Installation Permissions

First of all, make sure that you understand the ShopSite directory structure. Okay, now understand that the Web server runs as an actual UNIX userID. Sometimes, the server runs as the main account userID (e.g. the Web server for Tina's Toys will run as 'tinatoys'). But in most cases, the Web server runs as a generic ID such as 'nobody' or 'www'.

Check the following:

The install directory (usually cgi-bin) must be fully accessible (rwx) by the Web server, for two reasons.
- The wwwinstall.cgi script untar's the wwwinstall.tar file into four separate tar files, and it must have permission to create those files.
- The script also needs permission to create the ShopSite and Shopping Cart subdirectories, if they don't already exist. If the directories already exist, then they must be fully accessible by the Web server.
The store's HTML output directory must also be fully accessible by the Web server. If the auth file specifies a subdirectory of your main domain, such as www.mydomain.com/catalog, then you can create the subdirectory and make sure that it's fully accessible by the Web server. The install program will create the directory if you want, but you'll need to first make sure that the Web server has write access to the directory so that it can create the subdirectory.
If you've already created the store's data directory, make sure that it's fully accessible to the Web server. If the directory has not yet been created and you want the install to create it, then make sure that the directory that it's to be created in is fully accessible to the Web server. e.g., if the data directory will be at /home/httpd/data, then make sure that the httpd directory can be written in by the Web server.

Note:

Fully accessible by the Web server means this: If the ID that the Web server is running as is the owner of the file/directory, it means u=rwx, if it is the group, then it means g=rwx, and if neither, you would need to set it as o=rwx. This last option is not recommended, for security reasons. We advise that you change the owner or group of the file to the Web server, so that full accessibility is not given to the world.

ShopSite Help and Resource Center
April 3, 2003
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