Hi all,

I have a problems trying to understand Directory permission. I have downloaded apache on my Red Hat E/S v 5 Distro. I was trying to get the httpd.conf file in a terminal and it said to me that I didn't have permission to open, right in it, or even move it. I downloaded Apache under my user account and as well under root but the same thing happened. I used the command "chmod a+x file-name" to get around the problem and everything was fine.
Why is this happening? How this command ("chmod a+x file-name") can circumvent the problem?
Again, thank you all for your support.

Riganta

All that will do is make the file executable by all users.

you should always check /var/log/messages to see if there are any errors before playing with things...if there is nothing telling you what's going on in there...then try:

httpd.conf should need only be 644 permissions, or -rw-r--r-- (read by all, but writeable only by the owner, whcih should be root).

Do the following:
you should see:
is this what is says?

if so, and you still can't write to it try this in the same directory:
you should see that the owner and group are set to root, and user::rw- group::r-- other::r--

if that is correct, and you still can't write to it do you have SELinux enabled? If so, check the security context of the file, shouldn't cause issues with writing it though.

if all this looks good, finally check
this should return with a rw flag in the line

Hi Brad,

Thanks a lot for your help

Following your steps, this is what I got:

# cd /etc/httpd/conf
# ls -ltr

total 60
-rw-r--r-- l root root 12958 nov 29 12:34 magic
-rw-r--r-- l root root 33677 nov 29 12:34 httpd.conf

# getfacl httpd.conf

# file: httpd.conf
# owner: root
# group: root
user::rw-
group::r--
other::r--

Still couldn't writte to it or nothing for that matter

# cat /proc/mounts | grep root

rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0
/dev/root / ext3 rw,data=ordered 0 0

Still can't do nothing with the directory and I cannot run apache.

Cheers for all Brad

Riganta

Can you not edit the file, or you can start apache?

That is two different problems...if you can't start apache, try:

# service httpd configtest

This will show you if you have any errors with the httpd.conf file ... http out of the box is pretty easy ... you really don't need to do anything but start httpd, and they if you go to http://localhost you will see a test page from your OS provider

What is it you want to do, and what problems are you having, be as specific as possible.

brad

You are right. I have two problems. The first is the one that we have been talking about. I cannot access to the httpd.conf file to configurate apache because a refusal access by Red Hat. The second is that i cannot start apache anymore. When I ran the command "httpd configtest" i got the answer "Syntax OK". See I don't know if apache works fine because when i check on http://localhost I have a connection problem Basically, is says "no connection possible"

Cheers

I didn't think I had to ask this question, but hey, you know what they say when you assume ;-)

What user are you when you try to edit the httpd.conf?
What text editor are you using?

What are the permissions on the /etc/httpd/conf directory?

Hi,


What user are you when you try to edit the httpd.conf?

I have tried both. Being myself as riganta and then root. The result is the same. It's being difficult as I have tried to find a way around it.

What text editor are you using?

There you have to be more precise. I think, if I understood, I am using the preinstalled text editor in Red Hat E/S v 5

What are the permissions on the /etc/httpd/conf directory?

The directory belongs to root. Which is something that I don't understand because I have installed apache under riganta. Am I doing something wrong here?

Cheers Brad