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SSH is a way of connecting to your web space using the command line. You can manage files and run commands, and for power users this is a really important feature. To use SSH, you must use an SSH client to connect to the server. Once connected, you can manually run commands within a terminal application.
  • On macOS and Linux you can use Terminal.
  • If you are running Windows, you can download an SSH client, such as PuTTY.
If you have a command prompt, you can type ssh, followed by your shell username (cPanel username), an @ sign, then your server name. For example:
Once you have logged in, you can edit files, move files, run PHP commands and so on. Our system also supports key-based authentication, which is more secure than using a password and saves having to type it every time. Just generate a private key on your computer, then upload the contents of the public key part to a file called .ssh/authorized_keys. If you need any help with this, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Now we will go over some basic commands to use after you have logged in. pwd — lists the path you are currently in, so you don’t get lost. The output usually looks like /home/user/public_html/example, meaning you are in the folder “example”. ls -lah — lists the files in the folder you are currently in, along with additional information such as size, last modified time and date, and permissions. cd — used to move to the relevant folder/directory.

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Creating / modifying / viewing

mkdir [directoryname] — creates a new directory in your current location. touch [filename.ext] — creates a new file. Note you should put the extension at the end, such as .txt. You can modify files with one of two editors. By default nano is used more often by less experienced users: nano [filename].txt — opens the file in nano. You can read full information on how to use it by pressing F1 or Ctrl+G. You can also use vim to edit files. This editor is for more advanced users; press F1 for help with commands once the file is open: vim [filename].php You can view a file using cat — for example cat [filename.txt] will display the contents of filename.txt in text format. Tip: You can use cat in combination with grep to find text inside a file. The content will be displayed but the requested text will be highlighted in red so you can find it more easily: cat [filename.txt] | grep "Nov 13 13:07" — displays the contents of [filename.txt], then (the | is called a pipe, and separates commands) highlights text matching “Nov 13 13:07” exactly. If you find a command on the web and would like to understand it, we recommend https://explainshell.com, which breaks down what the command does — it’s excellent for learning.