WWW as File and Directory Owner rather than User

[Eric Crist]

On Apr 3, 2007, at 4:01 AM, Gregory Houston wrote:
> Should WWW be able to be the owner? If not, how do I take its  
> privileges
> away? Root is listed as a user in MySQL, as well as myself, but WWW  
> is not.
>
> Now I am afraid to create any new WordPress entries because I don't  
> know if
> all my apps are going to start creating files with WWW as the owner  
> rather
> than me.


Greg, the www user/group is fairly standard, as it's usually the  
unprivileged user that the web server software is run as.  The www  
user/group is on the FreeBSD system itself, not the MySQL instance.   
Any time a php script creates, edits, or removes a file, it's going  
to typically be done with the www user/group.

One solution would be to ask your friend to make you a member of the  
www group, which should allow you to modify/delete any files that the  
scripts create.  A better solution would be to setuid on the  
directory, and give www temporary write access when you need to  
perform an installation such that you just experienced.

HTH
-----
Eric F Crist
Secure Computing Networks