•   31/12/1969 7:00 PM
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  • Using ISPmanager

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Applicable Plans - Virtual Server in Cloud using ISPmanager (ISPsystem)

User Guide - File manager

Overview

Using the File manager in ISPmanager you can edit, upload, download, and otherwise manage the files on your Virtual Server. Which files you have access to will depend on which user you are logged in to ISPmanager as.

If you have questions on the File Manager, click on Help in the upper right corner of the screen.

Using the File manager
File manager actions

Editing files using the File manager
Editing files
Encoding Errors in the File manager

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Using the File manager

The File manager is located in ISPmanager > Management Tools > File manager. This shows the default view as the root user.

• Name - the name of the directory (folder) or file

• Permissions - these are the UNIX permissions in octal notation, which denote by group who can read, write, or execute (run) the file. The Wikipedia article on traditional UNIX permissions may be helpful if you are unfamiliar with these - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_permissions#Traditional_Unix_permissions

• Owner - the user that owns the directory or file

• Group - the group of users that can also access the directory or file

• Size - for a directory, the size is in Megabytes (MB), and for a file the size is in Kilobytes (KB). Note that the file sizes here are only an approximation, and not accurate. This is a function of the command being used to generate this information, and not ISPmanager. The best way to find the actual file and directory sizes is from the command line, with the du -hs command.

• Changed - the time and date the directory or file was last changed. Note that for a directory, the time and date only show the when the directory itself was changed. Individual files and subdirectories may have a different time and date.

File manager actions

In the File manager, you can carry out various actions on directories and files. The buttons for these actions are located at the top right of the File manager screen. Which actions are available to you may depend on what type of file or directory you have selected.

• New - allows you to create a new directory or file. You will be asked to set the Type, such as File or Folder, and the Name.

Remember that Linux is case-sensitive, meaning that files named "test", "Test", and "TEST" are all considered to be completely different files. The best practice is to always use all lowercase letters for file and directory names, and to avoid using any spaces.

• Edit - if you highlight a directory and click on Edit, you will see the all the files and subdirectories in that directory. Click on the Back button to return to the previous listing.
  If you highlight a text file and click on Edit, you will be able to edit the file. Note that this only works on text files. If you try to edit a binary file, you will receive an error.

• Attrib. - this shows the properties of a directory or file. You can change the Name of the directory or file, the User (owner), the Group, and the permissions.
  Be very careful about making changes to directories or files unless you know exactly what you are doing. Changing the name, user, group, or permissions of certain files can render your system totally inoperable.

• Delete - this allows you to delete a directory or file. Be very careful about deleting files. Deleting the wrong directory or file can render your system totally inoperable. You will be required to confirm that you wish to delete the directory or file.

• Extract - if you have a directory or file compressed with zip, tar, or rar, this allows you to extract the files.

• Archive - this allows you to create an archive of a directory or file using zip, tar, or rar. Once the archive is created, the icon for the file or directory will show how it was archived.

• Cut - this performs a standard cut operation on a file

• Copy - this performs a standard copy operation on a directory or file

• Paste - this performs a standard paste operation on a file

• Download - this will download a directory or file to the download directory as configured in your browser

• Upload - you can either upload a file from your local computer, or from the URL of a file located on another server (similar to a wget command). Note that the amount of time an upload takes will depend on the file size and your bandwidth.

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Editing files using the File manager

Using the File manager, you can edit plain text files on your Virtual Server. A plain text file is one that is written in plain text, as opposed to an application or binary file, which is created by compiling the file in whatever programming language it was written in. Image files are also binary files.

If you try to edit a binary file, you will see this error - Error: Unable to modify the binary file

Editing files

To edit a file in the File manager, click on the file to highlight it, and then click on Edit in the upper right hand corner. This example uses the httpd.conf file, located at /etc/httpd/conf. This is the main configuration file for the Apache web server.

This opens the Edit file screen, that shows the contents of the file.

Here you can edit the file, making any changes that are needed. Click Ok when you are finished, or Cancel if you want to exit without saving your changes.

You may want to Download a copy of the file to your local computer before editing. That way you have a backup copy that you can Upload if you need to revert to a previous version of the file. It is always a good idea to make a backup of any file before you edit it.

Encoding Errors in the File manager

Depending on the file type, you may get an encoding error when trying to edit a file.

If you get this error, click on the drop down list, and choose ASCII or UTF-8 from the list. (The error mentions UTF-8, but you can still choose that option).

You will need to confirm that you want to reopen the file with the new encoding in order to proceed. Then you can edit the file.

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