user permissions

Hello everybody,
I'm a LIN newbie and I just finished setting up a Debian machine which will be dedicated to host some websites for me and some friends.
What I want to do now is to create some users with restricted permissions.
They just have to be able to copy files on their own www directory.
That's it. Nothing more.
My structure is
/var/www/http/[siteName]
What I want to do is to give to every user an SSH account that is able to read / write on its DIR.

Then, how I can get details about users/groups on my system?
(Because I want those users to be in the www-data group [if it is right])

Thanks a lot and sorry for my lame questions!

Ciao

Originally posted by cubax Hello everybody, I'm a LIN newbie and I just finished setting up a Debian machine which will be dedicated to host some websites for me and some friends. What I want to do now is to create some users with restricted permissions. They just have to be able to copy files on their own www directory. That's it. Nothing more. My structure is

chown username:www-data /var/www/http/[siteName]
chmod 750 /var/www/http/[siteName]

The problem with this of course is that if all users are in the www-data group then they're all abte to see each others files (if that's an issue)

What I want to do is to give to every user an SSH account that is able to read / write on its DIR. Then, how I can get details about users/groups on my system? (Because I want those users to be in the www-data group [if it is right]) Thanks a lot and sorry for my lame questions! Ciao

You can look at the groups with

vi /etc/group

There may be some GUI tool for it, but I wouldn't know what it is.

There are several "Hosting Control Panels" that do this for you with a GUI over the web, such as Cpanel, Plesk, etc.

Unfortionatly these cost money, and a lot of it.

Thats why I have started an open-source project of my own, to do these same things without the dreaded cost. I put the project on sourceforge.net , but haven't released any files yet ( having a baby reall cuts into your free time )

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ravencore/

Anyway, I'd be willing to install what I have of it so far if you're willing to let me. Would be nice to port it for debian. PM me if you're interested.

-Corey

Originally posted by cormander Thats why I have started an open-source project of my own, to do these same things without the dreaded cost.

I've done things as a labor of love before, or just to prove to myself that I could, or because all existing options sucked, but if the cost is the only reason for writing it, I think you may be reinventing the wheel on this one as there are several free hosting control panel solutions out there already. Here's one and here's another and another and ... Well, you get the idea. There's 15 projects on Freshmeat.net for "Hosting control". Some free, some not.

Okay well I guess I forgot to mention that I do love making it, have learned a ton in doing it, and have nothing else better to do when the wife and child are asleep

Plus none of those projects are really huge. I'll humor myself into thinking that I can make mine bigger and better.

-Corey