Nginx Ubuntu 20.04 php files are downloading and not executing

Hi @affyboy,

It’s possible this is an issue with your PHP-FPM config. Check it out, see if it’s working properly, you can configure it listen to a port and redirect the requests there just to make sure everything is being executed as expected.

The issue lies in the Nginx configuration for handling PHP files within the /blog subfolder. Specifically, the PHP files in /blog are not being passed to PHP-FPM for processing. Instead, they are served as static files, which causes the browser to download them.

Here’s how you can adjust your Nginx server block to ensure PHP files under /blog are executed correctly:

---

Adjusted Nginx Server Block

server {
    server_name mydomain.com www.mydomain.com 123.456.789.123;

    root /var/www/html/vue/mydomain/dist;

    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }

    location /static/ {
        alias /home/mydomain/src;
    }

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html /index.php;
    }

    location ^~ /rest-auth/ {
        include proxy_params;
        proxy_pass http://unix:/run/gunicorn.sock;
    }

    location ^~ /api/ {
        include proxy_params;
        proxy_pass http://unix:/run/gunicorn.sock;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }

    location ^~ /admin {
        include proxy_params;
        proxy_pass http://unix:/run/gunicorn.sock;
    }

    location ^~ /blog {
        root /var/www/html;  # Ensure correct root for the blog
        index index.php index.html index.htm;
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php;

        # Pass PHP files to PHP-FPM
        location ~ \.php$ {
            include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
            fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
            fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
            include fastcgi_params;
        }
    }

    # PHP settings at the root level
    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    error_log  /var/log/nginx/mydomain-error.log;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/mydomain-access.log;

    listen 443 ssl; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/mydomain.com/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/mydomain.com/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
    include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
    ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot
}

server {
    if ($host = www.mydomain.com) {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    } # managed by Certbot

    if ($host = mydomain.com) {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    } # managed by Certbot

    listen 80;
    server_name mydomain.com www.mydomain.com 123.456.789.123;
    return 404; # managed by Certbot
}

ey Changes Explained

1. Updated /blog Location Block:

   • Ensures PHP files under /blog are handled by PHP-FPM.
   • Specifies root as /var/www/html since the alias directive caused issues with relative paths.

2. fastcgi_param Configuration:

   • Explicitly sets SCRIPT_FILENAME to pass the correct file path to PHP-FPM.

3. Fallback for /blog/index.php:

   • Added try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php; to ensure requests fall back to index.php.

---

Restart Nginx

After making these changes, restart Nginx to apply the configuration:

sudo nginx -t  # Test configuration for errors
sudo systemctl reload nginx