PHP7 – Fix Short-Tags Not Working

Apache2PHP

I have installed Apache2 MariaDB and PHP7 for use on localhost, but PHP does not work. The Apache webside looks as normal while phpinfo.php only gives me a blank page. I used to install with 'apt-get install lamp-server^', but I wanted MariaDB, so I installed every single package including some PHP extensions and phpmyadmin. I have no idea of how to get php working. Any clues?

~ # php -v
PHP 7.0.13-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 (cli) ( NTS )

phpinfo.php:

<? phpinfo(); ?>

Best Answer

The problem is that, by default, PHP 7 does not supports short open tags <?.

It is described in the article PHP tags from php.net.

You need to use the full open tag <?php. Or, if you have PHP programs which are written for previous versions of PHP, you can change this rule in these ways:

you can add next directive into your-apache2-virtualhost.conf (or .htaccess) file:
```
php_flag short_open_tag on
```
into the file /etc/php/7.x/apache2/php.ini you can set:
```
short_open_tag = on
```

Don't forget to restart Apache2:

sudo systemctl restart apache2.service

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Ubuntu – Installing phpMyAdmin from repository, 403 Forbidden error

Ok, I got it to work. I hope it helps someone by putting it here.

I had to change the /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/fcgid.conf to tell it to use php5-cgi (done already when I asked the question):

root@srvr-test:/etc/apache2/mods-enabled# cat fcgid.conf
<IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
  AddHandler fcgid-script .fcgi .php

  FcgidConnectTimeout 20

  # Where to look for the php.ini file?
  # Maximum requests a process handles before it is terminated
  MaxRequestsPerProcess       1000
  # Maximum number of PHP processes
  MaxProcessCount             10
  # Number of seconds of idle time before a process is terminated
  IPCCommTimeout              240
  IdleTimeout                 240
  #Or use this if you use the file above
  FCGIWrapper /usr/bin/php5-cgi .php

  ServerLimit           500
  StartServers            3
  MinSpareThreads         3
  MaxSpareThreads        10
  ThreadsPerChild        10
  MaxClients            300
  MaxRequestsPerChild  1000

  PHP_Fix_Pathinfo_Enable 1
</IfModule>

Then I had to edit /etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf to add +ExecCGI in the section:

root@srvr-sandbox1:/etc/phpmyadmin# cat apache.conf
# phpMyAdmin default Apache configuration

Alias /phpmyadmin /usr/share/phpmyadmin

<Directory /usr/share/phpmyadmin>
        Options FollowSymLinks +ExecCGI
        DirectoryIndex index.php
....

PHP Not Running on Ubuntu 14.04 – How to Fix

A PHP page that gives you a blank page is often the result of a PHP error, but with display_errors turned off.

You should check the server's error log (usually located in /var/log/apache2/error.log) to see if the errors are being reported there.

Best Answer

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Ubuntu – Installing phpMyAdmin from repository, 403 Forbidden error

PHP Not Running on Ubuntu 14.04 – How to Fix

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