[Drew H]

I’ve found the solution! This error is happening because the apache user group doesn’t have write privileges and thus can’t manipulate a file (I don’t know why it needs to, but I trust that it does)

To solve this problem you simply need to change the file ownership. I suggest making apache own everything on your local install so that you can use the web site to update and download themes/plugins.

I’m running Mac OSX, my apache user is _www while Linux systems typically use www-data.

To change ownership navigate to the root wordpress folder on your command line (eg the folder with the wp-config.php) and use the command: sudo chown -R _www:_www .

sudo runs the command as root.

chown is the program we are running to Change Ownership of the file(s)

-R is a flag that runs the chown command recursively, meaning that it applies the command to all sub folders and their files.

_www:_www is for the user and group, the colon separates them, user on the left, group on the right

. (period) this indicates which folder to effect, because you are currently in the WP root you want to target that folder which the period is a shorthand used to do this. It basically means “This Current Folder”.

Next you’ll want to add your user to the apache group so you can update and execute files, on mac OSX you can copy and paste this command:

sudo dseditgroup -o edit -a 'whoami' -t user _www

‘whoami’ will magically turn into your user name, please note those SHOULD BE back ticks (the ~ key to the left of the one key).

You’ll need to lookup how to do it on linux on your own.

Cheers!

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by Drew H.
• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by Drew H.

[Drew H]

I’m having the same problem, was there any resolution to this?

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