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File permissions

OK, I may look like a bit of a dummy here. Unfortunately, my knowledge of server stuff isn't great (at least no one goes to my forum yet, lol). So I just upgraded my ElkArte installation to from 1.1.4 to 1.1.5, and in order to install, I had to change some file permissions from 0664 to 0666. Now that I've updated, should I set them back? Do certain files need to be 0664 and others 0666? Again, sorry, I'm probably being a dolt.

Re: File permissions

Reply #1

This is a Unix file permissions question, so short answer is that you can leave them as is with no problems. 

The longer answer is that the server is somewhat less secure with files as 666,but it not so bad, like say 777.   Those numbers are Owner, Group and Anyone... so moving from 664 to 666 mean you added the write permission to Anyone (anyone with access to your server and your directory so there are other checks in place). 

The issue is primary caused by the web server configuration on shared hosting where the web user (say apache) is the file owner and the group is set to some apache group.  When you try to update the files, your userid, does not "own" those files and you are not a member of that files "group".  But your userid is a member of a privileged group so you can change the permissions.  You can set them back if you want or leave them as is with no issues for the system to run them.

I'm sure someone can give a more detailed explanation, but thats the quick answer.