Title: Fatal Error
Last modified: August 19, 2016

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# Fatal Error

 *  [wapatu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wapatu/)
 * (@wapatu)
 * [17 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fatal-error-102/)
 * **I receive this error when I try to open my blog which is hosted by HostGator
   and I have no idea where to go to fix it.** Fatal error: Call to undefined function
   get_header() in /home/wapatu/public_html/index.php on line 1
 * Here are the first lines in that file
 *  index.php
    PHP script text ——————————————————————————–
 * <?php get_header(); ?>
 *  <div id=”content”>
 * <?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/menu.php’); ?>
    <?php if (have_posts()) : ?> 
   <?php $firstpostquery = new WP_Query(‘showposts=1’); ?> <?php while($firstpostquery-
   >have_posts()) : $firstpostquery->the_post(); $firstpost = $post->ID; ?> <div
   class=”entry”> <div class=”post” id=”post-<?php the_ID(); ?>”> <h2>” rel=”bookmark”
   title=”Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>”><?php the_title(); ?></h2> <small
   >Written by <?php the_author() ?> on <abbr title=”<?php the_time(‘Y-m-d\TH:i:
   sO’); ?>”><?php unset($previousday); printf(__(‘%1$s – %2$s’), the_date(”, ”,”,
   false), get_the_time()) ?></abbr> – <?php if(function_exists(‘the_views’)) { 
   the_views(); } ?> </small> <div class=”line”></div> ** Thank you in advance for
   your help

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  [stvwlf](https://wordpress.org/support/users/stvwlf/)
 * (@stvwlf)
 * [17 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fatal-error-102/#post-1051716)
 * Hi
 * The code you posted is the code from a theme template file named index.php That
   file is not supposed to be in your root folder. It is supposed to be in /wp-content/
   themes/{themename}/index.php
 * It is a bit confusing – the main WP file is also called index.php. Its content
   is completely different yet it has the same name. Somehow you have gotten your
   theme’s index.php file to overwrite the main WP index.php file.
 * I assume from the error message that you installed WP in the site’s root folder.
   I suggest you download the WP 2.7.1 files again, and upload them again. ( Make
   a Home Directory file backup in cPanel before you do any of this) What you will
   be doing is overwriting all the existing WP files with a clean copy of the WP
   code. This will not affect your database configuration file or your themes, unless
   you are using the default or classic themes and have modified them.
 * This way you will have the correct index.php file in place, and it will clean
   up any other files that may have unintentionally been placed in the wrong place.
 *  Thread Starter [wapatu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wapatu/)
 * (@wapatu)
 * [16 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fatal-error-102/#post-1051973)
 * Geez, I’ve had so many problems that I’ve overlooked responding to you and saying
   thanks. So thank you for your help.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The topic ‘Fatal Error’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [fatal error](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/fatal-error/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 2 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [wapatu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wapatu/)
 * Last activity: [16 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fatal-error-102/#post-1051973)
 * Status: not resolved

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