Connecting to a Remote Server with SSH

OUTLINE:

1. Connecting to a server via ssh
2. Navigating the user directory
3. Creating directories and files
4. Writing and reading to files

NOTE: the $ indicates the use of the command line. Do not copy the $ while typing commands.

1.

First things first we need to connect to the remote server. To get started, in a command line (terminal for linux/mac, cmd/powershell for windows).

$ ssh username@ip.address

Enter password to connect.

2.

Now we’re connected to the server, it is useful to get acquainted with traversing directories. Here are some basic commands to get started. Print working dircetory:

$ pwd

List all files in current directory verbosely:

$ ls -al

Change directory to ~ (home directory):

$ cd ~

Now we’re at the home directory and ready to get started file creation.

3.

A necessary function is to make new folders to create file structures and organization. To make and relocate to a new directory:

$ mkdir test

$ cd test

Now we make a new file:

$ touch hello.txt

$ ls -al

With that list all command we can see that there is a new file in our test directory.

4.

To access and edit that file with a text editor we can use nano:

$ nano hello.txt

Try to write something in nano, it doesn’t matter what for now. Once you’re done, do ^O ^X to save and exit.

$ ls -al

To read back the contents of what you just wrote in hello.txt we can use cat:

$ cat hello.txt

Now say we aren’t happy with the contents of hello.txt. We can append a new line to the file using the >> operator.

$ echo "Hello" >> hello.txt

$ cat hello.txt