Strange redirect() problem

[Loscil Derails]

Hello,

Recently I migrated my mod of LoGD off of my own personal server (Debian, running PHP 5.3 without any issues) to a hosting provider, also running Debian.

My site was working amazing on my server. Everything was great, no problems. When I switched to the hosting provider, suddenly redirect() is acting strange. It just displays a blank white page whenever there is a redirect. The URL does not change to the redirected page, but it instead just white-screens when it's called. This is when the server is running under PHP 5.3. If I switch the server to PHP 5.2, it works perfectly fine.

However, I would /prefer/ to use 5.3. As I said, it's working on my own server fine, and I even connected the database of my server to the database of the hosting provider and it was still working fine, so I think it's an issue with the PHP 5.3 on the hosting provider.

It might be something in the php.ini, but I can't figure it out. Anyone know what would cause this behaviour and what to check for/change?

Thanks!
Valor

[Nightborn]

Ask them to give you the error log or enable error_handling in your config

Should  tell you why. I can't recall any redirect() problem. It might be due to your site data on the new host or old caches or anything literally.

[Loscil Derails]

I've looked and it doesn't generate an error in the error log. It just fails to redirect.
If I got into the redirect script, and it 'works' if i comment out the exit(); (as in, it redirects properly and doesn't white-screen, but causes a bunch of other adverse effects such as wiping the character display name and automatically killing them, which I don't really understand so this isn't a good fix)

Upon further reading, it appears that FastCGI dislikes the exit() function. I am currently looking for a workaround or fix.

Update 2:
FastCGI is working for 5.2, but failing for 5.3. 5.3 CGI is also failing, but 5.2 CGI works.

I am very confused.

[Nightborn]

PHP is a cgi module?

Poor you - then there might be more/other problems. PHP should always be an apache module, not a cgi extension.
I'd go to another host. Seriously.

[kickme]

PHP is a cgi module?

Poor you - then there might be more/other problems. PHP should always be an apache module, not a cgi extension.
I'd go to another host. Seriously.

PHP runs fine as under CGI and FastCGI, as well as with web servers other than Apache.

As for the question at hand, my initial impression is that 5.2 had output buffering enabled, whereas 5.3 does not, and some module being included has whitespace outside of its PHP tags. One way to check this is to remove the @ from the header() line and see if you get an error about being unable to send header information once output has started.

[Nightborn]

I think differently, because in CGI you have numerous other "security" things built in, which tend to behave strangely.
It runs, sure, but might not have the same behaviour.

Whitespace etc. might be a different issue - turning on error handling is definately a way to determine what's wrong.

[Aeo •]

I'm having exactly the same problem. o.o Only difference? My PHP is Version 5.2.17..

[Loscil Derails]

Was it working for you until recently? Did you upgrade or move domains? Which OS are you on?
I'll look into the whitespace thing.  I really just think it's a problem with
exit()

My site's working fine under 5.2 so if worst comes to worst I'll just use that.
I am extremely curious as to what is causing this though.

It's not logging any errors either, which is weird.

Are any errors appearing in your log for you, Aeolus?

[Nightborn]

It is not an exit() problem.
This should never(!) be reached.
redirect() is not working properly.

[Loscil Derails]

It is not an exit() problem.
This should never(!) be reached.
redirect() is not working properly.

Oh? I'm new-ish to PHP, I had thought that the exit meant "stop rendering things on the current page that the redirect was called from, but instead start this page"

I shall poke more at the redirect to see where exactly it stops executing under working circumstances.

[kickme]

It is not an exit() problem.
This should never(!) be reached.
redirect() is not working properly.

Please stop providing incorrect information. A call to header() does not stop script execution. The call to exit() does and is always reached.

I'm having exactly the same problem. o.o Only difference? My PHP is Version 5.2.17..

Can you also remove the @ from the line containing the header() call? The @ suppresses errors, so they won't show in the error log or be displayed (assuming display_errors is set to On).

[Aeo •]

Was it working for you until recently? Did you upgrade or move domains? Which OS are you on?

Yes, it has been. No, last time I moved/upgraded was about three months ago. I'm not up to date with computer talk- what's an OS? xD

Are any errors appearing in your log for you, Aeolus?

Nothing related to the current situation, no. I have been, however, getting a lot of:

[Fri Aug 03 22:38:29 2012] [error] [client 158.255.7.244] File does not exist: /home/aeolus/public_html/403.shtml, referer: http://evolutionathens.net/posting.php?mode=post&f=27

in my error log, of which the date was only yesterday. o.o (And also, I have no file called posting.php.. o.O

Can you also remove the @ from the line containing the header() call? The @ suppresses errors, so they won't show in the error log or be displayed (assuming display_errors is set to On).

Removed it, and still, no errors show up.

[Loscil Derails]

Was it working for you until recently? Did you upgrade or move domains? Which OS are you on?

Yes, it has been. No, last time I moved/upgraded was about three months ago. I'm not up to date with computer talk- what's an OS? xD

Are any errors appearing in your log for you, Aeolus?

Nothing related to the current situation, no. I have been, however, getting a lot of:

[Fri Aug 03 22:38:29 2012] [error] [client 158.255.7.244] File does not exist: /home/aeolus/public_html/403.shtml, referer: http://evolutionathens.net/posting.php?mode=post&f=27

in my error log, of which the date was only yesterday. o.o (Ana d also, I have no file called posting.php.. o.O

Can you also remove the @ from the line containing the header() call? The @ suppresses errors, so they won't show in the error log or be displayed (assuming display_errors is set to On).

Removed it, and still, no errors show up.

OS= operating system (of the server running)
If you have command line access to your server (and if it's linux), I suggest running
grep -r "posting.php" *
from the home directory of your install. You can see which file is making a call to that file.
Did you install any modules or make any changes between when it was working and when it wasn't?

[Aeo •]

OS= operating system (of the server running)

Ahhh. Linux.

If you have command line access to your server (and if it's linux), I suggest running
grep -r "posting.php" *
from the home directory of your install. You can see which file is making a call to that file.

I can't seem to find this command line access in my cPanel.. o.o

Did you install any modules or make any changes between when it was working and when it wasn't?

I'm not exactly sure when it stopped working, actually. It's been happening for a while, and I've only kept a changelog of the stuff I've done over the past 2 (or so) weeks.

[Nightborn]

Please stop providing incorrect information. A call to header() does not stop script execution. The call to exit() does and is always reached.

Sorry, my bad. Just re-read this one.