WordPress MU

I do not have a dedicated server. My host will set up wildcard DNS and is generally quite willing to configure to my needs. But he is adament that WP/WPMU or any "complex" CMS needs to be installed in a subdirectory and not the root, or all kinds of horrible things will happen.

Is he right or what can I tell him about security precautions within WPMU in a shared environment?

He nearly hit the roof when I said that I had set permissions on the public html directory to 777 temporarily for the install. I didn't see anything about changing the permissions back but surely this is the case?

Any help appreciated.

MU will not function properly in a subdirectory.

Yes, chmod the root back to 755 after install.

Thanks. Besides that, what about security issues?

Meaning is there any difference between a root directory and sub directory install in terms of security?

No. Your "host" is not correct.

Thanks. I didn't think so, but I'm just barely able to install programs that smart people make, and don't know squat about servers, so really wanted a definitive answer. Why do hosts say stuff like this to their customers. Making their services seem scary surely can't be good for business!

To be honest, they probably don't know any better. Which, IMHO, would scare me straight to a major, reputable host.

Think about their "statement".

"...any 'complex' CMS needs to be installed in a subdirectory and not the root, or all kinds of horrible things will happen."

The bad thing is that it isn't exactly a difficult thing to put up a box and call yourself a host these days, or resell someone else's space and say you're a host. With a bare minimum knowledge of things underneath such as Linux, apache, etc.

Scary, scary world out there.

Just to be clear, the only direct quote in my paraphrase was "complex". He did go into more technical detail about the so-called dangers, but according to what you're saying, that's a moot point.

Anyway, I'm reinstalling at root and if he doesn't like it, I will find another host as you suggest.

Actually you can install wpmu into a subdirectory. You're just going to have to do subdirectories off of that. (ie mydomain.tld/wpmu/username)

Gotta admit though I'd ask your host to point at specific security issues and see what they say.

Above, lunabyte says, "MU will not function properly in a subdirectory."

But apparently that means it will not create subdomains with wildcard DNS, but will "function properly" to have multiple blogs in virtual subdirectories, after choosing that option at install.

I return to my original impression, that this issue is extremely muddy around here, for newcomers, anyway.

Regardless, I now I have it working on my site's root, and I'm thrilled with it so far, and very grateful to all who work on it.

You are trying to install it so that you can have username.domain.tld.

Therefore, installing in a subdirectory isn't an option.

If you "wanted" to go the subdirectory method, domain.tld/username, MU could be in a subdirectory "technically", but MU has a tendency to act funny when installed in subdirectory mode.

my solution is:
update domain, path field on wp_site table are following: domain="www.domain.com/subpath", path="/".

and everything works fine.

Do you have the detailed instructions for this erdba?