How to get the text of a program error when accessing it through exec?

Question

PHP

Hello!
Through php, I access one program through the exec function, in addition to the resulting response (data array), the program also writes an error text in the console if the command was not set correctly.
I get the answer itself through the second parameter $output, but the error text does not return and does not place it in the $output array.
Is there any way to read what kind of error the program generated?

Answer 1

Add " 2>&1"
That would be something like this:

exec(' YOU_SHELL_COMMAND --arg=a --arg=b  2>&1', $out, $status);