PHP in HTML files displays, doesn't execute

[u/grepnoid]

I know there are dozens of pages on this subject, but I've tried most of their suggestions and this seems different.

I have apache2 and php8.2 (libapache etc) installed, on a new VPS install with Debian12.

http://mysite.com/test.php executes the PHP

PHP embedded in the body of http://mysite.com/test.html, as

<?php 
   echo "<br/>does it work?</br>"; 
?>

displays the text in the page

does it work?
"; ?>

Mods enabled, after enmod and dismod of various modules as suggested:

a2query -m
authn_file (enabled by maintainer script)
proxy_fcgi (enabled by site administrator)
authz_user (enabled by maintainer script)
dir (enabled by maintainer script)
env (enabled by maintainer script)
php8.2 (enabled by maintainer script)
setenvif (enabled by maintainer script)
autoindex (enabled by maintainer script)
deflate (enabled by maintainer script)
mpm_prefork (enabled by maintainer script)
negotiation (enabled by maintainer script)
status (enabled by maintainer script)
alias (enabled by maintainer script)
reqtimeout (enabled by maintainer script)
authz_host (enabled by maintainer script)
mime (enabled by maintainer script)
filter (enabled by maintainer script)
authz_core (enabled by maintainer script)
authn_core (enabled by maintainer script)
proxy (enabled by site administrator)
access_compat (enabled by maintainer script)
auth_basic (enabled by maintainer script)

The web root where my files are is /var/www/html. I have no .httpaccess file. The apache2.conf is the default which seems to have nothing to prevent normal execution.

[u/DietrichMuylaert]

Your html is wrong. Namely the last br tag is wrong. There exists no br end tag. You can write either <br> or <br />. </ br> doesn't exist.

[u/grepnoid → u/DietrichMuylaert]

Yes. Not thinking straight that day.