Use PHP while using Django with Nginx in the same block

Question

I have a Django with Nginx configuration which is working fine, here is my configuration:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name my.hiddendomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }

    location /static/ {
        alias /path/to/your/static/files/;
    }

    location /media/ {
        alias /path/to/your/media/files/;
    }
}

I need to add a custom php script on the same domain however it’s not working. For testing purposes, I’ve created a <?php phpinfo(); file but it’s not working.

In the config file I’ve shown above I’ve added

location /custom-php {
    alias /var/www/html/info.php
}

When I attempt to open the file, the url loads however I get a pop-up asking me where to download the file.

How to resolve this please?

KFSys · Accepted Answer

Hello,

It seems like you don’t have PHP installed on your Droplet and your system doesn’t know what to do with the .php file and it just lets you download it. Additionally, to have Nginx serve your PHP file properly, you need to have a PHP processor like PHP-FPM (FastCGI Process Manager) installed and configured to work with Nginx. Here’s how you can set it up:

Install PHP-FPM:

For Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install php-fpm

For CentOS/RHEL:

sudo yum install epel-release
sudo yum install php-fpm

Start and enable PHP-FPM

For Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo systemctl start php7.4-fpm
sudo systemctl enable php7.4-fpm

For CentOS/RHEL:

sudo systemctl start php-fpm
sudo systemctl enable php-fpm

Update your Nginx configuration to process PHP files using PHP-FPM. Replace the location block you have with the following:

location /custom-php{
    root /var/www/;
    try_files $uri /deploy.php$is_args$args;

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock; # For Ubuntu/Debian
        # fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000; # For CentOS/RHEL (uncomment this line and comment out the above line)
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
    }
}

Restart Nginx to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Now, when you visit my.hiddendomain.com/custom-php, it should display the PHP file as a webpage. Note that if you’re using a different version of PHP, you’ll need to adjust the version numbers in the paths accordingly.

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Use PHP while using Django with Nginx in the same block

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