General developer forum

I like Martin's new idea - it looks much more elegant.

I don't know the structure of Moodle well - is re-writing the file reading going to be easier than re-writing the file writing?  (I had to fiddle with one other routine which bypassed the main writing function.)

I cant offer much help coding, but I'll gladly test stuff if that will help.

 

Hi, I'm just about to do a new install of Moodle 1.09 on a server that has Safe Mode on.

From reading the threads this is a problem, however it seems that you've come up with 'an elegant solution' (nothing I like better!).

Not being overly familiar with PHP I need a very simple step-by-step explanation of what to do, as I didn't quite get your instructions above. Thanks for your help!

  function fixowner ($filename) {
    if(fileowner($filename) !=
      posix_getuid()) {
      if(copy($filename,$filename . '.tmp')) { 
        unlink($filename);
        rename($filename . '.tmp',$filename);
      }
    }
  }

You could use this to change the owner of the script(s) that need to fiddle with the uploaded files to that of the web page once, then not worry about it again, couldn't you?

The webhosting company I'm discussing a Moodle installation with offered me a possibility to run a cron script every minute that would make chown to all my folders and files making me the owner. Would this be a for-the-time-being solution to Safe Mode On?

Hi All,

I'm a new user to moodle but have been working with php for a while and my ISP gave me this workaround for safe mode. Hope it's not been posted before.

I have to differentiate between MODPHP and CGI-PHP here. My ISP, like most doesn't support safemode in MODPHP , for obvious reasons, but does with suexe wrapper in CGI mode. This is fine except that moodle is written for MODPHP and as such has no shebangs in the scripts (#!/bin/php first line).

So this works for me: get your ISP to put a copy of the php executable in your root cgi-bin directory and change it's owner and group to you. You will need their version to maintain site compatibility. Then in the moodle root directory add the following lines to your .htaccess file:

RemoveHandler .php
AddType application/cgi-php php
Action application/cgi-php /cgi-bin/php

Now this is working for me at the moment . I have not fully tested this implementation but have not found any significant problems yet.

However there were some teething problems - $_SERVER["PHP_SELF"] does not resolve correctly but sed fixed that to $_SERVER["PHP_URL"] which should resolve more reliably across different virtual server implementations. I think that this was related to my ISP's virtual server implementation

For reference I am running php version 4.3.1, with apache 1.3.27.

-pete

I just installed moodle 1.5.2 on a shared server that does not support safe-mode off. I read a lot of posts mostly from 2003. Is there now a safe-mode work around? My provider is suggesting PHP power mode to run php through CGI. I am not a programer, but this sounds like trouble to me.

I added safe-mode off as a requirement for Moodle in the installation docs since there does not seem to a viable work-around, at present, perhaps until there is an "all in the database" option in moodle.  

Dear all

I have the same problem:

mkdir() [function.mkdir]: SAFE MODE Restriction in effect. The script whose uid/gid is 32044/32045 is not allowed to access /home/public_html/moodledata/37/moddata owned by uid/gid 99/99 in /home/ciccms/public_html/lib/setuplib.php on line 69

It seems that SAFE MODE must be off

Our provider could'nt  do that.

Any other Ideas.

Thanks all.

Hi!I'm a new new newbie user (2 days and counting!!!!) and would also love to know if a "safe mode compliant" version is in the pipeline?

I already have my own webspace paid for and they won't turn off php safe mode (already asked them ) I know that of course I can run from my home computer, which I'll do for now while testing, but it'd be nice to know whether I'll need to change provider or if there is hope for the future.

In the meantime, I'd like to say, what a fantastic job the developers have done with this, I'm gobsmacked with the future possibilities of cool and clever online activities!

Keep up the good work!

There is a different "FTP workaround" without touching Moodle files that seems valid for all moodle versions (as far as the hosting provider gives you FTP access).

Take a look to this solution.

It worked for me.

Hi Martin,
Thats a very good solution given by you through FTP access.
I tried it the other way. I set the permissions of moodledata directory as 02777 and then proceeded moodle installation under
safe_mode = On
safe_mode_gid = On
Everything went fine during installation and it seemed that i have made to work it under safe mode. It was going fine for all the events but with problem in Backup.

Name:	backup-scf101-20090724-1450.zip
Creating temporary structures Deleting old data Creating XML file Writing header Writing general info Writing course data Course info An error occurred while backing up course start Blocks Sections Course format data