skeleton directory

[sallam]

Hi

The skeleton directory is a nice feature in cPanel. But I wonder if its possible to use it to automatically upload any number of directories and subdirectories and files in each new account created through WHM?
Or is it to be used for just uploading files, not whole directories?
and is there any file size limit?

cPanel.net Support Ticket Number: can we use it to create whole directories?

[PWSowner]

You can put a whole website there if you want to. Whatever is in the skel directory, and subdirectories, will be copied over to the new account.

[sallam]

thats wonderful, thanks very much.

Being a reseller, not root admin: I suppose there is no feature for more than one skeleton directory, to choose between different plans, no?
And whatever I upload there will be copied to all future accounts, I cannot disable for some and enable for others?

[PWSowner]

As a reseller you will only have 1 and it will be used for all accounts, but you can always manually edit the new account content after creation. You could also have more than 1 template on your own computer and change the skel directory content as needed.

[sallam]

how about uploading some directories, and only rename the one I need to use for skeleton?
although my quota as a reseller is 10gb, it turned out that my reseller account itself is only 10mb. is that the maximum? or can my host icrease it for me?

[PWSowner]

If you have the space you could upload them as cpanel3-skel1, 2, and so on and rename the one you want to be the active one.

If your reseller account was set up as a bogus account it probably was set small to give you the space for real accounts. Your host can increase it for you easy enough.

[sallam]

sorry for asking too much, but what is 'bogus account'?
can a host do that?

[PWSowner]

That's just a term meaning no real domain account. Some hosting companies create reseller accounts using just about anything for the domain. That way the resellers actual domain can be whatever he wants to set it up as.

Either way, they can easily give you more space to give you room for skeleton directories.

[sallam]

ok, thanks very much indeed for your kind help

[PackCat]

Originally posted by squirrel As a reseller you will only have 1 and it will be used for all accounts, but you can always manually edit the new account content after creation.

Your comment have brought a few ideas to mind.

1) do all cpanel3-skel files copy with their permissions intact, and (chown'd & chgrp'd) to the new account userID? The reason I asked was I noticed some cgi files gave 500 errors before massaging.

2) does it also copy links: (I want to make a ~/public-html/logs link point to ~/logs)
example: (ln -s ../logs logs) [logs -> ../logs] in the public_html directory.

3) Is there any attempt in the future to work in more real-world terms, such as setting up accounts with group permissions that allow the WHM admin to be a member of the account name group. It would help when hosting accounts require assistance. The WHM admin could use ssh and copy/update files when needed.

4) I am also having a tough time with "cpanel" owned files, such as log files ( /usr/local/apache/domlogs)

examples:
owner | group | domain-log
------ | ------ | -------------
root | packcat | fm.packcat.org
root | packcat | forums.packcat.org
root | gv | gothicvamp.packcat.org
root | packcat | guestbook.packcat.org
root | jpi | jpi.packcat.org
root | packcat | packcat.org


It would a lot easier for the WHM admin to perform daily logs on all the sub accounts, if the files were "OWNED" by the WHM admin instead of root, and the groups could stay the same.... I think you get the idea of where I am going here.

it seems to me that cpanel should run as a root process, then it would be able to do it's job, while letting the "chips" or files fall where they may.

I believe there should be a better relationship between the WHM and Host account and be reflected in the file ownerships. (that would also fix problems with having to copy a file you forgot to put in the skeleton directory) or maybe at least put a utility in the WHM that would allow the WHM admin to copy individual or groups of files to host accounts, or remove undesirable or obscene content.

The host account could always chmod group permissions if their content contained especially sensitive information.

thanks,
john

P.S. I doubt that you have anything to do with PHP scripts, but it would probably be a lot easier to manage PHP install packages like fantastico, if they used suexec like Apache html files, but that may be more of a system administrator issue instead of cpanel.
see: mod_php

[PWSowner]

1) yes
2) I think so

[PackCat]

Originally posted by squirrel
1) yes
2) I think so

BTW, I thought I saw a post mentioning changing a domain name, where is that done at?

I don't see anything in WHM that modifies this, is it handled thru the zone manager.

suppose: billy gets a new account, but doesn't have his domain yet, and I want to give him billy.mydomain.com, until he gets the new domain name, then he tells me it is ready, will I modify his domain name...

yes, I'm lazy and tired, and probably could have searched this faster than I posted it, my apologies

[PWSowner]

You can change the domain name with "modify an account".

[PackCat]

Originally posted by squirrel
You can change the domain name with "modify an account".

My bad... I thought that was a grayed-out field before.. now I see that I can actually type in the Domain field... thanks for being so gentle...
Now I can go ahead and create the account that has been sitting on my desktop for the last 4 hours waiting for me to submit... If only now if I can figure out how to setup and designate "packages"... but that is a question for another day

thanks for your help,
john