Enable automatic updates without FTP connection using fopen() for direct file access

[harvie]

Hello.
Currently wordpress supports upgrading of plugins, themes, etc... through FTP connection to website host. but PHP enables upgrading without using obsolete FTP protocol. You can download the latest version of desired zip/tarball using copy() and then unzip archive to it's destination. This can be done only if permissions are set well.

I would like that feature, because i want automatic upgrading using single click, but i do not want to install FTP server, which i've found useless and insecure. For example: dokuwiki handles plugin updates this way - without need for FTP connection.

We already do this if the environment is using suexec. That is the only scenario where this is feasible. Unzipping straight to the destination in a non suexec environment can result in the server, rather than the user, owning all of the files.