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I’ll quote the hosting company our client chose below. I don’t have any interest in challenging them on this, but I’m just wondering: Is it correct that this basically means we can’t use EE as intended with this host? Thanks!

Important: ThinkHost and file permissions.

ThinkHost servers operate under high security levels to ensure high levels of service stability for all our clients. File permissions of 666, 777 or any chmod permission level ending in 2, 6, or 7 - for example, 777, (last 7), are not permitted as this poses a very real security risk.

777 is not necessary on our servers. The last bit is for the permissions for “everyone”, but since PHP scripts run under the customer’s username on our server instead of the “nobody” user on most servers, “everyone” needs no permissions. If scripts ask for 777, 770 is sufficient and will be far more secure.

All php and script files permissions must be set to 750. All other files such as HTML, images, or anything else needing to be accessed from the web should end in a permission level ending in 4; e.g. 644.

but since PHP scripts run under the customer’s username on our server instead of the “nobody” user on most servers, “everyone” needs no permissions.

This part right here means you have selected a host who in my opinion has made the right choice.  EngineHosting takes a similar approach and only your user needs write permissions, not everyone.  ExpressionEngine should work fine under that environment, as they aren’t disallowing write access from your PHP scripts, only world-writable permissions.

Thanks, Derek! That’s good news.

Derek, I have ran into the same issue with a client.  My EE installation stops at the file permission page.  I am able to get file permissions 770 and 660 on the directories and files required.  Is there something I need to change in a different file to allow this option and complete the installation?

No, redmercer, whatever settings on your host are required for the files to be writable by PHP.  Are you still having a problem?  If so, what exact errors are you having?

The following comes up on page 4 of the installation.

Error: Incorrect Permissions for Directories or Files

The following directories or files cannot be written to:

  images/uploads

  images/captchas

In order to run this installation, the file permissions on the above items must be set as indicated in the instructions.

I am not too concerned about the captchas because we won’t be using this feature.  Any thoughts on what I should do?  Both of these files on the server are 770.

What are the permissions on your /system/cache/ folder?  Since it is not in the list of the errors, PHP is reporting that it as writable, but not the uploads and captchas folders.

the cache folder is also 770

First make sure that display_errors is enable in your PHP environment.  You can check this and other environment settings by placing in a new PHP file on your server:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

After verifying that display_errors is on, open install.php in a plain text editor, and on lines 266 and 271, remove the @ from in front of the is_writable() calls, i.e.:

if ( ! is_writable("./images/uploads"))

And then try the installer again.  The idea here is that if there are any errors being made while checking the writability of that folder, it will be shown to you.

Display errors was turned on.  I removed the @ from the install file and received the same errors as before.

Have you moved the images folder or install file from their default locations?

I don’t know what to say.  I completely forgot to upload the images folder due to an existing website that is up.  I uploaded the folder and I think I am all set.  Thanks for hanging in there with me Derek.  My excuse, need more coffee:}

I think we’ve all been there in the sub-optimal-coffee-level-zone, redmercer!  Glad you’re up and running.