[Ilugc] Who is the user that runs apache webserver ?

2012-05-07 Thread Shrinivasan T 
In my ubuntu 12.04 box, I run apache web server.

ps -ef | grep apache

root   31984 1 0 16:06 ?00:00:00
/usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 31989 31984  0 16:06 ?00:00:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 31990 31984  0 16:06 ?00:00:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 31991 31984  0 16:06 ?00:00:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 31992 31984  0 16:06 ?00:00:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data 31993 31984  0 16:06 ?00:00:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

I think that www-data is the user that runs the apache webserver for security.
But, one thread of apache is owned by root.

What is the concept behind it?
Why root owns one thread?


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T.Shrinivasan


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Re: [Ilugc] Who is the user that runs apache webserver ?

2012-05-07 Thread 0 
 I think that www-data is the user that runs the apache webserver for security.
 But, one thread of apache is owned by root.

 What is the concept behind it?
 Why root owns one thread?


It is mostly likely running in prefork model. In the following link, 
look at section How it works.

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/prefork.html

The short answer to your question is to bind to privileged port 80.

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0
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Re: [Ilugc] Who is the user that runs apache webserver ?

2012-05-07 Thread kenneth gonsalves 
On Mon, 2012-05-07 at 16:10 +0530, Shrinivasan T wrote:
 Why root owns one thread?

only root can start apache - that thread has 'start' in it.
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Kenneth Gonsalves

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Re: [Ilugc] Who is the user that runs apache webserver ?

2012-05-07 Thread Sundaram Ramachandran 
 only root can start apache - that thread has 'start' in it.

Nonsense. Every process has 'start' in it. Go through the posted process output 
before commenting.

To answer the OP; the first apache process is started by root user. The 
remaining processes are spawned by apache user.

...KRS
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Re: [Ilugc] Who is the user that runs apache webserver ?

2012-05-07 Thread kenneth gonsalves 
On Mon, 2012-05-07 at 17:30 +0530, Sundaram Ramachandran wrote:
  only root can start apache - that thread has 'start' in it.
 
 Nonsense. Every process has 'start' in it. Go through the posted
 process output before commenting.
 
 To answer the OP; the first apache process is started by root user.
 The remaining processes are spawned by apache user. 

which is what I meant - thanks for putting it more clearly.
-- 
regards
Kenneth Gonsalves

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Re: [Ilugc] Who is the user that runs apache webserver ?

2012-05-07 Thread Raja Subramanian 
On Mon, May 7, 2012 at 5:05 PM, 0 0...@0throot.com wrote:
 The short answer to your question is to bind to privileged port 80.

Nice reply :-)

To OP, long answer is:
http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/PrivilegeSeparation

- Raja
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