bizarre php folder issue

[bitt3n]

I downloaded a folder of old scripts off my server to run locally, folder called public_html, but when I tried running anything in the folder I got a server error 500 (even a new script I wrote and saved to that folder just to test). Anything outside the folder would run fine on my local machine, and setting folder permissions of public_html to 777 didn't solve the problem.

I moved all the files in the offending folder to a different folder at the same level in the directory (ie in the same folder as the one in which public_html resides) and all the scripts run fine. Even if I rename my new folder to 'public_html' (renaming the offending folder something else), I still see this effect (everything in my new folder (now named 'public_html') works fine, while nothing in the offending folder (formerly named 'public_html') will run, all error 500, even a script that just echoes 'test').

Just for the sake of curiosity, I'm wondering if anyone knows what's going on here. I am using Mac OS X FWIW.

 

[bhanson]

Check the permissions of the actual files within the public_html folder.

A very common pebkac error is just changing the permissions of the directory but not recursively on all of its contents. I still do this occasionally.

 

[bitt3n]

Check the permissions of the actual files within the public_html folder.

A very common pebkac error is just changing the permissions of the directory but not recursively on all of its contents. I still do this occasionally.

yep, I tried recursively changing every permission in every file in the folder to 777. didn't work.

when I moved the files in that folder to a different folder, the scripts executed fine. when I moved a script that executed fine to that folder, it started throwing the 500 error. The permissions of the problematic folder and all files in the folder are 777.

 

[Schmide]

Check the .haccess file and its permissions/ownership.