For most modern Linux systems your apache user should not be run as root, and in order to change the ownership of a file or directory, you need to be root. To get around this problem you can use sudo, but be careful with what permissions you give. Here is an example which is working for me:
www-data ALL = NOPASSWD: /bin/chown 1[1-9][0-9][0-9]\:1[1-9][0-9][0-9] /home/www/[a-zA-Z0-9]*
This allows the apache server to change ownership of files in /home/www with name containing a-z, A-Z or numbers (note: no subdirectories). The only valid input of userid is a four digit numeric id, between 1100 and 1999.
Hope this helps.
chown
(PHP 4, PHP 5)
chown — Changes file owner
Descrierea
Attempts to change the owner of the file filename to user user . Only the superuser may change the owner of a file.
Parametri
- filename
-
Path to the file.
- user
-
A user name or number.
Valorile întroarse
Întoarce valoarea TRUE în cazul succesului sau FALSE în cazul eşecului.
Exemple
Example #1 Simple chown() usage
<?php
// File name and username to use
$file_name= "foo.php";
$path = "/home/sites/php.net/public_html/sandbox" . $file_name ;
$user_name = "root";
// Set the user
chown($path, $user_name);
// Check the result
$stat = stat($path);
print_r(posix_getpwuid($stat['uid']));
?>
Exemplul de mai sus va afişa ceva similar cu:
array(7) {
["name"]=>
string(13) "php.net"
["passwd"]=>
string(1) "x"
["uid"]=>
int(148864)
["gid"]=>
int(148910)
["gecos"]=>
string(13) "php.net"
["dir"]=>
string(25) "/home/sites/php.net"
["shell"]=>
string(13) "/sbin/nologin"
}
Note
Notă: Această funcţie nu va lucra cu fişiere la distanţă, deoarece fişierul care trebuie să fie examinat trebuie să fie accesibil prin intermediul sistemului de fişiere al serverului.
Notă: Când este activat modul securizat, PHP verifică dacă fişierele şi directoarele cu care se va opera au acelaşi UID (proprietar) ca şi script-ul care se execută.
chown
19-Jun-2009 05:04
02-Feb-2008 03:42
I've only tested this on Solaris 10 so your mileage may vary.
To allow the apache daemon to change file ownership without being root, add the following line to /etc/system:
set rstchown=0
Reboot the server.
There are security concerns doing this as this modification allows any user to change ownership of their files to anyone else.
12-Jan-2006 12:13
Simple usage of the chown:
<?php
$file_name= "test";
$path = "/var/www/html/test/" . $file_name ;
$user_name = "root";
chown($path, $user_name);
?>
23-May-2005 03:38
for some reason i was searching for chown() with an "on this mashine"-unknown userid and found martijn's hint very interesting. the main problem is, that if the numerical uid is used within a variable, it is checked against the /etc/passwd and returns "unknown user". a little note:
use intval(), not inval()! so all in all it is:
chown($path_to_dir,intval($uidnumber));
24-Feb-2004 08:00
<?php
function recurse_chown_chgrp($mypath, $uid, $gid)
{
$d = opendir ($mypath) ;
while(($file = readdir($d)) !== false) {
if ($file != "." && $file != "..") {
$typepath = $mypath . "/" . $file ;
//print $typepath. " : " . filetype ($typepath). "<BR>" ;
if (filetype ($typepath) == 'dir') {
recurse_chown_chgrp ($typepath, $uid, $gid);
}
chown($typepath, $uid);
chgrp($typepath, $gid);
}
}
}
recurse_chown_chgrp ("uploads", "unsider", "unsider") ;
?>
for older versions.. unfortunately, it seems I do not have permission to perform these functions.
12-Oct-2003 11:49
As far as I can tell, PHP's built in functions will not do a recursive chown or chgrp. But it wouldn't be hard to write a function for this. Here is some starter code based on an example written by John Coggeshall which I found at http://www.coggeshall.org :
<?php
function recurse_chown_chgrp($path2dir, $uid, $gid){
$dir = new dir($path2dir);
while(($file = $dir->read()) !== false) {
if(is_dir($dir->path.$file)) {
recurse_chown_chgrp($dir->path.$file, $uid, $gid);
} else {
chown($file, $uid);
chgrp($file, $gid);
}
}
$dir->close();
}
?>
I have not tested this code (but I think it will work) because for my current needs, a simple exec("chown -r $user.$group $path"); is sufficient. I would need this code if I were not in control of the contents of these variables because they can be dangerous on the command line.
27-Jun-2003 11:37
If you want to chown a symlink, PHP will follow the symlink and change the target file.
If you want to chown the symlink, you have to use shell_exec("/bin/chown user.group symlink");
20-Jun-2003 10:28
If chown is filled with a variable ( chown ("myfile", $uid) the uid will be looked up through pwget_uid.
So if you need to set a non existing uid use inval($uid).
22-Sep-2000 02:28
If you allow sudo execution for chmod by "nobody" (www, webdaemon, httpd, whatever user php is running under)in this manner, it had better be a system on which the owner is able to be root and no one else can run code, else your whole system is compromised. Someone could change the mode of /etc/passwd or the shadow password file.
Other system commands (sudo mount) and so forth are similar.
