MCM – Can’t Install or Uninstall Extensions

install

I found threads where people had similar problems while installing/uninstalling extensions using Magento Connect Manager. I found the general answers to be "chmod your downloader directory to 777" or "just install manually through FTP or SSH", but this is a feature that's been working very well for the past four years, and it suddenly broke a few weeks ago.

Whenever I try to either install or uninstall an extension using Magento Connect Manager, I get errors stating that some directories couldn't be created/deleted.

For example, when trying to install a Bestsellers Extension:

Checking dependencies of packages
Installing package community/Bestseller_products 2.0.0

CONNECT ERROR: Failed to create directory:
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/etc/modules
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Block/Adminhtml/Bestseller/Edit
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Block/Adminhtml/Bestseller/Edit/Tab
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Block/Adminhtml/Bestseller/Edit
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Block/Adminhtml/Bestseller
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Block/Adminhtml/Bestseller
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Block/Adminhtml
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Block/Adminhtml
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Block/Adminhtml
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Block/Adminhtml
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Block/Adminhtml
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Block/Adminhtml
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Block/Adminhtml
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Block
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Helper
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Model
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Model/Mysql4/Bestseller
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Model/Mysql4
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Model/Mysql4/Product
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Model/System/Config/Source
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Model/System/Config/Source
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Model/System/Config/Source
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/Model/System/Config/Source
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/controllers/Adminhtml
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/etc
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/etc
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/code/community/CapacityWebSolutions/Bestseller/sql/bestseller_setup
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/design/frontend/base/default/template/bestseller
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/design/frontend/base/default/template/bestseller
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/design/adminhtml/default/default/layout
/home/kemstore/public_html/./app/design/adminhtml/default/default/template/bestseller
Check permissions

When I tried to uninstall an OrdersEraser extension:

Starting to uninstall community/Wyomind_OrdersEraser 

CONNECT ERROR: Failed to delete files: /home/kemstore/public_html/downloader/.././app/code/community/Wyomind/Orderseraser/Block/Order/Grid.php
/home/kemstore/public_html/downloader/.././app/code/community/Wyomind/Orderseraser/Model/Observer.php
/home/kemstore/public_html/downloader/.././app/code/community/Wyomind/Orderseraser/Model/Orderseraser.php
/home/kemstore/public_html/downloader/.././app/code/community/Wyomind/Orderseraser/controllers/Adminhtml/OrderseraserController.php
/home/kemstore/public_html/downloader/.././app/code/community/Wyomind/Orderseraser/etc/config.xml
/home/kemstore/public_html/downloader/.././app/code/community/Wyomind/Orderseraser/etc/system.xml
/home/kemstore/public_html/downloader/.././app/etc/modules/Wyomind_Orderseraser.xml 
Check permissions

First of all, why do I have those /./ and /.././ within the paths? Does that mean the paths were too long to fit on the error log, or does that have something to do with the problem?

I've tried playing around with directory/file permissions, and before I go off and do a manual install, I wanted to check with everyone.

Any help would be appreciated!

Best Answer

. and .. are special types of paths that indicate the current directory and parent directory respectively. /home/kemstore/public_html/downloader/.././app/ means go to the /home/kemstore/public_html/downloader/ directory, then go up to the parent directory (../), stay there (./), and then go to the app/ directory.

Depending on your server setup and whether you are on shared or dedicated hosting, typically your files are owned by the Web server user (either www-data on Debian/Ubuntu, or apache on RHEL/CentOS) and the permissions are usually set to 664 or 644 for files and 775 or 755 for directories.

As an example, the following shell commands would get you back on track if you are using a dedicated CentOS server (run as root or using sudo):

# cd /home/kemstore/public_html
# chown -R apache: .
# find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
# find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

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TLDR; version of why Magento gives those instructions: you want things to be writable during installation (700 directories and 600 files), then afterwards assign ownership to the web server running user and restrictive permissions (500 directories, 400 files) that allow read only except for media/ and var/ directories.

This will work on a server that has been set up specifically with security in mind. Web servers can have a lot of variation in their setup especially shared hosts.

Your system sounds like it needs group and/or global read permissions for the web server to read your login user owned files. Check to see who owns the var/cache/ sub folders and the files they contain, you probably will find it's different.

From the question, you didn't get to the next step. They then have the After Installation settings which are even more restrictive.

Running recommendation is:

500 for directories
400 for files
for media/ and var/
700 for directories
600 for files.

The key to understanding all this is the need to know the server user

On a dedicated server, in the instructions they tell you how to find the server user by checking the apache2.conf or httpd.conf file for the User config line.

Typically, this will be something like nobody, www-data

And so with this bit of information on a dedicated server you then assign all directories and files to be owned by the server user

chown -R {web-server-user-name-here} .

On a hosted system, if you're using Apache MPM-ITK or litespeed, the web server will run with your login name as the server user.

Once the ownership is set properly then you change all the directories and files as follows:

find . -type f -exec chmod 400 {} \;
find . -type d -exec chmod 500 {} \; 
find var/ -type f -exec chmod 600 {} \; 
find media/ -type f -exec chmod 600 {} \;
find var/ -type d -exec chmod 700 {} \; 
find media/ -type d -exec chmod 700 {} \;
chmod 700 includes
chmod 600 includes/config.php

Now comes the massive headache part. Any time you upload files you no longer have write permissions except where you have allowed them (var/, media/) so every time you want to do maintenance outside these folders, you must change everything back by:

find . -type d -exec chmod 700 {} \;
find . -type f -exec chmod 600 {} \;

And on the dedicated server, also probably change ownership to the login user name so you will have permission to write stuff.

Also, if you used Magento Connect (on dedicated server, leave ownership as the web server user), anything it installs will be given 777 permissions.

Because you have to remember to undo and redo the process every time you change something, or are running on a system where the web server needs group/global read permissions, the following permissions have probably become the defacto standard among lesser technically skilled website owners:

find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
chmod o+w var app/etc
chmod 550 mage
chmod -R o+w media

Best Answer

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