MODX creating files with "nobody" owner causes problems at Upgrade

I am in the process of upgrading two of my sites from Revo 2.0.8 to 2.1.1
and I am getting some error that I attribute so far to being unable to
delete the core/cache files.

I am unable to erase those files from my hosting account because MODX is
creating them (cache files, but it happens also with files created by PackMan)
with a "nobody" user, so it does not recognize me as its owner and denies
permission to delete.

My host has to go and delete them for me or change the permission so I can delete
them, which is not a solution, because I cannot be going to them every time I want
to delete one of this files.

What can I do to fix this?

The other side of the issue is that I must be the only one with this problem, so maybe
it is not a MODX issue but a hosting environment issue, but what?

Any advice is appreciated... TIA

It’s a hosting environment issue. I’m currently having the same situation with 1 hosting provider with exactly the same, but with the other provider, I can delete and add whatever I want.

Have they given you any advice?

My host, which is very good, tells me that it is the website (MODX)
that creates the files with the "nobody" owner. And indeed,
those are the files that I cannot delete (cached files in core/cache and
PackMan created files after a package creation).

The files that I upload myself, I can delete and move at will because
they have the right permission (I am not talking about the writing permission
like 777, but the server permissions like 955 955).

Its not MODX, its apache,

....Apache can give up its rights and run as nonroot user, as specified in its configuration files. By default, this is the user nobody..."

. On Redhat systems this happens to be user apache, not nobody, but it doesn’t matter which account is used, its not yours so you can’t delete the files.

Thanks Steve,

The server where my accounts reside uses CentOS, which derives from RedHat...

so what is the solution or a solution to this?

For us it was to start using PHPSuExec, the ownership of the site files will be the same as the FTP user, rather than root.

Interesting greg, I will ask my host to see if they can install it.

Why does the core/cache files and directories are not deleted when
we clear the cache from the manager?
Is the same thing happening? cant delete them because of the wrong owner?

Quote from: pleth at Jun 07, 2011, 03:56 PM

For us it was to start using PHPSuExec, the ownership of the site files will be the same as the FTP user, rather than root.

^ The server my site runs on uses that and it’s a *great* relief.

One work around if you can’t get PhpSuExect is to delete from the files tab in the manager, as that uses the same user as MODX/packman etc.


Quote from: charliez at Jun 07, 2011, 04:22 PM

Why does the core/cache files and directories are not deleted when
we clear the cache from the manager?
Is the same thing happening? cant delete them because of the wrong owner?

You sure it’s not deleting anything? I think 2.1 regenerates the cache when clearing (it refreshes, doesn’t clear) so it may seem nothing is going on.

I would try that, but I cannot access the manager because it is giving me an error:

Fatal error: Call to undefined method modX::getUserDocGroups() in /home2/modxperi/public_html/core/components/wayfinder/wayfinder.class.php on line 461

which I assume is caused by not deleting all the files on core/cache directory.

So I am kinda stuck in the 2.0.8-to-2.1.1 limbo !!! hehehe


I cleared the cache using the 2.0.8 manager and using Janitor,
and the files are still there when seen via Filezilla and phpMyAdmin

That’s actually including a file, and isn’t cached.

Few ideas:
- Attempt to delete that specific file. Guessing it wont work cause you installed it w/ the pkg mgr, but you never know.
- Open up the DB and edit the wayfinder snippet, comment out the line including the class (or just the whole thing!). I’m guessing you’re getting that error when it wants to generate the wayfinder cache (don’t know how else it would be triggering a snippet trying to load the manager)


Something that you can try is creating a simple php file and from there try to chmod() some files. If you do it right you can make it recursively chmod entire folders. There may be some copy/paste snippets out there on Google that do just that.

I’m going to add a note to the upgrading doc to make sure you have updated all addons to the latest versions and to check custom devved ones too, you’re not the first that had issues after updating, tho you are the first that I know off that got totally locked out lol