nginx downloads php files instead of executing them

Question

I'm trying to set up a LEMP stack and after going through several tutorials i can't seem to get php working here is my nginx config:

default.conf:

server {
    listen   80 0.0.0.0;
    listen   [::]:80 0.0.0.0 ipv6only=on;

    # note that these lines are originally from the "location /" block
    root   /usr/share/nginx/html;
    index index.php index.html index.htm;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
    error_page 404 /404.html;
    error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
    location = /50x.html {
        root /usr/share/nginx/html;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

Answer 1

I believe your problem is the second use of try_files inside the PHP block:

location ~ \.php$ {
===>try_files $uri =404;<====
    fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    include fastcgi_params;
}

Just take that line out and try this:

location ~ \.php$ {
    fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    include fastcgi_params;
}

Answer 2

You probably need to add this to your location ~ .php$ {}
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
So it should look like:
location ~ \\.php$ { include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf; ... }

Answer 3

I found this tut:

https://www.linuxbabe.com/linux-server/how-to-install-lemp-stack-linux-nginx-mariadb-php-on-centos7

It worked!!!!! Here is my default.conf now:

server {
  listen 80;
  server_name www.example.com example.com;
  root /usr/share/nginx/html;
  index index.php index.html index.htm;
  location / {
      try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$query_string;
  }
  error_page 404 /404.html;
  error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
  location = /50x.html {
      root /usr/share/nginx/html;
  }
  location ~ \.php$ {
      try_files $uri =404;
      fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;
      fastcgi_index index.php;
      fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
      include fastcgi_params;
  }
}