Parse error: syntax error, unexpected php on line 39

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '<' in /home/content/w/e/t/wetodid/html/index.php on line 39

this is what comes up on my private community I am developing.  SInce im new to all this I thought it was best to ask for some help.  Hopefully its something simple, although starting over from scratch needs to be done anyways.  The problem is that the person that helped my set up the site is no longer in the area, so Im stuck.  Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

  • Elgg 1.7's index.php doesn't have a line 39.  What version of Elgg are you using, and have you changed anything?  Did you install Elgg to your root directory or in a subdirectory?

  • version 1.7

     

    installed in root

    set up the database changed the proper permissions and played around with mods.  Nothing structural other then the typical mods.  The site was working fine untill i got the message.  No changes have been made for months pryor to error.

  • I just got the same message using 1.7.1. Except mine said line 37.

    Site was working fine then all of a sudden i get this..

  • Any confirmation that this is a bug or a coincidence?? Im gonna have to redo the whole site.

  • 1. Make sure your web server does not have permission to write to the directories and files in Elgg. Do this for security reasons.

    2. Copy over a clean copy of the code. Code like this doesn't suddenly break so that code must have been changed.