Changing File Permissions – NO alternative to chmod?!?

  • The main purpose of the “Changing File Permissions” page seems to be telling people how to change file permissions, and secondarily what modes to change them to (and under what circumstances). Suppose someone is new to WordPress, having just installed it, and wants to make a few changes to the css file before posting a first blog entry. Using the control panel, the user makes a couple minor changes and is confronted with the warning: “You need to make this file writable before you can save your changes. See [Changing File Permissions|the Codex] for more information.” The user clicks on the link, which brings them to this article. Suppose the user either [1] doesn’t have shell/SSH access, [2] doesn’t know whether he has shell/SSH access, [3] doesn’t know how to access the (unnamed) unix program, [4] doesn’t know how to use the (unnamed) unix program, [5] doesn’t feel comfortable using the (unnamed) unix program (perhaps because it’s not GUI interface, or because he’s not sure if there are safeguards to prevent unwanted mistakes), or [6] would simply rather not use the (unnamed) unix program because he thinks there ought to be a more user-friendly solution – in the case of any of these alternatives – the page is surprisingly unhelpful. The user is just plain stuck.

    If, after installation, there is no alternative for the newbie to using chmod (which is hard to believe!), that should be stated clearly in the article. If there is an alternative, that should certainly be explained fully in the article. I have commented as above on the article’s talk page.

    In any case, I am the new user described above, and I am stuck.

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  • I have no idea what SHH is and never use it.
    But I can use my FTP client as described in #1 on that page. You should do the same – you are supposed to have FTP access since you uploaded and installed WP on your server space.

    Now, as a general idea: I always advice users NOT to edit anything online – there is no UNDO button, so you might regret it.
    Edit the files on your computer with a plain text editor (like Notepad), after making a backup copy, just in case… and upload the modified files to the server using FTP. Much safer!

    I too am “stuck” what is one to do if WordPress is already installed on the users server and after going through all the steps discribed on the “Changing File Permissions” page it sill wont let me change code?

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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