On a configuration check, I have shell_exec to be enabled and a couple of files to be deleted.
My host has disabled PHP-FPM and the shell_exec is now ok, but I don’t think that was the right procedure. Also because it was fine on installation and I wonder why it isn’t now. Any advice?
The files to be deleted are error_log + info.php + matomo-archive-output.log, which also sound like they should not be deleted.
So why is Matomo giving me these wrong warnings?
Thank you
Hi,
Matomo executes function_exists("shell_exec") and if it returns false the system check shows a warning.
If you are using php-fpm, php-apache or some other php server completly depends on which webserver you use and how it is set up.
error_log will not be reported as a file to delete in Matomo 4. I don’t know what info.php is (if it is a file containing phpinfo() I’d recommend you to delete or password protect it as it allows attackers to learn a lot about the server setup.) In general I’d recommend to keep logs outside the web directory to not accidently make them public.
Hello, thank your the prompt reply.
My doubt is, why has it returned false two weeks after installation?
You also are confirming that error_log should not be reported, but it is. At the same time, info.php is just a file conainint this <?php phpinfo(); ?> but it’s a basic file under every website that I am aware of.
It will not be reported in Matomo 4, which has not been released yet.
As said, if this file is public to all website users, then one can visit https://yoursite.example/info.php to get a lot of information about the setup of the server.
If I rename those files (especially info.php), Matomo always recognises them and tells me to delete them. How do I stop this warning, since those files are not to be deleted?
Hi,
You can ignore them by adding them to this list in config/global.php:
Thank you, but the result is just like I expected, i.e. now I get a warning: partial or failed file load, try to load them in binary mode…
That is most likely because the integrity checker now correctly detects that that the config/global.php is modified. You could try also adding it to the exception list.
sorry for wasting your time, but I’m really new to Matomo and I don’t know where this exception list is . 
No problem, I am referring to the exception list in the global.php file:
you are confusing me, because I did add those files in the list, and that’s when I got the error “partial or failed file load”.