As the title suggests, I need the ability to create, move, and delete files and folders from php.
If I CHMOD all directories and files to 777, everything works great, but if I do 755 then the scripts die with errors about permissions.
From what I’ve read, using 777 permissions is insecure and should not be done. I have a VPS, but there are multiple users as I host a number of websites (some of which other people are in control of) and, regardless, I want to do whatever is the “best practice.”
So, basically, what I’m wondering is how I should go about this? I’m new to php and “webmastering” and am not sure what to do.
Could anyone point me in the right direction?
One last note: In addition to being able to move and delete files that have been created from php, the scripts also need to move and delete files that have been uploaded via FTP from a Windows machine (I’ve noticed that by default when I upload files the CHMOD is 755).
EDIT: I it may be relevant for me to mention that I ran phpinfo() and found the following under the section “PHP Credits”:
User/Group nobody(99)/99
Permissions are set for what the owner can do, what the owner’s user group can do (the owner’s peers in the same user group), and what everone else can do. That’s what the 3 numbers are for: 753 is a “7” for the owner, a “5” for the group, and a “3” for everyone else. A “7” is full access (read, write, execute). A “5” is read and execute. You need write access to delete.
You should really read up on linux file permissions to see how they work.
I would recommend you use 775 or 770. The last digit is what anyone on the system or any shmoe browsing your site can do, so you want it as low as possible.
As far as your ftp script and your future other-users, just make sure they are in the same group as your apache user. Or, set up a group for those account you want to have access, and add your apache account to it.