Create Files and Directories and Make Them Writable

This bash one-liner will prepare a Drupal source tree for installation. When run from the Drupal root directory this will:

• Create the settings.php file.
• Make the new settings.php file writable to all users.
• Create a files directory in sites/default/
• Make the files directory writable to all uses.

cp ./sites/default/default.settings.php ./sites/default/settings.php \ 
&& chmod 777 ./sites/default/settings.php \ 
&& mkdir ./sites/default/files \ 
&& chmod 777 ./sites/default/files

Securing Drupal Files and Directories Post-install

Once the Drupal installer has finished, you will need to secure the permissions properly. For detailed information on securing Drupal file permissions, see Securing file permissions and ownership