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Many PHP applications do self-configuration and self-updating. This requires apache to have write access to the PHP files. While chgrp'ing them all to www-data appears like a good practice to avoid making them world writable, I also wish to allow users to create new files and edit existing one.

Is adding users to the group www-data safe on Debian? For example:

775 root www-data /var/www 644 john www-data /var/www/johns_php_application.php 660 john www-data /var/www/johns_php_applications_configuration_file
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Reset to default
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I usually create a group called "webdev" and add my web developer user and www-data to the group and give it the appropriate permissions for the site/directory/files, etc.

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    Good idea, i did not think of going the other way around. Adding the httpd to the developer's group is more logical then the developers in the httpd's group. Thank you. Commented Jul 26, 2010 at 15:37
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Why not use mod_userdir?

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  • mod_userdir dont setuid or setgid apache to the user. Files are still not writable unless they are chmod'ed 777. Commented Jul 26, 2010 at 14:38

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