[clug] Apache running as its users

[Michael James]

Here's a repeat question, maybe someone has read
 something useful in the interval.

I need to provide integrated web, ssh, and file transfer
 access to my site.

ie: a user uploads a file using samba or ftp
 and can then reference it on a web form.
The results then exist as a text file in their home directory
 that they can perhaps manipulate in perl on the command line.
Then they can be downloaded, again using the preferred method.

Authenticating users and then running apache
 as that unix user seems the best solution to me.
Using the underlying unix access controls
 saves me writing them into CGI.

suexec exists and is well enough tested to serve
 but switching users is generally hard-coded
 into httpd.conf on a per-site basis.
ie: different virtual sites run as different users.

What I want is to switch on a per get basis.
In the authentication phase, once the ID token (cookie, headers)
has been accepted, priveledge switches to that user.
This would work independant of the type of page
be it; plain html, cgi-perl, java, or php.

Any comments, suggestions?
Or am I on the wrong track?

Thanks,
michaelj