Sqlite3, apache users, and easy installs

Question

I'm writing a small app that needs to have a super easy install process. Version one used a csv file instead of a database, so priority #1 for v2 is getting sqlite going instead. I've used sqlite a lot with Ruby, and love it, but this is my first time using it with PHP.

Basically, in order to get SQlite3 to be able to insert into the db, I needed to make both the database.sqlite3 file and the folder containing it owned by the apache user. From reading the docs, this seems normal.

However, apache isn't always going to be running as the same user. Here, it's 'http', but I know on Ubuntu it's 'www-data', right?

So, is there a good way to detect the username Apache is running as, and changing it, or am I going about this wrong? It needs to be something I can just put in the install script, as the people who use this app don't know or care anything about tiny details like this.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I believe you're going at it from the wrong side: you need the SQLite db to be writable by the PHP script, as I understand the matter, and this might not be the same as the Apache user. If PHP is installed as an Apache module it will inherit the Apache user, but a much more common case on shared servers is to have PHP set up as CGI under suphp or phpsuexec, so the scripts run with the permissions of the user himself.

I'd suggest you write an install.php script to create the folder and the database, so both will inherit the script's permissions, no matter which user it is. Look into the manual for mkdir() and sqlite_open(). If nothing else works there's always chmod().

As you specifically cite SQLite v. 3 you may want to check the server version with phpversion(); in PHP 5.3 sqlite_* functions do work with version 3, PHP 5.2 and below understand version 2 instead. To use version 3 in PHP 5.2 you must use pdo_sqlite.