davros1973b

nb: subdirectory doesn’t have to be called “tmp”. I changed it to “temp”.

nb: forgot to say … I only use this site on https binding. I give a message on the “main site” and just use a subdirectory/iis application for the wp site. I store wp-config.php outside the www directory altogether … just using a stub thingy with a require once in the directory above the wp directory … but define a custom constant in wp-load that I check for in my wp-config “stub” to give a dummy php error output giving false paths to my actual wp-config.php (my php display error is actually off) … just to throw casual hackers off the scent a bit. (The basic authentication is just on the wp sub directory).

nb: forgot … my IIS basic settings for site set for pass through authentication for user (and I use basic authentication on this site – just a private site for documenting/organising another shared project) so at the moment I’ve just set ACL for both the isolated apppool (not sure if necessary) and one authenticated standard windows user that I currently use for basic authentication pending LDAP / role based authentication)

Updates seem to work fine with parent directory TEST just having “List folder contents” set. And the “temp” folder set with “modify” level access.

My wp-contents folder also set with “modify” level access for the php user – for convenience for now ’til I make a convenient way to raise the access permissions automatically when needed in a secure way in windows (not a straightforward chmod exercise with ftp settings etc. as I understand it)

My conclusive thoughts to it all is that wp must require some parent traversal for the temp directory setting for some reason though doesn’t seem to require read/execute but just list folder contents (in windows terms – not clear on chmod equivalents – individual execute? I don’t use Linux much – very little time and I like being able to help ordinary people and believe in the ideology that software should be transparent e.g. a person shouldn’t have to be an expert mechanic and modify their car engine before they can drive the car just to get from A to B … I like Ubuntu but even there just installing flash e.g. for BBC Iplayer isn’t in my opinion straight forward for a casual user!)

Fixed it.

The solution was to make a subdirectory for my temp directory. I haven’t tested with the parent directory having different permissions … so don’t know if that would affect anything … but this worked for me:

define(‘WP_TEMP_DIR’, ‘F:\TEST\tmp/’);

(So that’s with full permissions … my next job is to refactor everything security-wise – planning to make a plugin to use setACL.exe triggered via Windows task scheduler to store elevated privileges ).

nb: below lines had no impact for me.
define(‘FS_METHOD’,’direct’);
putenv(‘TMPDIR=F:\TEST\tmp/’);

I’ve got a headache now. Why isn’t anything simple!!! I wish something somewhere specified these requirements but if there is, I’ve overlooked it. ??