When a php script requires write access to a
file or directory (like Nucleus does for the 'media'-directory if you
want to be able to upload pictures etc), you have to chmod that
directory (or file) to 777 (or 666 for files) on most servers. This
gives world write access to this folder (file). This is because on most
servers apache (and php) runs as user 'nobody'.
Although giving world write access will make it possible to use the
script, it also means a security hole, which can be used by hackers and
other riff-raff.
To avoid this security hole some ISP's install phpsuexec on their
servers (like mine did a few days ago). Using phpsuexec php runs under
your own username on the server. This removes the necessity to make
files and folders world writable. Instead you can just use 755 for
folders (the default) and 644 for files (also the default).
But using phpsuexec has some other consequences: some statements
in your .htaccess file will result in an error 500 (internal server
error). So here are the two problems of which i know, and how to solve
them (btw: these problems are Apache specific, since IIS isn't as advanced as Apache):
ForceType
When you are using files with (or without) an extension different then the normal extension for that filetype you can use ForceType
in your .htaccess file to make it clear to the server how to handle
that file (or all the files in the folder) (this works on servers without
phpsuexec).
An example: When you have a file called 'item' (like Nucleus uses for
FancyURL's) and want it to be parsed by the server as php you use the
following code in your .htaccess file:
<filesmatch "^item$"="">
??? ForceType application/x-httpd-php