How to delete files created by Apache user?

Written by Claudio Kuenzler - 0 comments

Published on January 16th 2010 - last updated on November 23rd 2023 - Listed in PHP Apache

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There is a common problem on shared hosting servers with Apache and PHP (mod_php) running on it: If a PHP or an upload script creates files and folders, the owner of those created files is the user under which Apache is running. On a Debian-based Linux that's mostly the www-data user. On SUSE Linux it's by default the wwwrun user. On RHEL and similar Enterprise Linux systems it's often the httpd user.

Users accessing their hosting by FTP/SFTP/FTPES and wanting to delete such files receive a permission denied error - because (of course) they're not allowed to delete those files. Here an example of an ls -l output:

-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data 0 2010-01-16 18:30 file1
-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data 0 2010-01-16 18:30 file2
-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data 0 2010-01-16 18:30 file3
drwxr-xr-x 2 www-data www-data 4.0K 2010-01-16 18:30 testfolder1
drwxr-xr-x 2 www-data www-data 4.0K 2010-01-16 18:30 testfolder2
drwxr-xr-x 2 www-data www-data 4.0K 2010-01-16 18:30 testfolder3

The permissions are set in a way that only the owner (www-data here) can delete the files and directories.

So if you're someone who was seeking for a solution when you can't delete the files with your ftp user, this is it! Find more information in IT Howto's / PHP Script: Delete files and folders created by Apache user.

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