Wordpress on Ubuntu install plugins without FTP access

Question

I run my own web server for development and, on it, I installed a WordPress instance. When I try to add plugins to this instance from the admin interface, WordPress asks for FTP access.

I don't use FTP and have no plans to do so in the future. I know I can change some configuration in WordPress so that I am able to upload without FTP. What exactly should I configure to accomplish this?

Explicative

Did I not answer your question? – Broek

Answer 1

One of three things:

1. Either change permissions so your web server can read the wp-content directory, which should be fine for a development server.
2. Run PHP as FastCGI which can run as a different user than your web server.
3. Install the ssh extension for PHP (sudo apt-get install libssh2-php on ubuntu on think)

Broek

+1 - Just dealt with this issue myself. I used solution #1 and chown'd the directory containing wordpress to user www-data. – Inscribe

@Ryan for you own sake and sanity, it might be better to use setfacl to give you and www-data access to it, just so you can access the files as well. – Broek

You just blew my mind. I never knew setfacl existed, but it will undoubtedly make my life easier. Thanks! – Inscribe

Curiously, changing group ownership to www-data with rw perms still resulted in the ftp page being invoked. Only when changing the actually owner to www-data did it go away. Any ideas why? – Motherly

Answer 2

Execute this command on your ubuntu terminal

sudo chown -R www-data /var/www

Shocker

Shouldn't just the group www-data be enough? – Agnew

I think, assigning the group as www-data would be enough, no need for www-data as the user – Wennerholn

Answer 3

DON FLANNAGAN’s method works for me , THX

Blockquote

One way to do it is change assign ownership of the wordpress installation to www-data:

chown -R www-data:www-data . Change file permissions:

chmod -R g+rwX . Add yourself to the www-data group:

usermod -a -G www-data myusername

Blockquote

Diarchy

Answer 4

I was not satisfied with any of these answers so I kept on searching. I found an answer that was so simple I was surprised it had not been mentioned already.

https://askubuntu.com/a/826805/145472

This answer says to add a line to wp-config.php

define('FS_METHOD', 'direct');

Job done. I cannot take credit for knowing this but I do feel it needs a mention here too.

Muns

Yes, it's correct but see this: https://mcmap.net/q/63866/-can-i-install-update-wordpress-plugins-without-providing-ftp-access – Biomass

Answer 5

One way to do it is change assign ownership of the wordpress installation to www-data:

chown -R www-data:www-data .

Change file permissions:

chmod -R g+rwX .

Add yourself to the www-data group:

usermod -a -G www-data myusername

Del

Answer 6

The funny thing is that uploading media works. So I was wondering why plugins not? After changing the ownership of wp-admin it worked for me.

sudo chown -R www-data wp-admin

Diluent