Need help with custom paths

VijayC

I'm sure that this is a simple mistake. I've not done much PHP/Apache or indeed any hosting in a decade & feel like a newbie all over again.

So, I recently installed flarum with Softlicious & everything was working fine, except that it's been installed to /public which I've now read on here is a security risk. I did a bit of searching on here & followed the customising paths docs, so far, so good.

Problem is that I try & visit my site & get a 403 forbidden error.
Checking the error logs, I'm getting this:

[31-May-2025 17:44:33 UTC] PHP Warning:  require(/site.php): Failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/soconnec/public_html/index.php on line 10
[31-May-2025 17:44:33 UTC] PHP Warning:  require(/site.php): Failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/soconnec/public_html/index.php on line 10
[31-May-2025 17:44:33 UTC] PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Error: Failed opening required '/site.php' (include_path='.:/opt/cpanel/ea-php81/root/usr/share/pear') in /home/soconnec/public_html/index.php:10
Stack trace:
#0 {main}
  thrown in /home/soconnec/public_html/index.php on line 10

Line 10 is just:

$site = require './site.php';

clarkwinkelmann

VijayC the error seems to indicate that index.php and site.php are not in the same directory. Check the steps on https://docs.flarum.org/install#customizing-paths again.

A quicker option if you already lost time troubleshooting the current situation might be to directly download the "public path: no" ZIP version. If you keep your existing config.php, your database will be re-used and you don't have to run the installation wizard again and will not loose existing discussions. If you have existing avatars you need to copy the assets folder. If you have extensions you will have to re-install them, but their data will be preserved.

A mid-way option would be to download the ZIP separately on your own PC, and just compare the files that are relevant to the "customizing paths" section. You might be able to spot your error that way.

VijayC

clarkwinkelmann Thanks! That was quick! They are in the same directory, so I'll download the zip version & compare to see what I've done wrong.

clarkwinkelmann

VijayC now that I re-read the messages, do you have the dot in the require path './site.php'? It's not visible in the error message, but that's how it's supposed to be written.

VijayC

clarkwinkelmann It was there - in the end, I reverted my changes & contacted my web host & they moved the whole installation so it's not installed in public_html, but in /flarum folder at webroot like it's supposed to be to make it even more secure. They took all of 10 seconds to do this for me, and I probably should have done it first thing! Highly recommend people try this near zero effort method!