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The file manager

The Files tab is a file manager in the browser. It works as the hosting account's own Linux account, through a small helper that can reach that account's home and nothing else, so a file you upload belongs to you exactly as if you had uploaded it over SFTP.

Find your way

  • This site opens in the site's own folder. Whole account shows the rest of the hosting account: each site's folder, the application folder, mail and the folders cpleks keeps for itself.
  • Double-click a folder to open it; Up goes up one folder. A click selects; shift-click selects a range and ctrl-click (cmd-click on a Mac) adds to the selection.
  • The top of the account (the home folder itself) belongs to the system, by design. There, Upload, Folder and Paste are greyed out and say why; open a folder first.
The file manager with its toolbar (This site, Whole account, Up, Download, Upload, Folder, File, Unpack, Copy, Paste, Rename, Mode, Delete) and the example site's folder: assets, cron, images, about.html, contact.php, index.html and robots.txt.
The file manager on the test machine.

The toolbar

  • Upload: pick files, or drag them onto the listing.
  • Folder and File: create an empty folder or file here. A new file opens in the editor.
  • Download: a file as it is, or a folder as a .tar.gz.
  • Copy and Paste: copy the selection, open another folder, paste. Pasting into the same folder names the copy <name> copy. A name that already exists is never overwritten; the paste stops and names it.
  • Rename, Mode (permissions) and Delete.
  • Unpack: extract a .zip, .tar, .tar.gz or .tgz into the current folder. Existing files are never replaced: if the archive holds a name that is already here, nothing is unpacked and you are told which one. Links and devices inside an archive are refused.
  1. To edit a text file, double-click it: it opens in the editor.
  2. Make your change and press Save. Nothing is written until you do.
The New folder dialog of the file manager with the name downloads typed in, and Cancel and Create buttons.
Creating a folder: it is made in the folder you are looking at.

Folders that are protected

A folder a site is served from cannot be renamed or deleted here, because the site would go offline; the panel marks it and says which site uses it. Folders cpleks manages are marked managed the same way.

Permissions

Mode sets permissions with ticks for read, write and run (enter, for a folder) for you, your group and everyone else, or as a number you type. What the permission numbers mean, under the listing, explains them in plain words: 644 for ordinary files, 755 for folders and scripts, 600 for anything holding a password, such as .env or wp-config.php, and why 777 is never the answer on a hosting account.

Changing permissions inside a site's folder also re-applies that site's access rules, because a plain change of mode would silently remove the grant that lets the web server read your files, and the folder would start answering 403 while looking correct.

Very large folders

The view lists a limited number of entries. A folder bigger than that says so; use SFTP for it (SFTP and FTP).