Complete Guide to Customizing the DirectAdmin FileManager: Protecting Files

1. Preventing Deletion of Specific Files or Directories

Users sometimes delete important directories such as public_html. To prevent this, DirectAdmin allows you to intercept deletion attempts using the file_manager_remove_pre.sh hook.

Create the script:

/usr/local/directadmin/scripts/custom/file_manager_remove_pre.sh

Content:

#!/bin/bash
if [[ "${file#${home}}" == /domains/*/public_html ]]; then
    echo "You cannot delete your public_html link!"
    exit 1
fi

Make it executable:

chmod 700 /usr/local/directadmin/scripts/custom/file_manager_remove_pre.sh

You can block additional paths by adding more if conditions.

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2. Adding Custom File Types to the EDIT Button

For a file to be editable in FileManager, its extension must be recognized as a text-based MIME type in /etc/mime.types.

Example: enabling the CakePHP .ctp extension:

text/x-php     ctp

Any MIME type starting with text/ will be treated as editable.

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3. Changing Permissions for Uploaded Files

You can automatically adjust permissions for files uploaded via FileManager using all_post.sh.

Create:

/usr/local/directadmin/scripts/custom/all_post.sh

Content:

#!/bin/sh

CHMODVAL=700
ULPATH=/home/${username}${path}

setfile() {
  if [ "$1" = "" ]; then
    return;
  fi

  F=`echo $1 | cut -d/ -f4 | awk '{ print substr($1,1,length($1)-6) }'`

  chmod ${CHMODVAL} ${ULPATH}${F}
}

if [ "$command" = "/CMD_FILE_MANAGER/" ] || [ "$command" = "/CMD_FILE_MANAGER" ]; then
  if [ "$action" = "upload" ]; then
    setfile $file1
    setfile $file2
    setfile $file3
    setfile $file4
    setfile $file5
    setfile $file6
    setfile $file7
    setfile $file8
  fi
fi

exit 0;

Make executable:

chmod 755 /usr/local/directadmin/scripts/custom/all_post.sh

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4. Fixing File Download Issues (Files Displaying as Plain Text)

If downloaded files appear as raw text instead of triggering a download, the issue is usually related to missing or incorrect MIME types.

Checklist:

• Ensure /etc/mime.types exists and is readable:

ls -la /etc/mime.types
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root ...

• Verify required MIME types exist:

grep zip /etc/mime.types
application/zip zip

• Ensure DirectAdmin is using the correct MIME Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.

/usr/local/directadmin/directadmin config | grep mime
apachemimetypes=/etc/mime.types

If you modify directadmin.conf, restart DirectAdmin afterward.

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5. Using Head and Tail Commands in FileManager

You can preview the beginning or end of a file directly from FileManager using GET parameters.

View the first 10 lines:

/CMD_FILE_MANAGER/file.txt?fm_head=10

View the last 5 lines:

/CMD_FILE_MANAGER/file.txt?fm_tail=5

Only one parameter can be used at a time. Output is always displayed as text/plain.