DigitalOcean Web Server Configuration and Hosting Multiple Websites

Recommended directory to store website contents

The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard defines standardized recommendations on where to put what in Unix-like systems.

The /srv directory should contain data that is served by the system. This is usually the place you want to host your web sites files.

One method for structuring data under /srv is by protocol, eg. ftp, rsync, www (https and http), and cvs.

So, simply create a /srv/www directory and use this. You can create subfolders for every virtual host you might want to serve with your machine.

Create the website directory if it does not exist

The right folder permissions for a website on a Linux server are discussed on stackoverflow.

For my setup, I used the following permissions criteria:

• Permission for directories: 755. This means that:
  • The user owner of the directory can read, write and execute.
  • The assigned group can read and execute, but not write.
  • Everyone else can read and execute, but not write.
• Permissions for files: 644. This means that:
  • The user owner of the file can read and write only.
  • The assigned group can read only.
  • Everyone else can read only.

# 0. settings
web_dir=/srv/www
myusername=kassambara
# 1. Create the website directory
sudo mkdir -p $web_dir
# 2. set your user as the owner
sudo chown -R $myusername $web_dir
# 3. set the web server as the group owner
sudo chgrp -R www-data $web_dir
# 4. 755 permissions for everything
sudo chmod -R 755 $web_dir
# 5. New files and folders inherit 
# group ownership from the parent folder
chmod g+s $web_dir

References

• The right folder permissions for a website on a Linux server
• Remove www-data owned file using ordinary userHow to Create a Website Directory and Set Up Proper Permissions