DE Oracle @ UMUC

The POINT of this tutorial is to make certain you know how to:

• have a www directory in your Polaris account with appropriate permissions set;
• know how to create directories and subdirectories in your Polaris UNIX account, so that you have a place to load your web pages; 
• understand a few basic UNIX commands, so that you can manage your UNIX space.

1. Connect to Polaris.

Connect to the Polaris server via PortaPuTTY.

2. At the login prompt, type your username and hit Enter. Then type your password and hit Enter.

You should now see Polaris >

3. At the Polaris prompt, type cd

cd is UNIXSpeak for "change directory." The cd command (with nothing following it) makes certain that you are in your home directory. Later, you can type the name of the directory after cd in order to enter that directory. 

Example: cd csmn648 will put you "inside" the csmn648 directory.

4. At the Polaris prompt, type chmod 711 .

Don't forget to type the period. The period stands for the current directory and is essential. Also, make certain that you insert a space between d and 7, as well as between 1 and the period. The chmod command is UNIXspeak for change file/directory permissions. The chmod 711 . command grants Web users access to your files.

5. At the Polaris prompt, type ls -ld . (Note: That's, the letter L S space dash L D space period)

Make sure the first field in the output of the last command matches the first field (drwx--x--x) of the following line: drwx--x--x [number of files] [userid] [group] [size] [date and time]

6. At the Polaris prompt, type ls

If the screen displays www, then you have already created your www directory and you can go to step 8. If the screen displays the message "www: No such file or directory, continue to step 7.
This ls "list" command asks UNIX to list the files or directories that are "in" the directory that you are in.  In this case, your home directory.

7. At the Polaris prompt, type makewebdir

The makewebdir command tells UNIX to "make a directory a directory called www" and to set the appropriate permissions.

8. At the Polaris prompt, type ls -ld .

Make sure the first field in the output of the last command matches the first field (drwx--x--x) of the following line: drwx--x--x [number of files] [userid] [group] [size] [date and time]

9. At the Polaris prompt, type cd www

cd www is Unixspeak for "change to the www directory."  Executing this command puts you "in" the www directory.  Now, we are set to make a subdirectory "inside" the www directory.

10. Type mkdir your course number (eg., mgmt601) mkdir is the "make directory" command. You are making a subdirectory in your www directory.  This subdirectory should reflect the title of your course.

Examples:

mkdir admn601
mkdir csmn618
mkdir tman611

You should put all your course web materials in this subdirectory.

11. Type logout

This terminates the connection. The exit command also works.

What to Do When Things Don't Work 
or
Common UNIX Mistakes Part 2

1. Wrong Directory.  It is hard to tell which directory or subdirectory you are in. The "list" (ls) and the "change directory" (cd) commands are especially useful here. When you type ls, UNIX will list the files or (sub)directories in the directory you are in.  When you type cd with nothing following it, you are automatically taken back to your "home" directory.  When you type cd followed by a directory or subdirectory name (eg. cd www), it will take you "inside" that (sub)directory.
2. File Permissions.  UNIX has a strange set of number commands that set permissions on who has access to your files (who can read, write, execute).  Unix recognizes three different categories of people: you, group, and world. In our webpages, we want to give all three categories of users readable and executable permissions, but only you should have write permissions. The first thing to check if your web page does not read is the file permissions on your directory. Type cd www to make certain you are in your www directory. Then type ls -ld to request the permission string.  you should see drwxr-xr-x followed by a number, your username, group, and the date.  If you get something besides drwxr-xr-x go back and set your permissions again.
3. File Extensions. While the best rule of thumb is to stick to the three character extension, Unix does recognize the html four character extension.  The second thing to check if your web page does not work is the extension; that is, are you requesting an htm extension when your file was saved as an html?

Basic UNIX Commands

• cd (directory) - Change the current directory
• chmod - Change permission on file/directory 
• cp (file1) (file2) - Copy files
• ls - List the files in directory
• man (keyword) - Get help on UNIX commands
• mkdir (directory)  - Create directory
• mv (file1) (file2) - Rename a file
• passwd - Change login password 
• pwd - Shows the path of the current directory ("present working directory") 
• rm (filename) - Remove file(s)
• rmdir (directory) - Remove directories