Hosting service says "No Root Access."

Forum Moderators: phranque

Message Too Old, No Replies

Hosting service says "No Root Access."

should I care?

createErrorMsg

8:06 pm on Jul 17, 2004 (gmt 0)

I just received an email back from a hosting service answering some questions I had for them. One of the questions was about limitations on installing applications on the server, specifically Moveable Type or WordPress. The response was,

You can not intall applications that reqiure root access.

Um...

Setting aside the horrendous spelling, does anybody know exactly what this means? Which 'root' do you suppose they are talking about? If I can't have access to the root directory of my own site I can't even install an .htm file, yes? (install, upload, whatever)

I feel certain that this answer would make sense to me if I knew the first thing about servers and hosting, but, alas, I really don't. Can anyone educate me?

Thanks in advance for any response.

encyclo

8:19 pm on Jul 17, 2004 (gmt 0)

They are not talking about the document root directory, rather the root user on the system - which has control over the server. Unless you've got a dedicated server, you won't get root access.

WordPress certainly doesn't require root access to install, and I'm virtually certain Movable Type doesn't either. Most Unix-type programs can be installed in your home directory as a normal user anyway. The one thing you might want to check is whenther you can get shell access via SSH, which will give you a command-line access to the server as a normal user. That can be useful, but is not essential. You can install WordPress via FTP-only access (I've done so).

vkaryl

4:34 am on Jul 18, 2004 (gmt 0)

The host should also provide the path to various programs that should be resident on the server: perl, sendmail, php etc. My host provides these paths as /usr/bin/perl and /usr/sbin/sendmail, f'rinstance.

That sort of information is INVALUABLE when you're trying to install programs like a mailing list or phpBB. If you don't have it handy, you'll sometimes spend an inordinate amount of time with things set up wrong to begin with, and if your host happens to not be available 24/7, or doesn't have a usable cpanel or knowledgebase, you may become quickly frustrated.