Virtual Hosting Solutions

When you SSH to your domain, you are controlling it, using the operating system of the server. Any commands you enter are run on the server (not your local PC) and operate according to the command parameters on the server.

Secure Shell (SSH) provides a command line interface that lets you run commands to modify the contents of your web site It encrypts all the data sent and received, providing a high level of security.

Using UNIX

The following is a list of UNIX commands that we found helpful when modifying your web sites on the server. Most UNIX commands have many options and parameters which are not listed here. For more complete information on using UNIX commands, you can refer to the online manual by typing man [command] at the UNIX prompt, where "[command]" represents the command you would like more information about. Other UNIX help commands you can type are [command] -? and [command] --help.

Note: When something is specified in brackets, such as [command] or [filename], it is used to indicate that you must input your desired information here. Do NOT include brackets in your command.

Navigating in UNIX

pwd	Shows the full path of the current directory
ls	Lists all the files in the current directory
ls -al	Lists all files and information
ls –alR	Lists all files and information in all subdirectories
ls -alR \| more	Same as ls –alR, pausing when screen becomes full
ls -alR > filename.txt	Same as ls –alR, outputs the results to a file
ls -al /home/usr/bob/	Lists files and information for /home/usr/bob
*ls .html**	Lists all files ending with .html
cd [directory name]	Changes to a new directory
cd ..	Changes to directory above current one

Moving, Copying and Deleting Files

mv [old filename] [new filename]	Move/rename a file
cp [filename] [new filename]	Copies a file
rm [filename]	Deletes a file
rm *	Deletes all files in current directory
*rm .html**	Deletes all files ending in .html

Creating, Moving, Copying and Deleting Directories

mkdir [directory name]	Creates a new directory
*ls -d /**	Lists all directories within current directory
cp -r [directory] [new directory]	Copies a directory and all files/directories in it
rmdir [directory name]	Removes a directory if it is empty
rm -r [directory name]	Removes a directory and all files in it

Searching Files and Directories

find . -name [filename] -print	Searches for a file starting with current directory
grep [text] [filename]	Searches for text within a file

File and Directory Permissions

There are three levels of file permissions: read, write and execute. In addition, there are three groups to which you can assign permissions: file owner, user group and everyone. The command chmod followed by three numbers is used to change permissions. The first number is the permission for the owner, the second for the group and the third for everyone. Here are how the levels of permission translate:

0 = ---	No permission
1 = --X	Execute only
2 = -W-	Write only
3 = -WX	Write and execute
4 = R--	Read only
5 = R-X	Read and execute
6 = RW-	Read and write
7 = RWX	Read, write and execute

It is preferred that the group always have permission of 0. This prevents other users on the server from browsing files via Telnet and FTP. Here are the most common file permissions used:

chmod 604 [filename]	Minimum permissions for HTML file
chmod 705 [directory name]	Minimum permissions for directories
chmod 755 [filename]	Minimum permissions for scripts & programs
chmod 606 [filename]	Permissions for data files used by scripts
chmod 703 [directory name]	Write-only permissions for public FTP uploading