Title: WP-CLI root vs non-root user
Last modified: April 17, 2017

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# WP-CLI root vs non-root user

 *  Resolved [daviddumonde](https://wordpress.org/support/users/daviddumonde/)
 * (@daviddumonde)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp-cli-root-vs-non-root-user/)
 * So I’m getting my feet wet with WP-CLI, but I’m confused about root vs non-root
   user.
 * If I’m using my non-root user, I don’t have privileges in /var/www/html/domain.
   If I sudo, WP-CLI throws a hissy fit about not using root.
 * If I go to /var/www/html and mkdir domain, then domain is owned by root. If I
   go to /var/www/html/domain and ‘wp core download’, I get ‘Error: ‘/var/www/html/
   ask/’ is not writable by current user.’ It gives further reasons why running 
   as root is a bad idea, instructions for doing it anyway, and then “If you’d like
   to run it as the user that this site is under, you can run the following to become
   the respective user: sudo -u USER -i — wp <command>”.
 * So what user should I be using if I shouldn’t use root and I can’t use my own
   regular non-root user? Do I need to move my installs to my home folder? Or is
   there some other way to use WP-CLI in the normal /var/www/html/domain directories?

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  [colemanedwards](https://wordpress.org/support/users/colemanedwards/)
 * (@colemanedwards)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp-cli-root-vs-non-root-user/#post-9036263)
 * Hi there David,
 * Have you tried changing the ownership of the doc root (which I’m assuming is 
   public_html) to www-data and adding your non-root user to that group?
 * [https://www.linode.com/docs/websites/cms/install-wordpress-using-wp-cli-on-ubuntu-14-04](https://www.linode.com/docs/websites/cms/install-wordpress-using-wp-cli-on-ubuntu-14-04)
 * Main Install Section; Step 2
 * > Change the ownership of the public_html directory. Apache comes with its own
   > usergroup www-data. As a recommended practice, you should change the ownership
   > of your installation directory to this group. You also need to add your username
   > to the group, and enable group write permissions to perform any commands in
   > the directory:
 *     ```
        sudo chown -R www-data public_html
        sudo usermod -aG www-data username
        sudo chmod -R g+w public_html
       ```
   
 *  [colemanedwards](https://wordpress.org/support/users/colemanedwards/)
 * (@colemanedwards)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp-cli-root-vs-non-root-user/#post-9036268)
 * Also, this is normal for any command that is writing to the directory. You will
   want to use the prefix sudo -u when using commands such as ‘wp core download’
   on environments set up in this way.
 *  [colemanedwards](https://wordpress.org/support/users/colemanedwards/)
 * (@colemanedwards)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp-cli-root-vs-non-root-user/#post-9036279)
 * Here is another similar issue where it was recommended to “add nonroot to the
   www-data group, and make your files group”readable/writable.”
 * [https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli/issues/1241](https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli/issues/1241)
 *  Thread Starter [daviddumonde](https://wordpress.org/support/users/daviddumonde/)
 * (@daviddumonde)
 * [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp-cli-root-vs-non-root-user/#post-9037368)
 * Thanks very much for the help, Coleman. It’s clear now what I was missing. I’d
   never picked up the habit of setting my nonroot as owner of my installs because
   I was simply able to sudo. I did have my nonroot added to www-data, but I didn’t
   think to set group write permissions on the html directory. I actually looked
   at the two articles you linked to, but with your help they make a lot more sense
   now. I’ve given it a spin and successfully completed and install with wp-cli.
   Thanks for your help! (And howdy from down the road in Houston!)

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘WP-CLI root vs non-root user’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [wp-cli](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/wp-cli/)

 * In: [Developing with WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/wp-advanced/)
 * 4 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [daviddumonde](https://wordpress.org/support/users/daviddumonde/)
 * Last activity: [9 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wp-cli-root-vs-non-root-user/#post-9037368)
 * Status: resolved

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