Yay, it´s been a while since i published the last tutorial. Been somewhat busy and didn´t have much time on my hands. All i can say is that i´m sorry. But a few days back i promised to come up with some other tutorials and today is nothing much else to do, so i´ll be spending some time writing up some quick how-to´s.
Let´s start with another way of changing permissions of files, which is sometimes necessary for scripts to work properly. I wrote a tutorial about this topic already, though many of you may not become to fond with FTP clients as they look all techie.
There is another way of changing permissions of files, which is the File Manager in your cPanel. Remember, cPanel is the GUI (graphical user interface) that let´s you manage almost everything about your webhosting, such as creating databases, ftp accounts, email addresse, aso. So let´s go look for the File Manager, which is located in the cPanel
Ok, now that we found the bad boy just left-click it and see what happens. Normally, cPanel will now ask you what to open by presenting you a selection screen. Let´s look at that screen and see what the choices are
In almost all cases selecting Web Root should be sufficient. Select it by clicking the radio button, make sure Show Hidden Files is ticked as well, in case you need to change permissions for .htaccess. That option not being ticked you won´t see any such files as .htaccess for example. Once you made your choices click Go which will take you to the File Manager´s main screen. First impression you will get there is
Damn, looks pretty similar to the Windows Explorer
And yes, you are right. It is very similar to Windows Explorer, looks and feels a lot like it. See for yourself on the screenshot, i also highlighted a few things on it already that are of importance when we will change permissions.
See the highlighted parts ? That is what we need to change permissions. I won´t go into detail about the Change Permissions button as the only thing you can do with it is left-click it. And i am pretty confident that you don´t need an explanation on how to do that. More interesting is the column (was about to write “row” as i always confuse them) that shows the current permissions of files and directories. There you will find a numeric value such as 755,644,666,777 (that are the most common ones) that indicate what the permissions on the directory/file are. Some scripts require you to change permissions for certain files to make it work properly. Usually that´s either files that store configuration details or directories that need to be writable as the script you use needs to put data in those directories. Which files / directories need to have permissions changed can be found in the installation instructions of the script….well…most of the times..
Changing permissions is a breeze, actually. All you have to do in File Manager is to select the file(s)/directory(ies) that need their permissions “adjusted” and then click the “Change Permissions” button i mentioned earlier. That´s the one at the top of the File Manager windows….yes….the one i highlighted in the screenshot. Now let´s go and CHMOD away in a professional manner…sort of. For demonstration purposed i selected a number of directories i would like to change permissions of and then clicked the Change Permissions button.
That brings up the window where you can select permissions. Now, most installation instructions will tell you what value files and directories should be set to. It´s a matter of clicking and keeping an eye on the number in the bottom row. That´s the numeric value that is commonly used when talking about chmod. Noone, except hardcore geeks will ever say
chmod that file to –rwxrwxrwx-
So click until the numeric value equals the one that´s needed. It´s not hard to figure out how it works and how those numbers are calculated. I could go into detail about how those numbers are calculated but if you have a basic maths skill you should be able to figure that out yourself . Not too difficult, believe me. When you are satisfied with permissions and everything is just the way it supposed to be permissionwise then click the Change Permissions button in that window and it will take you back to the File Manager window, showing you the now changed permissions.
Done…
Administration
