PHP4 + ApacheVirtualHosts + SUEXEC

[Eirik Dentz <eirikdentz@brainlink.com>]

I also posted the following to the Debian Users mailing list:

I have a virtual host configured under Apache 1.3.14 with SUEXEC support
enabled.  My CGI/Perl scripts run as the USER/GROUP specified in the Virtual
Host directive in my httpd.conf file as they should, but for some reason my
PHP4 scripts don't.  Rather they are running as the default USER/GROUP
specified in httpd.conf which causes my scripts to break when I use any
file-manipulation functions.

PHP4 is running as a DSO module.  I haven't tried it yet, but I figure that
if I switch to using PHP4 as a CGI it will run as the Virtual USER/GROUP and
solve this problem.  Is running PHP4 as a CGI the only solution?  Or is
there a configuration that I can set in httpd.conf or php.ini?  Or a
configuration flag that can be set when the PHP4 module is being compiled?

Also, what are the disadvantages of running PHP4 as a .cgi?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

eirik