Running this bash script will create a var/www folder to host different projects in a Ubuntu environment. It will also set the permissions properly for the current user and www group.

www-perms.bash

#!/bin/bash

# run this file with sudo permissions, example:
# bash www-perms.bash <group-name> <username>

echo "Creating group if it is not there..."
getent group $1 || groupadd $1

echo "Adding user $2 to group..."
usermod -a -G $1 $2

echo "Creating the folder if it is not there..."
mkdir -p /var/www

echo "Altering permissions for var/www..."
chown -R root:$1 /var/www
# 2 = set group id
# 7 = rwx for owner
# 7 = rwx for group
chmod 2775 /var/www
find /var/www -type d -exec chmod 2775 {} +
find /var/www -type f -exec chmod 0664 {} +

echo "umask 0002" >> /etc/profile

echo "Setup completed successfully. Logout/in for changes to your groups to take effect."