Using pscp and getting permission denied

Question

I'm using pscp to transfer files to a virtual ubuntu server using this command:

pscp test.php user@server:/var/www/test.php 

and I get the error permission denied. If I try to transfer to the folder /home/user/ I have no problems.

I guess this has to do with that the user I'm using doesn't have access to the folder /var/www/. When I use SSH I have to use sudo to get access to the /var/www/ path - and I do.

Is it possible to specify that pscp should "sudo" transfers to the server so I can get access to the /var/www/ path and actually be able to transfer files to this folder?

Answer 1

If you own the server:

Add yourself to the www-data group:

sudo usermod -a -G www-data <username> 

And set the right permissions:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/ sudo chmod -R 0775 /var/www/ 

This should do the trick.

Answer 2

Beware of the following that when you write

sudo usermod -G www-data <username> 

The option -G will make the specified user () a member of the particular group(s) that are specified. So the above statement will make the user a part of group www-data BUT will remove the user from any other group that the user belongs to. To avoid this you must either add the option -a or specify all the current groups that you want the user to be a part of. I accidently took the user "administrator" out of the sudo group because I didn't know this. So if you want the specified user to keep it's current group membership then write the following command.

sudo usermod -G -a www-data <username> 

For more info regarding the usermod command, visit:

Ubuntu manpages - usermod