php, directories, and linux permissions

[cybertank]

What I'm trying to do is build a php script that takes files and
directories uploaded to directory X by multiple users and moves them to other locations. I
have no problems reading and moving individual files, but I cannot get the
permissions right so that php (running as apache) can move an uploaded
directory. I can copy directories, but as soon as I try to remove the
originals I get permission denied. Which makes sense since apache doesn't
own the directories, the user who uploaded it does. Any ideas? The parent
directory X is owned by apache and has a+rwx rights.

As an example, user luis uploads directory doc with 3 documents to /apache/, which is owned by apache but world writable. I'd like the php code to move the doc directory to, say, /www/doc. I can do
exec("copy -R /apache/doc /www/doc") just fine, but I cannot succesfully execute
exec("rm -fR /apache/doc")

If I could have a directory that whatever is uploaded into it, no matter by
which user, the files and directories within it are always owned by apache, my problem would be solved. Is this possible?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Luis

[Anon]

If you have PHP setup as an Apache mod, all files loaded via HTTP will be owned by apache. If this is how you are setup, I would verify Apache's username and make sure it isn't running as nobody.

Users are using mkdir to create the directories?

[Anon]

The files and directories I'm talking about are copied to the directory through FTP. It has to be this way because we are talking about hundreds of files at about 100mb total. So thats why they end up being owned by the user who uploaded them.