Moving files and setting permissions in Disk in FTP by Zaweba

Disk starts as a way to see what is using your server space, but once you have found something, you usually want to do something with it. The Disk view in FTP by Zaweba lets you act on files right where you found them, without switching back to the file panes and hunting for them again.

Everyday actions

From Disk you can rename a file, move it, download it, open it in the editor, copy its path, and send it to the trash. Opening in the editor is handy when the lens has pointed at something like a configuration file or an error log and you want to read it. Copying the path is useful when you need to ask someone about a file before touching it.

Sending to the trash is batch confirmed. You see what is about to go, protected items are left out and listed, and anything trashed can be restored from the Trash window.

Setting permissions

Permissions control who can read, write and run a file on the server. Get them too tight and the website cannot read its own files. Get them too loose and other users or scripts on the server may be able to change them. Disk lets you set them as octal modes, the three-digit numbers hosting companies talk about.

Rather than making you remember numbers, it offers presets in pairs, for files and folders: 600/700, 640/750 and 644/755. The last pair, 644 for files and 755 for folders, is marked as recommended, and it is the usual choice for public website files. The tighter pairs suit files that should not be readable by others, such as private configuration.

You can apply a change to everything inside the chosen folders too, which is how you fix a whole tree at once after an upload left permissions in a muddle.

Settings that would make files world-writable need an explicit I understand confirmation. That is a deliberate brake. A world-writable file on a web server can be changed by anything running on the server, and the web-server lens points these out as security problems for that reason.

A safety net under all of it

Every rename, move, trash and permission change made from Disk is recorded in the operations log, batch by batch. Any of those batches can be reversed with Undo this batch. If a permission change makes the site fail, or a move puts files in the wrong place, you can put the whole batch back as it was.

Protected paths add a second layer. Items such as .htaccess, wp-config.php, .env, .well-known/, cgi-bin/, the web root and cPanel folders like mail/ and ssl/ are blocked from being moved, renamed, re-permissioned or deleted, unless the site's Disk option to allow it is turned on.

After a rename or move, a window offers to update references to the old paths in your local site files, so your pages keep pointing at the right place.

Mistakes to avoid

Do not apply permissions to everything inside a folder without thinking about what is in it. A blanket change can catch a file that needs different settings. Check the folder's contents first, or apply the change to a narrower folder.

Do not click through the world-writable confirmation to make an error go away. If a script says it cannot write a file, find out which file and give that one the narrowest permissions that work, rather than opening up a whole folder.

And remember that moving a file on a website changes its address. Use the link update window for your own pages, and think about anyone outside the site who links to it.

Handled with these habits, Disk becomes not just a map of your hosting space but a safe place to put it in order.