How do I give a user permission to save files to /var/www/html?

rotnay6000 · 08-16-2004, 09:12 PM

I believe that I need to do a chmod on the var/www/html directory, or just the files in it - but I'm not sure.

TIA!!!

FedoraCore2, Apache 2.0

redhatgeek · 08-16-2004, 09:17 PM

you could put the user in the apache group or create a seperate group with r/w access to that dir and put the user in it

xlordt · 08-16-2004, 09:26 PM

chown -R {usersname} {path to file/dir}

rotnay6000 · 08-16-2004, 10:02 PM

Thanks for the quick response. The user is a member of the apache group (using gnome/system settings/users & groups). Is there a command I can use in a terminal to verify this?

btmiller · 08-16-2004, 10:05 PM

Check that apache group has write access to /var/www/html to do so, type 'ls -ld /var/www/html', any tutorial on Unix permissions will tell you how to interpret the results (I think there's one in the answers section here, if not googling on Unix permissions will turn up plenty). Post here if you're confused. Also do id <username> or groups <username> to verify your user is a member of the apache group.

rotnay6000 · 08-17-2004, 08:42 AM

Thanks for the help - it appears root is the owner, as ls -ld produces:

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 16 06:16 /var/www/html

So I guess I need to use CHOWN to change group ownership to apache instead of root as my user is a member of the apache group?

I am a little confused on the syntax of CHOWN to do that - I appreciate everyone's help!

rotnay6000 · 08-17-2004, 09:43 AM

OK, I got it !!

Opened a terminal, logged in as su, then did:

chgrp apache /var/www/html

Then:

chmod 775 /var/www/html

THANKS FOR EVERYONE'S HELP!!!

sfo_sc · 04-18-2007, 12:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rotnay6000

OK, I got it !!

Opened a terminal, logged in as su, then did:

chgrp apache /var/www/html

Then:

chmod 775 /var/www/html

THANKS FOR EVERYONE'S HELP!!!

Ran into the same question and this thread solved my problem. Thanks!

uvdevnull · 07-14-2009, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rotnay6000

OK, I got it !!

Opened a terminal, logged in as su, then did:

chgrp apache /var/www/html

Then:

chmod 775 /var/www/html

THANKS FOR EVERYONE'S HELP!!!

Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm fairly new to linux and apache but this sounds like a very bad idea. Aren't you in effect giving write permissions on all those files to anonymous browsers of your website? What I would do instead, as was suggested earlier, is create a new group (ie: webmasters), add the user to it and then chgrp and chmod for that new group.

Otherwise you're giving write perm to apache group, of which the apache user is a member, as which the httpd service runs.

I could be wrong, so double check me...

unSpawn · 07-14-2009, 08:40 PM

While this is a necropost (a response to a thread that died long ago), I agree. Keeping the "least privilege" mantra in mind one should know when to rely on DAC rights or group membership and when to use ACL.

uvdevnull · 07-14-2009, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unSpawn

While this is a necropost (a response to a thread that died long ago), I agree. Keeping the "least privilege" mantra in mind one should know when to rely on DAC rights or group membership and when to use ACL.

I normally don't resurrect old threads but I saw that people are still taking that bad advice years later