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System User Guide

An app can only be owned by a single system user. Multiple systems users cannot access the same app.

However, a single system user can own multiple apps; for example, a system user called user1 can own five apps, and it would be the only system user that can access those apps.

Using either SSH or SFTP, you can log in to your server as a system user to manage that user's apps.

Setting a System User's Password

You can set a system user's passwords through ServerPilot. To change a password, go to an app's settings in ServerPilot and click on the name of the system user.

System User Directory Structure

The home directory of each system user created by ServerPilot is at /srv/users/USERNAME. When you SSH/SFTP in as a system user, you will already be in this directory.

Under the system user's home directory are additional directories:

  • apps—each app has its own directory under here.
  • log—each app has its log files here. If you're looking for more information on errors or bugs in your PHP scripts, you'll find them in this directory.

When you create an app named "APPNAME" under a system user, that app's web root directory (the directory you place its files in) will be:

apps/APPNAME/public

By default, there will be an index.php file in that directory. You can replace that file with your own.

SSH and SFTP

You can log in to your server via SSH/SFTP as a system user. To log in, use the password you chose for the user. Once logged in, you can add your SSH key to the user's ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file if you prefer public key authentication.

FTP

ServerPilot does not configure your server for FTP because it is not secure. We recommend using SSH/SFTP.

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