Accessing the shell, uploading files, etc.

To access the shell and upload files, you need a terminal application and the ssh suite. People using GNU/Linux, MacOSX, BSD and other such systems will find they're already installed. Windows users should download PuTTY and PSCP, then use PuTTY to access the shell, and PSCP from the Windows MS-DOS prompt.

Logging in

In GNU/Linux, MacOSX, BSD and other similar operating systems, just open up a console/terminal/shell (they all basically mean the same thing) and type:

ssh -p number username@www.acrewoods.net

The number is top secret, ask Tom to find out what it is. Put your username in there. When promoted, enter your password, and you're in!

If you're using PuTTY in Windows, enter 'www.acrewoods.net' for the host name, select 'SSH' as the protocol, and save it as a session named 'acrewoods'. Click on the 'Open' button at the bottom, and when prompted enter your password.

Poking around

Let's begin by quickly checking which directory we're in (with 'pwd'), changing to your web directory ('cd') and listing its contents ('ls'):

username@acrewoods:~$ pwd
/home/username
username@acrewoods:~$ cd /var/www/username
username@acrewoods:~$ ls
answer.php  beaut.php  csstut.html  first.php  form.html

Now let's try creating a file with the editor 'nano':

username@acrewoods:~$ nano newfile.txt

Just start typing into the nano window. To save, press CTRL and O (the letter oh not the number zero). It will ask you the file name to write to... unless you want to change it, hit enter and nano will save the file. Similarly, CTRL and X will exit nano. These commands are listed along the bottom, where the character '^' signifies the CTRL key.

Learn more about the shell, and GNU/Linux in general, at NewToLinux.org.

Copying files

We copy files in a similar way, using 'scp'. In Windows, you need to do this from the MS-DOS prompt which is a real pain in the arse. You use it as follows:

$ scp file-to-copy destination

So to copy the file 'me.jpg' from the current working directory, to the directory '/var/www/username', you'd do the following:

$ scp me.jpg username@www.acrewoods.net:/var/www/username

To copy a directory, you need to use the 'recursive' argument, as follows:

$ scp -r directory username@www.acrewoods.net:/var/www/username

To copy the other way, you just switch the two arguments to the scp command. It's as easy as that.