We launched new forums in March 2019—join us there. In a hurry for help with your website? Get Help Now!
MODX Community Forums Archive

Answered Error: webserver does not have the necessary permissions

    • 20371
    • 58 Posts
    Mr5o1 Reply #1, 13 years, 3 months ago
    Hi All,

    Thanks in advance.

    In the file tab on the left nav pane, if I try to rename a file, I get a dialogue which says: "The webserver does not have the necessary permissions to update the directory."

    I feel like the answer to this will make me feel like an idiot, and yet I've been mulling it over for a few days and can't see what the problem is. I've checked permissions on the webserver ala:

    root@stella assets/slides# ps -aef |grep 'apache2'
www-data  1172 32369  0 06:05 ?        00:00:02 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data  1328 32369  0 06:15 ?        00:00:03 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data  1814 32369  0 06:23 ?        00:00:04 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data  1956 32369  0 06:24 ?        00:00:01 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data  2416 32369  0 06:25 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
root      2511  1831  0 06:36 pts/1    00:00:00 grep --color=auto apache2
root     32369     1  0 03:11 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 32377 32369  0 03:11 ?        00:00:08 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 32378 32369  0 03:11 ?        00:00:08 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 32395 32369  0 03:11 ?        00:00:06 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 32398 32369  0 03:11 ?        00:00:06 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 32399 32369  0 03:11 ?        00:00:11 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
root@stella assets/slides# su www-data
$ /bin/bash
www-data@stella:/srv/git/calwayinitial/cms/assets/slides$ ls -l ./slide2.800.jpg
-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data 56656 Jun 17 10:13 ./slide2.800.jpg
www-data@stella:/srv/git/calwayinitial/cms/assets/slides$ mv ./slide2.800.jpg ./slide2.800.jpg.newname
www-data@stella:/srv/git/calwayinitial/cms/assets/slides$ ls -l ./slide2.800.jpg.newname         -rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data 56656 Jun 17 10:13 ./slide2.800.jpg.newname


    So, far as I know, the above confirms that apache is running as www-data and that www-data can rename the files in question.

    I've rechecked my media source configuration, and I can't see anything there that would cause dramas. I currently have the basePath as the absolute path, changing it to relative doesn't seem to change anything.

    The media source config looks like this:



    Other things that may or not be relevant:

    • OS is turnkey core (debian 6)
    • running modx 2.2.8
    • shared environment as in it's virtualised but I have root (AWS)
    • thumbnails don't seem to be working in the left nav file browser (they do work in the TV file browser though)
    • not getting any errors in the logs

    Thanks in advance for your help!

    This question has been answered by Mr5o1. See the first response.

    [ed. note: Mr5o1 last edited this post 13 years, 3 months ago.]
    • discuss.answer
      • 20371
      • 58 Posts
      Mr5o1 Reply #2, 13 years, 3 months ago
      I just worked it out... instead of a basePath like:

      "assets/slides"

      it needs to be:

      "assets/slides/"

      with a trailing slash.

        • 28042 ☆ A M B ☆
        • 24,524 Posts
        sottwell Reply #3, 13 years, 3 months ago
        It depends on your server configuration, as well as file ownership and permissions.

        For example:
        [sottwell@dev01 files]$ ls -l
total 384
drwxr-xr-x. 2 sottwell sottwell   4096 May 26 20:47 Cables Documentation
drwxr-xr-x. 2 sottwell sottwell   4096 May 15 09:27 docindex
drwxr-xr-x. 2 sottwell sottwell   4096 Jun  5 12:31 help
drwxr-xr-x. 2 sottwell sottwell   4096 May  9 21:13 tools
drwxr-xr-x. 2 sottwell sottwell   4096 May 30 18:24 Training
drwxr-xr-x. 2 sottwell sottwell   4096 Jun 16 15:47 user_manuals
[sottwell@dev01 files]$

        This shows that the files in the assets/files directory are owned by sottwell, and have 755 permissions, so only the owner can change them. Now, my servers is using php-fpm with suexec, so that when the web server (user nginx) runs a .php file the user is switched from nginx to sottwell, so files and directories can be modified.
          Studying MODX in the desert - http://sottwell.com
          Tips and Tricks from the MODX Forums and Slack Channels - http://modxcookbook.com
          Join the Slack Community - http://modx.org