Nginx serves .php files as downloads, instead of executing them

php wordpress nginx location fastcgi

324,356

Solution 1

Try this:

Edit /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Uncomment both listen lines to make nginx listen on port 80 IPv4 and IPv6.

 listen   80; ## listen for ipv4; this line is default and implied
 listen   [::]:80 default_server ipv6only=on; ## listen for ipv6

Leave server_name alone

 # Make site accessible (...)
 server_name localhost;

Add index.php to the index line

 root /usr/share/nginx/www;
 index index.php index.html index.htm;

Uncomment location ~ \.php$ {}

 # pass the PHP scripts to FastCGI server listening on (...)
 #
 location ~ \.php$ {
         try_files $uri =404;
         fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+?\.php)(/.+)?$;
         # NOTE: You should have "cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0;" in php.ini
         # With php5-cgi alone:
         #fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
         # With php5-fpm:
         fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
         fastcgi_index index.php;
         include fastcgi_params;
 }

Edit /etc/php5/fpm/php.ini and make sure cgi.fix_pathinfo is set to 0
Restart nginx and php5-fpm sudo service nginx restart && sudo service php5-fpm restart

I have just started using Linux a week ago, so I really hope to help you on this. I am using nano text editor to edit the files. run apt-get install nano if you don't have it. Google on it to know more.

Solution 2

I had similar problem which was resolved by emptying the browser cache (also worked fine with different browser).

Solution 3

You need to add this to /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default to execute php files on Nginx Server:

server {
    listen 80 default_server;
    listen [::]:80 default_server ipv6only=on;
    root /usr/share/nginx/html;
    index index.php index.html index.htm;
    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

Solution 4

I see a lot of solutions above and many worked correctly for me, but I didn't understand what they were doing and was worried of just copy pasting the code, specifically, fastcgi. So here are my 2 cents,

nginx is a web server (and not an application server) and thus, it can only serve static pages.
whenever, we try rendering/returning a .php file, for example index.php, nginx doesn't know what to do, since it just can't understand a .php file (or for that matter any extension apart from a select few like .html, .js etc. which are static files)
Thus in order to run other kinds of files we need something that sits between nginx and the application (here the php application). This is where common gateway interface (CGI) comes in. It's a piece of software that manages this communication. CGIs can be implemented in any possible language Python (uWSGI), PHP (FPM) and even C. FastCGI is basically an upgraded version of CGI which is much much faster than CGI.

For some, servers like Apache, there is built in support to interpret PHP and thus no need for a CGI.

This digital ocean link, explains the steps to install FPM pretty well and I am not writing the steps needed to solve the issue of php files getting downloaded instead of rendering since the other answers IMHO pretty good.

Solution 5

Update nginx config /etc/nginx/sites-available/default or your config file

if you are using php7 use this

    location ~ \.php$ {
            include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
            fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock;      
    }

if you are using php5 use this

    location ~ \.php$ {
            include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
            fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php5-fpm.sock;
            fastcgi_index index.php;
            include fastcgi_params;
    }

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324,356

Apeiron

Updated on July 08, 2022

Comments

Apeiron 6 months
I am installing a website in a droplet (Digital Ocean). I have a issue for install NGINX with PHP properly. I did a tutorial https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-linux-nginx-mysql-php-lemp-stack-on-ubuntu-14-04 but when I try to run some .php file it's just downloading it... for example... http://5.101.99.123/info.php it's working but... If I go to the main http://5.101.99.123 it's downloading my index.php :/

Any idea?
```
-rw-r--r--  1 agitar_user www-data   418 Jul 31 18:27 index.php
-rw-r--r--  1 agitar_user www-data    21 Aug 31 11:20 info.php
```
My /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
```
server {
        listen 80 default_server;
        listen [::]:80 default_server ipv6only=on;
        root /var/www/html;
        index index.html index.htm index.php;
        # Make site accessible from http://localhost/
        server_name agitarycompartir.com;
               location ~ \.php$ {
                    fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
    ## NOTE: You should have "cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0;" in php.ini
    #
    #               # With php5-cgi alone:
    #               fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
    #               # With php5-fpm:
                    fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
                    fastcgi_index index.php;
                    include fastcgi_params;
            }
              location / {
                    try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
                    # Uncomment to enable naxsi on this location
                    # include /etc/nginx/naxsi.rules
            }
```
...

Others "location" are commented...

.
- Brad over 8 years
  
  Yes... you didn't set up PHP-FPM with Nginx correctly. That's all we can tell you though since you didn't show us any of your config.
- Apeiron over 8 years
  
  which file you want to see? Thanks @Brad
- Brad over 8 years
  
  Whichever file (or files) you put your config in. The relevant part being... where you set up PHP-FPM in your Nginx config.
- Brad over 8 years
  
  Your config looks alright to me. Do you have any other location blocks that might be taking precedence over your PHP location block?
- Apeiron over 8 years
  
  I do not know how to check that:/ I dont think so.
- Brad over 8 years
  
  The location block starts with location some-regex-here {. That regex and flags specify how the server should treat matching resources. The PHP location block that you show in your question instructs Nginx to apply those rules for every request/resource that matches. It sounds like PHP isn't falling into those rules. Assuming the file is being loaded at all, it makes sense that another location block is catching the PHP files before it makes it to the PHP block. (By the way, a quick way to test if the file is getting loaded or not is to make a syntax error and restart the server.)
- Apeiron over 8 years
  
  Check If I do a query on my website... ( 5.101.99.123/?=imitacion&submit=Ir ) or 5.101.99.123/?= :S :S
- tm_lv almost 7 years
  
  after like an hour of googling found this askubuntu.com/a/601996/89455 - if you had a bad configuration before try clearing the cache - worked here!
- Peter Krauss almost 5 years
  
  See similar question/answer for PHP7 at stackoverflow.com/q/42664080/287948
Guillermo Garcia over 7 years

/etc/init.d/nginx restart
Duke almost 7 years

service nginx restart && service php5-fpm restart
Duke almost 7 years

nginx -s reload
Alex about 6 years

with PHP7-fpm is : service php7.0-fpm restart
Joy almost 6 years

with PHP7-fpm, replace fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock; with fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
Swapnil Mhaske almost 6 years

I think the restart and incognito mode helped me. Thank a ton for the noobness we can do.
jdstaerk almost 6 years

@Joy, tried your suggestion but it didn't worked. Had to use fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock;
mp3por over 5 years

What is SCRIPT_FILENAME ?
Eddie over 5 years

Thanks a lot. You saved my day) Also +1 for incognito!
greybeard over 5 years

Nice touch to include the test-command syntax in addition to an advice to fix the issue.
user2490003 over 5 years

You just saved me after an hour of frustration. Everything was correct, it just needed a browser cache reset (or as in my case, i tried it in private browsing).
Andrew Fox about 5 years

If you're using PHP 7.0, then this is correct: fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock;
Kleag almost 5 years

This made it for me, also after hours trying a lot of other solutions suggested.
vsync over 4 years

@AndrewFox- my filename is php7.0-fpm.pid and not php7.0-fpm.sock in /var/run/php/ what does that mean?
vsync over 4 years

I only have php7.0-fpm.pid in /run/php and not php5-fpm.sock :(
zhisme over 4 years

@vsync try it. sudo service php7.0-fpm restart. if sock is missing it indicates that php process is being run.
vsync over 4 years

@zhisme - tried it and the file still wasn't created. anyway I've found out I don't even need this file
Victor Lamoine over 4 years

Also make sure the directory that contains the php file is not set to be autoindexed by nginx!
Pathros over 4 years

In CentOS 7, how do I find that php 7.2 fpm? I can't find it inside /var/run/
Pathros over 4 years

@vsync How does your config look like? I also have this problem with fpm :(
vsync over 4 years

@Pathros - I found that wordpress (in my case) has Server config files in another folder, and those were the ones needed to be edited /etc/nginx/conf.d/wordpress_https.conf
Viktor Joras over 4 years

It was strange to me that my site worked on IE and chrome while in mozilla it downloded the site intead of executing it. It was mozilla's cache fault.
NoBugs about 4 years

Make sure /var/run/php5-fpm.sock exists for whatever OS you have. Certbot still thinks Ubuntu has PHP7.0 not 7.2 and puts that in config for some reason.
Kishore about 4 years

I tried this didn't work for me, I'm using ubuntu 14.04 and php 7.0 how can I fix this issue?
Kishore about 4 years

I tried this didn't work for me, I'm using ubuntu 14.04 and php 7.0 how can I fix this issue?
Kishore about 4 years

above shared link "complete detail" is broken
Timo almost 4 years

What means include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;?
Jon almost 4 years

Nice explainer. Thanks.
Cornelius over 3 years

There is no php in /var/run... Where to find it?
VanAlbert over 3 years

fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock; is incorrect. It should be /var/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock; and you need to update the specified php version with whatever you have installed, for instance: /var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
Oleg Reym over 3 years

For php7.2: unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock; convert to unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock; (one more nesting /php)
Amir Kaftari about 3 years

You saved my time bro.
Geeocode over 2 years

nginx is a web SERVER not browser, please fix it.
Jānis Kristaps Lūsis over 2 years

@Duke Thanks, this is the one that worked after trying restarting services separately!
Thorsten Staerk over 2 years

maybe you want to tell us how?
mrRobot about 2 years

adding index.php is very important and not very visible to the most! pay attention to details.
Kashif Umair Liaqat almost 2 years

Setting cgi.fix_pathinfo to 0 worked for me
MillerMedia over 1 year

I am using PHP 7.3 and had to use the line fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm/www.sock; to make it work.
ar2015 over 1 year

This has been the actual solution for me.
Natnael 11 months

Big thank you. Nice Explanation
Todd 9 months

This appears to be a duplicate of np8's answer. Please submit a different resolution or delete.
alexia 9 months

This is exactly what happened to me too. I was very puzzled as my PHP setup was working fine on other subdomains or when navigating to /index.php manually.