diff --git a/modules/swagger-codegen/src/main/resources/php/APIClient.mustache b/modules/swagger-codegen/src/main/resources/php/APIClient.mustache
index 70717056b9e..88954ffad3b 100644
--- a/modules/swagger-codegen/src/main/resources/php/APIClient.mustache
+++ b/modules/swagger-codegen/src/main/resources/php/APIClient.mustache
@@ -235,10 +235,25 @@ class APIClient {
     // Set user agent
     curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, $this->user_agent);
 
+    // debugging for curl
+    if (Configuration::$debug) {
+      error_log("[DEBUG] HTTP Request body  ~BEGIN~\n".print_r($postData, true)."\n~END~\n", 3, Configuration::$debug_file);
+
+      curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 1);
+      curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_STDERR, fopen(Configuration::$debug_file, 'a'));
+    } else {
+      curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 0);
+    }
+
     // Make the request
     $response = curl_exec($curl);
     $response_info = curl_getinfo($curl);
 
+    // debug HTTP response body
+    if (Configuration::$debug) {
+        error_log("[DEBUG] HTTP Response body ~BEGIN~\n".print_r($response, true)."\n~END~\n", 3, Configuration::$debug_file);
+    }
+
     // Handle the response
     if ($response_info['http_code'] == 0) {
       throw new APIClientException("TIMEOUT: api call to " . $url .
diff --git a/modules/swagger-codegen/src/main/resources/php/configuration.mustache b/modules/swagger-codegen/src/main/resources/php/configuration.mustache
index 3eaa8dba1f1..5528e8076f3 100644
--- a/modules/swagger-codegen/src/main/resources/php/configuration.mustache
+++ b/modules/swagger-codegen/src/main/resources/php/configuration.mustache
@@ -34,6 +34,10 @@ class Configuration {
   // an instance of APIClient
   public static $apiClient;
 
+  // debugging
+  public static $debug = false; // by default debugging is disabled
+  public static $debug_file = 'php://output'; //output debug log to STDOUT by default
+
  /*
   *  manually initalize  API client
   */
diff --git a/samples/client/petstore/php/SwaggerClient-php/lib/APIClient.php b/samples/client/petstore/php/SwaggerClient-php/lib/APIClient.php
index bc243e852cb..3e9119003d7 100644
--- a/samples/client/petstore/php/SwaggerClient-php/lib/APIClient.php
+++ b/samples/client/petstore/php/SwaggerClient-php/lib/APIClient.php
@@ -245,12 +245,7 @@ class APIClient {
       error_log("[DEBUG] HTTP Request body  ~BEGIN~\n".print_r($postData, true)."\n~END~\n", 3, Configuration::$debug_file);
 
       curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 1);
-      try {
-        $fp = fopen(Configuration::$debug_file, 'w');
-        curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_STDERR, $fp);
-      } catch ( \Exception $e ) {
-        error_log("Exception in enabling curl debug: ".print_r($e, true), 3, Configuration::$debug_file);
-      }
+      curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_STDERR, fopen(Configuration::$debug_file, 'a'));
     } else {
       curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, 0);
     }
diff --git a/samples/client/petstore/php/SwaggerClient-php/lib/Configuration.php b/samples/client/petstore/php/SwaggerClient-php/lib/Configuration.php
index 950b31ed587..fe4cbc59998 100644
--- a/samples/client/petstore/php/SwaggerClient-php/lib/Configuration.php
+++ b/samples/client/petstore/php/SwaggerClient-php/lib/Configuration.php
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ class Configuration {
   // an instance of APIClient
   public static $apiClient;
 
+  // debugging
   public static $debug = false; // by default debugging is disabled
   public static $debug_file = 'php://output'; //output debug log to STDOUT by default
 
diff --git a/samples/client/petstore/php/test.php b/samples/client/petstore/php/test.php
index 22bea9db889..4b63c75f472 100644
--- a/samples/client/petstore/php/test.php
+++ b/samples/client/petstore/php/test.php
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ require_once('SwaggerClient-php/SwaggerClient.php');
 
 // to enable logging
 //SwaggerClient\Configuration::$debug = true;
+//SwaggerClient\Configuration::$debug_file = '/var/tmp/php_debug.log';
 
 $petId = 10005; // ID of pet that needs to be fetched
 try {