[RESOLVED] php upload Vista control & permission settings

TheFinnisher

Hello,

I have PHP, Apache 2 installed on my localhost Windows Vista machine.

When I upload an image file with php it is stored in a folder but the permissions are somehow set so that I can't delete the imagine in Windows Explorer nor does the thumbnail work. Very annoying!

Does anyone know how to fix this?

When I compare two images properties in Windows Explorer it seems it's Vista's Security settings, administrative control and permissions that are different.

Thanks for any insight!

Thomas

Horizon88

Do you have PHP installed as a service, or is it something you need to launch? If it's a service, it could be that Vista is giving the file system permissions instead of setting them to yourself. I dunno though, I've not worked with Vista.

TheFinnisher

I have Apache installed as a service...and PHP is automatically run through the Environment Variables (I don't know if this counts as a Service??).

I've figured out so far that it has to do something with Vista permissions. Somehow it might be able to set the specific folder and grant it ownership or take charge of it as owner.

I realize now this thread should probably be in the Windows topic... Sorry!

bpat1434

The problem is really how Windows deals with permissions. If it's running as a "Service" (i.e. if you open your services window (Start Orb --> type "services.msc" without quotes) and find Apache Web Server (or whatever Apache service is called)) then it's Apache (and subsequently PHP if run as a module instead of CGI) that is running as a system user which isn't the same as your user when you log in. So you have to "take" the file from the service's control and make yourself the owner.

To make yourself the owner, just right click on the file, select "Properties" then in the "Security" tab and click the "Advanced" button. From there select the "Owner" tab and then click the "Edit" button. Then find & choose your user, then hit OK a few dozen times and then try to delete / move / edit the file.

One thing you can do is use suPHP and SuExec with Apache. You can run them as a user on your system (as you for instance). Then all files created can be edited by PHP and you'll still be able to manually take care of things.

So moral of the story is... when running Apache/PHP as a service (a.k.a. daemon) then it will have the owner set to the system account, not your user. So to fix this either take ownership manually, or run PHP as a CGI and utilize suPHP to run it as a different Windows user.

Horizon88

That's what I figured bpat, but I didn't know for certain. Does that mean it has virtually-root control, or is is more of a "nobody" system account?

TheFinnisher

Since the file is uploaded by Apache and Apache is run as a service it seems that's what set's the security permissions...

When I look at the property of the file it says the owner is: "Unable to display current owner".

Then in the Group or usernames I see an added group: "NETWORK SERVICE".

Changing the owner doesn't make a difference but when I assign that file more access for "NETWORK SERVICE" it does allow me to delete and see the thumbnail in Windows Explorer.

Now if I only knew how to set this to happen by default in this specific folder.

Anyone?

TheFinnisher

Thanks both Horizon88 and bpat1434,

Strange my post #6 was delayed with a few hours.

I wasn't successful with setting the ownership thing...BUT I was able to fix it in another way:

I noticed I hadn't specified a upload_tmp_dir in my php ini file and hence the upload defaulted to the system (probably Windows/temp folder) which likely made the strange permissions/ownership while I uploaded...and then was moved with those settings using the "move_uploaded_file" php functions.

So I decided to add a "upload_tmp_dir" to my php ini and that worked.

I just added a folder and then my setting was the following:

upload_tmp_dir = "C:\web\tmp"

Hope that might help someone else.

Thanks for your help!

bpat1434

Glad to see you figured another way around it. Make sure that if this is resolved, you mark it as such.