search for: webapp_us

...required so the deploy user can modify files from deploy to deploy sudo "chown -R #{deploy_user}:#{webapp_group} #{release_path}" end after- task :webapp_takes_control do # done with the deploy. returns things to normal so that myapp user owns the files sudo "chown -R #{webapp_user}:#{webapp_group} #{release_path}" end Lastly, I''m not entirely clear on what the benefits of this are, but I''ve also seen a few recommendations to create a custom group for the webapp too. That is, instead of using the www-data group for my app directory and its files...