Basic FTP operations

Binary, ASCII or Auto

You may see a selection in your FTP software (Cute FTP or other FTP programs) for ASCII mode,
Binary mode, and Auto mode.
It’s important to transfer images and soundfiles in Binary mode.
HTML documents, CGI scripts etc. should be transferred using ASCII mode.
If you fail to set this correctly your files may not appear as they should.
If you don’t know for sure, use Binary.

If you select Auto, your FTP program will automatically apply the correct setting,
either Binary or ASCII, to the files you are transferring based on their extensions.

Chmoding files and directories

Chmod is a simple term used on the Internet. It’s short for change the mode of a file.
When you change the mode of a file (chmod a file), your FTP software makes that file only
readable, only writeable, only executable or all of those.

To chmod a file or directory you have to highlight it, right click and select Chmod
(Cute FTP).

All of the buttons clicked would be a chmod 777. A chmod 774 would be all of Owner and Group
selected and only read selected in Other. A chmod 644 would be Read and Write selected for Owner,
and read selected for Group and Other.

When using the numeric system, the code for permissions is as follows:
r (read access) = 4
w (write access) = 2
x (execute access) = 1
rwx (read, write and execute access) = 7

Some scripts will tell you to chmod 775 (for example). The first 7 of our chmod 775 tells
to change the user’s permissions to rwx (because r=4 + w=2 + x=1 adds up to 7).
The second 7 (rwx) applies to the group, and the last number 5 (rx), refers to others.

See your Web host for instructions or a FAQ if you have further questions on using
FTP software or are running into difficulties.