Setting the umask of the Apache user

Question

I am setting up a LAMP server and would like to set Apache's umask setting to 002 so that all Apache-created files have the group write permission bit set (so members of the same group can overwrite the files).

Does anyone know how to do this? I know that on Ubuntu, you can use the /etc/apache2/envvars file to configure the umask, but the server is running CentOS.

Update This question is related to another I asked a while ago (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/174715/linux-users-and-groups-for-a-lamp-server). If prefered, please update this other question with what the best set-up is to use for having a developer user on a server that can edit files created by the apache user.

Answer 1

Drifting away from the "tried and true Apache way" is usually not recommended. Lots of time and hard won experience has gone into the selection of such things.

Answer 2

Apache inherits its umask from its parent process (i.e. the process starting Apache); this should typically be the /etc/init.d script. So put a umask command in that script.

Answer 3

For CentOS and other Red Hat distros, add the umask setting to /etc/sysconfig/httpd and restart apache.

[root ~]$ echo "umask 002" >> /etc/sysconfig/httpd
[root ~]$ service httpd restart

More info: Apache2 umask | MDLog:/sysadmin

For Debian and Ubuntu systems, you would similarly edit /etc/apache2/envvars.