[smokeping-users] purpose of user 'www' (vs 'apache)?

[Layla Nahar]

Hello  Josh,  Deny IP -

thank you very much for the clarification.  I feel much more at ease
being sure rather than just guessing and hoping!

thanks again

LN



On Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 3:40 PM, Deny IP Any Any <denyipanyany at gmail.com> wrote:
> back in the old days, the Apache daemon ran as the user 'root'. This
> caused lots of security issues (think if someone wrote a web page that
> tries to write to /etc/password; since Apache ran as root, so their
> their script).
>
> In current systems, Apache runs as a non-root user; this user is often
> called www, or apache, or www-data, etc. The actual name makes no
> difference, as long as it isn't ran as root.

On Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 3:32 PM, Layla Nahar <laylanahar at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I've seen reference in some mails on this list to the user www.
> I have user 'apache' in my system and Smokeping is running without user www.
> I tried checked on the internet to try and find our if there are any
> conventions or requirements vis a vis 'www' but found very little.
>
> I suspect this is a very elementary question, but would someone mind
> clarifying how it is used in connection with smokeping?  I'm guessing
> it is just the convention among some admins to have this user start
> and run apache server, but I'd like to be sure.
>
> thanks
> LN
>