Debian: Upload websites to server

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Does anyone know how to grant a user on a debian machine rights to upload files to a particular area on the machine?

Specifically, I want to grant my user account rights to upload files into the web area on the machine?

I have an SSH client that allows me to upload the files, but I dont want to have to log onto the box as root whenever I want to do that.

I'm assuming theres a group or something in Debian that grants these rights, but I have no idea how to list groups, etc from the command line.

 

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Set up Apache to use WebDav. Here's a link to a how-to.

http://www.howtoforge.com/setting-up-webdav-with-apache2-on-debian-etch

I would use an https virtual server so my passwords wouldn't be transmitted in plain text, but other than that this is a pretty good how-to. This will allow you to modify files in-place and to upload files.

 

Can you set up https without having to pay for a certificate?

 

Yeah, you just create your own certificates and sign them yourself. Anyone logging into the https site will get a warning that the certificate isn't signed by a valid authority, but it will still work. We use self-signed certificates on all our development sites as it's much cheaper and no one else accesses them anyway.

 

If you're going to be working with Apache quite a bit I'd recommend that you at least get O'Reilly's books "Apache: The Definitive Guide" and "Apache Security". They are starting to get dated, but the basic stuff in there will be of a great help to you.

You can probably find used copies for next to nothing.