meljturner

Yes, the .user.ini file was:
; Wordfence WAF
auto_prepend_file = ‘/hsphere/local/home/c293684/mvtm.ca/mvt2/wordfence-waf.php’
; END Wordfence WAF

I have removed the file.

I briefly reconfigured the wordfence firewall. The error 500 returned in my docroot-level apps though the wordpress site in a subdirectory (mvt2) continues to operate correctly.

Regarding the app error: it was reported as function call error:
Fatal error: unpack(): Type V: not enough input, need 4, have 0
I think this is a spurious message

this was within a framework autoload function that is stable code. On removal of the user.ini file in the docroot the error disappeared.

the log file contained these entries:
ALERT – script tried to increase memory_limit to 268435456 bytes which is above the allowed value (attacker ‘98.130.147.189’, file ‘/hsphere/local/home/c293684/mvtm.ca/mvt2/wp-content/plugins/wordfence/lib/wfUtils.php’, line 1128)
[Tue Mar 21 05:26:16 2017] [error] [client 81.26.136.136] mod_machinegun: 81.26.136.136 -> mvtm.ca (wp-xmlrpc) rejected
[Tue Mar 21 05:26:25 2017] [error] [client 81.26.136.136] mod_machinegun: 81.26.136.136 -> mvtm.ca (wordpress) rejected
[Tue Mar 21 05:26:34 2017] [error] [client 81.26.136.136] mod_machinegun: 81.26.136.136 -> mvtm.ca (wordpress) rejected
ALERT – script tried to increase memory_limit to 268435456 bytes which is above the allowed value (attacker ‘174.112.47.100’, file ‘/hsphere/local/home/c293684/mvtm.ca/mvt2/wp-includes/functions.php’, line 5595)
ALERT – script tried to increase memory_limit to 268435456 bytes which is above the allowed value (attacker ‘174.112.47.100’, file ‘/hsphere/local/home/c293684/mvtm.ca/mvt2/wp-includes/functions.php’, line 5595)
ALERT – script tried to increase memory_limit to 268435456 bytes which is above the allowed value (attacker ‘174.112.47.100’, file ‘/hsphere/local/home/c293684/mvtm.ca/mvt2/wp-includes/functions.php’, line 5595)
ALERT – script tried to increase memory_limit to 268435456 bytes which is above the allowed value (attacker ‘174.112.47.100’, file ‘/hsphere/local/home/c293684/mvtm.ca/mvt2/wp-includes/functions.php’, line 5595)
ALERT – script tried to increase memory_limit to 268435456 bytes which is above the allowed value (attacker ‘174.112.47.100’, file ‘/hsphere/local/home/c293684/mvtm.ca/mvt2/wp-includes/functions.php’, line 5595)
ALERT – script tried to increase memory_limit to 268435456 bytes which is above the allowed value (attacker ‘174.112.47.100’, file ‘/hsphere/local/home/c293684/mvtm.ca/mvt2/wp-includes/functions.php’, line 5595)
ALERT – script tried to increase memory_limit to 268435456 bytes which is above the allowed value (attacker ‘174.112.47.100’, file ‘/hsphere/local/home/c293684/mvtm.ca/mvt2/wp-includes/functions.php’, line 5595)
ALERT – script tried to increase memory_limit to 268435456 bytes which is above the allowed value (attacker ‘174.112.47.100’, file ‘/hsphere/local/home/c293684/mvtm.ca/mvt2/wp-includes/functions.php’, line 5595)
ALERT – script tried to increase memory_limit to 268435456 bytes which is above the allowed value (attacker ‘174.112.47.100’, file ‘/hsphere/local/home/c293684/mvtm.ca/mvt2/wp-includes/functions.php’, line 5595)

My IP at the time was 174.112.47.100 so still appears to me as a memory issue

I left configuration in learning mode for a few days and retried the set up but the error 500 on my apps returned. Restoring the .htaccess and removing .user.ini cleared the error. Not retrying this.

Both limits were set to 64M; I have increased them to 128M.

The error 500 messages indicated a problem in a PHP class auto-loader from the F3 package (not my code) but I think the message was spurious and due to some memory problem with PHP. The log files were replete with entries like:
ALERT – script tried to increase memory_limit to 134217728 bytes which is above the allowed value (attacker ‘216.244.66.240’, file ‘/hsphere/local/home/c293684/mvtm.ca/mvt2/wp-content/plugins/wordfence/wordfence.php’, line 40)
ALERT – script tried to increase memory_limit to 134217728 bytes which is above the allowed value (attacker ‘216.244.66.240’, file ‘/hsphere/local/home/c293684/mvtm.ca/mvt2/wp-content/plugins/wordfence/wordfence.php’, line 40)
ALERT – script tried to increase memory_limit to 134217728 bytes which is above the allowed value (attacker ‘98.130.147.189’, file ‘/hsphere/local/home/c293684/mvtm.ca/mvt2/wp-content/plugins/wordfence/wordfence.php’, line 40)
[Sat Mar 11 03:07:52 2017] [error] [client 82.178.186.222] mod_machinegun: 82.178.186.222 -> mvtm.ca (wp-xmlrpc) rejected
ALERT – script tried to increase memory_limit to 134217728 bytes which is above the allowed value (attacker ‘82.178.186.222’, file ‘/hsphere/local/home/c293684/mvtm.ca/mvt2/wp-content/plugins/wordfence/wordfence.php’, line 40)
ALERT – script tried to increase memory_limit to 134217728 bytes which is above the allowed value (attacker ‘82.178.186.222’, file ‘/hsphere/local/home/c293684/mvtm.ca/mvt2/wp-content/plugins/wordfence/wordfence.php’, line 40)
[Sat Mar 11 03:08:01 2017] [error] [client 82.178.186.222] mod_machinegun: 82.178.186.222 -> mvtm.ca (wordpress) rejected

Thanks, I’ll try that. Meanwhile, I manually updated the .htaccess file to get my apps working again.

I found the easiest way to modify the sort characteristics is to use the hook “posts_pieces” which provides access to all the pieces of the SQL statement used in wp_query.

Depending on your theme, you need to change the statement only if it applies to your specific case (the hook is called all over the place by widgets, pages, etc). I am using weaver ii and the page template ‘pages with posts’; I set the ‘order posts’ to ‘rand’ so I can recognize my case uniquely. Here is the nano plug-in code:

if ($pieces['orderby'] == 'RAND() DESC') { // only modify pages where 'rand' specified
        $curDate = date("Y-m-d");
        $pieces['fields'] .= ", mv_postmeta.*";
        $pieces['join'] .= " JOIN mv_postmeta ON (mv_posts.ID = mv_postmeta.post_id AND mv_postmeta.meta_key IN ('startDate', 'endDate')) ";
        $pieces['where'] .= " AND (mv_postmeta.meta_key = 'endDate' AND mv_postmeta.meta_value > '$curDate') ";
        $pieces['orderby'] = "mv_postmeta.meta_value ASC";
      }

	return $pieces;

Thanks, but I was hoping not to have them created in the first place.

Yes, that’s correct (or actually a child of 20-10)

If you use the Magic Fields plug-in you can customize the editing/entry page for each post type or page type showing just the fields you want.