Sometimes you may need to find out which user Apache is running as or check what user PHP is running as. Here is how to check what user Apache is running as.
How to Check What User Apache is Running As
It is very easy to find out which user your Apache server is running as.
Linux (All distributions)
In Linux systems, open terminal and run the following command to list the user running Apache processes.
$ ps aux | grep apache2 www-data 1388 0.0 0.1 162184 7634 ? Ss Apr29 0:02 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start www-data 1297 0.0 0.1 162184 7268 ? S Apr29 0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start www-data 1398 0.0 0.1 162184 7926 ? S Apr29 0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start www-data 1402 0.0 0.1 162184 7784 ? S Apr29 0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
As you can see www-data is the user running Apache server.
You can also open Apache configuration file at any of the following locations, depending on your system and installation.
- /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
- /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
- /etc/httpd/httpd.conf
- /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
$ sudo vi /etc/httpd/httpd.conf
and look for user directive. Here’s an example of Apache configuration’s user directive with www-root user.
User www-root
Also read : How to Change Default Page in .htaccess
Windows (All version)
In windows, just open Apache configuration file at C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\ApacheX.X\conf\ where X.X is the version number of Apache server, and look for User directive. Here’s an example of Apache server’s user being test_user
User test_user Group test_user
Also read : How to Change Apache User