How to make PHP under Apache understand the user's home directory?

Question

PHP

Used by mpm_itk, exec('whoami') gives the correct username. exec('ls ~ 2>&1') gives ls: cannot access '~': No such file or directory. That is, apparently, php running under Apache does not own the $HOME value.
Because of this, aliases do not work, for example, or git commands requiring a user config, or file operations starting with a tilde.
In console mode, everything works as it should, and php.ini is identical for both Apache and CLI.
Is there a way to fully run commands from PHP on behalf of the user? Nothing helped from what I found
UPD:I managed to solve it by adding the export HOME=/home/ss line to /etc/apache2/envvars, everything works except for aliases. Anyway, if anyone knows, please write. Since this option is working as long as Apache is used by only one user.

Answer 1

I'm not sure, of course, but under my ubuntu, Apache runs under the www-data user, and it doesn't have a home directory, and everything seems to be fair in my case.