How to chown "www-data" and another user to the same folder?

Posted on July 10, 2017

Security

Linux Basics

Linux Commands

i’m creating a web server with Debian9, where i want to have hundreds os sites.

Each one inside “/var/www/” Ex: /var/www/site1/ /var/www/site2/ /var/www/site3/

I make tests where i created a user “user1” and set permissions to “user1” write only to “/var/www/site1/”

when installing wordpress on the folder “site1” i have to chown “user1” to “site1” folder, so the “user1” can put and write all files needed using sftp protocol.

But when wordpress needs to write .htaccess file or create a new folder to install a new theme, i need to chown “www-data” to “site1” folder

My question is: Can i chown at same time “user1” and “www-data” users to “site1” folder?

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Flamber Hansen

July 10, 2017

Hi @rodrigoreloaded

You need to create a PHP pool for each site and set the user and group to user1. This will require a lot more RAM than you’re currently using, since you’re only using one pool. But it will also make everything more secure, since each user only has access to their files and even PHP is only being executed with access to the user’s files.

asterixzzz

September 26, 2020

sudo adduser mysudouser1 www-data (adds your user to www-data user group) sudo chown -R www-data /var/www/example.com/html/ sudo usermod -a -G www-data mysudouser1 sudo chgrp www-data /var/www/example.com/html/ sudo chmod g+rwxs /var/www/example.com/html/ sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/example.com/html/ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html (If you have many users, just add all to the www-data-group)