Working as root while Apache is running; how much a risk? (repost after subject line error)

[Scot L. Harris]

On Fri, 2004-07-09 at 11:42, Michael Sullivan wrote:
> Can you clarify what "_RUN_ the web server" means?  My current practice
> is this:  The only way I work on my server PC is through ssh from a
> client computer because my server PC doesn't have a monitor hooked up to
> it.  Anyway, I log in as root and the very first thing I do is "service
> httpd stop".  I go about doing whatever task I have to do in that
> session and then I say, "service httpd start; exit".  Are you saying
> that I don't have to have Apache stopped while I'm logged in as root, or
> are you saying I shouldn't stay logged in as root after I issue "service
> httpd start"?
> 

He means the user the processes for httpd run as.  If you do a 

ps -eax | grep httpd

on your system you will see a list of processes and the user they run
as.  In this case they should be showing apache as the user.

In some systems they use nobody as the user for these process.  

So you don't need to shutdown apache when you do maintenance as root.

-- 
Scot L. Harris
webid at cfl.rr.com

You will have a head crash on your private pack.