PHP Fatal Error mystery

  • henebry

    (@henebry)


    8 years, 11 months ago

    On a website that I run for a local youth volunteer organization, I’ve been experiencing PHP Fatal Errors that shut down the site—not all the time, but once a week or so. My internet host, HostMonster, points to the error log, where Custom Content Shortcode is identified as the culprit. Here’s a typical entry, 

    [19-May-2015 12:17:19 UTC] PHP Warning:  require_once(/home5/troopcre/public_html/wp-content/plugins/custom-content-shortcode/includes/modules/paged.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home5/troopcre/public_html/wp-content/plugins/custom-content-shortcode/custom-content-shortcode.php on line 118
[19-May-2015 12:17:19 UTC] PHP Fatal error:  require_once(): Failed opening required '/home5/troopcre/public_html/wp-content/plugins/custom-content-shortcode/includes/modules/paged.php' (include_path='.:/usr/php/54/usr/lib64:/usr/php/54/usr/share/pear') in /home5/troopcre/public_html/wp-content/plugins/custom-content-shortcode/custom-content-shortcode.php on line 118

    The actual log following a crash will typically contain 30 lines identical to the two shown above, with timestamps stretching back 2 hours or so.

    The Tech Support guy will remotely turn off all my plugins, restoring admin access to the site, and advise me to update the Custom Content plugin. So I do, and then I’ll turn everything back on, and all is well—until the site crashes again a few weeks later. Note that while the site is up and running, I don’t see any new entries in the error log, even just after visiting pages that call the Custom Content plugin.

    What’s peculiar is that I’m not having this problem on other websites I run for classes I teach, websites hosted on InMotionHosting. Those sites make very extensive use of Custom Content Shortcode, and they see a LOT of activity during the school year, yet nary a peep or problem.

    Of course, I do run a different set of plugins on this HostMonster site, due in part to the volume of spam comments and registrations. If you’d like me to post the list of the other active plugins, let me know.

    https://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-content-shortcode/

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • Plugin Author Eliot Akira

    (@miyarakira)

    8 years, 11 months ago

    Hello,

    Thank you for telling me about this. There’s actually another support thread about the same issue, but I really appreciate the detailed description. I’m gathering as much information to try to narrow down where it’s coming from. The difficulty is that I’m not seeing it on any of my sites or in local development.

    Several people have reported this same error, and they’ve also told me that it happens once a week or so. This is what I wrote to one person:

    The plugin doesn’t add or delete any files by itself, so something outside must be the cause. Since it happens periodically, I believe some kind of caching is involved – either by another plugin or by the hosting server.

    The mystery is that the missing file (paged.php) was only in an old version 2.1.3 – and I had immediately uploaded the complete plugin. And since then, all versions include all files. What’s more perplexing: in the newest version, I stopped using the command require and instead use include. So this error shouldn’t be happening at all.

    So, it sounds like something is rewriting the plugin back to an old version.. How strange.

    Are you using the latest version of the plugin?

    Also, if you could tell me what other plugins are running, that could help me isolate the cause. The fact that it’s only happening with one of your sites is a clue – there must be something different about that site. So, it’s possibly some kind of caching on the hosting side, or by a plugin.

    Thread Starter henebry

    (@henebry)

    8 years, 11 months ago

    Thanks for your swift and detailed reply, Eliot.

    Active plugins: Advanced iFrame, Category Posts Widget, Connections, Custom Content Shortcode, Easy Comment Uploads, Events Manager, Fast Secure Contact Form, File Gallery, New User Approve, oEmbed for Comments, Optional Content Plugin, Registration Honeypot, Sky Login Redirect, Stop Spammers Spam Control, Twenty Eleven Theme Extensions, WP-SpamShield. All are up-to-date, and I’m running the latest version of WordPress.

    None of my plugins cache the site (that I know of), and I don’t think HostMonster does any caching for me either.

    ABCDiamond

    (@abcdiamond)

    8 years, 11 months ago

    I have the same problem. I fixed it first time, but the problme came back after two days.
    My active plugins are all different to henebry’s, other than Custom Content Shortcode.
    I have:
    Account Locker Lite
    Admin renamer extended
    Ads by datafeedr.com
    Akismet
    Custom fields shortcode
    Custom Content Shortcode
    Datafeedr Random Ads V2
    Fancy Gallery Lite
    Google Analytics
    Graphene Shortcodes
    Jetpack by WordPress.com
    jQuery Vertical Mega Menu
    List category posts
    MapPress Easy Google Maps
    Optimize Database after Deleting Revisions
    Post Type Switcher
    Smart Ads
    UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore
    WP CSV Exporter
    WP Mobile Edition
    WP Ultimate CSV Importer
    WP-Ban
    WP-DBManager
    Wp-Insert

    jdnn

    (@habannah)

    8 years, 11 months ago

    Hi ABCDiamond — just saw this, so you can forget my question in the other thread 😉

    For one of my sites, the plugins I have in common with you are:
    -Akismet
    -Custom Content Shortcode
    -Google Analytics Dashboard (not sure that’s actually the same plugin, though)
    -Optimize Database after Deleting Revisions
    -UpdraftPlus

    *Just a note that I haven’t yet set up the schedules for Optimize Database and UpdraftPlus, so I don’t have any cron jobs running from those plugins.

    I don’t have any plugins in common with henebry, and it seems we are on different hosts 🙁

    jdnn

    (@habannah)

    8 years, 11 months ago

    Oops — forgot to mention that for the three other sites I run which are experiencing this issue, the plugins I have in common are:

    -Akismet
    -Custom Content Shortcode
    -JetPack

    And one of those sites is also running MapPress…

    ABCDiamond

    (@abcdiamond)

    8 years, 11 months ago

    I am with Bluehost. But BlueHost and HostMonster (henebry’s host) are technically the same, as they are both owned by Matt Heaton. They share an address, servers and staff.

    I have a few other sites that do not have this problem, but also have never had Custom Content Shortcode installed.

    Plugin Author Eliot Akira

    (@miyarakira)

    8 years, 11 months ago

    Thank you all for your patience and input.

    Since there doesn’t seem to be a common plugin – esp. caching or security – among people with this issue, I think that possibility can be ruled out.

    The only common point I see is that 3 people experiencing the issue are using Bluehost. This suggests that the hosting server may be performing some kind of caching/security process at regular intervals, which is accidentally deleting paged.php.

    In the newest plugin update, I’ve renamed the module to paging.php. This is an attempt to avoid getting the file deleted by whatever is responsible. So, please let me know if that changes anything.

    If that doesn’t work, it may be necessary to contact the hosting company to debug this issue.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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