Running apache as root at startup

asktoby · 01-07-2004, 12:42 PM

Hi

I've been told that I should run apache as root to be secure. Although it doesn't sound safe, aparrently all apache child processes will be run as user, so it is safe.

I'd like apache to run automatically upon boot. Usually I'd add a line to .bash_profile, but in order to run it as root I'd have to type the following into .bash_profile

su -
mypassword
/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectrl start

It can't be secure to store my root password in .bash_profile, surely. How else should I do this?

Thanks,

stickman · 01-07-2004, 02:48 PM

You need to start Apache as root if you want it to bind to port 80. The child processes should run as another non-privelaged user which is defined in your conf file.

jtshaw · 01-07-2004, 05:33 PM

You need to have apache run from your init_scripts. Putting it in your profile would mean you would have to log in to start it which isn't at all what people usually want to do with apache. If you are running Mandrake there is probably some automagical way of adding a service to your init scripts that somebody else can help you out with, or that is well documented.