permissions Problem with Module Manager

[ameagher]

Hi Again!

Somebody might have some idea why this is happening, my hosting company sure doesn't!

When I install modules via the module manager the module owner is set to 'apache', whereas, previously installed (when the system was installed) modules have owner 'admin'.

I have had a closer look at other installs of cmsms on different hosts that i have access to and this is true for them all. The difficulty is that when I go to the server file manager to manually remove a module I no longer have ownership permissions to do so, and have to contact my hosting company. This also applies to updating modules via the module manager - that is I can't update them as I don't have rights to do so. This happened before, but it wasn't a major nuisance, because I wasn't doing much in the way of changes or updates once the modules were installed, whereas now I am!

I am trying to acertain if this is a cmsms problem or a hosting problem. But, since I using a number of different hosting packages on different servers I think it may have something to do with cmsms?

This is true for cmsms versions 1.2.3, 1.2.4 and 1.2.5 under php 5.*.* to 5.2.6, MySQL 4.*, and under VPS and shared hosting accounts. All hosts are Linux, Apache.

If you need any other info to help identify what the problem may be, please let me know.

Thanks,
Anthony

[calguy1000]

This isn't a bug, it's the way file permissions work.

Files created by the web server (when downloading modules, or uploading images) are owned by the httpd process owner... and are given permissions as indicated by the umask.

When you upload files via ftp you usually login with a different user account, and the files are owned by that account and given permissions based on that users umask.

[ameagher]

Hi Calguy,

Ok, understand that. So, is there any way of getting around the permissions issue for removing/updating modules?

Thanks,
Anthony

[sweaverit]

Yeah, I am having this same issue.. Also, I try to edit module files (example, Blogs Made Simple - trying to change the date format which is in the lang/en_US.php file) and I receive all kinds of errors saying I don't have permissions to change the file.

My file creation mask is set at 002.  Will I be allowed to edit files by changing this number? If so, what does it need to be set at to give Admin permissions to edit anything?

Thanks in advance!

[Dr.CSS]

If you want your permissions, like the ones on the core that you installed, go to forge and get modules, unzip, FTP to site then install, this will give 'you' permissions not apache...

Setting unmask after module manager install will only affect future folders/files permissions not current permissions...

[Charles Butcher]

ameagher, a partial answer to your question:

So, is there any way of getting around the permissions issue for removing/updating modules?

is to use FTP to duplicate the folder or file in question, use the CMSMS File Manager to delete the original, and finally use FTP to re-name the copy.

calguy1000 wrote:

Files created by the web server ... are owned by the httpd process owner

and so the File Manager can also delete them. You will probably find that your "pre-owned" module now can't be modified by the File Manager (because it's now owned by "admin" instead of "apache"), but I suppose you could always repeat the process in reverse...

I too was troubled by the idea of items on the server that I could never delete, and I'm pleased to have found an answer. calguy1000 and mark between them gave us the solution, but for noobs like me it can take a while to sink in.

If anyone has a question about rwx-type permissions, could I respectfully suggest that they post it somewhere else? This is the only thread I could find dealing with ownership issues, which are clearly related, but different.