Using Debian Linux, and the sftp facilities built into SSH, how can I
set up the root (or other users) so that files are, by default, set to
be owned by www-data, group www-data, and either 644 or 755 access? At
the moment files are uploaded as 700 and I've tried changing umask in
the profile. Thanks.

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Clarification of Question by davert2-ga on 02 Jun 2004 07:59 PDT

Raised the list price.

Hello Davert2-ga,

I don't have a debian installation just yet but my ftp server is on
suse and there are a few things in common. If there is a default sftp
setting it should appear in the sftpd.conf file, perhaps somewhere in
/etc? The version I use is vsftp and has an associated vsftpd.conf
file which allows the permissions to be set however you want. There
may be something similar with your version as well as a man page for
sftpd.conf.

good luck.

ByteCaptain

almost forgot, if you wanted to do this through ssh you're going to
need to edit the configuration file sshd uses when started by( &&
assuming you're using) xinetd or inetd. You'll be looking for the line
that says something like /usr/sbin/sshd -f [config-file-name]. If
you're starting the daemon by hand you'll already be familiar with the
previous command.

Thank you. sftp is part of ssh as you noted - there's no separate
sftpd.conf or sftp.conf (or for that matter vsftpd.conf). I did
already go through  /etc/ssh/sshd_config and did not find anything
relevant. So we're still at square one.

Here's a new wrinkle: the problem seems to occur primarily in one
particular directory associated with one domain name. There's no
.htaccess file there. In another directory, the default is 777! This
is using the same username.

And a new question to go along with the first: any way to assign
default ownership to files uploaded by sftp?

Uh. Duh. I found the issue. My *local* permissions were wrong. The
sftp program was simply copying local permissions. I went crazy trying
to find this. I'm closing the question with this comment as a guide to
anyone else...