PHP not getting parsed by NGINX

Hello all,

I am trying to resolve an issue with a container setup for almost a week now, and cannot get it fixed. The setup i have in mind is a container running NGINX and a container running PHP/PHP-FPM.

When I load my website, the site loads, but the PHP data is not getting parsed, but only read as html I think, as the source shows the actual php code.

When I run the setup on my local machine (mac) on docker, it ll works and the php info gets resolved correctly. When I run it on my digital ocean remote server, it shows a blank page (but when showing the source it shows the php code)

I have setup the container as follows:

default nginx config

server {
        listen 80 default_server;

        root /var/www/html/public;

        index index.html index.htm index.php;

        server_name dev.retronexus.net;

        charset utf-8;

        location = /favicon.ico { log_not_found off; access_log off; }
        location = /robots.txt { log_not_found off; access_log off; }

        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args;
        }

        location ~ \.php$ {
                include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
                fastcgi_pass php:9000;
        }

        error_page 404 /index.php;

        location ~/\.ht {
                deny all;
        }
}

PHP Container Dockerfile

FROM ubuntu:20.04

LABEL maintainer="retronexus"

# avoid prompts while building
ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive

# Set Timezone to UTC
ENV TZ=UTC
RUN ln -snf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$TZ /etc/localtime && echo $TZ > /etc/timezone
# Installation
RUN apt-get update \
        && apt-get update \
        && apt-get install -y \
           gnupg \
           ca-certificates \
           wget \
           curl\
           gzip\
           zip\
           unzip\
           git \
           nano \
        && echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ondrej/php/ubuntu focal main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ppa_ondrej_php.list \
        && apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys E5267A6C \
        && apt-get update \
        && apt-get install -y \
           php7.4-fpm \
           php7.4-cli \
           php7.4-pgsql \
           php7.4-sqlite3 \
           php7.4-gd \
           php7.4-curl \
           php7.4-memcached \
           php7.4-imap \
           php7.4-mysql \
           php7.4-mbstring \
           php7.4-xml \
           php7.4-zip \
           php7.4-bcmath \
           php7.4-soap \
           php7.4-intl \
           php7.4-readline \
           php7.4-msgpack \
           php7.4-igbinary \
           php7.4-imagick \
           php7.4-ldap \
           php7.4-gmp \
           php-redis \
        # Install composer
        && php -r "readfile('http://getcomposer.org/installer');" | php -- --install-dir=/usr/bin/ --filename=composer \
        # Make PHP folder
        && mkdir -p /run/php \
        # Clean up
        && apt-get clean \
        && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* /tmp/* /var/tmp/* \
        # Turn off deamon for php to keep container alive
        && sed -i 's/^;daemonize.*$/daemonize = no/g' /etc/php/7.4/fpm/php-fpm.conf \
        && sed -i 's@^error_log.*$@error_log = /proc/self/fd/2@g' /etc/php/7.4/fpm/php-fpm.conf

ADD php-fpm.conf /etc/php/7.4/fpm/php-fpm.conf
ADD www.conf /etc/php/7.4/fpm/pool.d/www.conf

EXPOSE 9000
CMD ["php-fpm7.4"]

Conf files

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; FPM Configuration ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

; All relative paths in this configuration file are relative to PHP's install
; prefix (/usr). This prefix can be dynamically changed by using the
; '-p' argument from the command line.

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Global Options ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

[global]
; Pid file
; Note: the default prefix is /var
; Default Value: none
pid = /run/php/php7.4-fpm.pid

; Error log file
; If it's set to "syslog", log is sent to syslogd instead of being written
; in a local file.
; Note: the default prefix is /var
; Default Value: log/php-fpm.log
error_log = /proc/self/fd/2

; syslog_facility is used to specify what type of program is logging the
; message. This lets syslogd specify that messages from different facilities
; will be handled differently.
; See syslog(3) for possible values (ex daemon equiv LOG_DAEMON)
; Default Value: daemon
;syslog.facility = daemon

; syslog_ident is prepended to every message. If you have multiple FPM
; instances running on the same server, you can change the default value
; which must suit common needs.
; Default Value: php-fpm
;syslog.ident = php-fpm

; Log level
; Possible Values: alert, error, warning, notice, debug
; Default Value: notice
;log_level = notice

; If this number of child processes exit with SIGSEGV or SIGBUS within the time
; interval set by emergency_restart_interval then FPM will restart. A value
; of '0' means 'Off'.
; Default Value: 0
;emergency_restart_threshold = 0

; Interval of time used by emergency_restart_interval to determine when
; a graceful restart will be initiated.  This can be useful to work around
; accidental corruptions in an accelerator's shared memory.
; Available Units: s(econds), m(inutes), h(ours), or d(ays)
; Default Unit: seconds
; Default Value: 0
;emergency_restart_interval = 0

; Time limit for child processes to wait for a reaction on signals from master.
; Available units: s(econds), m(inutes), h(ours), or d(ays)
; Default Unit: seconds
; Default Value: 0
;process_control_timeout = 0

; The maximum number of processes FPM will fork. This has been design to control
; the global number of processes when using dynamic PM within a lot of pools.
; Use it with caution.
; Note: A value of 0 indicates no limit
; Default Value: 0
; process.max = 128

; Specify the nice(2) priority to apply to the master process (only if set)
; The value can vary from -19 (highest priority) to 20 (lower priority)
; Note: - It will only work if the FPM master process is launched as root
;       - The pool process will inherit the master process priority
;         unless it specified otherwise
; Default Value: no set
; process.priority = -19

; Send FPM to background. Set to 'no' to keep FPM in foreground for debugging.
; Default Value: yes
daemonize = no

; Set open file descriptor rlimit for the master process.
; Default Value: system defined value
;rlimit_files = 1024

; Set max core size rlimit for the master process.
; Possible Values: 'unlimited' or an integer greater or equal to 0
; Default Value: system defined value
;rlimit_core = 0

; Specify the event mechanism FPM will use. The following is available:
; - select     (any POSIX os)
; - poll       (any POSIX os)
; - epoll      (linux >= 2.5.44)
; - kqueue     (FreeBSD >= 4.1, OpenBSD >= 2.9, NetBSD >= 2.0)
; - /dev/poll  (Solaris >= 7)
; - port       (Solaris >= 10)
; Default Value: not set (auto detection)
;events.mechanism = epoll

; When FPM is build with systemd integration, specify the interval,
; in second, between health report notification to systemd.
; Set to 0 to disable.
; Available Units: s(econds), m(inutes), h(ours)
; Default Unit: seconds
; Default value: 10
;systemd_interval = 10

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Pool Definitions ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

; Multiple pools of child processes may be started with different listening
; ports and different management options.  The name of the pool will be
; used in logs and stats. There is no limitation on the number of pools which
; FPM can handle. Your system will tell you anyway :)

; Include one or more files. If glob(3) exists, it is used to include a bunch of
; files from a glob(3) pattern. This directive can be used everywhere in the
; file.
; Relative path can also be used. They will be prefixed by:
;  - the global prefix if it's been set (-p argument)
;  - /usr otherwise
include=/etc/php/7.4/fpm/pool.d/*.conf

www conf

; Start a new pool named 'www'.
; the variable $pool can we used in any directive and will be replaced by the
; pool name ('www' here)
[www]

; Per pool prefix
; It only applies on the following directives:
; - 'access.log'
; - 'slowlog'
; - 'listen' (unixsocket)
; - 'chroot'
; - 'chdir'
; - 'php_values'
; - 'php_admin_values'
; When not set, the global prefix (or /usr) applies instead.
; Note: This directive can also be relative to the global prefix.
; Default Value: none
;prefix = /path/to/pools/$pool

; Unix user/group of processes
; Note: The user is mandatory. If the group is not set, the default user's group
;       will be used.
user = www-data
group = www-data

; The address on which to accept FastCGI requests.
; Valid syntaxes are:
;   'ip.add.re.ss:port'    - to listen on a TCP socket to a specific IPv4 address on
;                            a specific port;
;   '[ip:6:addr:ess]:port' - to listen on a TCP socket to a specific IPv6 address on
;                            a specific port;
;   'port'                 - to listen on a TCP socket to all addresses
;                            (IPv6 and IPv4-mapped) on a specific port;
;   '/path/to/unix/socket' - to listen on a unix socket.
; Note: This value is mandatory.
listen = 0.0.0.0:9000

; Set listen(2) backlog.
; Default Value: 511 (-1 on FreeBSD and OpenBSD)
;listen.backlog = 511

; Set permissions for unix socket, if one is used. In Linux, read/write
; permissions must be set in order to allow connections from a web server. Many
; BSD-derived systems allow connections regardless of permissions.
; Default Values: user and group are set as the running user
;                 mode is set to 0660
listen.owner = www-data
listen.group = www-data
;listen.mode = 0660
; When POSIX Access Control Lists are supported you can set them using
; these options, value is a comma separated list of user/group names.
; When set, listen.owner and listen.group are ignored
;listen.acl_users =
;listen.acl_groups =

; List of addresses (IPv4/IPv6) of FastCGI clients which are allowed to connect.
; Equivalent to the FCGI_WEB_SERVER_ADDRS environment variable in the original
; PHP FCGI (5.2.2+). Makes sense only with a tcp listening socket. Each address
; must be separated by a comma. If this value is left blank, connections will be
; accepted from any ip address.
; Default Value: any
;listen.allowed_clients = 127.0.0.1

; Specify the nice(2) priority to apply to the pool processes (only if set)
; The value can vary from -19 (highest priority) to 20 (lower priority)
; Note: - It will only work if the FPM master process is launched as root
;       - The pool processes will inherit the master process priority
;         unless it specified otherwise
; Default Value: no set
; process.priority = -19

; Choose how the process manager will control the number of child processes.
; Possible Values:
;   static  - a fixed number (pm.max_children) of child processes;
;   dynamic - the number of child processes are set dynamically based on the
;             following directives. With this process management, there will be
;             always at least 1 children.
;             pm.max_children      - the maximum number of children that can
;                                    be alive at the same time.
;             pm.start_servers     - the number of children created on startup.
;             pm.min_spare_servers - the minimum number of children in 'idle'
;                                    state (waiting to process). If the number
;                                    of 'idle' processes is less than this
;                                    number then some children will be created.
;             pm.max_spare_servers - the maximum number of children in 'idle'
;                                    state (waiting to process). If the number
;                                    of 'idle' processes is greater than this
;                                    number then some children will be killed.
;  ondemand - no children are created at startup. Children will be forked when
;             new requests will connect. The following parameter are used:
;             pm.max_children           - the maximum number of children that
;                                         can be alive at the same time.
;             pm.process_idle_timeout   - The number of seconds after which
;                                         an idle process will be killed.
; Note: This value is mandatory.
pm = dynamic

; The number of child processes to be created when pm is set to 'static' and the
; maximum number of child processes when pm is set to 'dynamic' or 'ondemand'.
; This value sets the limit on the number of simultaneous requests that will be
; served. Equivalent to the ApacheMaxClients directive with mpm_prefork.
; Equivalent to the PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN environment variable in the original PHP
; CGI. The below defaults are based on a server without much resources. Don't
; forget to tweak pm.* to fit your needs.
; Note: Used when pm is set to 'static', 'dynamic' or 'ondemand'
; Note: This value is mandatory.
pm.max_children = 5

; The number of child processes created on startup.
; Note: Used only when pm is set to 'dynamic'
; Default Value: min_spare_servers + (max_spare_servers - min_spare_servers) / 2
pm.start_servers = 2

; The desired minimum number of idle server processes.
; Note: Used only when pm is set to 'dynamic'
; Note: Mandatory when pm is set to 'dynamic'
pm.min_spare_servers = 1

; The desired maximum number of idle server processes.
; Note: Used only when pm is set to 'dynamic'
; Note: Mandatory when pm is set to 'dynamic'
pm.max_spare_servers = 3

; The number of seconds after which an idle process will be killed.
; Note: Used only when pm is set to 'ondemand'
; Default Value: 10s
;pm.process_idle_timeout = 10s;

; The number of requests each child process should execute before respawning.
; This can be useful to work around memory leaks in 3rd party libraries. For
; endless request processing specify '0'. Equivalent to PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS.
; Default Value: 0
;pm.max_requests = 500

; The URI to view the FPM status page. If this value is not set, no URI will be
; recognized as a status page. It shows the following informations:
;   pool                 - the name of the pool;
;   process manager      - static, dynamic or ondemand;
;   start time           - the date and time FPM has started;
;   start since          - number of seconds since FPM has started;
;   accepted conn        - the number of request accepted by the pool;
;   listen queue         - the number of request in the queue of pending
;                          connections (see backlog in listen(2));
;   max listen queue     - the maximum number of requests in the queue
;                          of pending connections since FPM has started;
;   listen queue len     - the size of the socket queue of pending connections;
;   idle processes       - the number of idle processes;
;   active processes     - the number of active processes;
;   total processes      - the number of idle + active processes;
;   max active processes - the maximum number of active processes since FPM
;                          has started;
;   max children reached - number of times, the process limit has been reached,
;                          when pm tries to start more children (works only for
;                          pm 'dynamic' and 'ondemand');
; Value are updated in real time.
; Example output:
;   pool:                 www
;   process manager:      static
;   start time:           01/Jul/2011:17:53:49 +0200
;   start since:          62636
;   accepted conn:        190460
;   listen queue:         0
;   max listen queue:     1
;   listen queue len:     42
;   idle processes:       4
;   active processes:     11
;   total processes:      15
;   max active processes: 12
;   max children reached: 0
;
; By default the status page output is formatted as text/plain. Passing either
; 'html', 'xml' or 'json' in the query string will return the corresponding
; output syntax. Example:
;   http://www.foo.bar/status
;   http://www.foo.bar/status?json
;   http://www.foo.bar/status?html
;   http://www.foo.bar/status?xml
;
; By default the status page only outputs short status. Passing 'full' in the
; query string will also return status for each pool process.
; Example:
;   http://www.foo.bar/status?full
;   http://www.foo.bar/status?json&full
;   http://www.foo.bar/status?html&full
;   http://www.foo.bar/status?xml&full
; The Full status returns for each process:
;   pid                  - the PID of the process;
;   state                - the state of the process (Idle, Running, ...);
;   start time           - the date and time the process has started;
;   start since          - the number of seconds since the process has started;
;   requests             - the number of requests the process has served;
;   request duration     - the duration in µs of the requests;
;   request method       - the request method (GET, POST, ...);
;   request URI          - the request URI with the query string;
;   content length       - the content length of the request (only with POST);
;   user                 - the user (PHP_AUTH_USER) (or '-' if not set);
;   script               - the main script called (or '-' if not set);
;   last request cpu     - the %cpu the last request consumed
;                          it's always 0 if the process is not in Idle state
;                          because CPU calculation is done when the request
;                          processing has terminated;
;   last request memory  - the max amount of memory the last request consumed
;                          it's always 0 if the process is not in Idle state
;                          because memory calculation is done when the request
;                          processing has terminated;
; If the process is in Idle state, then informations are related to the
; last request the process has served. Otherwise informations are related to
; the current request being served.
; Example output:
;   ************************
;   pid:                  31330
;   state:                Running
;   start time:           01/Jul/2011:17:53:49 +0200
;   start since:          63087
;   requests:             12808
;   request duration:     1250261
;   request method:       GET
;   request URI:          /test_mem.php?N=10000
;   content length:       0
;   user:                 -
;   script:               /home/fat/web/docs/php/test_mem.php
;   last request cpu:     0.00
;   last request memory:  0
;
; Note: There is a real-time FPM status monitoring sample web page available
;       It's available in: /usr/share/php/7.0/fpm/status.html
;
; Note: The value must start with a leading slash (/). The value can be
;       anything, but it may not be a good idea to use the .php extension or it
;       may conflict with a real PHP file.
; Default Value: not set
;pm.status_path = /status

; The ping URI to call the monitoring page of FPM. If this value is not set, no
; URI will be recognized as a ping page. This could be used to test from outside
; that FPM is alive and responding, or to
; - create a graph of FPM availability (rrd or such);
; - remove a server from a group if it is not responding (load balancing);
; - trigger alerts for the operating team (24/7).
; Note: The value must start with a leading slash (/). The value can be
;       anything, but it may not be a good idea to use the .php extension or it
;       may conflict with a real PHP file.
; Default Value: not set
;ping.path = /ping

; This directive may be used to customize the response of a ping request. The
; response is formatted as text/plain with a 200 response code.
; Default Value: pong
;ping.response = pong

; The access log file
; Default: not set
;access.log = log/$pool.access.log
access.log = /proc/self/fd/1

; The access log format.
; The following syntax is allowed
;  %%: the '%' character
;  %C: %CPU used by the request
;      it can accept the following format:
;      - %{user}C for user CPU only
;      - %{system}C for system CPU only
;      - %{total}C  for user + system CPU (default)
;  %d: time taken to serve the request
;      it can accept the following format:
;      - %{seconds}d (default)
;      - %{miliseconds}d
;      - %{mili}d
;      - %{microseconds}d
;      - %{micro}d
;  %e: an environment variable (same as $_ENV or $_SERVER)
;      it must be associated with embraces to specify the name of the env
;      variable. Some exemples:
;      - server specifics like: %{REQUEST_METHOD}e or %{SERVER_PROTOCOL}e
;      - HTTP headers like: %{HTTP_HOST}e or %{HTTP_USER_AGENT}e
;  %f: script filename
;  %l: content-length of the request (for POST request only)
;  %m: request method
;  %M: peak of memory allocated by PHP
;      it can accept the following format:
;      - %{bytes}M (default)
;      - %{kilobytes}M
;      - %{kilo}M
;      - %{megabytes}M
;      - %{mega}M
;  %n: pool name
;  %o: output header
;      it must be associated with embraces to specify the name of the header:
;      - %{Content-Type}o
;      - %{X-Powered-By}o
;      - %{Transfert-Encoding}o
;      - ....
;  %p: PID of the child that serviced the request
;  %P: PID of the parent of the child that serviced the request
;  %q: the query string
;  %Q: the '?' character if query string exists
;  %r: the request URI (without the query string, see %q and %Q)
;  %R: remote IP address
;  %s: status (response code)
;  %t: server time the request was received
;      it can accept a strftime(3) format:
;      %d/%b/%Y:%H:%M:%S %z (default)
;      The strftime(3) format must be encapsuled in a %{<strftime_format>}t tag
;      e.g. for a ISO8601 formatted timestring, use: %{%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z}t
;  %T: time the log has been written (the request has finished)
;      it can accept a strftime(3) format:
;      %d/%b/%Y:%H:%M:%S %z (default)
;      The strftime(3) format must be encapsuled in a %{<strftime_format>}t tag
;      e.g. for a ISO8601 formatted timestring, use: %{%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z}t
;  %u: remote user
;
; Default: "%R - %u %t \"%m %r\" %s"
;access.format = "%R - %u %t \"%m %r%Q%q\" %s %f %{mili}d %{kilo}M %C%%"

; The log file for slow requests
; Default Value: not set
; Note: slowlog is mandatory if request_slowlog_timeout is set
;slowlog = log/$pool.log.slow

; The timeout for serving a single request after which a PHP backtrace will be
; dumped to the 'slowlog' file. A value of '0s' means 'off'.
; Available units: s(econds)(default), m(inutes), h(ours), or d(ays)
; Default Value: 0
;request_slowlog_timeout = 0

; The timeout for serving a single request after which the worker process will
; be killed. This option should be used when the 'max_execution_time' ini option
; does not stop script execution for some reason. A value of '0' means 'off'.
; Available units: s(econds)(default), m(inutes), h(ours), or d(ays)
; Default Value: 0
;request_terminate_timeout = 0

; Set open file descriptor rlimit.
; Default Value: system defined value
;rlimit_files = 1024

; Set max core size rlimit.
; Possible Values: 'unlimited' or an integer greater or equal to 0
; Default Value: system defined value
;rlimit_core = 0

; Chroot to this directory at the start. This value must be defined as an
; absolute path. When this value is not set, chroot is not used.
; Note: you can prefix with '$prefix' to chroot to the pool prefix or one
; of its subdirectories. If the pool prefix is not set, the global prefix
; will be used instead.
; Note: chrooting is a great security feature and should be used whenever
;       possible. However, all PHP paths will be relative to the chroot
;       (error_log, sessions.save_path, ...).
; Default Value: not set
;chroot =

; Chdir to this directory at the start.
; Note: relative path can be used.
; Default Value: current directory or / when chroot
;chdir = /var/www

; Redirect worker stdout and stderr into main error log. If not set, stdout and
; stderr will be redirected to /dev/null according to FastCGI specs.
; Note: on highloaded environement, this can cause some delay in the page
; process time (several ms).
; Default Value: no
;catch_workers_output = yes

; Clear environment in FPM workers
; Prevents arbitrary environment variables from reaching FPM worker processes
; by clearing the environment in workers before env vars specified in this
; pool configuration are added.
; Setting to "no" will make all environment variables available to PHP code
; via getenv(), $_ENV and $_SERVER.
; Default Value: yes
;clear_env = no

; Limits the extensions of the main script FPM will allow to parse. This can
; prevent configuration mistakes on the web server side. You should only limit
; FPM to .php extensions to prevent malicious users to use other extensions to
; exectute php code.
; Note: set an empty value to allow all extensions.
; Default Value: .php
;security.limit_extensions = .php .php3 .php4 .php5 .php7

; Pass environment variables like LD_LIBRARY_PATH. All $VARIABLEs are taken from
; the current environment.
; Default Value: clean env
;env[HOSTNAME] = $HOSTNAME
;env[PATH] = /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin
;env[TMP] = /tmp
;env[TMPDIR] = /tmp
;env[TEMP] = /tmp

; Additional php.ini defines, specific to this pool of workers. These settings
; overwrite the values previously defined in the php.ini. The directives are the
; same as the PHP SAPI:
;   php_value/php_flag             - you can set classic ini defines which can
;                                    be overwritten from PHP call 'ini_set'.
;   php_admin_value/php_admin_flag - these directives won't be overwritten by
;                                     PHP call 'ini_set'
; For php_*flag, valid values are on, off, 1, 0, true, false, yes or no.

; Defining 'extension' will load the corresponding shared extension from
; extension_dir. Defining 'disable_functions' or 'disable_classes' will not
; overwrite previously defined php.ini values, but will append the new value
; instead.

; Note: path INI options can be relative and will be expanded with the prefix
; (pool, global or /usr)

; Default Value: nothing is defined by default except the values in php.ini and
;                specified at startup with the -d argument
;php_admin_value[sendmail_path] = /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i -f www@my.domain.com
;php_flag[display_errors] = off
;php_admin_value[error_log] = /var/log/fpm-php.www.log
;php_admin_flag[log_errors] = on
;php_admin_value[memory_limit] = 32M