[uug] File uploads and server permissions

[Richard Miller]

I've been experimenting with uploading files through an HTML form and 
accepting them in PHP.  As you know, it goes a little something like 
this:

        <form action="" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
                File to upload:
                <input name="userfile" type="file" />
                <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Upload File" />
        </form>
...

<?php
        $uploaddir = "./";
        $uploadfile = $uploaddir . $_FILES['userfile']['name'];
                if (move_uploaded_file($_FILES['userfile']['tmp_name'], $uploadfile))
                {
                        print "File is valid, and was successfully uploaded. ";
                        print "Here's some more debugging info:\n";
                        print_r($_FILES);
                }
?>
My question is about permissions. The folder to which the file is 
uploaded has to be world writable (777) and after being uploaded it is 
owned by "99", which is apparently Apache.  I can't copy it to other 
folders unless they too are 777.  I can't change the owner to me 
because I don't have root access (it's a shared server.)  It feels like 
uploading files through an HTML form is a can of worms.  What do I do?  
Set permission to 777 for all the folders that will use uploaded files? 
 (Any reason not to choose 777 in this shared server environment if I'm 
the only user anyway?)

Many thanks,

Richard

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