Steps in Producing a Web Page

A Web page can be created on on your osf1 (mason cluster) account. In these instructions, the general procedure are covered then the specific steps. GMU also provide basic instruction on building a home page at their site call Creating a Home Page.

  1. The public_html directory If your home directory does not already have a public_html directory, it's necessary to create one. The command cd followed by ls public_html will show whether such a directory exists
  2. Making public_html If not it's necessary to make such a directory with the command mkdir public_html.
  3. The pico (pine) editor A simple editor on osf1 (the mason cluster) to create a home page or any Web page is pico. It's the same editor used for the email pine.
  4. HTML tags HTML is a formatter and controls the Web display. Once in the editor a simple set of tags would be:
    <HTML>

    <HEAD>

    <TITLE>Some title</title>

    </head>

    <BODY>

    Your page with all the necessary tags
    </body>

    </html>

  5. Tags Most tags have a beginning <code> and an end </same code>
  6. Permissions In order to allow others to browse (read) your home page it's necessary to provide them with the necessary permission. Permission are r(read), w(write) and x(execute)

Below are a specific set of steps to create a homepage

Most of the steps come from an IDO instruction sheet
  1. log on to your ofs1 account
  2. type the commands as presented; further explanation will be given in class
  3. cd
  4. cd ..
  5. cdmod a+x your username
  6. chmod go-rw your username
  7. cd
  8. mkdir public_html
  9. chmod a+x public_html
  10. cd public_html
  11. pico index.html
  12. do the home page and do a ctrl x to save and type a y (for yes) to save and then just press enter to get back to the osf1 prompt.
  13. chmode a+r index.html
  14. minimize but don't logout of osf1 and open the browser (e.g., Netscape) and type the URL of your home page: http://osf1.gmu.edu/~yourusername/index.html
  15. If you are satisfied toggle back to osf1 and logout
  16. If you are not satisfied, toggle to osf1 and edit via pico index.html and then ctrl x to save
  17. toggle to the browser, reload, and see whether you are pleased. If so toggle to osf1 and logout
  18. Subsequently when you log in to osf1 and wish to modified the index.html or create other web pages, cd public_html, ls (to see the files), and get into the editor; pico if you wish. For any new files, it's necessary to do the chmod a+r filename so that others can read new files.

Good Luck

This is a start. Try this approach, then learn some HTML editors (Hotdog, IA from MS, the editor on Netscape Gold) and how to publish without going through all the Unix commands given above. Nonetheless, it's good to learn some Unix.