Secure Shell (SSH) provides a secure and encrypted way to access and manage remote servers. One of the most common tasks that system administrators and developers perform over SSH is creating and editing files. This article will guide you through the basic steps of file management over SSH using built-in command line editors.

Connecting to the server via SSH

Before you can create or edit a file, you must establish an SSH connection:

ssh username@your-server-ip

  • username: Your SSH user (e.g. root or admin).

  • your-server-ip: The IP address of your remote server.

If you are using your own port, add -p port_number:

ssh -p 2222 username@your-server-ip

Creating a file

To create a new file, you can use one of several commands:

With touch

touch myfile.txt

This creates an empty file called myfile.txt in the current directory.

With echo

echo "Initial content" > myfile.txt

This creates a file and adds a line of text.

Editing a file

You can edit files with command line text editors. Here are the most common options:

nano (beginner-friendly)

nano myfile.txt

  • Easy to use, with on-screen commands.

  • Use Ctrl O to save, Ctrl X to exit.

vi / vim (advanced users)

vi myfile.txt

  • Press i to enter insert mode.

  • Enter your content.

  • Press Esc, then type :wq to save and exit.

cat (quick edits)

To display or append content:

cat myfile.txt # Display
echo "One more line" >> myfile.txt # Append

Changing file permissions (optional)

After creating/editing, you may want to change the permissions:

chmod 644 myfile.txt

Or change the ownership:

chown user:user myfile.txt

Conclusion

Managing files via SSH is an essential part of remote server management. Whether you’re setting up configuration files or logging system data, tools like nano, vi and touch make it easy to get the job done. Once you have mastered these basics, you can work efficiently on any Linux-based system via SSH.