nginx serves 404 for all php files but index.php - php

Question

I'm new to nginx, and trying to move a wordpress website on it.
Problem is I need to run a file called "installer.php", and nginx shows a 404 error for it (from domain/rocketstack/installer.php).
Incase I add a specific "location" directive, I get returned a "No input file specified" error (not sure I'm doing this right).
Accessing domain/rocketstack/index.php directly returns the same 404, but works if I go to domain/rocketstack/ (this is fine I guess).
I'm using php7.2-fpm on ubuntu 18.04, "installer.php" is in /var/www/rocketstack/, has permission 644. cgi.fix_pathinfo=0 is set in php.ini.
To set up the environment I used this guide: https://www.wpintense.com/2018/10/20/installing-the-fastest-wordpress-stack-ubuntu-18-mysql-8/
Here's my /etc/sites-available/rocketstack.conf file
How can I fix this? I've lost so many hours on this! Yet it must be so simple! Thank you so much
# This config file uses nginx fastcgi-cache
fastcgi_cache_path /var/www/cache levels=1:2 keys_zone=rocketstack:100m inactive=60m;
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
server_name _;
root /var/www/rocketstack;
index index.php index.htm index.html;
access_log /var/log/nginx/rocketstack_access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/rocketstack_error.log;
include snippets/acme-challenge.conf;
# Exclusions
include snippets/exclusions.conf;
# Security
include snippets/security.conf;
# Static Content
include snippets/static-files.conf;
# Fastcgi cache rules
include snippets/fastcgi-cache.conf;
include snippets/limits.conf;
include snippets/nginx-cloudflare.conf;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}
location ~ (^|/)\. {
return 403;
}
location ~/installer.php {
root /var/www/rocketstack/;
fastcgi_index installer.php;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
include snippets/fastcgi-params.conf;
include fastcgi.conf;
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
try_files $uri =404;
include snippets/fastcgi-params.conf;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
# Skip cache based on rules in snippets/fastcgi-cache.conf.
fastcgi_cache_bypass $skip_cache;
fastcgi_no_cache $skip_cache;
# Define memory zone for caching. Should match key_zone in fastcgi_cache_path above.
fastcgi_cache rocketstack;
# Define caching time.
fastcgi_cache_valid 60m;
#increase timeouts
fastcgi_read_timeout 6000;
fastcgi_connect_timeout 6000;
fastcgi_send_timeout 6000;
proxy_read_timeout 6000;
proxy_connect_timeout 6000;
proxy_send_timeout 6000;
send_timeout 6000;
#these lines should be the ones to allow Cloudflare Flexible SSL to be used so the server does not need to decrypt SSL
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;
}
}
server {
listen 443 ssl http2 default_server;
listen [::]:443 ssl http2 default_server ;
server_name _;
root /var/www/rocketstack;
index index.php index.htm index.html;
access_log /var/log/nginx/rocketstack_ssl_access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/rocketstack_ssl_error.log;
#once you have SSL certificates using LetsEncrypt you can alter the paths in the two lines below to reflect your domain and uncomment the lines by removing the leading # symbol
#ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem;
#ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/privkey.pem;
# Exclusions
include snippets/exclusions.conf;
# Security
include snippets/security.conf;
# Static Content
include snippets/static-files.conf;
# Fastcgi cache rules
include snippets/fastcgi-cache.conf;
include snippets/limits.conf;
include snippets/nginx-cloudflare.conf;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
try_files $uri =404;
include snippets/fastcgi-params.conf;
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
# Skip cache based on rules in snippets/fastcgi-cache.conf.
fastcgi_cache_bypass $skip_cache;
fastcgi_no_cache $skip_cache;
# Define memory zone for caching. Should match key_zone in fastcgi_cache_path above.
fastcgi_cache rocketstack;
# Define caching time.
fastcgi_cache_valid 60m;
#increase timeouts
fastcgi_read_timeout 6000;
fastcgi_connect_timeout 6000;
fastcgi_send_timeout 6000;
proxy_read_timeout 6000;
proxy_connect_timeout 6000;
proxy_send_timeout 6000;
send_timeout 6000;
#these lines should be the ones to allow Cloudflare Flexible SSL to be used so the server does not need to decrypt SSL if you wish
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-NginX-Proxy true;
}
}

Answer 1

Fixed by trial and error. Current setting:
location ~ \installer.php {
try_files $uri $uri/ /installer.php?$args;
fastcgi_index installer.php;
include snippets/fastcgi-params.conf;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock;
}
Problem was I wasn't telling nginx where to pick installer.php, I achieved that with try_files. Root setting in location was redundant too.