suPHP is a tool for executing PHP scripts with the permissions of their owners. It consists of an Apache module (mod_suphp) and a setuid root binary (suphp) that is called by the Apache module to change the uid of the process executing the PHP interpreter. This version was compiled to look for its config-file in /etc/apache rather then just /etc as 'httpd' looks there aswell. Some of the 'standard' /etc/apache/httpd.conf directives include: LoadModule suphp_module /usr/libexec/apache/mod_suphp.so suPHP_Engine on AddHandler x-httpd-php .php suPHP_AddHandler x-httpd-php suPHP_UserGroup someuser users To use different php versions 'per vhost' see: http://www.howtoforge.com/apache2_suphp_php4_php5 suPHP needs a CGI build of the .php interpreter, usually named 'php-cgi' implying having to (re)compile PHP with in place of '--with-apxs' '--enable-force-cgi-redirect' Note that it being somewhat slower then mod_php can be redused (grately) by building for the FastCGI too and using mod_fcgid however that would need additional configuration, see: http://fastcgi.coremail.cn/configuration.htm