[Pmwiki-users] AdminQ2 - Problems with directory permissions on Unix server

Patrick R. Michaud pmichaud
Thu Apr 1 11:56:07 CST 2004


On Thu, Apr 01, 2004 at 12:27:04PM -0800, Steven Leite wrote:
> 
>    After  months  of  testing  PmWiki  on  local  (windows)  box, i'm not
>    attempting  to  migrate  it  to the Internet on my unix account.  Just
>    when  I  thought  I had a handle on PmWiki and how it works .. now I'm
>    having a nightmare trying to get the site working properly.
> 
>    PmWiki refused to run.

What does "refused to run" mean here?  I mean, what error message did you
get?

>    After  days  of  trying  .. I tried out of desperationn this script to
>    modify permissions on the wiki.d directory.

Did you try the "fixperms.php" script that comes with PmWiki?

>    I  wonder if we can't invest some time in making this easier for other
>    users?  Like I said .. just when i started feeling that I had a handle
>    on things, I was faced by this problem .. I almost gave up .. but that
>    little script up there saved the day.

We probably need a Cookbook recipe or documentation page that describes 
how to do backups and restores of PmWiki systems, including migration
to another server.  In general the easiest way to do it is to do a new
install/setup of PmWiki on the new system, copy the local, pub, and wiki.d
directories from the old system to the new one, and then run the fixperms
script.

>    I'm  just  wondering  if  there's  a  better  way?  I like usemod wiki
>    because  it's  a  single  .cgi file.  You plop it in any folder on the
>    system,  make it executable, and voila .. it goes and does it's thing.
>    It doesn't bother you about file permissions to make this directory or
>    that directory.

This statement is false.  With usemod you cannot "just plop it in any
folder on the system" -- you have to put it in a folder that allows CGI
executables, and that depends on the server or webhosting configuration/
policies.  And if usemod doesn't bother you about file permissions then 
it's expecting your system to be a lot more permissive than many environments
are by default.

>    Maybe someone could give a brief description (or point me to a url) so
>    that  I  can  better appreciate the complexity and challenges faced by
>    PmWiki and this whole business of security.

Given the amount of traffic that has crossed the listserv on this topic
lately I may see if I can write a longer article about it.  

Pm



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