home & schedule | class blog | syllabus | contact | grades

Using a command line interface,
create a password protected directory
within your public_html space on Opal.

Setting File Access Permissions

Before you (or anyone else) can view your files in a web browser, you must change the access permissions for your home directory on opal. If these permissions are set incorrectly, anyone trying to view your webpage will see a Forbidden error rather than your content. Follow these instructions to set the correct permissions:

Open an SSH connection to Opal.
On Windows, you'll need to use an SSH client for this; on MacOS and Linux, you can open a Terminal window, enter ssh your_onyen@opal.ils.unc.edu and then enter your password when prompted.
Once you've connected, you should see a command prompt like this:
[your_onyen@opal ~] $
Type
chmod 711 .
with both the space and the period. If you get a "missing operand" error, make sure you included the space and the period at the end.

Task 01.05: Password Protect a Directory

Remember our convention.

commandsargumentvalue

Use a terminal connection and command line instructions to create a password protected directory

Log on to your Opal account using a terminal connection program and enter a temporary shell session at the command prompt (it should be $ in Unix).

Change to your public_html directory.
cd public_html

Create a new subdirectory within public_html to password protect.
mkdir newdirectory

The new directory doesn't have to be named "newdirectory",
but you should get into the habit of using consistent and logical directory and file names.

Be careful not to inadvertently password-protect your public_html directory.

Use
pwd
to see where you are.
If you are not in your new directory, use
cd name-of-new-directory
to go to it.

Once you are sure where you are, type
htdirpass.pl
and hit Enter. This will activate a script that automatically creates several files for you.

Verify that you are in the directory you want to protect and follow the instructions on the screen.

The program creates two files in the directory you are protecting:
.htaccess and .htpasswd

You won't see these files on a regular ls command, you must type ls -a.

Don't delete the files unless you want to remove the password protection.

Send me an email telling me the name of your password protected directory

It will probably be something like ~YourOnyen/PPDirectory

Although, clearly your directory name can be anything you want it to be (it doesn't have to be PPDirectory)

Also, be sure to tell me the userid and password I must use to access this directory. This will be the place you will store all future tasks and Tasks.

Password-Protecting Your Webpage

If you'd like, you can require users to log in with an Onyen to view your webpages. To configure Onyen authentication for your opal.ils.unc.edu web space, follow the instructions in the ONYEN-AUTHENTICATION.txt file inside your home directory.

Viewing Your Webpage

After you have uploaded your files and set the correct permissions, your webpage will be viewable at https://opal.ils.unc.edu/~onyen/ . This will take you to the index page in your public_html folder; you can also navigate directly to other pages or subfolders you've added, such as https://opal.ils.unc.edu/~onyen/my_folder/my_page.html

servers | command line | create protected directory | next session