Fake user adm and domain logs?

[viraladmin]

Okay so inside /var/log it seems almost every file and directory is listed as group www-data and user adm.

Problem 1: user adm doesn't exist. Why are all the logs listed under a user that does not exist?

Problem 2: no users cannot access any log files. They get a "failed to stat" error when the try.





Now if I chown them to the username, I cannot switch them back as the account adm - is not real.



I have tried changing permissions and usernames:



I have checked the symlinks:



Yet still when downloading an error log the user gets:



Only root seems to be able to access logs.

This is a default install using the base options (the latest version), no special configuration ubuntu 16.04

[tjebbeke]

adm: Group adm is used for system monitoring tasks. Members of this group can read many log files in /var/log, and can use xconsole. Historically, /var/log was /usr/adm (and later /var/adm), thus the name of the group.

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1318346

[viraladmin]

That would be correct.... except you'll note from my screenshot the user is adm not the group - which is www-data

And still doesn't solve the "user can't access log files".

[viraladmin]

Has anyone ever found a solution to this problem as every time my logs are rotated I have to manually go through and again issue the commands:

Code: Select all

chown www-data:username /var/log/apache2/domains/whatever.domain.error.log

Code: Select all

chown www-data:username /var/log/apache2/domains/whatever.domain.log

This is getting more and more problematic with each new user.

[noogen]

You're right. I never really pay attention to this. I usually just view the log from the panel and not really accessing the file. Probably a good bug to report. I'm on Ubuntu. The actual file under /var/log/apache2/domains is own by www-data:adm but the file under the user logs folder is root:root when rotated.

The log that was not rotated kept the original permission as user:user