using try-catch blocks to catch any exceptions that may be thrown and then logging or displaying the error message accordingly. Additionally, using error_reporting() and error_log() functions can help in debugging and troubleshooting the issue.

try {
    $fileContent = file('http://example.com/data.txt');
    if ($fileContent === false) {
        throw new Exception('Failed to retrieve file content');
    }
    // process the file content
} catch (Exception $e) {
    error_log('Error fetching file: ' . $e->getMessage());
    // display an error message to the user
}