Nginx downloads php instead of running it - php

Question

Iv'e setup an Nginx php server on a linux REHL machine.
When accessing html files all goes well, but trying to access php file, the file is downloaded instead of being executed.
This is my nginx.conf:
user nginx;
worker_processes 1;
error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log warn;
pid /var/run/nginx.pid;
events {
worker_connections 1024;
}
http {
include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
default_type application/octet-stream;
log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
'$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
'"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';
access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log main;
sendfile on;
#tcp_nopush on;
keepalive_timeout 65;
#gzip on;
include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
}
...and this is the server block:
server {
listen 80;
server_name {mywebsitename};
#access_log logs/host.access.log main;
location / {
root /usr/share/nginx/html/{mywebsitename}/;
}
location /ngx_status_2462 {
stub_status on;
access_log off;
allow all;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
# fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /usr/share/nginx/html/{mywebsitename}$fastcgi_script_name;
include fastcgi_params;
}
error_page 404 /404.html;
location = /404.html {
root /usr/share/nginx/html;
}
error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
location = /50x.html {
root /usr/share/nginx/html;
}
}

Answer 1

It might be because of the mimetype you're sending:
default_type application/octet-stream;
See: http://mimeapplication.net/octet-stream

Answer 2

I just had this exact same problem. I was using Ubuntu 12.04 and Linux Mint 14 so different OS but likely to have the same issues.
A couple of issues may happening. Firstly, you need to have php5-fpm installed (FastCGI Process Manager). I was trying to run it with my standard version of PHP but it was not working - http://www.php.net/manual/en/install.fpm.php
I also had Apache installed, and even if it weren't running it must have had some conflict because once I uninstalled Apache I was able to execute the PHP files.
I would also look at this line
fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
And consider changing it to
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
Here is a detailed guide to installation of Nginx and PHP5-FPM for RHEL (and other OS's)
http://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/2011/install-nginx-php-fpm-on-fedora-centos-red-hat-rhel/

Answer 3

You need to change the user to nginx instead of apache in this file a/etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf
; Unix user/group of processes
; Note: The user is mandatory. If the group is not set, the default user's group
; will be used.
; RPM: apache Choosed to be able to access some dir as httpd
;user = apache
user = nginx
; RPM: Keep a group allowed to write in log dir.
;group = apache
group = nginx
and of course restart service php-fpm restart and service nginx restart

Answer 4

Comment out default_type application/octet-stream;