PHP script not executing on Apache server

Question

I have just reinstalled Apache and PHP5 but when I visit my doc root it just downloads a "download" file. And when I try documentroot/index.php it just downloads the PHP file.

I have PHP installed but Apache doesn't seem to want to execute it.
People suggested adding a 'Load Module' line to my httpd.conf but I don't have that file.

Answer 1

Typing:

sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 libapache2-mod-php5

will install everything you need and will start the apache server with support for PHP.

To verify that the php module is loaded, type:

a2query -m php5

if not enabled, then load with:

sudo a2enmod php5

and restart apache:

sudo service apache2 restart

Update for php7.x (tested on Ubuntu 16.04, 16.10, 18.04, 18.10)

Thanks to the comments, I update the answer for php7.x.

Install:

sudo apt-get install apache2 php7.x libapache2-mod-php7.x 

Verify:

a2query -m php7.x

Load:

sudo a2enmod php7.x

Restart apache:

sudo service apache2 restart

Answer 2

Another common cause is that php short tags <? are not enabled by the default php.ini configuration, so after an upgrade or reinstall, that setting may be turned off and php code may depend on it. Try replacing <? with <?php.

(Credit)

Answer 3

Ubuntu 16.04 has moved to PHP 7. This single command will do the job for you:

sudo apt-get install apache2 php libapache2-mod-php

Here libapache2-mod-php is a meta-package that installs libapache2-mod-php7.

Answer 4

I ran into the same problem, but my particular problem was unique. I was running in a user directory (using mod_userdir) - meaning you access my webpage with http://host.name.com/~username/example.php

This is disabled by default in php*.conf in my mods-enabled directory. I had to modify it to comment it out:

#<IfModule mod_userdir.c>
#    <Directory /home/*/public_html>
#        php_admin_flag engine Off
#    </Directory>
#</IfModule>

That was a pain to figure out..

Well, I doubt anybody had THIS particular problem, but I figured I'd add it because it was perplexing as crud to me and MAYBE somebody is doing the same thing. Nobody uses ~/user anymore I guess, except me.

You have to restart apache after this of course.

Answer 5

For people who have found this post from Google almost 6 years in the future (and beyond!), you may run into this problem with Apache 2 and PHP 7 while also using the UserDir module.

Another possible cause of this problem could be that you are trying to run the script in a "user directory" from the the UserDir module. Running PHP scripts in user directories is disabled by default. You will run into this problem if the script is in the public_html directory in your home folder and you are trying to access it from http://localhost/~your_username.

To fix this, open up /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/php7.2.conf. You must comment or delete the tag block at the bottom that reads

<IfModule mod_userdir.c>
    <Directory /home/*/public_html>
        php_admin_flag engine Off
    </Directory>
</IfModule>

Answer 6

My case was a little different. I upgraded from Ubuntu 19.04 to 19.10. While upgration it installed php 7.3 (where as php 7.2 was already installed). With 2 versions installed a2query -m php7.3 return No module matches php7.3.

Solution I found was from how-to-install-php-7-3-on-ubuntu.

To set PHP 7.0 as the default, run

update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php7.0

To set PHP 7.2 as the default, run

update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php7.2

To set PHP 7.3 as the default, run

update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php7.3

Before we can configure Apache to use PHP 7.3, we need to disable the old version of PHP 7.0 by typing

a2dismod php7.2

Now enable the newly installed PHP 7.3 version with the following command:

a2enmod php7.3

Restart the Apache web server for the changes to take effect:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Answer 7

Open php.ini with nano in terminal:

sudo nano /etc/php/php5.6/apache2/php.ini

Then change:

short_open_tag = Off

to

short_open_tag = On

Then save and then restart apache2:

sudo systemctl restart apache2