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Changing File Permissions Using AbsoluteFTP

The following information will help you to use AbsoluteFTP to change file permissions. If you have not already done so, you may want to review the document Unix File Permissions.

The steps for correcting permissions errors are as follows:

  1. establish a connection to the machine where your web pages reside
  2. view the properties of the remote file and adjust permissions as necessary

Scenario: User mst3k is getting a permissions error when trying to view his web site at http://www.people.virginia.edu/~mst3k.

After logging into blue.unix.virginia.edu with AbsoluteFTP, mst3k views the contents of his public_html directory. On the remote window, mst3k clicks once on the file home.html, and then right-clicks on the file home.html and chooses the option Properties. He then adds the Readable permission to Other and clicks OK.

File Properties in AbsoluteFTP

Provided that the permissions of the parent directories are correct, the page should now be viewable on the web.

The following charts outline the recommended permission settings for the files and directories in single-user and group-maintained web sites. Please note that for group-maintained web sites, we strongly encourage you to use Unix commands so that you may ensure you have appropriate group ownership for your files. Only the owner of a file may change the group ownership or permissions.

Recommended Permissions for single-user web sites

File Permissions
User
read
write
-
Group
read
-
-
Other
read
-
-
  Single-user file permissions in AbsoluteFTP
Directory Permissions
User
read
write
execute
Group
-
-
execute
Other
-
-
execute
  Single-user directory permissions in AbsoluteFTP

 

Recommended Permissions for group-maintained web sites

File Permissions
User
read
write
-
Group
read
write
-
Other
read
-
-
  Group-maintained file permissions in AbsoluteFTP
Directory Permissions
User
read
write
execute
Group
read
write
execute
Other
-
-
execute
  Group-maintained directory permissions in AbsoluteFTP

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