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Is it possible in nginx configure different user per virtual host?

Something like

 server {
     user myprojectuser myprojectgroup;
     ...
 }
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1 Answer

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No, because all server stanzas in an nginx config are served from the same set of worker processes. Furthermore, from a security perspective, you're better to run it like that, as it means that the content is automatically unwritable by the webserver (absent stupidities like a chmod -R 0777), so that if there is a vulnerability in nginx, none of the content is at risk.

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So there is no way to hide user's files from another users? All the user's content should be readable by the www-data? – AlexAtNet Mar 18 '12 at 1:28
Making the files accessable to www-data (or whatever user the webserver runs as) in no way requires that the files are accessable to other users on the system. – womble Mar 18 '12 at 1:51
Maybe it is newbie question, but what is the correct way of assigning such permissions? "cd ~ && touch test && chown alex:www-data test" returns "Operation not permitted"... Maybe because "alex" is not in the "www-data"? But if alex will be in www-data then he can read all the www-data files with x6x? – AlexAtNet Mar 18 '12 at 2:11
1  
Give the document root a group of www-data and perms 0710 when you setup the vhost (since this needs root to configure nginx, it's not a problem to have your automation also set the necessary permissions). Then the contents of the docroot just need to be o+x for directories and o+r for files. – womble Mar 18 '12 at 2:46
1  
Got it! So the other users cannot enter the document root because they do not have access to it (o-rx). nginx can enter because of www-data and g+x. And then only nginx is the "other" user. Thanks! – AlexAtNet Mar 18 '12 at 22:25
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