web-server-user.html

<p>For the installation to work properly, all files written by Composer *must* be owned by the web server user. There are at least two ways to do this:</p>
<ul><li>Run Composer as the web server user as discussed in this section</li>
	<li>Run Composer as another user and change file ownership afterward (more secure)</li></ul>

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<span class="glyphicon-class">
  <p>We suggest running Composer in a web server shell in a development environment <em>only</em>. In a more secure environment, you should change ownership to the web server user after you run Composer.</p></span>
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<p>In the discussion that follows, it's assumed that the CentOS web server user is <code>apache</code> and the Ubuntu web server user is </code>www-data</code>.</p>

<h3 id="install-update-depend-apache-ubuntu">Ubuntu</h3>
<p>To switch to the web server user on Ubuntu:</p>
<ol><li>Enter the following command:
<pre>su www-data</pre></li>
<li>If a password prompt displays but you don't know the user's password, continue with the next step; otherwise, continue with <a href="#install-composer-install">Running Composer to update dependencies</a>.</li>
<li>To enable the <code>www-data</code> user's shell and to set a password, enter the following command:
<pre>sudo chsh -s /bin/bash www-data &amp;&amp; sudo passwd www-data</pre></li>
<li>Enter the following command again and enter the user's password:</li>
<pre>su www-data</pre>
<li>Continue with <a href="#install-composer-install">Running Composer to update dependencies</a>.</li></ol>

<h3 id="install-update-depend-apache-centos">CentOS</h3>
<p>To switch to the web server user on CentOS:</p>
<ol><li>Enter the following command:
<pre>su - apache</pre>
If you don't know the user's password or if the following error displays, continue with the next step; otherwise, continue with <a href="#install-composer-install">Running Composer to update dependencies</a>.
<pre>This account is currently not available.</pre></li>
<li>To give <code>apache</code> a valid shell account so you can switch to it, enter the following command:
<pre>sudo chsh -s /bin/bash apache &amp;&amp; sudo passwd apache</pre></li>
<li>Run the following command again; this time, it should work:
<pre>su - apache</pre></li>
<li>Continue with the next section.</li></ol>