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Site Restoration

#13015 nobody permissions

Posted in ‘Site restoration’
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Environment Information

PHP version
n/a
CMS Type
Other
CMS Version
n/a
Backup Tool Version
n/a
Kickstart version
n/a

Latest post by nicholas on Tuesday, 24 July 2012 05:18 CDT

Monday, 23 July 2012 12:09 CDT

giesse
Mandatory information about my setup:

Have I read the related troubleshooter articles above before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Have I searched the tickets before posting? Yes
Have I read the documentation before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Joomla! version: 2.5.6
PHP version: 5.2.6-1
MySQL version: 5.0.94
Host: (optional, but it helps us help you) register.it
Akeeba Backup version which took the backup: 3.5.2
Kickstart version used to extract the backup: really unknown

Description of my issue:
Dear friend, a web designer was in charge to restructure my website. He backed up the site using ABI, and restored it on another host to work quietly on it. When new website was ready, he made a backup and restored it on my host. Restoration failed ! because of php version on test host was newer than original host' one, and he did not check all parameters to restore before to go, I am afraid. So he resorted to transfer files one to one. Website now is working , but..... owner's permissions are set to noboy:nobody. I should want to correct this problem, because I don't want to keep a problem for future implementation, security and so on. I am thinking to backup again the entire site, reset my host space, reinstall database WITH SAME NAME AND USER, and finally restore the website. This time, host will be the same, of course. Do you think I am correct ? any advice please ? thank you very much in advance.

Monday, 23 July 2012 12:17 CDT

nicholas
There are two ways. They easy and the hard one.

The hard one is backing up your site, removing all files and folders (no need to touch the database), extract the archive with Kickstart's PHP mode (this is the C R U C I A L part of the process) and proceed with the restoration. Estimated time: 1 hour for a small site, up to 2 days for a big site.

The easy way. Ask your host to change the ownership of the files and folders to match the FTP user. Estimated time: 30-180 seconds (depending on site size) + the host's response time.

It's your choice, but I'd recommend the easy, fastest way :)

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 24 July 2012 04:27 CDT

giesse
Thank you very much ! It is NOT my choice, but I have to take the hard way: host admins do not want to take the responsibility to operate on my webspace.
A further question please: of course if I backup now using Akeeba, I copy nobody permissions. When I restore, permissions will go restored to "nobody" , or they will get original permissions of server (ftp user, I presume) ?
many many thanks once more

Tuesday, 24 July 2012 04:32 CDT

nicholas
of course if I backup now using Akeeba, I copy nobody permissions. When I restore, permissions will go restored to "nobody" , or they will get original permissions of server (ftp user, I presume) ?

You are confusing permissions with ownership. You have "nobody" ownership. Ownership is not recorded anywhere in the backup and cannot be restored (you'd need root privileges to restore ownership). The ownership of the restored files depends solely on the method of extraction of the files. In order to have FTP user ownership you must use Kickstart's FTP mode –remember, I said that's the crucial part of the restoration– or extract the files locally and transfer by FTP.

That said, I find your host's excuse a big pile of hot, steamy BS. Changing ownership and permissions is a trivial operation. If they don't want to do that, they've pretty much left you alone with any problem you might encounter. If you are paying them more than $0.99 per month just take your sites away from them. What they offer counts as zero service in my book :(

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 24 July 2012 04:40 CDT

giesse
I totally agree. I know, it is a chmod command.... but I cannot operate on the server.....
Excuse me once more ( I don't want to get wrong again): at your first reply you spoke about "PHP mode", at last reply you speak about "FTP mode".... please clarify. thanks a lot.

Tuesday, 24 July 2012 04:48 CDT

nicholas
When you run Kickstart it asks you about the file write method. The default option is "Write files directly". This creates the files with the same ownership as the user under which Kickstart is running, the "nobody" user. You can select "Use FTP" instead. This will create the files with FTP user ownership. That's what you need. You may want to take a look at Kickstart's documentation for more information :)

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 24 July 2012 05:01 CDT

giesse
Thank you Nicholas. Your support and assistance deserve an official award.

Tuesday, 24 July 2012 05:18 CDT

nicholas
You're welcome!

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

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