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November 2, 2007
LazyWeb: Why Can't I mkdir in Root of Server?
Okay, a truly techie question, and likely a dumb one, but why can't I, via ftp and as admin user, create a new directory in the root of my hosted Unix account without a permission denied error? I can create folders in the cgi folder, as well as in httpdocs, but I can't in the root, nor can I in some other folders.
I'm guessing somewhere there is a permission that's not set properly -- as an aside, I'm using Plexus for hosting config management -- but I can't for the life of me figure out how to give myself permission as administrator to create a folder in the root directory. Really irritating.
Ideas? Help?
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Most likely the permission of your home dir is set that way on the machine that your account is on. If you talk to your host, they'll probably either fix it or tell you why they can't fix it.
Because "admin" isn't really root and / or the FTP server enforces it's own restrictions. Probably the former though.
In addition to other comments, I wonder whether your virtual host actually recommends ftp over sftp? The latter is more secure and offers better features for working with directories, permissions, and such (including a versions of 'ls' and 'chown' that are very similar to a regular shell versions.
Your host probably put this in place to avoid future confusion. I know MediaTemple had this, even on their "virtual dedicated" accounts. Hosts (shared especially) often have a restriction set that doesn't allow code outside of httpdocs, cgi-bin, etc to be opened.