LnBlog

It looks like I've got my file permission issues sorted out now. I case you didn't know, I've moved to a new web host and I ended up having some issues with LnBlog.

My previous host ran PHP as an Apache module. In this configuration, andy files PHP creates are owned by the Apache user. Basically, this means that if you want a script to write to the filesystem, you have to disable safe_mode and make everything world-writable, or you have to use FTP. This is the scenario I had in mind when I wrote the NativeFS file writing module for LnBlog.

My new host, however, runs PHP suexec. This means that PHP is running as CGI, not an Apache module, and is running as my regular user account, not the Apache account. Thus, there is no need to worry about file permissions or ownership, because everything "just works."

Well, almost everything. It turns out that the server objects to scripts and directories that are world-writable, throwing an internal server error. This is a good thing as far as security goes. However, the NativeFS module, by default, makes everything world-writable because it was designed for the mod_php scenario. Hence it doesn't work.

Needless to say, I've fixed this problem and deployed it on my site. Basically, I've just added the ability to set the permissions for LnBlog to use when creating files. I just have to work out the configuration interface and then I'll put up a maintenance release.

Well, it's finally release time again. I've put up LnBlog 0.8.2. As usual, you can find it on the download page or just grab the release archive.

I'll be honest with you: it's been so long since the last stable release, I don't really remember all the changes. I just know there have been quite a few of them. I'll try to highlight the big ones, but if you're really curious, just read the last few blog entries and/or the changelog.

• Change organization of theme style sheets.
• Added option in system.ini to group all replies (comments, Pingbacks, and TrackBacks) into a single list.
• Added mass deletion of replies.
• Improved the sidebar calendar and made it AJAX-powered.
• Added interface on admin page for administrators to modify user accounts.
• Converted entry data files to XML format (don't worry - it'll still read the old format).

Thanks to everyone who contacted me with problems, suggestions, and other feedback for this release. Please keep it up - I really appreciate it! And if you find anything wrong in this release, you know what to do. Thanks!