Cannot delete directory or files created with PHP (a.k.a permissions hell)

Question

Here's the scoop: I need to be able to create folders using a PHP script and also to upload image files to those folders. Here is my code:

Creating a directory:

mkdir('[path]/images/foldername');  

Uploading Images:

if ($_FILES["file"]["error"] > 0 || $_FILES["file"]["type"] != "image/jpeg") // file must be valid and .jpg
{
    echo "Error: " . $_FILES["file"]["error"] . "<br />";
}
else
{
    echo "Upload: " . $_FILES["file"]["name"] . "<br />";
    echo "Type: " . $_FILES["file"]["type"] . "<br />";
    echo "Size: " . ($_FILES["file"]["size"] / 1024) . " Kb<br />";
    echo "Stored in: " . $_FILES["file"]["tmp_name"] . '<br />';

    if(file_exists($path ."/" . $_FILES["file"]["name"]))
    {
        echo $_FILES["file"]["name"] . " already exists. ";
    }
    else
    {
        move_uploaded_file($_FILES["file"]["tmp_name"], $path ."/" . $_FILES["file"]["name"]);
        echo "Stored in: " . $path ."/" . $_FILES["file"]["name"];
    }
}

FTP editor gives these errors:

[L] DELE 20.jpg
[L] 550 Could not delete imagename.jpg: Permission denied

then

[L] RMD foldername
[L] 550 Can't remove directory: Directory not empty

I tried changing the permissions in my FTP editor, but got this error:

[L] SITE CHMOD 777 [path]/foldername [L] 550 Could not change perms on [path]/foldername: Operation not permitted
I tried using SSH with Putty to delete the file, but that did not work either.

Please help me!

Answer 1

After you move the uploaded file, try doing:

@chmod($path ."/" . $_FILES["file"]["name"], 0777);

or something. You might want to change the permissions to something better.

Answer 2

It looks like your PHP installation runs as a different user than your FTP session. Hence your php upload script can create files that your ftp user can't touch ;-).

There are essentially three ways to deal with the problem:

1. Write a php-script that deletes the files you want to delete. Use unlink() for that. Google will also give you some recursive implementations.
2. Change the the permissions on the file (using chmod. Be careful, you easily make the files accessible to people or processes that should not have this possibility. Don't do this in a production environment)
3. Make sure your ftp user and your php user are the same. You will need to be root on your target machine or you need a friendly admin on the machine to set it up accordingly.

Answer 3

You could change the user account the FTP server is running under to use the same user as your PHP script (possibly www-data or httpd)