installiing joomla

[Roger]

> <snip>
>> Please set up permission to apache user, probably it will be chmod
>> apache:apache /var/www/http
> You should NOT change ownership of /var/www/http to Apache, never do
> that.  That's a VERY BAD THING!!!!!!  Anyone who advises you to do that
> is not to be trusted (whether it's because they're being malicious, or
> simply that they don't know what they're talking about).  That allows
>
> </snip>
>    
>
After researching and actually doing all this for some 10 years I find:

There is some belief that /var/www/html is sacrosanct.
It is, albeit with a couple of differences, (/var directory) no more so 
than /home/user/some/other/directory
http.conf  DirectoryRoot  makes it viable or not.
It does not matter which directory you use you still have to have user 
ownership and suitable permsissions in some form.
I have, in 10 years never found, having the setup described previously, 
to present danger to my home use development boxes using Fedora or 
Ubuntu systems.
One still must have their local machine and modem locked down but that 
is another discussion.

In deference, there are some points worth mentioning.
Joolma, et al, are GUI based, not text based so access matters. If as 
below one does not change apache ownerships:
- Setting up Joolma, Drupal or the like cannot be done unless one is root.
- One has to be root not sudo root.
- To have to be root, to install these as root, makes all files 
contained therein root ownership and permissions.
- Everything from here in has to be done as root, not  sudo root and the 
GUI systems all have to be used as root
As such, playing in root user while connected to the internet, now that 
really IS dangerous.
- User access to manipulate the systems becomes virtually impossible 
with altering other access methods and I do not recommend that course 
for setting up a sandpit test site. That also is for another discussion.
  I am certain that if I had gross errors in my advice, Rick, Brett, and 
others more expert than I, people for whom I have great respect, would 
have advised differently.

Roger