[techtalk] last straw (was directory that is writable...)

[stephanie1200 at netscape.net]

Ok, I really need to say something.  For the past few weeks I've seen 
requests for help come in about pretty basic stuff.  No problem with that, 
everyone starts somewhere, but it strikes me as a little out of hand when 
instructions on making and changing permissions on directories are necessary. 
 There has been some really brilliant stuff, as well as solid basics come 
across this list and most members seem not only extrememly kind and helpful, 
but also ruthlessly resourceful.  

This is so important.  As critical as learning basic skills, is learning how 
to ferret out answers.  Some of these questions are so basic that I'm worried 
about the askers' ability to lay a good foundation of skill.  

I don't want to be bitchy or rtfm-y, I'd just like to point out that it's 
very important to do research.  not only do you often find an answer, but you 
learn a lot more.  A supportive community to me is a supplement to good 
research skills, not a replacement.  In the past on this list (i've been on 
for maybe a year, maybe a little less so i'm not old school by any means) 
there have been posts brimming with "here's my problem..I tried a, b, c, g, 
and q, and nothing works. what's wrong?"  That's a really respectable way to 
ask a question, and also opens the door to more detailed explanations.  I 
have learned really helpful and interesting trivia about commands I use every 
day as a result of this kind of question and answer. and I guess I would like 
to see more of that rather than 5 msgs on how to preserve file attributes 
through a cp.  I mean, sometimes "man <command>" is actually an appropriate 
response.  Please don't take this as a condemnation of newbies or basic 
questions that can be confusing, b/c everybody's a newbie at something and 
I'm no genius, but it's just so important to do your own legwork. It pays off 
for everybody in the short and long run.

Sorry if this is out of line.

Eric Richard Turner <turnere at cc.wwu.edu> wrote:
>
> Assuming the web server is running as nobody, make the directory, change
> the group on the directory, then change the permissions. Here's an
> example of making directory foo which is writeable by the httpd process:
> 
> /bin/mkdir ./foo
> chgrp nobody ./foo/
> chmod 550 ./foo/
> 
> If at all possible you should store uploaded data into a database rather
> than on the filesystem. MySQL is free, and writing some Perl code to
> insert and retrieve data to and from the database via the CGI is fairly
> easy.
> 
> Eric R. Turner
> 
> On Sun, 22 Oct 2000, m20bi wrote:
> 
> > I need to make a directory to which my web server process (httpd, I think)
> > has read/write access. How do I go about doing this? I'm using RedHat 6.2
> > and Apache 1.3.12. Barbara
> > 
> > 
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