Warnings when creating new files and subdirectories

[eyewoo]

I'm developing a web application and have it with some beta testers. Some are reporting that their servers have PHP 4 or better installed, but the program does not work because they receive lots of warning messages. The warnings are all related to the fact that, though PHP is active on the server, permissions have not been set to allow creating files or subdirectories.

This is my first PHP project - question: any idea - roughly - what percent of commercial hosts make PHP available on their clients' accounts, but turn off file creation for security reasons?

It doesn't make sense to me, since I would figure that most PHP applications would need to create files for one reason or another..... :

[bezmond]

Hey,
my host (http://www.webgroup.co.uk) allows for PHP file creation, however I can't create folders.

Andrew

[eyewoo]

My host, http://www.webaxxs.com , allows creation of files and folders. That's the system I developed the application on.... and now I'm beginning to discover that not all PHP installations are the same...

This is a problem, since the application needs to create files and subdirectories and rename files and subdirectries... It all works well on my development server... :

[mike]

On my servers I permit file/directory creation but only within /home and /tmp. I think this is the best solution for securing your server files and allow users make their own ones. Most hosts are using the safe_mode switch that makes PHP very strict but its the easiest solution for administrator that dont know or dont care about custom installations.

[eyewoo]

I presume /home would be a particlar user's home or root directory. Wouldn't it be possible to also allow creation of subdirectories and files below the /home directory?... and still maintain security?

The program I'm working on must be able to create subdirectories in a user's account.

[mike]

Putting some restrictions on system files improve very much the security of the server. /home is the main directory tree for all users. Dont forget that PHP cannot read files on diffent directories on other users but can read any file on /etc ... /usr and other core system dirs.

The program I'm working on must be able to create subdirectories in a user's account.

Its possible with this option.