A general linux file permissions question: Apache and WordPress

What should I do to make them readable and writable by both kovshenin and apache?

• Create a new group, say "wordpress".
• Add both koveshenin and www-data users to the wordpress group.
• Change the group owner of all the files to wordpress (using chgrp).
• Make sure all the files are group writeable.
• Set the g+s (setgid) permission bit on all the directories of interest.
• Make sure kovshenin and apache's default umask includes group read & write permission.

The second last step is the trick. It means that whenever kovshenin or apache creates a file in those directories, the group owner will be set to wordpress (instead of kovshenin or apache).

You can give ownership to www-data according to here.

Run the following command in your WordPress directory (sudo required):

sudo chown -Rf www-data *

Works for Apache.

Assuming your wordpress install directory is /var/www/html to mass change all the files and directories to the proper permission use:

sudo  find /var/www/html/ -type d -exec chmod 775 {} \;sudo  find /var/www/html/ -type f -exec chmod 664 {} \;

To mass change the owner group of everything use:

sudo chgrp -R <desired_username>.<desired_groupname> /var/www/html