In Wordpress there are features to update plugin/theme automatically when the new version is released. With one button click, it will download, extract and install automatically.

Now in Linode, when i want to update, it prompts for FTP credentials (refer screenshot in this link):
http://grab.by/ghSc

How to overcome this? Linode only allow SFTP but not FTP. The screenshot would indicate that i can use FTP over SSL. How to configure this?

Linode allows whatever you want, including FTP. We (the community) strongly recommend against it, though, since FTP by itself is a security risk (sends passwords in plaintext).

If the ownership/group/file permissions are set right, the auto update works fine.

       chown -R apache /www/web
       chgrp -R apache /www/web
       chown root /www/web/wp-config.php
       find /www/web/ -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
       find /www/web/ -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;
       chmod 750 /www/web/wp-config.php

Adjust as needed to the owner of Apache files for your distro (this example is for CentOS) as well as the location of your wordpress site.

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Security thru obscurity is a myth - and really really annoying.

But i am not using FTP, i am using SFTP as suggested by Linode. Vonskippy, i am using Nginx, not Apache.

If you install a PHP ssh library Wordpress will give you the option to use SFTP.

Also just change the user from apache to whatever you run nginx as, it's not rocket science.

jerzzp

Do you mean by changing my WP username to same like linode username?

Hey vonskippy, is this one of your sockpuppets?

Your PHP handlers are running as some user. This would be the username you'd want to change ownership to.

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How can i know what user name the php handlers is using. Sorry for this newbie question

Naw, he just beat me to the punch.

Besides I posted working code, with a bit of google-grease the OP should be able to adjust as needed for his setup (i.e. apache is the user that the Apache service runs, or at least it is in CentOS, so "x" is the user that Nginx service runs, google for "x" on your distro, adjust posted code as needed for your setup - voila, problem solved - wordpress will autoupdate).

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Either provide enough details for people to help, or sit back and listen to the crickets chirp.
Security thru obscurity is a myth - and really really annoying.

I'm referring to your comment where you said "Linode only allow SFTP but not FTP." This is not correct. Linode recommends against plain FTP, but by no means do they disallow it.

When you installed/configured PHP, what method did you use? If you used PHP-FPM, it will be in the configuration file for that pool. (I think somewhere under /etc/php/fpm, but I don't have a PHP install in front of me right now.)

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