[wp-hackers] plugin installs failing: "Could not create directory. /wp-content"

[Scott R. Godin]

No, the blog was only recently installed on the server. I installed a 
few plugins (but haven't activated any of them yet) and two themes (also 
not activated) to play with later, as I familiarize myself with the new 
system and get a handle on where my employer wants to go with things.

The plugins and themes were all installed via the upload interface in 
wordpress, and all worked fine until just recently.

Everything should still be exactly where it should be; I haven't moved 
anything around.

On 11/08/2010 12:28 PM, William Davis wrote:
> Scott,
> Have you changed any of your WordPress structure (i.e. is everything
> still in wp-admin and wp-content)?

>
> On Nov 8, 2010, at 12:11 PM, Scott R. Godin wrote:
>
>> According to the documentation at
>> http://codex.wordpress.org/Changing_File_Permissions
>>
>> "NOTE: For the Automatic Upgrade/Install of Plugins/Themes and
>> WordPress Upgrades, No special permissions need to be set. All
>> WordPress files should remain owned by your user account (the user
>> account the httpd runs as), You should NOT have to make them world
>> writable(777). If you attempt to change the ownership/permissions of
>> files in order to allow the upgrader to work, There is a high chance
>> of bugs/issues poping up related to the incorrect permission scheme
>> chosen."
>>
>> I've set up a specific ftp/sftp user for this directory, and am using
>> the correct password for it. It should 'just work' and the odd thing
>> is, it WAS working correctly earlier, and nothing on the server should
>> have been changed between the earlier plugin installs and now.
>>
>> The files in the account all have user.group being the same: i.e.
>> saying accountname is foo then an ls -l looks like
>> drwxr-xr-x 6 foo foo 4096 Nov 4 13:46 wp-content/
>> so I don't believe 775 will work and I'm obviously loathe to try 777
>> for those directories. (wp-content/uploads/ IS 777 though)
>>
>> Possible it could be anything else?
>>
>> On 11/08/2010 11:48 AM, William Davis wrote:
>>> Scott,
>>> This looks to be a permissions problem. Make sure your wp-content and
>>> plugins folders have the correct permissions (try 775).
>>>
>>> Will
>>>
>>>
>>> On Nov 8, 2010, at 11:19 AM, Scott R. Godin wrote:
>>>
>>>> Howdy plugin gurus,
>>>>
>>>> This just recently started happening, with both
>>>> http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/qoate-simple-code-snippets.zip
>>>> and
>>>> http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/syntax-highlighter-compress.zip
>>>>
>>>> both of which refused to install (tho I do not think it's directly
>>>> related to either of these plugins, myself) either via the interface
>>>> or manual upload to the interface, resulting in :
>>>>
>>>> Downloading install package from
>>>> http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/qoate-simple-code-snippets.zip…
>>>>
>>>> Unpacking the package…
>>>>
>>>> Could not create directory. /wp-content
>>>>
>>>> Actions: Return to Plugin Installer
>>>>
>>>> (of course if I simply unzip the folder and manually ftp/rsync it to
>>>> the server it works fine)
>>>>
>>>> I tried disabling every other active plugin and retrying the install
>>>> (earlier installs worked just fine) but the result is the same. What
>>>> could have changed to cause this, and how do I fix it?
>>>>


-- 
(please respond to the list as opposed to my email box directly,
unless you are supplying private information you don't want public
on the list)