How do you run a PHP script as the file's owner, rather than as the webserver user?
Solution 1:
One option is to use suPHP.
http://www.suphp.org/DocumentationView.html?file=apache/INSTALL
The suPHP Apache module together with suPHP itself provides an easy way to run PHP scripts with different users on the same server.
It provides security, because the PHP scripts are not run with the rights of the webserver's user.