nginx downloads php files instead of rendering them

Question

I found a similar question here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25591040/nginx-serves-php-files-as-downloads-instead-of-executing-them But unfortunately the answer there doesn't help me. So here goes my story.

What Works

When I navigate to myipaddress/index.html, the welcome to nginx page renders correctly. When I navigate to myipaddress/widgets/index.html, the welcome to nginx page renders correctly. NB: I have slightly altered this index.html from the one above so the welcome message is different. This way, I prove to myself it really is finding the two different index.html files / folder structure.

What Doesn't Works

When i navigate to myipaddress/widgets/info.php, instead of showing the details of phpinfo() command, it downloads the php file.

Installed Packages

I am running alpinelinux. Installed the following packages:

lab-1:/var/www/localhost/htdocs# cat /etc/apk/world curl nginx php7-common php7-fpm 

Nginx Version

lab-1:/etc/php7# nginx -v nginx version: nginx/1.14.0 

rc-status

lab-1:/var/www/localhost/htdocs# rc-status Dynamic Runlevel: manual nginx [ started ] php-fpm7 [ started ] 

Folder Structure

lab-1:/var/www/localhost/htdocs# ls -lah total 16 drwxr-xr-x 3 www www 4.0K Sep 13 14:22 . drwxr-xr-x 3 www www 4.0K Sep 13 13:17 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 www www 624 Sep 12 20:35 index.html drwxr-xr-x 2 www www 4.0K Sep 13 17:40 widgets lab-1:/var/www/localhost/htdocs# ls -lah widgets/ total 16 drwxr-xr-x 2 www www 4.0K Sep 13 17:40 . drwxr-xr-x 3 www www 4.0K Sep 13 14:22 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 632 Sep 13 14:23 index.html -rwxr-xr-x 1 www www 27 Sep 13 15:45 info.php 

Configuration Files

• /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf => https://pastebin.com/QWspV6DF
• /etc/nginx/conf.d/widgets.conf => https://pastebin.com/9XR5mRUJ
• /etc/php7/php-fpm.d/www.conf => https://pastebin.com/c8HKj50W
• /etc/nginx/fastcgi.conf => https://pastebin.com/WR5w1j3P
• /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params => https://pastebin.com/3WSG6FWx
• /etc/php7/php-fpm.conf => https://pastebin.com/k3dqwrDg

NOTE: nginx install put both fastcgi.conf and fastcgi_params in the folder... they look pretty similar. I was playing around and included both.

netstat to prove php fpm is running

lab-1:/etc/php7# netstat -lnp Active Internet connections (only servers) Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address Foreign Address State PID/Program name tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:9000 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 4268/php-fpm.conf) tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:80 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 4323/nginx.conf tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:22 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 346/sshd tcp 0 0 :::80 :::* LISTEN 4323/nginx.conf tcp 0 0 :::22 :::* LISTEN 346/sshd 

ps -A

4268 root 0:00 {php-fpm7} php-fpm: master process (/etc/php7/php-fpm.conf) 4275 nginx 0:00 {php-fpm7} php-fpm: pool www 4276 nginx 0:00 {php-fpm7} php-fpm: pool www 4323 root 0:00 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx -c /etc/nginx/nginx.conf 4324 nginx 0:00 nginx: worker process 4325 nginx 0:00 nginx: worker process 4326 nginx 0:00 nginx: worker process 4328 nginx 0:00 nginx: worker process 4329 nginx 0:00 nginx: worker process 4330 nginx 0:00 nginx: worker process 4331 nginx 0:00 nginx: worker process 4332 nginx 0:00 nginx: worker process 

Comments

I tried to make sure the listen owner and listen group is the same user that nginx runs as - which is "nginx". Also I know that using "127.0.0.1:9000" is not as good as using a unix socket. But I'm trying to use the default install settings for now for php7-fpm. (Truth be told, I also don't know how to change it)

Questions

1. can you see where I've gone wrong?
2. Does the fact that it's downloading the php file prove it's finding the "location" directive in the right conf file? so is the problem limited to content of my location{} directive within the widgets.conf file?
3. once I've fixed the php problem, if there are really huge gaffs in my set up that you can see, can you point them out? Thanks.

Answer 1

I have not used "alpine linux" so please double check that both your cofig files are loaded.

For example place a syntax mistake in the config and run nginx -t if it catches it.

Try to avoid placing a root directory within one config to a subdirectory of another config.

Try to place them:

• root /var/www/localhost; for /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
• root /var/www/widgets; for /etc/nginx/conf.d/widgets.conf

Please know that server_name directive needs to be a resolvable DNS or hosts entry (in /etc/hosts) in order for server block to be served properly.

For your 2nd part of the question try to look at https://linuxconfig.org/basic-php-7-and-nginx-configuration-on-ubuntu-16-04-linux

My advice is to try to read up on nginx config directives to get basic understanding what they mean.

Answer 2

based on the tip from Roman Spiak's comments, (that the widgets.conf maybe wasn't being read at all), I just added another location stanza in the default.conf for now. And that has solved the problem with interpreting php files.

I'll have to read up on how to solve this for future cases. Ideally I'd like to be able have separate conf files for each application on lab servers... without associating a DNS name to the IP because realistically that won't happen for a lab.

default conf now looks like this: (with no changes the underlying folder structure)

location / { root /var/www/localhost/htdocs; location ~* \.php$ { if (!-f $document_root$fastcgi_script_name) { return 404; } include /etc/nginx/fastcgi.conf; include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params; fastcgi_index index.php; fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000; } } 

Answer 3

As per alexus link, replace try_files by

if (!-f $document_root$fastcgi_script_name) { return 404; }