Introduction | Setup via Command Line | Setup via GUI | Once it's Created...

Command Line:
There are two ways to set up your “public_html” directory within SSH. The “command line” version will be familiar to those with any UNIX experience.

Opening the Program:
From the “Start” menu, navigate through the “Utilities” >> “SSH Secure Shell” folders, and click “Secure Shell Client.”

Once the program is open, you’ll need to connect to your RCI space. Click the “Quick Connect” button located near the upper-left.

A new window called “Connect to Remote Host” will appear, prompting you for user information. Enter in “rci.rutgers.edu” into the box next to “Host Name.” Enter your RCI user name into the box next to “User Name.” Everything else can stay as-is; when you’re done, click “Connect.”

If you are connecting for the first time, a new window called “Host Identification” may appear. Just click “Yes” and continue on.

Another window will appear, welcoming you to the server. You will also be reminded that you must follow the “Acceptable Use Policy For Computing and Information Technology Resources.” Click “OK” to continue.

Another window will appear, prompting you for your RCI password. Enter in your password and click “OK.”

You will then be connected to your RCI space. The screen will look something similar to the set-up below:

To set up your “public_html” directory, you will need to issue a series of textual commands to the “terminal” window. We will enter the first two commands one after another. Note that the terminal will not give you any indication that they have been entered correctly, so be careful in the entering process. Enter in each of the following two lines, pressing “Enter” on the keyboard after each line:

mkdir public_html
chmod a+rx public_html

The “public” and “html” parts should both be in all lower-caps, separated by the underscore character (attained by pressing Shift and the “minus” button, found next to the number 0 on the top keyboard row).

What you will now have done is first created your “public_html” directory, and then have set the permissions on it. You, are owner, are able to read, write, and execute from this folder (this includes renaming and deleting it entirely). Anonymous visitors (for example, anyone you simply give your URL to) may only read and execute data from this folder; they may not make any changes or alterations to it.

You can check the properties of your folder within the terminal window by entering the following command exactly as written, and then hitting “Enter” on the keyboard:

ls –ld public_html

It should return to you that the permissions are set to:

drwxr-sr-x

If it does not, re-enter the command: chmod a+rx public_html

You are now free to use the “public_html” directory are your main folder within your RCI storage space. Any files within “public_html” can be accessed at the following URL, where “username” is your RCI user account name:

http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~username/

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