Recipe: Use telnet to manage folders on your website.

1:  Click Start|Run, and in the Run command line, type: telnet webinstituteforteachers.org

2:  The telnet window opens and you must type in your login (user) name.

3. You type in your user name and press enter.  Telnet then asks for your password.  Type your password carefully, because telnet does not show what you are typing.  When you are finished with your password, press enter.

4:  A correct password will get you something like the following information.

Version 2.2
Copyright 1996-1999 Caldera Systems, Inc.

login: tjones
Password:
You have old mail in /var/spool/mail/tjones
Last login: Sun Jun 24 09:32:41 2001 from cb866570-a.hmwd1.il.home.com on ttyp2
You have mail.
tjones@cuip:~>

5:  Type the "dir" command at the prompt.  This command lists the files and folders in your site. (You can also use the command "ls" to list files)

tjones@cuip:~> dir
Drafts  Sent  _notes  background13_S.gif  lg  mail  www
tjones@cuip:~>

6. We all have a www folder in our sites.  This folder is the only one accessible by Internet browsers. To work in this folder, we use the "cd" command.  We type "cd www" at the prompt.  (cd is short for "change directory")

tjones@cuip:~>
tjones@cuip:~> cd www
tjones@cuip:~/www>

Note that the command prompt line now has the /www, which tells us we are working in the www folder.

7. What is in the www folder.  We type "dir" (or "ls") on the command line and press enter to see.
 

tjones@cuip:~/www> dir
Pagefor2-20.htm     filemgt               homepg1.htm      radioact.gif
SaveMarks           gray\ background.gif  macpublish.htm   trash
background13_S.gif  home.shtm             mega_car1.gif
ccbk010.jpg         homepg.htm            publishmac1.GIF
tjones@cuip:~/www>

We see something like the above list: a list of the files and folders in my www directory. You can usually tell the difference between files and folders by looking for the file names with the ending extensions, such as macpublish.htm, radioact.gif, etc.  Folders don't need the extensions.
 

8.  We want to make a folder in our www folder to hold homepage files and keep them organized..  To make this new folder, we type after the prompt "mkdir" followed by the name of our new folder.  The name of my folder will be "homepage."

tjones@cuip:~/www> mkdir homepage
tjones@cuip:~/www>

If you type correctly, the folder will be created.

Telnet does not tell you anything more about it, unless you make a mistake, like this one:  I already had a folder named homepage, and then told telnet to make another one. I got the following:

tjones@cuip:~/www> mkdir homepage
mkdir: cannot make directory `homepage': File exists
tjones@cuip:~/www>

9. I can check to see if it really made the folder by typing in the "dir" command.  I should see the folder in the list below.

tjones@cuip:~/www> dir
Pagefor2-20.htm     filemgt               homepg.htm
SaveMarks           gray\ background.gif  homepg1.htm     publishmac1.GIF
background13_S.gif  home.shtm             macpublish.htm  radioact.gif
ccbk010.jpg         homepage              mega_car1.gif   trash
tjones@cuip:~/www>
 

10.  I see that I now have a homepage directory for my homepage files.  Now I need to make a folder for my learning project files.  I type "mkdir project"  at the command prompt.  Telnet responds with:

tjones@cuip:~/www> mkdir project
tjones@cuip:~/www>

I type "dir" just to make sure the folder is there, and I see:

tjones@cuip:~/www> dir
Pagefor2-20.htm     filemgt               homepg.htm      project
SaveMarks           gray\ background.gif  homepg1.htm     publishmac1.GIF
background13_S.gif  home.shtm             macpublish.htm  radioact.gif
ccbk010.jpg         homepage              mega_car1.gif   trash
tjones@cuip:~/www>

The project folder is listed, so  I type "logout" at the command prompt, and close the program.

A list of common telnet commands can be found at http://www.bruserve.com/support/unix_com.html .

or http://oregonstate.edu/aw/tutorials/telnet/

If you have made a mistake in creating a folder, you can remove an empty folder (or directory) by typing "rmdir" followed by the name of the directory.

Note: These commands should work on either Windows or Macintosh Comptuers. Telnet comes with the Windows operating system. If you search your Macintosh for "telnet" you may find a telnet program that you can use on your machine.

If not, you may want to download and install a telnet program.

There is a telnet program on the CUIP website at http://cuip.uchicago.edu/software/MAC/TELNET/. Click on bettertelnet-2.0fc1... to download and install. After installation, run the program and then do the activity on this page.

Another free telnet program for Macinstosh can be downloaded at http://itprodownloads.com/filedownload?fileid=158447.

Once you have found, or downloaded and installed, your telnet program, you can go back to the top of this page and follow the directions listed.

Back to the top of this page.

This module was written by Terry Jones.