v139h/1.53 Softaculous Upgrade Process Surpasshosting.com problems ISP blaming Zen

[scubasteve]

I am in the process of trying to move my last 1.39h website to 1.5x (specifically 1.53). I am having a big issue when running ZC_Install. The problem all centers around permissions of the configure.php files and the ISP's handling of permissions. The ISP is Surpass Hosting, who I have been with for over 10 years. I can post the entire discussion around this issue that started 24 hours ago if necessary it is very long and they really haven't offered any workable solutions. They say the blame for the issue resides with ZenCart and to contact the developers. They want me to do a fresh install which is problematic as I have years of history in the database.

So basically these are the steps I go through:

1. Run Softaculous from cPanel and execute the upgrade of the website
2. Process runs to the page indicating one more step away and tells you to run zc_install to complete the upgrade process
3. Run zc_install link
4. Proceed to the Inspect page of zc_install warns \includes\configure.php must be writable with 777 or 666 permissions.
5. In another window enter cPanel File Manager and change permissions to 666 on the file (also have used FTP through Dreamweaver to make the change).
6. Run Re-check on the Inspect page, same results
7. Refresh file manager and it shows permissions back at 444 repeat 4-7 it is an endless loop permissions never hold. In fact if I just change the permissions in file manager and don't invoke the Recheck in ZenCart and refresh file manager 1 or 2 times the permissions are again back at 444. This is without executing any ZenCart page that the permissions change back.
8. Alternatively I loaded a new copy of configure PHP to my site and was able to change the settings to 666 on the new file uploaded and they held. The issue that time was it made the entire site FORBIDDEN/404.


On 1-7, Surpass is insisting that ZenCart is responsible for changing the permissions back to 444 on the /includes/configure.php file. The have provided pages of logs and code claiming that it shows that is a ZenCart issue. They claim that ZenCart is changing the permissions on the file anytime a page is invoked on the site. However, the permissions are changing even when I don't do anything within the Zencart pages. I'm not technical enough to decipher all of the pages they have sent and say yes or no. But I feel like it doesn't make sense especially in light of the fact I upgraded another site without issue.

On 8, Surpass indicates that the PHP handler does not allow files to have 777 or 666 as they are disallowed. So once you get them to that permission level it takes down the entire site and tech support has to reset the permissions on the file for you to get things back up. Then you are right back to having the incorrect permissions to finish the upgrade.

I'm at a loss on what to do, while I continue to try and get Surpass to provide a solution I was hoping someone here would have some expert opinion on what is going on here and how to resolve it. I have been disappointing and frustrated with Surpass lack of solutions. If the response from them is helpful I can post it, it is fairly lengthy.

Thanks for any assistance in advance.

-Neil

[DrByte]

The solution is simple: ignore the warning and proceed to the Database Upgrade choice in zc_install.

Explanation:

I think this is a situation unique to your hosting company's server configuration and your use of Softaculous to do your upgrade. We recommend NEVER using any one-click tools like that to do a site upgrade, because they often overwrite your customizations, leaving your site broken in the end. While the manual process of properly comparing files is a bit more time-consuming it's always more reliable. http://www.zen-cart.com/entry.php?3-...d-of-upgrading

That said, ZC versions 1.3.0 thru 1.5.3 do indeed change the configure.php file to read-only anytime someone clicks to visit the storefront part of the site.

While I've never personally triggered a chicken/egg scenario with file-permissions when using zc_install to do an upgrade, there might be an edge case where some of the system-inspection processes might cause a storefront action when testing security rules. But, again, this is the first I'm hearing of anyone running into that. And I don't think it's relevant in this case anyway, because you're simply doing an upgrade.

BUT there are 2 reasons why someone runs zc_install:
1. You're doing a brand new first-time installation, and need to tell your store all the settings which it will then write into the configure.php files after loading the initial database content.
2. You're doing an upgrade, in which case, it doesn't matter that the configure.php files are read-only, since it only needs to read the configure.php file anyway. The "Upgrade Database" button at the bottom of the screen will let you do that despite the notice that the configure.php is read-only.

So, #2 is what you need to do.

[scubasteve]

Thank you for that.