[Plugin: WordPress Sphinx Search Plugin] ERROR: error executing '/usr/bin/php -q'

I have done some more debugging and think I now have the core problem that was causing Sphinx to fail when wp-config.php was one level up from the site root.

There is a problem in the php in sphinx.conf. This code is modeled on the code in wp-load.php where it looks like this:

/** Define ABSPATH as this file's directory */
define( 'ABSPATH', dirname(__FILE__) . '/' );

error_reporting( E_CORE_ERROR | E_CORE_WARNING | E_COMPILE_ERROR | E_ERROR | E_WARNING | E_PARSE | E_USER_ERROR | E_USER_WARNING | E_RECOVERABLE_ERROR );

if ( file_exists( ABSPATH . 'wp-config.php') ) {

	/** The config file resides in ABSPATH */
	require_once( ABSPATH . 'wp-config.php' );

} elseif ( file_exists( dirname(ABSPATH) . '/wp-config.php' ) && ! file_exists( dirname(ABSPATH) . '/wp-settings.php' ) ) {

	/** The config file resides one level above ABSPATH but is not part of another install */
	require_once( dirname(ABSPATH) . '/wp-config.php' );

}

In the sphinx.conf template (in wordpress-sphinx-plugin/rep/) the start of the corresponding code looks like this:

#!{path_to_php} -q
<?php
error_reporting(0);
$path_to_config = "{path_to_wp_config_php}";
if ( file_exists( $path_to_config . '/wp-config.php') ) {
...

So ABSPATH gets replaced by $path_to_config. Unfortunately, wp-config.php needs ABSPATH once it is loaded in because at the end of wp-config.php is:

/** Absolute path to the WordPress directory. */
if ( !defined('ABSPATH') )
	define('ABSPATH', dirname(__FILE__) . '/');

/** Sets up WordPress vars and included files. */
require_once(ABSPATH . 'wp-settings.php');

If wp-config.php is one level up and ABSPATH hasn’t been defined, then the ‘IF’ defines ABSPATH based on where wp-config.php is. There is no wp-settings.php one level up so the ‘require_once’ fails.

A simple solution that works for me is to add “define(‘ABSPATH’…” to sphinx.conf:

#!{path_to_php} -q
<?php
error_reporting(0);
$path_to_config = "{path_to_wp_config_php}";
define('ABSPATH', $path_to_config . '/');
if ( file_exists( $path_to_config . '/wp-config.php') ) {
...

You could likely make the code tighter by eliminating $path_to_config and using ABSPATH in its place (and adjusting for the trailing ‘/’).

You only need to make this change if you want to put wp-config.php one level up, or want to have the flexibility to do so in the future. It would be good to make the change in the template (wordpress-sphinx-plugin/rep/). If you have already activated the plugin and run the wizard, you should also find sphinx.conf in your sphinx directory (likely in uploads) and make the change there.

BTW, for debugging this issue it was a great help to turn on the error_reporting used in wp-load.php. I then ran a sphinx command from the command line and got a lot more helpful information than just ‘error executing ‘/usr/bin/php -q’ status = 255 in /home/…/sphinx/sphinx.conf line 1 col 1′.

Hope this helps