WordPress MU

Okay, I don't get it. I have seen installation instructions that state that I should set the permissions on public html and wp-content to 777. They even have screen shots of the install screen with a warning about setting the folders to 777.

So, I uploaded the files and went to the install screen. There was no warning telling me to set the folders to 777 and they were currently at 755. I thought what the heck and tried installing at 755. It worked like a charm. On the success screen, however, I say a reminder telling me to be sure to set those folders back to 755 if I had previously set the permissions to 777. Now, why are people advising the change to 777 when it is not required for a successful install? All setting public html to 777 got me was a 500 internal server error. Is this business about 777 just outdated information?

Now, why are people advising the change to 777 when it is not required for a successful install?

Personally, never had to CHMOD to 777 to install WPMU. Different servers have different requirements. At the very least, the instructions included CHMOD back to 755 :-)

What is happening on your server is that the owner of the root web directory is the Apache user. Hence, PHP and Apache can write to all of those folders under your web directory.

This is a security risk. Usually, the owner of the directory is someone else (say root or your user on the server) and everyone else (including the Apache user) has read-only access to the Web directory. Hence, when installing WPMU, you need to set permissions to 777 so that everyone -- again including Apache -- can write to the Web directory. Setting permissions back to 755 makes it so that Apache can only read the files in your Web directory.

The information is by no means outdated.

Well, the instructions should kind of mention that not all users will need to chmod to 777. Not doing so just seems to confuse the issue.

Because it depends entirely on the server. If it comes up without the warning, then you don't have to worry about it.

If it's just for installation it just wants you to s the public_html and wp-cotant folders to 777 for a breef moment. This allows the config.php file to be created in the public_html and the blogs.dir ( where files are uploaded to ) to be insalled in those directories uring installation.

Just change them to 777 during installation and change them right back.