title: Nginx with php7.1-fpm showing blank php pages
body: <h2>Background &amp; Environment</h2>
  
  <p>I am attempting to deploy a Nginx server with PHP7.1-FPM, following the instructions <a href="https://deliciousbrains.com/hosting-wordpress-yourself-nginx-php-mysql/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a> and <a href="https://deliciousbrains.com/hosting-wordpress-yourself-setting-up-sites/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>The server is Ubuntu <code>16.04</code> </li>
  <li>Nginx version is <code>1.13.3</code> </li>
  <li>PHP version is
  <code>PHP 7.1.9-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 (cli) (built: Sep  2 2017 05:56:43) ( NTS )</code></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>I am fairly new to all this, so compared to a seasoned linux admin, I am still somewhat ignorant of what's what, but I know enough to handle the basics.</p>
  
  <h2>The Issue</h2>
  
  <p>When I browse to a URL with as <code>inspired01.DOMAIN.com/application/</code> I get a blank page. There is no entry in the nginx error log.</p>
  
  <p>When I browse to a URL such as <code>inspired01.DOMAIN.com/application/index.php</code> I get a 404 error.</p>
  
  <h2>Tried so far</h2>
  
  <p>I have attempted the suggestions in the stackoverflow post <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15423500/nginx-showing-blank-php-pages?s=1%7C3.8737">here</a>. As far as I could tell, my configuration already has the suggested entries that people are saying fixed this problem for them.</p>
  
  <p>I was not able to resolve the issue with those answers. As that post is a few years old, I am thinking perhaps requirements have changed since then.</p>
  
  <h2>My Nginx configuration</h2>
  
  <p>My <code>nginx.conf</code> is:</p>
  
  <pre><code>user inspired786;
  worker_processes auto;
  pid /run/nginx.pid;
  include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf;
  
  events {
      worker_connections 1024;
      multi_accept on;
  }
  
  http { 
      sendfile on;
      tcp_nopush on;
      tcp_nodelay on;
      keepalive_timeout 25;
      types_hash_max_size 2048;
      server_tokens off;
      client_max_body_size 64m;
  
      include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
      default_type application/octet-stream;
  
      ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE
      ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
  
      access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
      error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;
  
      gzip on;
      gzip_disable "msie6";
  
      gzip_proxied any;
      gzip_comp_level 2;
      gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;
  
      # Virtual Host Configs
  
      include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
      include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
  
  server {
      listen 80 default_server;
      listen [::]:80 default_server;
      server_name _;
      return 444;
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The site's conf file is:</p>
  
  <pre><code>server {
      listen 80;
      listen [::]:80;
  
      server_name inspired01.DOMAIN.com;
  
      access_log /home/inspired786/DOMAIN.com/logs/access.log;
      error_log /home/inspired786/DOMAIN.com/logs/error.log;
  
      root /home/inspired786/DOMAIN.com/public/;
      index index.php;
  
      location / {
          try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
      }
  
      location ~ \.php$ {
          try_files $uri =404;
          fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
          fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock;
          fastcgi_index index.php;
          include fastcgi_params;
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <h2>Logs</h2>
  
  <p>No entry is generated in the Nginx server or site log.</p>
  
  <p>No relevant entry is recorded to the FPM log at <code>/var/log/php7.1-fpm.log</code></p>
  
  <h2>Question</h2>
  
  <p>I would like to know if there is anything obvious missing or wrong in this configuration, which would potentially result in php files not being parsed.</p>
  
  <h1>UPDATE</h1>
  
  <p>As per comment below, pasting here so anyone new sees it:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>I enabled <code>debug_connection</code> and went through the masses of log output
    that produced. As far as I could tell, there were no issues being
    reported. Well, no obvious <code>errors</code> or <code>warnings</code>. So I created a
    basic <code>hello.php</code> file including a basic echo command, and also
    phpinfo. The file worked fine. So I suspect the issue is something
    else. Continuing to investigate.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Consider this question on hold for now, whilst I look into some other possibilities for the blank pages issue.</p>