access apache log files in centos

Question

I've got clear centOS 5.x system, I've created an user and when I want do go into /var/log/httpd i get access denied. after typing ls -la i get the owner of httpd catalog is root. Can I change owner to my user? Or how can I access this folder to watch apache logs?

Solution

The permissions are correct on the folder. You can change the ownership of the folder to root:apache and also add yourself to the apache group.

sudo chown -R root:apache /var/log/httpd 

then open the /etc/group file and add the following to the group 'apache'

sudo vi /etc/group

apache:x:48:"your username"

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/log/httpd 

Hope that solves the issue.

cheers :)

Comments

[Krystian]

I did everything but still access denied

[rahul]

@Krystian forgot to add one more thing.I have added that edit to the answer that i posted,in case you forgot that. Can u give me the o/p of ls -ld /var/log/httpd ?

[terdon]

It much safer to just use su or sudo to access the relevant files.

[Krystian]

i dont know root password so I cant use su and sudo doestn work with cd command because it is shell command not bin

[rahul]

@Krystian great! cheers

[user1696603]

better to do sudo chmod 755 /var/log/httpd and sudo chmod 644 /var/log/httpd/* -- the first is for directory access and the second for files. using chmod -R 755 makes all the files executable, which isn't a good idea. (more adaptable version of these commands here: unix.stackexchange.com/a/38451/3297)