The Server's Directories

Once you have been logged in as a guest on a remote FTP server, you will be ready to see what files are available on that server. However, before doing that, departmental MSc students are advised to make sure that they are in their i: drive. To do this type drive i: at the FTP prompt.

The Server's Current Directory

To find what the server's current directory is, type pwd (print working directory) and press ENTER. You will notice that the directories are separated by a forward slash ie / . This is because the server is a UNIX machine. You will find that almost all of Internet servers are UNIX machines.

To see the contents of the current directory, type the letters ls -l (taking note of the spacing) then press ENTER. This will give you a full directory listing. If the listing is very large, the listing can be suspended (ie paused) by using CTRL S on the keyboard, and can be continued by using CTRL Q.

Each line of the full directory listing BEGINS with what is known as the permissions string, which relates to file protection. If the permissions string starts with the letter d (eg drwxr-xr-x), then the line refers to a directory. If the permissions string starts with something else, such as a minus sign (eg -rw-r--r--), then this indicates that the line refers to a file.

Each line of the full directory listing ENDS in a name associated with the file or directory. File names are not necessarily suffixed with three letters (eg name.abc) as is the case with DOS.

Changing Directory

The first course of action for public users will be to move into the public directory of the server, but sometimes you will be defaulted to that directory when logging in. You can check where you are using the Print Working Directory command mentioned above. The server's public directory is usually named pub. Public users will invariably have access to an FTP server's public directory.

To change directories type cd directoryname then press ENTER. It is generally better to change into a single directory at a time unless you are sure of where you are going. To take a step back to a parent directory, enter cd .. (don't forget the space before the two dots). Finally, note that UNIX names are case sensitive, therefore the name FILENAME is different to the name filename.

On the expasy.hcuge.ch FTP server (where you should be right now), place yourself in the /pub/Graphics/IMAGES/GIF directory

Go To Next Page

Go To Previous Page

Go To Overview