I just set up a debian box as a local-only lamp server. I need to know how to set up permissions (and possibly ownership?) on my /var/www folder so that I can have full control over that folder from my main user account (not root/su).
I am somewhat familiar with the chmod command but if you could provide code examples that would be great!
You could include yourself in the www-data group and change the ownership of the directory. Example:
$ sudo adduser you www-data
$ sudo chown -R www-data.www-data /var/www
$ sudo chmod -R 770 /var/www