I recently needed a way to recursively modify file permissions.  I was able to accomplish this with a few basic recursive functions, chmodr(), chownr() and chgrpr():

chmodr()

function chmodr($path, $filemode)
{
    if (!is_dir($path))
        return chmod($path, $filemode);

    $dh = opendir($path);
    while (($file = readdir($dh)) !== false)
	{
        if($file != '.' && $file != '..')
		{
            $fullpath = $path.'/'.$file;
            if(is_link($fullpath))
                return FALSE;
            elseif(!is_dir($fullpath) && !chmod($fullpath, $filemode))
                    return FALSE;
            elseif(!chmodr($fullpath, $filemode))
                return FALSE;
        }
    }

    closedir($dh);

    if(chmod($path, $filemode))
        return TRUE;
    else
        return FALSE;
}

chownr()

function chownr($path, $owner)
{
    if (!is_dir($path))
        return chown($path, $owner);

    $dh = opendir($path);
    while (($file = readdir($dh)) !== false)
	{
        if($file != '.' && $file != '..')
		{
            $fullpath = $path.'/'.$file;
            if(is_link($fullpath))
                return FALSE;
            elseif(!is_dir($fullpath) && !chown($fullpath, $owner))
                    return FALSE;
            elseif(!chownr($fullpath, $owner))
                return FALSE;
        }
    }

    closedir($dh);

    if(chown($path, $owner))
        return TRUE;
    else
        return FALSE;
}

chgrpr()

function chgrpr($path, $group)
{
    if (!is_dir($path))
        return chgrp($path, $group);

    $dh = opendir($path);
    while (($file = readdir($dh)) !== false)
	{
        if($file != '.' && $file != '..')
		{
            $fullpath = $path.'/'.$file;
            if(is_link($fullpath))
                return FALSE;
            elseif(!is_dir($fullpath) && !chgrp($fullpath, $group))
                    return FALSE;
            elseif(!chgrpr($fullpath, $group))
                return FALSE;
        }
    }

    closedir($dh);

    if(chgrp($path, $group))
        return TRUE;
    else
        return FALSE;
}