Can I change the bitcoin block-data directory from /home/user/.bitcoin/blocks to something else? I have two users on my Linux system, daemonuser, which runs bitcoind and abeuser, which runs Abe.

Whenever I start Abe, I am told:


  Skipping datadir /home/daemonuser/.bitcoin/blocks: [Errno 13]
  Permission denied: '/home/daemonuser/.bitcoin/blocks/blk0001.dat'


Even after adding abeuser as a readable user on the /home/daemonuser/.bitcoin/blocks/ directory.

Would it be easier to keep bitcoin's blockdata in a public folder and read it from there for Abe's purposes?
Did you make the files in the .bitcoin/blocks/ directory readable for Abe? You can test this by logging in as Abe (sudo su abeuser should suffice) and typing strings ~daemonuser/.bitcoin/blocks/any.file.