How to use the cPanel Terminal

Terminal access allows you to log in to your hosting account and allows you to run Linux commands, this is very useful for developers when building, configuring and deploying their applications. Having access to the terminal directly from the cPanel interface makes jobs more accessible, faster and more convenient; you can easily search and execute available commands with assigned privileges.

Be careful when using the command line, you should run commands you are familiar with. A wrong command can delete important files or damage your account. If you are unfamiliar with the command line or unsure of a command, we suggest exploring alternatives to using the command line. Also, remember you do not have full access to the server, only limited access to perform basic functions.

How to Launch the cPanel Terminal

• Log in to Verpex and connect to cPanel by clicking the “Login to Control Panel” button in the “Products & Services” section.
• In the “ADVANCED” section, click the “Terminal” icon.
• Read the warning and click the “I understand and want to proceed” button.
• This takes you to the terminal window where you can run your Linux commands.
• NOTE: if you do not see the terminal option in your CPanel, it means SSH access has not been enabled for your account. Kindly send a mail to support@verpex to request SSH access to your account.

You now have access to the Linux command line and can use basic Linux commands to perform certain tasks. Here are a few commands you can try:

Description Command
What directory am I in pwd
List files ls -l
Change Directory cd name-of-directory
Change to your home directory cd~
Delete a file rm filename
Read the contents of a file cat filename
Rename a file mv oldfilename newfilename
Make a new directory mkdir directory
Copy a file cp filename newfilename
how much disk space is left df

You can perform a common terminal operation of installing an application using a single command, instead of navigating through the Software Centre.