Safe mode and directory permission

Hello, I'm working with Safe mode and I have a big trouble how the PHP is behaved. I have the web root and under them is directory, where my scripts are. This is my situation: rwxr-xr-x www www /var/www/htdocs .... Web root rwxr-xr-x www www /var/www/htdocs/test .... PHP scripts rw-r--r-- user user /var/www/htdocs/test/safe.php .... script <?php readfile("noowner"); readfile("owner"); ?> rw-r--r-- abc abc /var/www/htdocs/test/noowner.php .... script rw-r--r-- user user /var/www/htdocs/test/owener.php .... script And everything is working OK. That mean the "noowner" file is not included in script. BUT I need to change the owner of directory to user USER and after that change, the file "noowner" is included in spite of the user is different. New situation: rwxr-xr-x www www /var/www/htdocs .... Web root rwxr-xr-x user user /var/www/htdocs/test .... PHP scripts rw-r--r-- user user /var/www/htdocs/test/safe.php .... script <?php readfile("noowner"); readfile("owner"); ?> rw-r--r-- abc abc /var/www/htdocs/test/noowner.php .... script rw-r--r-- user user /var/www/htdocs/test/owener.php .... script My configuration: Apache 2.0.40 and PHP 4.2.3, the same problem on Apache 2.0.39 and PHP 4.2.2. Do you know, where the problem is? Thanks, Rudolf Wolf.