Lab2 - CPSC 220
Part I - setting up files and directories for a Web server
A Web server is software that responds to hypertext transfer protocol (http) requests. On
paprika, the server software is known as httpd, it is a version of Apache (see
http://apache.org), and it is located in the directory /opt/hpws/apache/bin.
The configuration directives for an Apache Web server are set in a file named httpd.conf.
In our case, directives are set so that each user on paprika.umw.edu may make files
accessible via the server on that system. Files that are accessible through the server must
be in a directory named public_html, a subdirectory of a user's home directory.
Log in to paprika.umw.edu, (or another system on the CPSC LAN in Trinkle) and create
a directory named public_html.
Enter mkdir public_html to do that.
When the server software is running, it like each executing process is associated with a
user on the computer system. It is best to run the Web server software as a user with no
special privileges (Why?). Since the server has no special privileges, all the files
accessible to the server have to be accessible, or readable, by anyone on the system.
When you create a file or directory on our computer system, it has a pre-defined set of
permissions. You may have to alter these to make a file accessible by a Web server.
We’ll be using chmod to do that. The permissions on a directory have to be set so that a
directory is readable and so that a user may access the files in a directory. For each
directory we create for use with the server we’ll use either to get the permissions set
chmod a+rx directory_name or chmod 755 directory_name
To set the permissions correctly on public_html enter
chmod a+rx public_html
To set permissions on all the files in public_html enter
chmod –R a+r public_html
You can read more about chmod by looking at the ‘man page.’ To do that enter
man chmod
Question 1: What would you enter to deny write permission to others?
Question 2: Who can change the mode of a file? Include the appropriate quote form the
man page in writing your answer.
Now copy the file /users/ernie/220/index.html.sample to your directory public_html using
cp /users/ernie/220/index.html.sample $HOME/public_html
Change your current working directory to (or more simply, change to) public_html by
entering
cd public_html
