[BlueOnyx:04896] Web Based Way to chown directories to Apache

[Abdul Rashid Abdullah]

There are several Web Based Applications that either want directories chmod
777 or chown apache.  I found overall that it is better to chown apache
because what the app really wants to do is upload files or create cache
files, etc.

I would like to create a safe/controlled way that a site administrator could
modify files within his/her site at any point after
/home/sites/www.mysite.com/.  Sometimes files are placed outside the site
web and for this reason that is why I am suggesting it be anywhere after
/home/sites/www.mysite.com/.

I would vision that the script simply have a multi-line text field which
would allow a path on every new line.  For example:

/web/app/downloads
/user/myuser/app/private/downloads

It would then do a chown on those paths listed.

Doing the chown could be done in one of two ways. It could be done doing php
functions but I would prefer having the php run a perl script which would
pass the elements to the perl script.

Any suggestions/guidance on how to go about this, please let me know.  When
I am done, I will share my work because I am sure this would be helpful to
others.

Regards,

Rashid