Pack FAQ
This is an in-house information page for the Many Wolves authoring collective with tips on HTML authoring, page mounting, and other issues. Besides serving as a beginner's guide, this FAQ ("frequently asked questions") will be a place to work out the technical and social practices involved in sharing a collectively writable directory. (Page last revised 7/28/95)
Directory Map
Setting
Permissions
All the Unix You Need to Get Started
Possible Authoring Procedures
Two
Suggested Ideal Authoring Set-Ups
Getting Started with
HTML
Lines of Flight (Project Proposals) | Tools
DIRECTORY MAP
The URL of the pack directory is http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/projects/pack/
. In this URL, "http://humanitas.ucsb.edu" signifies the "web
root" or top of the web space on the Humanitas server.
Web space, however, is itself only one branch of the total space on the
Humanitas server. Hidden behind the web root is the fact that "http://humanitas.ucsb.edu"
is an assigned pseudonym for the following full path descended from the machines
ultimate root directory: /www/httpd/web_doc_root/. So, for
example, our pack/ directory has the full path: /www/httpd/web_doc_root/projects/pack/
. This full path is used in two circumstances:
The pack/ directory contains four utility subdirectories in addition to
any project-specific subdirectories that we will set up in the future. These
are: SETTING PERMISSIONS Directory
Permissions: When you list the contents of a directory in Unix using the
long-listing format (the command is ls -l), you will see that each
subdirectory has a listing that begins something like, drwx------,
while each file has a listing of the sort, -rw-------. The first
slot here ("d" or "-") indicates whether the item is a
directory or file. Then there are three sets of three characters each. The
first triplet indicates the permissions for the owner/creator of the item; the
second triplet the permissions for the "group" to which the owner
belongs; and the third triplet the permissions for all others. The possible
characters for these slots are "r" (read permission), "w"
(write/edit permission), and "x" (execute permission for programs and
scripts). (There is also a "s" permission for directories that need
not concern us.) The pack/ directory has the permission structure, drwxrws---
, meaning it is read/write/execute for the owner (our webmaster or
sysadmin, who created it) and read/write/execute for everyone in our pack group
who has a Humanitas account.
If you create a subdirectory within pack/, it will by default have the
permissions drwx------. This is because everyone's
.cshrc file has a "umask"
feature in it that masks any created directories or files from the eyes of
others (you can change the umask setting, but not if you value your privacy).
To make subdirectories created within pack/ readable/writable by other members
of our group, use the following Unix command while in the pack/ directory:
chmod 770 subdirectory-name.
Note that the drwxrws--- permission structure for a pack
directory or subdirectory will automatically take care of the fact that the
minimum permissions needed to make any Web directory accessible globally (so
browsers can request pages) is drwxr-x---. File
Permissions: Just setting the proper permissions for pack directories,
however, will not make files created in those directories usable by others.
This is because the umask
line in your .cshrc file will by default set the
permissions of any file you create (whatever the permissions of its containing
directory) to -rw------- for maximum privacy.
ALL THE UNIX YOU NEED TO GET STARTED
Changing Directories: When you log in, you are placed by default
in your home directory on Humanitas: /home/username. To change to a different
working directory, use the command cd directory-name. For
example, "cd /www/httpd/web_doc_root/projects/pack", will change to
the pack/ directory. Some refinements:
Creating Files: You can create a file ex nihilo by using the Pico
text editor. Go pico by itself to open an unnamed file (that can
be named when you exit pico) or pico filename to specify the
filename in advance.
Editing Files: Go pico filename to open an existing
file and edit it. "Ctrl-X" in pico will then save the file and exit.
(Note: you can also edit Web pages in pico directory from within Lynx if you
open a page on Humanitas in local mode.)
Copying Files: The command is cp source-path/filename
destination-path/filename. The source and destination paths are assumed
to be the present working directory if you do not include paths. If you do not
include a filename in a destination that is a directory othe than the present
one, then the file will be copied to the same name in the new location. Some
examples:
Moving/Renaming Files: The command is mv
source-path/filename destination-path/filename. The same variations apply as
for the copy command described above.
Removing or Deleting Files: The command is rm path/filename
. By default, our system will then ask for a confirmation before
actually deleting the file.
Making and Removing Directories: While in the desired higher-level
directory, go mkdir directory-name to create a subdirectory (whose
permissions will then need to be adjusted). To
remove a directory, first delete all the items it contains and then go rmdir
directory-name. (Note: stay away from the more complicated situation of
moving directories from one location on the directory tree to another. Instead,
use a combination of making directories, copying files, and removing directories
to accomplish the same task.)
POSSIBLE AUTHORING PROCEDURES
Authoring at Home or on an HCF Machine:
Authoring Directly on the Humanitas Server:
Authoring Directly on the Humanitas Server via Lynx. (This is the
easiest and most interactive way to edit a Web page if you just want to tweak
something or add a paragraph. However, of course, you can't see any images or
graphical formatting.)
TWO SUGGESTED IDEAL AUTHORING SET-UPS
Author on your home machine or some other machine that has a capable
editor on it. Upload to Humanitas, mount the pages, and then go in with Lynx to
do any tweaking. Finally, go in with Netscape either from campus or over a SLIP
modem connection and check that the graphics on your pages are okay.
Where interactive editing of images or other graphical features is
necessary, you'll need a fairly complex set-up. For example:
GETTING STARTED WITH HTML
The easiest way to get started doing HTML is to read a quick primer and
then copy other people's source code in order to see what you can customize.
For example, even without reading about HTML, a beginner will likely be able to
open our pack's "Lines of Flight" page and
see that s/he can put text between <dt></dt> tags, or <dd></dd>
tags.
Here are some primers in HTML:
For more
advanced guides to HTML (including tables, etc.), see the
Voice of the
Shuttle: Tools Page.