Checking protection codes for your UD Web page


For everyone to see the files in your Web directory, they must be protected such that

  • Your home directory is at least executable by everyone.
  • Your WWW directory is readable and executable by everyone.
  • Individual files are readable by everyone.
Log in to your UNIX account and follow these directions.

1. Use the UNIX "cd" command to change to your Web directory.

  • If your files are in your personal directory, type
      cd public_html
  • If your files are in the Registered Student Organization directory, type
      cd ~www/docs/stu-org/directory_name
  • If your files are on the central Web server, type
      cd /www/htdocs/directory_name
2. At the UNIX % prompt, type ls -al. You should see a display like this one:

drwxr-xr-x 2 13355 1024 Sep 19 14:04 .
drwx--x--x 20 13355 3072 Sep 19 12:51 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 13355 1151 Jul 18 13:00 bullet2.gif
-rw-r--r-- 1 13355 910 Aug 29 11:39 gold10.gif
-rw-r--r-- 1 13355 23934 Sep 19 09:41 index.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 13355 3580 Jul 23 13:45 mugshot.gif
-rw-r--r-- 1 13355 5796 Sep 19 12:55 resume.html

The first column indicates the protection setting for each item. The second, third and fourth characters of the protection setting refer to your access privileges; the fifth, sixth and seventh characters refer to the access privileges of people in a common group or project; and the last three characters of the protection setting refer to others' access privileges.

3. The current directory is represented by a single period. If your current directory's protection settings are different from "drwxr-xr-x" or "drwx---r-x", make it executable and readable by others. At the UNIX % prompt, type

chmod o+rX .
and press the ENTER key. Note that a space and a period (.) follow the "o+rX" characters.

4. Your home directory is represented by two periods. Its protection setting ordinarily should be "drwx--x--x," "drwxr-x--x," "drwx-----x" or "drwx---r-x." To make your home directory executable by others, at the UNIX % prompt, type

chmod o+x ..
and press the ENTER key. Note that a space and two periods (..) follow the "o+x" characters.

5. Any file that you want the world to see should have a protection setting of "-rw-r--r--", or "-rw---r--". To make your "filename.html" file readable by others, at the UNIX prompt, type

chmod o+r,g-w filename.html
and press the ENTER key. If other files need to have their protections reset, replace "filename.html" with those filenames or use wildcards:
chmod o+r,g-w *.html
chmod o+r,g-w *.gif
chmod o+r,g-w *.jpg