Setting up your personal web space

Every member of staff or student, can set up their own personal web space, on our web server. Each space has a web address derived from the users account, such as http://www.warwick.ac.uk/~cuddg

The same web space can also be accessed from a web address derived from whether you are staff or student and your preferred email alias, such as http://www.warwick.ac.uk/staff/H.Tmlexpert/

You should log in to the Unix system using mimosa or primrose to access your web space. (See our FAQ on how to log in to Unix.)

All material to be published on the web must be placed in a particular directory called public_html (note the underscore '_'). To create this directory type websetup at the command prompt and hit return. Typing websetup also means that any file you place in the public_html directory gets appropriate permissions for use on the web. Unfortunately no message appears on screen, but if you type ls you should see that the public_html directory has been created. You can now exit mimosa.

Once this has been done you can transfer any files that you want to publish to the web to your new web space, placing them in the public_html directory. You should use a secure file transfer program (sftp) or ssh to to this. Alternatively, if you're comfortable with Unix create your web files on mimosa. Your web files should have the extension .html and be valid html files.

To make your web space look more professional call the page you want to appear first index.html (this will be your homepage) otherwise users will be see a directory-like file list.

Homepage URL

Your home page address (or URL) will then take the form:

http://www.warwick.ac.uk/~usercode

The web server has also been amended to allow the automatic inclusion of your preferred email alias in your home page URL without you having to run a command on the system. There is a distinction between staff and students so your home page URL can become either:

http://www.warwick.ac.uk/staff/F.Flinstone

or

http://www.warwick.ac.uk/student/B.Rubble

All login names with u,v, w or p as the middle letter (eg msuzz, envxx, eswkk or frpqq) are classified as /student/ and all others are /staff/. Note that the names are case-sensitive.

Only your preferred email alias is allowed as determined by the "E-mail Alias and Mailbox Registration" page at http://go.warwick.ac.uk/emailaddress

Note that this doesn't affect existing URLs that use login names (eg /~cudpp/) which you can continue to use if you prefer.