I am setting up a new install of drupal 7.0 on a host server. I have successfully installed and configured core, and have tried to install a few contributed modules using the install from url feature in drupal7.

When I try to install add-on modules in drupal 7 using the install from a url feature, I am getting these error messages:

The file permissions could not be set on temporary://update-cache

and

File temporary://filek6Xim6 could not be copied, because the destination directory /tmp/update-cache is not configured correctly

In investigating, I used filezilla to check the file permissions on sites/default/files, which I found set to 775 and left as is; then I checked file attributes (not sure why this showed up as "attributes" rather than "permissions" for /tmp, and found them as 755 and left them as is.

I did not find a /tmp/update-cache folder, so created one and set permissions at 755.

The structure of the file system seems as it should be to me.

Upon testing after creating the new folder, I still get the same error message. I've searched drupal.org and tried the few possible solutions to this that have been posted, but not that appeared seemed to deal with the problem I am experiencing directly. Do you have any suggestions about how I might resolve this?

Thank you.

Comments

femrich’s picture

femrich commented

I also get an error like this when trying to upload a contrib module from my home computer:

Unable to create directory 'temporary://update-extraction/ctools/

femrich’s picture

femrich commented

This seems to have been solved by adjusting the path in the file system. To avoid problems like this for others, I might suggest an explicit phrase or two be added to:

http://example.com/admin/config/media/file-system

The first item on this page, Public file system path, explicitly asks for a path relative to drupal. I had assumed that the temp folder path, which appeared in default as a path relative to drupal, should remain relative to drupal. However, this requires a path relative to the server. While this may be clear to some, it wasn't to me. Adding a more clear phrase indicating this is a path relative to server home might help some avoid the mistake I made.

davidthomas’s picture

davidthomas commented

(Resolved thanks to post below)
I am experiencing this issue. On the Config/media/file-system in the public file path info I found installed default setting of /sites/default/files. I had already set the /sites and all sub dirs as chmod 777 and still I get told drupal can not create 'temporary://update-extraction/wysiwyg/'. When I attempt to change the path then I get mkdir errors. In the drupal root dir I created a tmp dir and gave it 777 and put it in as public file path and still get create errors. I am perplexed (and very new to drupal).

queryblitz’s picture

queryblitz commented

removing the leading slash from /sites/default/files solved it for me. So what I actually ended up with was sites/default/files/tmp

Andrew Fisher
www.drewscube.com
www.Lickitornot.com
www.PaidVideoReviews.com

devaldivia’s picture

devaldivia commented

Having the same problem, get same error: Unable to create directory 'temporary://update-extraction/ctools/'

However, I checked fix in #3, #4 and it looks like I'm already set up this way: sites/default/files/tmp =that is, with no leading slash.

another other ideas?? Please :)

Newbie here.

queryblitz’s picture

queryblitz commented

Did you check your file permissions? Or have you tried manually creating the tmp folder under sites/all/files, and setting the tmp folder to the right permissions? If you have and you're still having problems, check here: http://drupal.org/node/807702

Andrew Fisher
www.drewscube.com
www.Lickitornot.com
www.PaidVideoReviews.com

devaldivia’s picture

devaldivia commented

Yup, checked file permissions. Changed them from 755 to 775, but no dice. Deleted the tmp folder, made a new one with 775 permissions, no effect. Checked php setting as per http://drupal.org/node/807702, Safe Mode= Off as recommended. Was just with tech support on Hostgator for 40 minutes, the guy also tried to manually write the folder, no dice.

queryblitz’s picture

queryblitz commented

http://drupal.org/node/1019096#comment-3943556 eh?

devaldivia’s picture

devaldivia commented

Fixed!!! THanks paidevideoreviews!

Problem now is, I made so many tmp & temporary folders now with 775 permissions that don't know which one did the trick :) Followed your link http://drupal.org/node/1019096#comment-3943556 and then went back into Configuration>File System and changed Temporary directory Again from "/tmp" to "tmp" as I had initially done in post #5, but this time around, after all those manual tmp folders being created, it worked. What I'm going to do now is Delete my install and redo it. Make the folders and delete them 1 by 1 till I find which one did the trick, and deleting the ones that don't do anything, just don't want to have any more permissions out there than necessary.

queryblitz’s picture

queryblitz commented

Haha, that sucks but glad I could help a little! Post again when you find out which one it was. I'm still young in Drupal and I know it can get frustrating, but it's kind of rewarding to try to help the next guy.

Andrew Fisher
www.drewscube.com
www.Lickitornot.com
www.PaidVideoReviews.com

Martin Turner’s picture

Martin Turner commented

I had the same problem, and just deleted the / in /tmp in the configuration file system. This worked without having to change any permissions.

scalp’s picture

scalp commented

I can confirm that removing the leading slash before tmp worked for me on a GoDaddy shared hosting account.

bfroehle’s picture

bfroehle commented
Status: Active » Closed (duplicate)

Duplicate of #1008328: Uniqueify update-cache and update-extraction directories to prevent "Permission denied" errors.

bfroehle’s picture

bfroehle commented
Status: Closed (duplicate) » Active

Err maybe not.. sorry.

Jerome F’s picture

Jerome F commented

subscribe (tired of subscribing ? http://drupal.org/node/34496 - http://3281d.com/2009/03/27/death-to-subscribe-comments)

koppie’s picture

koppie commented
Version: 7.0 » 7.4
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)

#12 worked for me too. This ticket has been untouched for 3 1/2 months, so I'm taking the liberty of marking it closed (fixed). Feel free to reopen if you disagree.

katharine_gates’s picture

katharine_gates commented
Issue summary: View changes

It is generally recommended to have your tmp file OUTSIDE of drupal root for security purposes.

In my case, I have cpanel access to the server account.
I create a tmp directory at same level as the public_html directory.

Then in config/media/file system the path is ../tmp (NOTE there are two periods before slash).

Hope this helps someone.

--kg