visudo not working

I want apache to run a command as another user, vpopmail

First, I edited the sudoers file,

visudo

and added the following line:
apache ALL=(vpopmail) NOPASSWD: /bin/echo

Next,

outputs
-rwx------ 5 vpopmail vchkpw 4096 Jan 20 13:05 .qmail

However, I'm getting "permission denied" when I run the following with PHP

<?
$output = shell_exec("sudo -u vpopmail /bin/echo 'XYZ' > /home/vpopmail/domains/domain.com/user/.qmail");
?>

What am I missing?

Does Apache have write permissions in /home/vpopmail/domains/domain.com/user/.qmail ?

Horizon88 wrote:
Does Apache have write permissions in /home/vpopmail/domains/domain.com/user/.qmail ?

That is what the entry in the sudoers file is supposed to do, i.e. give apache write access.

What does shell_exec('sudo -u vpopmail whoami'); return?

My apache runs as "_www" not "apache". Is that your problem maybe? Only 3 months late?

I'm trying to give apache sudo access for something too, is there a place that explains the syntax of these lines in detail?

apache ALL=(vpopmail) NOPASSWD: /bin/echo

"man sudoers" ought to have more information than you'd ever want to know about the /etc/sudoers file.