Web-server – the proper way to set up the Apache document root in terms of privileges

apache-2.2documentrootftppermissionsweb-server

I have just installed Ubuntu 9.10 server edition on my machine and I wish to run my own personal local server with other users in the same LAN.

First, I was wondering what folder directory structure is best for the web root?

Should I just use:

/var/www/

and start throwing web documents there or should I create a folder elsewhere (maybe the home directory)?

Second, in the 

/var/www/

directory only the root user can create documents in there, however, I wish to have other users be able to create files in the document root and upload them via FTP. Should I change the permissions or the www/ folder? Or again, should I create the document root elsewhere with different permissions? What is the safest way of doing this?

Best Answer

I disagree with Warner here, for a single site use /var/www, but for anything more complex I create subdirs in /srv/www

From your question the rough guide is:

  1. aptitude install apache2
  2. chmod g+w /var/www
  3. adduser USER www-data (For each user)

Then have the users use SCP (please don't use FTP) to upload the files. If they want a GUI client then look at FileZilla.

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