Sounds like there is something wrong with your configuration, here are a few things you can check:

1. Make sure that PHP is installed and running correctly. This may sound silly, but you never know. An easy way to check is to run php -v from a command line and see if returns version information or any errors.

2. Make sure that the PHP module is listed and uncommented inside of your Apache’s httpd.conf This should be something like LoadModule php5_module "c:/php/php5apache2_2.dll" in the file. Search for LoadModule php, and make sure that there is no comment (;) in front of it.

3. Make sure that Apache’s httpd.conf file has the PHP MIME type in it. This should be something like AddType application/x-httpd-php .php. This tells Apache to run .php files as PHP. Search for AddType, and then make sure there is an entry for PHP, and that it is uncommented.

4. Make sure your file has the .php extension on it, or whichever extension specified in the MIME definition in point #3, otherwise it will not be executed as PHP.

5. Make sure you are not using short tags in the PHP file (<?), these are not enabled on all servers by default and their use is discouraged. Use <?php instead (or enable short tags in your php.ini with short_open_tag=On if you have code that relies on them).

6. Make sure you are accessing your file over your webserver using an URL like http://localhost/file.php not via local file access file://localhost/www/file.php

And lastly check the PHP manual for further setup tips.

php7 :

sudo a2enmod proxy_fcgi setenvif
sudo a2enconf php7.0-fpm
sudo service apache2 restart

I’m running Apache on Ubuntu and my issue was that the /etc/apache2/mods-available/php5.conf file was missing this:

<FilesMatch ".+.ph(p[345]?|t|tml)$">
    SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
</FilesMatch>

I added it back in and php was parsing php files correctly.

note for php 7 users, add this to your httpd.conf file:

# PHP 7 specific configuration
<IfModule php7_module>
    AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
    AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps
    <IfModule dir_module>
        DirectoryIndex index.html index.php
    </IfModule>
</IfModule>

You’re just opening your php file into browser. You have to open it using localhost url. if you open a file directly from your directory it will not execute the php code in any case.

use: http://locahost/index.php or http:127.0.0.1/index.php

Enable php short code. In your case, you are using <? which is php short code for <?php. By default php short codes are disabled.

Also use: sudo apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5 php5-mcrypt if you are a ubuntu user.

I found another problem causing this issue and already solved it. I accidentally saved my script in UTF-16 encoding. It seems that PHP5 can’t recognize <?php tag in 16 bit encoding by default.

I’m posting this answer because my Virtualmin/Webmin admin interface decided it was a good idea to disable my PHP engine.. took me a while to find the solution, so I thought I’d share it with you guys:

Also, be sure to check that none of your website config files related to this specific host or virtualhost have any php_admin_value’s in them that turn off PHP, like this:

php_admin_value engine Off

When in doubt, comment it…

# php_admin_value engine Off

And restart your webserver.

This just happened to me again, along with the server downloading html files, rather than processing. I had not use the webserver apache for some time on the computer and meanwhile Ubuntu updated like two more versions from originally installed LTS. Now it is

$ cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

So the php worked after like so:

$ sudo apt-get install lamp-server^
$ sudo a2enmod php7.0
$ sudo service apache2 restart 

The webserver was now parsing the php. Maybe now got to update some webs since php7.0 now running where as it was before running php5. Oh well.

I know it should sound silly… but seldom it happens.

Check if you are trying to execute php from

**http://localhost/info.php**

and not from

file:///var/www/info.php

ps> you can notice that if you write from shell

php info.php 

it answer with the code (it means php functions)..

I’ve solved this by uninstalling XAMPP, and installing WAMP.
Thanks for the help.

In case we are in the same page do following

sudo apt-get install php -y
sudo apt-get install php-{bcmath,bz2,intl,gd,mbstring,mysql,zip,fpm} -y

To enable PHP 7.2 FPM in Apache2 do:

a2enmod proxy_fcgi setenvif

a2enconf php7.2-fpm

update 2: Apache downloads .php file instead of rendering

After that, I faced above issue. There are similar questions like this.

I don’t know why but it only happened for my .php files in /var/www/html/ root folder. everything was ok for sub-directories. (for example wordpress and phpmyadmin worked fine)

So here is my solution. I decided to enable php module. so I ran this command:

a2enmod php7.2

but I got this errors:

Considering dependency mpm_prefork for php7.2:
Considering conflict mpm_event for mpm_prefork:
ERROR: Module mpm_event is enabled – cannot proceed due to conflicts. It needs to be disabled first!
Considering conflict mpm_worker for mpm_prefork:
ERROR: Could not enable dependency mpm_prefork for php7.2, aborting

so I decided to disable mpm by running following commands:

sudo a2dismod mpm_prefork
sudo a2dismod mpm_worker
sudo a2dismod mpm_event

then restart apache:

systemctl restart apache2

then enable php7.2 (my installed version):

sudo a2enmod php7.2

and right now everything works fine.

Make sure the script contains

<?php

before the code that should be executed. There should be no space between <? and php in this.

I faced this issue on php 7.1 that comes with High Sierra (OS X 10.13.5), editing /etc/apache2/httpd.conf with following changes helped:

1. Uncomment this line

   LoadModule php7_module libexec/apache2/libphp7.so
   

2. Paste following at the end

   <IfModule php7_module>
       AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
       AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps
   
       <IfModule dir_module>
           DirectoryIndex index.html index.php
       </IfModule>
   </IfModule>
   

on my ubuntu 14.04, apache 2.4, php 5.5.9 install, I tried with a sample.php on /var/www/html (default document root) and it worked ok.
So the problem was on my Virtual Servers config.
The solution was to include, on the Directory def containing the .php, this line:

    php_admin_flag engine on

Another possible cause of this problem could be that you are trying to run the script in a “user directory” from the UserDir module. Running PHP scripts in user directories is disabled by default. You will run into this problem if the script is in the public_html directory in your home folder and you are trying to access it from http://localhost/~your_username.

To fix this, open up /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/php7.2.conf. You must comment or delete the tag block at the bottom that reads

<IfModule mod_userdir.c>
    <Directory /home/*/public_html>
        php_admin_flag engine Off
    </Directory>
</IfModule>

i had similar problem but in my case solution was different.
my file that held php code was called “somename.html”
changed it to “somename.php” worked fine

For fresh setup of LAMP running php 7
edit the file /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
Note: make sure to make backup for it before changing anything.

Paste this at the very bottom of the file:

<IfModule php7_module>
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps
<IfModule dir_module>
    DirectoryIndex index.html index.php
</IfModule>

Then, search for LoadModule and paste the following line:

LoadModule php7_module modules/libphp7.so

This line will simply ask httpd to load the php 7 module

Then restart httpd

Check all the packages you have installed for php using:

yum list installed | grep remi

Install all relevant php packages, especially php-devel on your machine.

Add AddType application/x-httpd-php .php to your httpd.conf file if you are using Apache 2.4

In my case the php module was not loaded. Try this:

1. Check which modules are loaded: apache2ctl -M. Look for module like php7_module (shared)
2. If no php module is listed, then try to load the module that corresponds to your php version. In my case the php packet is libapache2-mod-php7.3. So I did: a2enmod php7.3 and the problem was solved.

Easiest way to install Apache + php7 tested using Debian 10:

apt-get update -y
apt-get install apache2 php7.0 libapache2-mod-php  -y
sudo service apache2 restart

This was in my .htaccess

DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm

index.html contained PHP code. By default, PHP won’t process files with extentions like htm* as PHP code.

You can override this, by adding the following to .htaccess:

<FilesMatch ".+.html$">
    SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
</FilesMatch>

If you have configuration like this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.com
    DocumentRoot "/var/www/example.com"

    <FilesMatch ".php$">
        SetHandler "proxy:fcgi://127.0.0.1:9000"
    </FilesMatch>
</VirtualHost>

Uncomment next lines in your httpd.conf

LoadModule proxy_module lib/httpd/modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_fcgi_module lib/httpd/modules/mod_proxy_fcgi.so

It works for me

Try restarting the apache server. This was the mistake I had made – forgetting to restart the server after installing php!

service httpd restart

For php7.3.* you could try to install these modules. It worked for me.

sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-php7.3

sudo service apache2 restart

I think the problem that it is showing code instead of the result is that it is not going to local host . recheck what address u r going in. are u going to a local file directory or to the local host.

from the screenshot u sent it is going to ur computer not to the localhost.

“file:/// ” it should be “localhost/”

Reinstalling the mcrypt module worked for me.

$sudo apt-get install php5-mcrypt
$sudo php5enmod mcrypt

I had a case that I accidentally started untaring my files directory in root. It added the .htaccess file from my files folder that would block all php

# If we know how to do it safely, disable the PHP engine entirely.
<IfModule mod_php5.c>
  php_flag engine off
</IfModule>

Bottom line check the .htaccess file on root.

Just spent hours of trying to get PHP 5 to run with Apache 2.4 on Windows 10. Finally for me it was a typo in httpd.conf LoadModule. Drew attention to writing and exact module path through the last answer in this apachelounge thread of denny2018. Thank you!

After two nights I discovered… My directory was written c: (lower case)

I had LoadModule php5_module "c:/php/php5apache2.dll" but correct for apache 2.4 is:

LoadModule php5_module "C:/php/php5apache2_4.dll"

So I also missed the _4 before (for apache 2.4). The full snippet that worked for me:

# PHP
LoadModule php5_module "C:/php/php5apache2_4.dll"
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .php
<FilesMatch .php$>
    SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
</FilesMatch>

Just tried PHP 7. There the LoadModule line in httpd.conf for Apache 2.4 reads

LoadModule php7_module "C:/php/php7apache2_4.dll"

Currently php manual shows up c:/php/php5apache2.dll which of course needs to be adjusted.

in my case (Apache/2.4.34),

after uncommenting the specific module

“LoadModule php7_module libexec/apache2/libphp7.so”

from

“/etc/apache2/httpd.conf”

my problem was gone.