What is the easiest way to enable PHP on nginx?

What is the easiest way to enable PHP on nginx on Ubuntu 12.04?

Best solution is the one that request minimal work, ideally just a package installation :)

The following method will get you started fast on Ubuntu 12.04:

Install the dependences:

sudo apt-get install php5-common php5-cli php5-fpm

Install nginx:

sudo apt-get install nginx

Start nginx:

sudo service nginx start

Test that it's working (should see "Welcome to nginx!")

sudo service nginx stop

In your nginx site configuration (/etc/nginx/sites-available/default), modify the line in the server {} section

index index.html index.htm to index index.php index.html index.htm.

Uncomment the lines in the server {} section starting with

listen for ipv4 / ipv6 both.

Scroll down to where it says location ~ \.php { and uncomment lines so it looks like this:

location ~ \.php$ {
  fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
  fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
  fastcgi_index index.php;
  include fastcgi_params;
}

sudo service php5-fpm restart sudo service nginx restart

Your default web root is located at /usr/share/nginx/www (per the config file). (See root /usr/share/nginx/www;

(Note: For Ubuntu 12.10 or newer, you will need to replace the fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000; line with this to make it work: fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;)

EDIT: As pointed out by Matt Browne you may be interested by this more recent post:
How To Install Linux, Nginx, MySQL, PHP (LEMP stack) in Ubuntu 16.04

The papashou's answer is correct on old Ubuntu 12.04. Since Ubuntu 12.10, the configuration is a bit different. Here is what I did:

Install

sudo apt-get install nginx php5-fpm

Enable PHP

Uncomment the following lines in configuration file /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

location ~ \.php$ {
    fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
    # NOTE: You should have "cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0;" in php.ini

#   # With php5-cgi alone:
#   fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
    # With php5-fpm:
    fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php5-fpm.sock;
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    include fastcgi_params;
}

Start (or restart)

sudo service php5-fpm restart
sudo service nginx restart

Test nginx

Opening this link http://localhost should display "Welcome to nginx!"

Test php

Create a php file:

• The target path is the output of

  awk -F' |;' '/^[^#]*root/ {print $2}' /etc/nginx/sites-available/default
  

  e.g. /usr/share/nginx/www

• Write a info.php file with:

  echo '<?php phpinfo(); ?>' | \
      sudo tee /usr/share/nginx/www/info.php
  

  or as one-liner

  echo '<?php phpinfo(); ?>' | \
      sudo tee "$(awk -F' |;' '/^[^#]*root/ {print $2}' /etc/nginx/sites-available/default)/info.php"
  

Opening http://localhost/info.php should display the PHP information page.

sudo apt install nginx php-fpm

Note the fpm version, or check php -v. 7.3.11-0ubuntu0.19.10.3 (cli) in my case.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

1. Set the correct root folder.

2. Add index.php to the index directive.

3. Uncomment the location handler for php, but leave the "php-cgi" line commented if you use php-fpm. Also ensure the correct fpm version lest you get "502 Bad Gateway" on localhost: fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.3-fpm.sock;

sudo service nginx restart

That works on:

$ nginx -v
nginx version: nginx/1.16.1 (Ubuntu)
$ uname -a
Linux cees-XPS-13-9380 4.15.0-1067-oem #77-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jan 20 09:23:07 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux