how to run php exec with sudo on live server - php

Question

I have a simple scripts that create folder for every user that sign up, it works perfectly fine on local but after pushing to live server it does not work... I discovered that it require sudo password. I google around and all suggested that I should edit sudoer by running visudo but nothing work.
$sudoPassword = \Config::get('app.sudoPassword');
$sudo = "echo $sudoPassword | sudo -S ";
$createDir = "cd ../../merchants && mkdir ".$merchant->identity." && cd ".$merchant->identity;
echo exec($createDir);
my question is, how should I make exec to run as root? I'm using centOS in digitalocean

Answer 1

I don't recommend running the script as sudo. A better alternative is to give permission to the web server (www-data user) to write to the ../../merchants directory.
First add yourself to the www-data group by running the command below.
usermod -a -G www-data <your-username>
Then give the ownership of the merchants folder to the www-data group using the command below.
chgrp www-data merchants
Lastly give the correct permissions to the merchants folder using the command below.
chmod g+rwxs merchants
Hope this helps you solve your issue.
EDIT
On CentOS, you should use apache instead of www-data.

Answer 2

This is not a direct answer to your question, just a suggested improvement to your code. Instead of using sudo I would stick to #tamrat's solution. This is more ment as a comment but is too long to be a comment.
Instead of using php's exec function I would recommend you using Symfony's process component which is already available in your Laravel project.
use Symfony\Component\Process\Process;
use Symfony\Component\Process\Exception\ProcessFailedException;
Use:
$createDir = "mkdir /full/path/to/merchants/".$merchant->identity." && cd /full/path/to/merchants/".$merchant->identity;
$process = new Process($createDir);
$process->run();
if (!$process->isSuccessful()) {
throw new ProcessFailedException($process);
}
I also suggest that you use full paths rather then relative paths (if possible for your use-case) so you don't do actions in another directory when you re-use the code from another file. If not make sure you allways are in the correct path by validating properly.