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I just switched my site's server from Windows to Linux, and am finally able to control file permissions from my ftp. So, seeing that all permissions were 705 by default (and not wanting just anyone to have permission to execute), I went and changed everything to 744.

Now, gif and jpg links don't work, pdf download links don't work, php links don't load, and mov files don't play. Setting things back doesn't seem to help. Even setting to 777 gets me nowhere.

Any ideas on what might be going wrong? I've been googling file permissions all day (solved that problem with the Linux switch, which now bred a new problem), and I don't think anything has escaped my attention.


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You can try serverfault.com you'll probably get more answers there. –  Adrian Faciu Jan 3 '11 at 13:14
Oh hell, I'm sorry about that! –  Matthew Robert Keable Jan 3 '11 at 13:20

2 Answers 2

Try to set owner permissions. Apache runs usually under www-user or some other sandbox user, so you wanna try to use chgrp, chown an chmod.

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Solved. I was under the mistaken impression that group and public did not need x. On the contrary, x is used to read the files. I set the relevant folders to 755, and everything worked. Why it didn't work when I had all set to 777, I don't know. Lack of sleep, probably.


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