db connection error for apex domain when WP installed at subdomain

Hi, issue is only at apex domain of network primary site (subdomain networks) when network is set up at 1st lvl subdomain.

WP installed at a subdomain, like: https://x.example.tld – secondary networks also set up to use subdomain for primary site (so that new subsites are at like https://subsite.x.example.tld).

If there is no site associated with the apex domain, behavior I’d expect would be to redirect like any other ‘new blog’.

Actual behavior appears to be a database connection failure when requesting the apex domain of all networks installed at 1st lvl subdomain.

apache 2.4, php7.2.5, MariaDB 10.2
WP 4.9.5, wp-multi-network 2.2.0

WP files are at home/user/public_html/wp/ (SITEURL and HOME values do not include /wp/ path, and htaccess is modified as well so that /wp/ is not seen in the browser bar).

wp-content has been moved to docroot (home/user/public_html/) and renamed using stnd defines in wp-config.php file, which is also located at docroot.

defined multisite constants are like:
===

define('SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL', true);
define('PATH_CURRENT_SITE', '/');
define('WP_HOME',    'https://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] );
define('WP_SITEURL', 'https://' . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] );

===

Database defines, Keys&salts, and other sensitive stuff is in a file outside of docroot and the file is included like following, added at top of wp-config.php
===

// DATABASE AND OTHER SECRETS
if ( file_exists( '/home/user/configs/settings.php' ) ) {
	include( '/home/user/configs/settings.php' );
}

===
Database defines are at the top of the settings.php file.

Everything is redirected from :80 to :443 (valid certs.)

—

There have been no problems with this until recently when I saw in php error log for the apex domain (example.tld) notices like:

===

PHP Warning:  Use of undefined constant DB_USER - assumed 'DB_USER' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/user/public_html/wp/wp-includes/load.php on line 404
PHP Warning:  Use of undefined constant DB_PASSWORD - assumed 'DB_PASSWORD' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/user/public_html/wp/wp-includes/load.php on line 404
PHP Warning:  Use of undefined constant DB_NAME - assumed 'DB_NAME' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/user/public_html/wp/wp-includes/load.php on line 404
PHP Warning:  Use of undefined constant DB_HOST - assumed 'DB_HOST' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/user/public_html/wp/wp-includes/load.php on line 404

===

…and when I navigate to the apex domain it displays the good ‘ol
===
Error establishing a database connection
===

Issue remains with Twenty Seventeen and removing all plugin files (except wp-multi-network). Also moved all four database defines to top of wp-config.php for good measure, issue remains.

Issue does not occur when wp-multi-network files are removed.

I have done network setups like this before, and feel like I would have noticed this… I think this may be associated with recent update.

When wp-multi-network files are back in place and the plugin is active, I can then use Mercator to make an alias using the apex domain and everything works as expected (except, oddly I got a 503 server error page when I first saved the alias – just closed that browser tab, opened a new one and everything worked).

I assume that using WP native domain mapping to set a network subsite to use apex domain would also work, haven’t tested.

I haven’t tried looking at code, or doing more testing yet… figured I’d just submit this now.

Cheers, Max

ps. will prob also post an issue at the github repo if I can figure out anything more substantial… ??

• This topic was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by max. Reason: clarify: issue affects all networks with primary site at 1st lvl subdomain
• This topic was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by max. Reason: small things :)
• This topic was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by max. Reason: yet more clarifications