Setting up multiple sites on WordPress

Modified wp-config.php to allow multisite and multisubdomains.

1) Besides allowing multisite installation, did you also include the additional multisite configuration rules in your wp-config.php file? (This can be found in My Sites -> Network Admin -> Settings -> Network Setup)

2) On the same “Network Setup” page, you should also see multisite-specific webserver rewrite rules. But this is only for Apache. As you’re using Nginx, you’ll need to craft appropriate Nginx-specific rewrite rules for the primary site’s server block. Googling “multisite Nginx” (or something similar for your full server stack) should give you lots to chew on.

BUT PAUSE!

… and ask yourself: do you really need a complicated multisite setup to hold just two sites? Since you’re doing much of the initial setup work manually, I’d just install two independent WordPress sites and not have to deal with plugins misbehaving in multisite environments.

Good luck!

I just now confirmed that the additional define commands to allow multiple subdomains, set paths, ids, etc. are in wp-config.php; and the spelling and syntax are correct. Without those instructions I would not have been able to set up the second site. The problem remains that when I try to create pages or posts for the second site they still get published on the original site.

In answer to your question, I had thought about that and right now, it’s very appealing. But I may wish to add more sites later which would require more wp installations. Besides that, being the obstinate cuss that I am, I am determined to beat this sucker one way or another.

Update: I found the following message in debug.log:

[28-Jan-2025 15:14:03 UTC] PHP Warning: chmod(): Operation not permitted in /var/www/wordpress/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-direct.php on line 173

It appears to be attempting to change the file permissions somewhere, but I can’t figure out which file or where it is. Here’s the php code from class-wp-filesystem-direct.php around line 173

149 /**

150 * Changes filesystem permissions.

151 *

152 * @since 2.5.0

153 *

154 * @param string $file Path to the file.

155 * @param int|false $mode Optional. The permissions as octal number, usually 0644 for

156 files,

157 * 0755 for directories. Default false.

158 * @param bool $recursive Optional. If set to true, changes file permissions recursively.

159 * Default false.

160 * @return bool True on success, false on failure.

161 */

162 public function chmod( $file, $mode = false, $recursive = false ) {

163 if ( ! $mode ) {

164 if ( $this->is_file( $file ) ) {

165 $mode = FS_CHMOD_FILE;

166 } elseif ( $this->is_dir( $file ) ) {

167 $mode = FS_CHMOD_DIR;

168 } else {

169 return false;

170 }

171 }

172 if ( ! $recursive || ! $this->is_dir( $file ) ) {

173 return chmod( $file, $mode );

}