Generating SSH keys for 'apache' user

php apache git github ssh-keys
Kit picture Kit · Sep 5, 2011 · Viewed 54.8k times · Source

How do I add SSH keys for 'apache' user in Linux?

BACKGROUND

I am trying to add a service hook to github to notify a URL once I push to my repo. I have the following php page set up:

<?php `git pull origin master`;

However I get the following output:

sh: git: Permission denied

This is because the keys I generated for github access were generated by my 'root' user. However when I exectue a command from php it is the 'apache' user that runs it.

The keys therefore do not correspond and permission is denied to pull.

As I cannot switch user from the terminal to generate keys as 'apache', I am not too sure what to do. Can anyone suggest a solution?

Answer

Vincent picture Vincent · Sep 5, 2011

You may have to copy the root generated keys in the .ssh directory of your apache user.

Assuming the homedir of apache is /var/www (check /etc/passwd) and the named key is id_rsa-git :

mkdir -p /var/www/.ssh/
cp /root/.ssh/id_rsa-git /var/www/.ssh/id_rsa

No need to copy the public key.

Note : by default the key used are id_rsa or id_dsa. You may change the name of the copied key to match this.

You may also change ownership of the id_rsa key and .ssh directory: 

chown -R apache:apache /var/www/.ssh
chmod 0700 /var/www/.ssh
chmod 0600 /var/www/.ssh/id_rsa

Related questions

PHP code is not being executed, instead code shows on the page

I'm trying to execute some PHP code on a project (using Dreamweaver) but the code isn't being run. When I check the source code, the PHP code appears as HTML tags (I can see it in the source code). Apache …

Read More
Apache is not running from XAMPP Control Panel ( Error: Apache shutdown unexpectedly. This may be due to a blocked port)

I have installed XAMPP (xampp-win32-1.8.2-0-VC9-installer.exe) on Windows 7 successfully. But unfortunately, the following error was found during running Apache from XAMPP Control Panel: 5:38:38 PM [Apache] Error: Apache shutdown unexpectedly. 5:38:38 PM [Apache] This may be due to …

Read More
What is the difference between HTTP_HOST and SERVER_NAME in PHP?

What is the difference between HTTP_HOST and SERVER_NAME in PHP? where: HTTP_HOST === $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] SERVER_NAME === $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] When would you consider using one over the other and why?

Read More