Topic: 500 Internal Server Error Hell

[chaos945]

I am having the same issue reported in this post.

I spend hours with my host trying to figure out what happened and it is caused when the SP installer chmods files....

I'm not sure which files to chmod and what permissions to restore them to to get the errors to stop. Could someone give me a hand... Thanks.

[AngelinaBelle]

I have given up using the SP package manager to chmod files.
My host is 1 and 1. When chmod sets permissions too permissively, the host throws a 500 error. For some reason, when I try to use SMF to chmod files, it doesn't stop with my forum.  It goes up  directory, chmods the ftp login directory to 777, and I cannot even ftp to my website after that. I need external help to re-chmod my root directory.  After that, it is an easy matter to re-CHMOD the rest of the files.

1and1 sets up the webserver with suphp. This means that, when you use the webserver/php to create files (as you do when you use the package manager), those files are created by you, not by whatever-user-they-have-set-up-to-run-the-webserver.

Since it is not necessary to allow any other user to write to your files, 1and1 also prohibits giving write permission to other users. It gives a 500 error if you try to give out "too much" permission.

See http://simpleportal.net/index.php?topic=6312.msg36685 for more.

Each digit in the chmod is the sum of : (execute (1 if yes, 0 if no)) + (write (2 if yes, 0 if no)) + (read (4 if yes, 0 if no))

The digits are: ugw (user, group, world)
For u, you can use any of the possible values. So 7 is fine for directories, 6 for ordinary files.
For w, write=0, which means you can use 0, 1, 4, or 5, but not 2, 3, 6, or 7.
For g, I've read either that you can use the same values as for u, or that you should stick to the same values that are OK for w.

This means that, for directories, you should be able to use 755 (775 might work, but you don't need it)
For files, 644 should work (or 664, but why bother?).

If you have fixed your chmod, and still get 500 errors, try temporarily removing your .htaccess file.  A bad .htaccess file can also cause a 500 error.

[chaos945]

Ok after getting hold of my host to reset my root. They said they reset it to 711 fyi... My SMF forum is working again. I REALLY want to use mods on SMF but I am so scared to add anything worrying about breaking my root permissions again...

I changed my forum path to a folder of its own in an attempt to stop the maddness, but I've not tried it yet. Do you think this will resolve the issue? Or do you suggest something else?



[update]
  nope broken again and I didn't even get a chance to try the package manager... I was looking at the Permissions tab and applied all writable now I'm back to 555 errors.

[AngelinaBelle]

I would recommend that you NOT use SMF's "set permissions" feature.
It does not seem to work at all well for you. I don't use it any more, either.

Instead, you can use your favorite FTP client to set file and directory permissions.
Some are going to be better than others for this task.
For this task, the command-line FTP client migh actually be the most convenient.