Plugin/Theme installer asks for connection info when wp-content is writable but wp-admin is not

[peckjon]

For background, please see ​http://www.chrisabernethy.com/why-wordpress-asks-connection-info/

When installing a new plugin or theme, WP first checks to see if it can directly write to the filesystem. If so, it proceeds. If not, it asks the user for FTP connection info.

The directory to which it NEEDS access is /wp-content

However, the directory it CHECKS is /wp-admin

get_filesystem_method() should be changed (or parameterized) to check only /wp-content in cases where /wp-admin access is not needed. This will allow installations to have a higher filesystem-security setting for /wp-admin than for /wp-content, while still utilizing direct filesystem access.

[SergeyBiryukov]

Related: #10205, #7779, #8400, #10423, #10424, #12499, #14753.

[dd32]

The suggestion here was actually fixed in [11499] / #9936

The suggestion here isn't actually the cause of the issue at hand though, that's covered by #10205 / #10424