Ideal permissions scheme for multiple Apache/PHP sites

I'm hosting multiple sites from one server where each site has it's own user and www directory in their home dir. Currently our web server runs as user nobody(99). We're noticing that to run several popular scripts and engines, they require write access to their own files.

As the home directory is owned by the user, not nobody(99), what is the best policy or change in hosting configuration that would:

• ...make it so that all the various engines and platforms work?


• ...still allow us to work with files and edit them without having to diddle with permissions as root?


• Doesn't require me to massage permissions and/or ownership with every file change.

Thanks for the advice!