In most Linux distributions, the Apache HTTP server runs as a separate user and group for security reasons. By default, the user and group name used by Apache is www-data.
To find out the user and group name used by Apache on your Linux system, you can use the following command:
ps -ef | grep apache
This command will list all the running Apache processes and their associated user and group names. Look for the column named USER and GROUP to find out the user and group names used by Apache.
Alternatively, you can check the Apache configuration file to find out the user and group names used by Apache. The configuration file is usually located at /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf or /etc/apache2/apache2.conf depending on the distribution. Open the file in a text editor and search for the User and Group directives. The values specified in these directives indicate the user and group names used by Apache.
For example, to check the User and Group directives in the Apache configuration file on a Debian/Ubuntu system, you can use the following command:
grep -E '^User|^Group' /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
This command will display the User and Group directives and their corresponding values in the Apache configuration file.
That’s it! With the above commands, you can find out the user and group name used by Apache on your Linux system.