Troubleshooting Files Not Found

Error 404: File Not Found is usually easier to fix than a permission error, but first you need to figure out why the file is missing. Some possibilities

The file was uploaded to the wrong place

• Open an SSH File Transfer session
• Is the file located inside public_html? If not, you need to move it there
  • Drag and drop the file into public_html, or
  • Delete the file (right-click-->delete, or use the Delete button) and
  • upload the file into public_html

To avoid file placement problems, practice good site maintenance

The file name is wrong or uses special characters

UNIX file names are case-sensitive. If you named your file Index.html, you'll get a 404 Error. For this reason, it is standard to name all files in lowercase characters

In addition, Unix doesn't allow spaces. Some programs will use an "escape character" for a blank space; it looks like this: %20 . If %20 is in your URL, you'll get unreliable results. If you want to indicate a space, the convention is to use an underscore_character, as in public_html.

Other characters to avoid in naming UNIX files include < > ~ ` and any other punctuation (, ? !)

To rename file, you can use SSH:

• Open an SSH File Transfer session
• Double-click public_html
• Right-click the file
• Select Rename from the popup menu
• Type the new filename

Or you can rename the file from an SSH or telnet terminal:

• Open an SSH Terminal session
• Login to your mason account
• Type cd public_html to get into the public_html directory
• Type mv oldfilename newfilename and hit Enter (that is, mv Index.html index.html)
  • mv is actually the Unix "move" command; you're "moving" the old file to the new file

If the files are still not accessible, make sure your permissions are OK, and that your local and remote folders are in sync.

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Dean Taciuch
GMU English Department

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.