How to use chown with Recursive Option In Apache

This approach is used when you need to change ownership of an entire directory and its contents.

Steps:

1. Open the Terminal: Access your server’s terminal through SSH or directly.

2. Navigate to the Directory: Use the cd command to navigate to the directory containing the files and subdirectories you want to change ownership for

cd /path/to/directory

3. Change Ownership Recursively: Use the chown(change ownership) command with the -R option to change ownership of all files and directories within the specified directory.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data directory_name

-R stands for recursive, which means the command will be applied to all files and directories within the specified directory.

directory_name : the name of the directory you want to change ownership for.

Example:

• Initial setup:

ll test/
total 8
drwrwx-x 1 www-data www-data 1234 May 20 2024 
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 20 2024 

• Change ownership:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data test

• Verify ownership:

ls -la /test

Output:

The ownership of the directory /var/www/html/website and all its contents changes from root:root to apache:apache.

Apache, formally known as the Apache HTTP Server, is one of the most widely used web server software systems in the world. Changing ownership of files from root to Apache is often necessary for web servers like Apache to have the correct permissions to read, write, and execute files. This is essential for the proper functioning of a web server and to enhance security by ensuring that the web server operates with the least privilege necessary.

There are primarily two approaches to changing ownership from root to Apache which are as follows: