who owns the files created from the web?

Anon

Hi!
I have a PHP script that i execute from the web and it creates a bunch of files. When i tried to stat the files, i could not do so and it kept giving an error saying "no such file or directory" I went into my UNIX account and looked at the files and owner of the file is listed at "nobody" and the permissions are set to "-rw-r--r--"
Why does it say nobody and what do i need to do so that i own the files and have the appropriate permissions?

Here is what i am doing...
$file="junk";
$ext=".txt";
for($i=0;$i<10;$i++)
{
$file=$file . $i . $ext;

if($file=fopen("$dir/$file","w"))
{
fputs($file, $filebody);
fclose($file);
$file="junk";
}
else
echo "Could not create file";
}
}

Anon

your easiest option is to chmod 777 the file..

nobody is the user that the webserver runs under.. thats why it owns it..

Anon

How do set the permissions while creating the files from the PHP script?

After creating the files, i cannot change permissions because i am not the owner! And having the umask set to 777 is a huge security risk!

-Tarun

Anon

This all depends upon your web host.

When I was with Verizon awhile back, I could create and write to any file I wanted via a script on their server. I could also FTP any file I wanted to their server and edit it as I pleased. But when I switched to another hosting co., all of a sudden I was having the same problem you are.

For reasons that are still not clear to me, if I use a script to create a file, the web host has it set up so that I have full priviliges. But if I create a file locally (using Windows, whatever) and FTP that file to the server, I cannot edit it.

Their explanation has been that by creating a file via a PHP script, I own that file. But by FTPing one, Apache owns the file (or vice versa).

This only causes me an inconvenience when I want to change any data in a server file directly (by editing it via my FTP client). I cannot do it. I am stuck with the data in the file the way it is. Of course, once I download it, then it's mine again to do with as I wish.

I know this is a very confusing topic, and mostly due to security issues -- depending upon your web host, but I hope that helps.

Ask your web host for a better explanation, and let me know what you find out!

Anon

use chmod() to change your file permissions.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.filesystem.php

Anon

When PHP runs as an apache module, anything PHP does (to include writing files) is done by the user that apache runs as. This user is normally either "apache" or "nobody".

If user "nobody" owns a file, then user "jim" cannot do anything to that file unless "nobody" gives "jim" permissions to do so.

When PHP runs as a CGI wrapper, then any action done by any script is done as the user that owns that script. If the script is owned by "jim" and and there are no group or other permissions set, then only "jim" can access the script.

As far as writing files to the server, the owner of a script has to have permissions to write to the directory in question, or else the script cannot write to it, whether the user is "jim" or "nobody" or whatever.

Think of a script as being a user, that user needs permission set to do whatever he needs to do, same as if it were a person.

This make any sense?