Step 1 - Logging On & Creating a Directory

    There are several steps to creating a WWW page on Alpha, the school's UNIX server. The first step is to create a directory for all of your HTML files.

1) Use "telnet" to access the Alpha server.
2) At the login prompt, type your username and password.
3) You should now have a command line that looks like this: [1] %
4) Type in the following set of commands, remember to press the Enter key after each command:
mkdir public_html
chmod a+rx public_html

 After adding your files via FTP be sure to execute
the following additional command:
chmod -R 755 public_html

    The first command creates a directory called "public_html" in your account's main directory. The second command changes the privatization settings on the newly created directory so that people trying to browse your page can access it. You must remember to use the above "chmod a+rx" command on any image and html files (or directories) you want to have on your web page. More on that later.

    Ok, so now you have a directory in your Alpha account that will house the HTML files for your page. The next step is to access that directory and then to create your first page.

Step 2 - Creating Your "index.htm" File

    From the command line, type the following commands (Again, remember to press Enter after each command).
cd public_html
pico index.htm

    The first command here accesses the public_html directory that you created in step 1. The second command creates a new file called "index.htm" in that directory. After entering the second command you will see the screen change...you are now in the pico editor. Pico is one of the editors on Alpha and can be used for on-line editing.

Step 3 - Adding HTML to Your "index.htm" File

    You can copy and paste the code below into this newly created HTML file. Simply change the parts in gold to reflect your page name, your name, etc. after you've pasted it in to the pico editor.

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>The Title of Your Page </TITLE> </HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="white" TEXT="blue" LINK="gold" ALINK="yellow" VLINK="gray">

<CENTER>
<h1> Your Name's Page</h1>
</CENTER>

Welcome to my page, There isn't much here yet, so stop back soon!<BR>
</BODY>
</HTML>

    To see what that whole mess gives you, click here.

    Don't worry about what all the tags mean just yet, once you see the finished product...it's rather intuitive.

Step 4 - Saving Your File

    After you're done copying and pasting, the next step is to save the file you've just created.
Hold down Ctrl and then press X.
Press Y and then press Enter.
    These commands will save what you've just done. The last thing to do is to change the privitization settings on your new file. Type in chmod a+rx index.htm and then press Enter...you're done!

    Your index.htm file is now accessible on the WWW, it's address (URL) is:

http://lasalle.edu/~yourusername
In other words, if your login name was doej1, the address of your page would be http://lasalle.edu/~doej1

UNIX Commands

    The version of UNIX that we use here at La Salle, like DOS, is a command-line operating system. This means that you have to type in commands instead of pointing and clicking on icons as you would in a GUI (Graphical User Interface). Below you will find a list of UNIX commands that you will need to know in order to maintain your own web site here at La Salle.

mkdir directoryname     Creates a directory
rmdir directoryname     Removes (deletes) a directory
rm filename.ext     Removes (deletes) a file
cd directoryname     Changes to the directory specified
cd ..     Goes "up" one directory
chmod a+rx directoryname or filename.ext     See below
pico filename.ext     Edit the file specified w/ the Pico editor

    The chmod command is used to change the privitization settings on a file or directory. When you create a new file or directory, the privitization setting is set so that only you can access the file. If someone were to try to access a file which you have not "made public", they would get a message on their browser saying that they don't have the rights to access the file. For this reason, you need to make sure you change the privitization settings on any new files or directories you create. Note that you can also use wildcards on our Alpha server to refer to all of the files in a directory (or all directories for that matter). This is done by using a * (asterisk) in place of the filename, ext, or directoryname in any of the commands listed above.

    Remember that everything you type in needs to be case-sensitive. Make sure you don't type in any capital letters unless absoloutely necessary.

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